Book Review: Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton

Our Protagonist in Edward Ashton’s Mal Goes to War finds himself stranded behind enemy lines, when he decides to investigate an ongoing war between “Humanist” and “Federalist” factions. Mal is an AI, (Silico-American to you) and has little interest in the civil war the “monkeys” are engaged in. (Except for how it affects “infospace” where Mal and his fellow Silico-American’s exist.)

The reason for his investigation are rumors that an AI is assisting the “Humanists.” During the investigation “infospace” gets shut down by the Humanists, and Mal is stranded in the body of a heavily armed and augmented mercenary. This mercenary in turn had been babysitting a heavily augmented girl named Kayleigh. Mal initially wants nothing to do with this situation, but he is trapped. For lack of anything better to do, and because he does not actually want Kayleigh to be burned alive (which is what the Humanists have been doing to Federalist prisoners).

This turns out to be easier said than done. Mal and Kayleigh first run into Asher, a Humanist soldier he basically bullies into deserting. (Mal has no empathy, and his learned compassion is a bit sketchy. He does not understand that he’s traumatizing Asher, or that it’s possible to traumatize Asher by repeatedly asking him why his organization definitely burns people with augments/implants alive, including children.) Next is Mr. Pullman, and Rowan, who are both on the Humanist hitlists. This little group slowly makes its way toward the Federalists lines, being extremely annoyed with Mal or each other as they try to avoid being captured. They are able to accomplish this with extremely limited success.

There is a lot to like about this novel. It’s grim, but also funny in a dark, ugly kind of way. Mal is an interesting character, and his complete disconnect/inability to empathise was an interesting interpretation of the way an AI might behave.All of the characters were very engaging and their interactions with Mal were funny (though in some cases kind of exasperating because Mal misses context in the worst possible ways, so it’s like watching a car wreck).