Book Review: Through the Storm

Through the Storm.  John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer (Baen Books 9781982192990, $28.00, hc. 352pp) November 2023. Cover by Kurt Miller.

 

John Ringo is the author of a number of military science fiction series, including the Black Tide Rising zombie series. Lydia Sherrer is the author of the Lily Singer cozy fantasy series. Together, they wrote an augmented reality story where the characters fight monsters while experiencing teenage angst.

Lynn Raven is the best player in TransDimensional Hunter, a game watched by billions throughout the world. Since it is augmented reality, not virtual, she can run into a tree if she’s not careful. She and her four fellow students on her team use their goggles to see monstrous snakes, spiders, flying tengu, and other grotesque creatures coming at them. They use guns as their ranged weapons, but also enjoy using their swords to dispatch the monsters into showers of sparks.

Although Lynn spends hours at a time in augmented slaughter, the teenage angst spurs some of the crucial plot points. Lynn’s nemesis at school is a rich girl who calls her a “fat cow.” Lynn’s best friend in middle school went over to the rich girl’s side, just because. But Lynn’s biggest external enemy are the paparazzi, which use unregistered aerial drones. They follow her around, recording whatever she says and does. She suffers immense anxiety over them, as any teenager would. But her low self-image due to body issues magnifies it all. If they continue to harass her, her gaming skills will suffer.

But more angst comes Lynn’s way when her former best friend, Kayla, suddenly says she wants to be friends again. Kayla realized she has not been able to live her own life, just obeying the rich girl and dressing the way she is told. She misses Lynn. Obviously, Lynn has trust issues. And Kayla’s stepdad owns a PR firm. If Lynn will sign with them, Lynn can livestream camera feeds from her battles, and do interviews. The paparazzi drones will go away. Lynn has to figure out if this possible solution is worth trusting Kayla. These bullying and trust issues deepen these characters into real teenagers.

When it becomes obvious Lynn’s team needs a new captain, Lynn accepts a guy from the rich girl’s team. Lynn cannot fully trust him, but they both have the goal of becoming the champion team at the finals. Readers can immediately see he’s a skeezy guy. He takes advantage of Lynn’s innocence and her insecurity over her body, tells her how beautiful she is, kisses her, and tries to go too far. We may be disappointed by Lynn’s naivete, but for all her ability to kill monsters, she is a shy teenager. Fortunately, she knows how to use her knee where it counts.

Then in the setup for the climactic scene, Lynn invites teams from around the world to help her take down a “boss” in the game. She has to get past her anxieties to address a hundred gamers. But she uses her motto of “Fake it till you make it.” Only by fighting through this last struggle of teenage angst can she lay out her battle plan and hector the teams into obeying during the battle.

Overall, Through the Storm does not have young people doing their own thing with no adult input. Lynn’s mother is very supportive of her. But when Lynn gets an F on an English assignment, that makes for a serious talk. Also, when the skeezy captain insists on calling the team members by their last names, we can figure out their ethnicities. This is s a simple approach that does not apply virtue signaling to the novel’s diversity.

The story also has more sophisticated content than slashing monsters and teen angst. As a public figure, even private conversations Lynn has can be distorted into public statements. Lynn is not political, but she is cautioned against saying anything controversial to a friend, because that could be recorded by a paparazzi to make money by publicizing her “statement.”

This novel is a sequel to Into the Real, in which Lynn’s online persona was Larry, an older male military veteran. Although Lynn references her Larry persona, this novel stands well on its own. Somewhat jarring are a few scenes that let us know that TransDimensional Hunter is more real than Lynn knows. Chapter 1 is that sort of scene, so it is best to skip it until finishing the story. But Through the Storm is great both for those who want gamer scenes and to see a teenager work through her issues. So yes, this is a YA novel, despite the cover. Although, there was one girl in my high school who looked like that.