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Publisher: ACE Books
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Publication date: 1990
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Copyright Year: 1989
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Pages: 263
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ISBN: 0-441-48312-7
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Author: Connie Willis
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Author: Cynthia Felice
Light Raid by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice is the second of three Young Adult novels co-written by Willis and Felice. These are separate stories connected only by the authors. I reviewed their first collaboration, Water Witch a few weeks ago. Neither one of these is up to the rest of Connie Willis’ solo work, but I enjoyed this one a little more than Water Witch.
Light Raid, is part war story, part spy story and part romance. There is a war going on between western and eastern North America with the primary enemy being Quebec. Seventeen Year Old Ariadne has been sent to neutral Victoria along with several other children to protect them from the ongoing laser attacks from enemy satellites. When her father goes silent, she fears him dead and runs away back to Colorado to the Hydra Corp where her mother and father both work (and where she also worked before being evacuated).
You get some hint of Willis’ later Blackout and All Clear books in this one, but those are much better books. Light Raids are laser attacks from enemy ‘Battelites’ that are reminiscent of the World War II bombing runs on London. The evacuation of children from the areas are also a call back to actual WW2 history.
Light Raid is not a bad book. There are some interesting details and happenings, but the main story lines just don’t quite work. I had trouble believing that any of the main characters would actually act the way they do in the novel. The setting of a war between different areas of the continent is an interesting concept. The parallels between WW2 and the future America could have been played out even more. The main romance could have been better fleshed out to give you more reason to believe these characters would connect. The enemy spy could have been less cartoonishly evil.
There are a lot of things I like this in the book. Things that almost work, but don’t quite land. Things and actions that you don’t quite believe. Characters that are not true to their own character, etc. I am easily amused, so I enjoyed the book overall, but I was disappointed in that it could have been a much better book.
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