There are a lot of post-apocalyptic scenarios I don't particularly care for. Many espouse hope while promising no future, offering zombie plagues and nuclear holocausts that no one living can dream of pushing back. The Lotus Chronicles, instead, gives us a world that's suffered and broken, but humanity keeps on going anyway. Maybe none of the people are particularly good or moral, but that's not the point of humanity, now, is it?
From the start, we're given a slice of life in this broken world that one could probably assume we're going to spend the whole story in. But quickly we go from the oppressed to the oppressors, and then many of the things in-between. We get glimpses of how society continues around the wounds of the apocalypse, complete with bureaucracy, media saturation, and political intrigue.
Futuristic tech (ironically called Old Tech) in the wake of war is barely understood. Most of what is understood is banned for having broken the world. We are denied forcefields and laser guns for crossbows and handguns, while somehow allowed bio-ents and light swords, making for a delightful mix of archaic and sufficiently advanced technology as pirates, monks, and thieves fight cops, soldiers, and slumlords.
In this broken, hobbling world we're given, there's only one true rule, and I found myself repeating it like a mantra throughout my read through.
Never fuck with a Lotus.
(reviewed 11 days after purchase)