Book Summary: Dissonance, Volume II: Reckoning by Aaron Ryan
Bestselling author Aaron Ryan continues the epic journey begun in Volume I in an increasingly tense post apocalyptic landscape, set amidst a gritty, attainable future Earth in this military thrillers series.
Sergeant Cameron “Jet” Shipley lost everyone to the gorgons and has lost faith in the integrity of his own Command. But Cameron’s loss didn’t stop there. In a world rife with apocalyptic danger, it has become painfully apparent that humanity is still, even in the very throes of annihilation, at war with itself.
Finding himself a prisoner and eventual outlaw at the hands of those whom he once trusted most, Cameron must put his fate in the hands of his trusted confidants Lieutenant Allison Trudy, Private Liam “Fox” Mayfield, and Sergeant Joseph Bassett once more, endangering their very lives and freedom, as they and others come to his aid to join in the inevitable revolt against those in power who fail to see the truth: power corrupts, even on the very brink of extinction.
Shipley and his team must race against time to find compatriots who share their views, amassing support against the true foe. All the while, they must evade a merciless alien species that will not stop until the earth’s resources are drained dry, reducing it to a barren wasteland. In their quest for truth, they must remember one simple tenet as it pertains to the gorgons:
“One look, and it’s all over.”
Book Review: Dissonance, Volume II: Reckoning by Aaron Ryan
With Dissonance, Volume II: Reckoning, author Aaron Ryan solidifies his place as one of the most thrillingly uncompromising voices in modern science fiction. Picking up shortly after the shattering events of Volume I, Reckoning kicks the saga into an even darker, morally ambiguous trajectory as haunted protagonist Cameron “Jet” Shipley and his ragtag band of survivors find themselves branded as enemies of the very leadership they once served. It’s a breathtakingly audacious creative choice that pays off in spades, allowing Ryan to burrow ever deeper into profoundly disquieting philosophical territory about the fragility of civilization and the ever-shifting sands of trust and allegiance in the face of apocalyptic ruin.
From the opening pages, it’s clear that Reckoning will be pulling no punches in its depiction of a world that has thoroughly ceded any illusion of control to the unstoppable alien threat known as the gorgons. Reckoning opens mere days after a catastrophic military operation that has left Jet reeling from the loss of his beloved brother Rut. Worse still, he has been arrested and imprisoned by the same chain of command that duped him into undertaking the suicide mission that led to Rut’s death. It’s a brutal bait-and-switch that leaves Jet questioning the fundamental integrity of everything and everyone around him. Ryan deftly depicts the full psychological enormity of this spiritual shredding, forcing his battle-hardened protagonist to reckon with just how tenuous humanity’s grasp on truth and meaning has become.
But Ryan is far too canny a storyteller to settle for mere existential brooding (as richly evocative as those detours can be). No sooner has Jet begun sinking into despair than an unlikely ally reemerges to detonate the narrative wide open. Enter Captain Vance Cardona, a supposedly derelict officer whose own distrust of the US government’s agenda has been simmering for decades. It’s Cardona who first clues Jet into the unthinkable – that the very leadership civilians are meant to look to for protection may be every bit as treacherous as the world-devouring gorgons themselves.
From here, Reckoning kicks into unrelenting high gear as Jet, Lieutenant Allison Trudy, Private Liam “Fox” Mayfield, Sergeant Joseph Bassett, Cardona, stoic Captain Miguel Monzon and the remaining members of the ragged ensemble are forced to go on the run – not just from the gorgons but from the full military might of the very government ostensibly still in power. It’s an ingenious act of moral jujitsu that instantly realigns audience sympathies and raises the emotional stakes exponentially. For now, the true enemy has been unmasked – and it wears the face of the supposedly benevolent power structure we’ve all been conditioned to trust.
Taken in full, this entire narrative paradigm shift represents nothing less than a total dismantling of the kinds of albatross caveats and safety nets that so often compromise most science fiction tales’ willingness to push past surface-level viscera into deeper thematic inquiry. By having Jet’s own superiors, right up to the highest offices of government, revealed as the story’s true antagonists, Ryan detonates the conventional either/or polarization of us vs. them and forces us to reckon with far knottier questions about the inexorable fracturing of society in the face of civilizational collapse.
In Reckoning’s pitch-black yet harshly illuminating universe, there are no easy refuges of moral comfort to be found. It is the very mechanisms of authority and order which have been subverted from within, cracking apart the pillars of human decency and accountability meant to fortify us against the rising tides of apathy and self-preservation run amok. It is the governing class and military establishment itself that now most threatens the very survival of human society, driven to contemplate nothing less than sacrificing entire civilian populations for the unilateral pursuit of continued control and consolidation of power.
