Alexander Páez reviews Mecha Samurai Empire, by Peter Tieryas

Alexander Páez has kindly reviewed for us Mecha Samurai Empire, by Peter Tieryas, the sequel to United States of Japan. You can also read this review in Spanish at Alexander's website, Donde acaba el infinito. Hope you like it!

Review Soundtrack: Álex suggests reading this review while listening to the main theme of Mazinger Z, by Ichirou Mizuki (YouTube, YouTube) 

Some years ago, I got an ARC copy of a book at my email. It was an Angry Robot book: United States of Japan by an unknown author at that time, Peter Tieryas. I contacted him by Twitter and since then we speak now and then. With that warm and proximity that is so Tieryas. Now, in 2018, Peter Tieryas has positioned himself as one of the emergent authors that you must read. He has succeeded in the international market as in the anglosaxon. And he hasn’t lost this close touch, this proximity to the readers. The story repeats itself, I got an ARC copy of his new novel and I start reading it as soon as it gets into my Paperwhite. I need more of his world. I need more mechas. I need more sci-fi. Mecha Samurai Empire is this new novel that is also a sequel to the previous novel but both can be read as stand-alone works. Oh, and it was worth. So much.

If the first novel was a dystopia, a homage to a Phillip K. Dick novel, this second one is a novel about war, about humanity, a tribute to the sub-culture surrounding mechas, videogames and probably a more Heinlein-reminiscent novel. In Mecha Samurai Empire, Japan and Germany won the World War II and they divided North America. West is Japanese, a hybrid between Japanese and North American culture, while in the East, the Germany area, it is more divided between non-Aryans and “normal” citizens. You probably already knew this if you read the previous novel. The truce between the Japanese Empire and the German Reich is uneasy, mechas versus biomechs, but they usually stay out of each other businesses. Usually.

Mecha Samurai Empire begins with Mac, a student struggling with his grades, but a guy who is incredibly good at videogames, especially with “portical”, something that grants with a chance to enter the mecha examination program so he can fulfill his dream: to be a mecha pilot. Mac is attended by the state, since both his parents were killed in The Battle of San Diego. They were both mecha pilots.

Peter Tieryas doesn’t write typical heroes. You probably are wondering when Mac will have his chance to save the world, to be a hero. Well, actually on different occasions, but the way Tieryas drives the plot is brilliant. This are not hero worthy situations, most of them are a fruit of chance, or sometimes he is in the right place at the right time. Tieryas also does a lot of criticism to the military structure, with poor leaders that lead to a lot of trooper deaths and so on. While I don’t really care about military criticism (I guess this is an important issue in USA, but in Spain not really) I think it’s very clever because you can take the philosophical exploration and put it into a bigger picture. While I was reading this novel, I reckoned it felt a lot like a Kojima game. A Metal Gear Solid game. It’s about soldiers, but it has a bigger picture. Mac isn’t a philosopher, but he encounters situations that really question his motivations. For instance, he has a German friend, and that is not very keen to the eyes of his companions. 

I have to admit, the best in this novel? The mecha battle. Oh my. So funny, so well written, so epic. This was something the readers wished for more in the first novel. And here we have our wish. Granted by Tieryas. I would LOVE to see a movie about this novel. Mecha Samurai Empire isn’t as dark as the previous work, it’s more war-like, more dynamic, faster. And I really enjoyed the change in style and narrative. It really feels like Tieryas had a lot of fun writing this novel. And you know, mechas vs other things is always a win-win. My recommendation is that you should read it, but don’t expect a new dystopia, this is not (very much) it. It’s a criticism to war, military states and totalitarianism. Another great work by Peter Tieryas.