If that sounds like a brazenly provocative narrative stance, that’s because it absolutely is. Yet Ryan more than earns such boldness with the sheer gutsiness of his allegorical vision and unflinching examination of how humanity confronts its most uncompromising demons and depravities when the chips are utterly down. Time and again, Reckoning depicts descents into abandon and self-annihilation that flirt with permanently shattering our already fragile grasp on shared ethics and cultural continuity. Every justification for atrocity, no matter how well-intentioned or purportedly for the greater good, carries a soul-leeching cost that calls into question the very moral purpose for humanity’s continued existence.
Most chillingly of all, those twisting human civilization into monstrous new permutations are no longer the eldritch alien invaders but mankind’s own erstwhile defenders—the highest governing leadership class charged with shepherding civilization through the rising ashes of post-apocalypse only to become violently dislocated from any sense of real accountability. It’s the ultimate haunting embodiment of the banality of evil—a poisoned bureaucracy becoming a siloistic death cult of greed, paranoia and ruthless self-interest, willing to commit the most horrific of atrocities with clinical detachment.
As much as Aaron Ryan expands the visceral horrors of its fictional universe of ‘Dissonance- Volume II: Reckoning’ with the introduction of brutish new gorgon behemoths and escalating scenes of pulse-pounding action, it’s this disquieting philosophical framework that gives the book its searing power. Ryan roots his entire narrative in the mounting existential terror of seeing every supposedly unshakable bulwark of human ethics and decency starting to splinter and give way under pressure. If the edifices of governance and military order have been irrevocably compromised, what ultimate foundation does society have left to stand on? It’s a question with no clear answers, one that Reckoning asks with mounting fervor.
That’s not to say that Reckoning fails to satisfy on the level of sheer visceral impact and pulpy propulsion. To the contrary, Ryan unleashes a blitzkrieg of mind-boggling twists and harrowing setpieces that leave you breathless, gulping for air – and frequently slam-cutting to devastating new planes of loss. At every turn, Jet, Ally, Foxy and the others find themselves ensnared by mounting betrayals and faceoffs against impossibly terrifying new threats from all sides. Whether it’s learning the gorgons are exhibiting disturbingly burgeoning intelligence or watching civilization’s last line of defense collapse amid a claustrophobically ferocious siege, Reckoning positively brims with sequences of heart-stopping dread and relentless suspense. Jet’s anguished howls of fury at losing yet another loved one to the monsters ring with a shattering authenticity.
But for all the refusal to compromise harsh reality, Aaron Ryan’s Reckoning ultimately reveals itself as a story about refusing to surrender to despair, no matter how tempting the inevitability of surrendering to darkness may seem. For even as Jet grows increasingly consumed by justified fury at the depths of human corruption he’s been forced to witness, so too does he find himself having to hold fast to our species’ lingering sparks of compassion and empathy – to nurture the very antidote to the soulless inhumanity driving the forces of malign leadership. In Foxy (Liam Mayfield), Jet finds a new surrogate brother to fight for, a reminder of the fraternal bonds that give purpose and uplift our resolve to endure.
It’s a core relationship that becomes even more potent under the wisdom and counsel of Pastor Rosie, a quasi-angelic messenger imploring Jet to rise above mere retaliatory vengeance. For Rosie recognizes that ultimately, the preservation of moral integrity and justice are what separate humanity’s struggle to survive from a descent into the oblivion of nihilistic self-destruction. If we sacrifice the ability to love, forgive and believe in something greater than ourselves, then all other victories in war are meaningless. It’s an unremittingly powerful refutation of cynicism that drives the cathartic climax of Reckoning and sets the stage for the series conclusion.
In this light, Reckoning by Aaron Ryan evolves into a searing meditation on the responsibility of individual conscience amidst societal collapse—an assertion of the sanctity of the human soul as civilization’s last line of defense against the encroaching tides of inhumanity and reversion to the monstrous. Ryan has not just continued a rip-roaring pulp tale of an apocalyptic alien invasion; he’s crafted one of the leanest, most brutally uncompromising science fiction morality plays of the modern era. A humanist parable cloaked in the garb of muscular action/horror, an urgent philosophical reckoning with our age of resurgent totalitarian menace and sociocultural splintering.
Where Jet’s odyssey carries us from here is anyone’s guess. But based on the ever-heightening intensity of Reckoning’s relentless forward momentum, the shattering revelations that await in the saga’s conclusion promise to probe ever deeper into the uncompromising marrow of human morality when confronted by an existential threat. Few authors writing today have exhibited the level of philosophical ferocity and willingness to wrench 21st century science fiction out of complacency that Ryan has brought to his work. The only certainties are that concepts will be challenged, cherished assumptions obliterated and our readerly nerves strung ever tighter by the sheer, unblinking audacity of the creative mind at work.
With Reckoning, Aaron Ryan has irrevocably established himself as a bold new visionary force in imaginative science fiction. Brave readers seeking soulful, ruthlessly probing genre tales that double as penetrating inquiries into the nature of human identity, accountability, and the sanctity of truth would do well to dive into Dissonance’s immersive depths. The waters may be murky, but the resonant enlightenment awaits.
