Review: Been There, Done That (April Series Book 10) by Mackey Chandler

Been There, Done That by Mackey Chandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Problems With The Martians and The French

This is the 10th book in a continuing series and the preceding books really need to be read in order to understand this story. The narrative ends at a natural break, but the story definitely continues in future books. There is another series, Family Law, that is set in the future and shares some characters in common. A list of the current reading order is available on this post.

Now they have been to another star April, Jeff and Heather have decided to keep their endeavours secret. They know if they let the world know about their scientific advances it will just lead to being attacked by Earth. They plan to slowly advance their technology as they search the galaxy for planets and other bodies of interest, for inhabitation, raw materials or profit. Their technology makes them even less dependent on Earth for resources, especially with how Central is mining the surface of the Moon and growing edibles in the tunnels they have created, kilometres below the surface.

The problem is that the Martians are hiding something to the point of killing people on their base to keep their secret. On the other hand, the French are determined to find out what that secret is. The French seem to be keeping secrets of their own and whilst The Three want to know what’s going on to keep themselves safe, they don’t really care what anyone else thinks of them anymore. Earthies are going to blame them for everything anyway!

I felt like this book moved the story forward in leaps and bounds. Going to the stars is a massive part of any narrative and the way The Three handle it is sensible and matter of fact. For such young people, they are getting a turbocharged political education. I like how they admit they don’t have decades of experience of dealing with foreign powers but they refuse to be told how to do it in any way other than the way they want to do it. They refuse to bend to ‘Earth Think’.

As well as the political giants, we follow the life of a young woman in the area that crumbled in the USNA after April bombed a military base in California. Eileen is young, bright and determined. She won’t bow to the expectations of others and is determined to get into space one day, in particular to Home or Central. This all gives us an insight into the realities of life in the USNA after the political systems start to crumble.

We also follow the activities of people on Home and their personal problems instead of the political enormities that April and Jeff are having to face there. Some of those problems brush up against people April is invested in and she is learning to be more understanding and compassionate as a result. April has always been the voice of compassion and at the same time, she exhibits a fierce protectiveness to those she claims, hence the bombing of California. Understanding people more doesn’t make her any less likely to act in their defence or against them, it just makes her understand their actions more.

Jeff is also learning to be more socially aware through his relationship with Heather and April, particularly April with whom he spends more time, as they both live on Home. He may be very cerebral and focuses his attention on his ideas rather than people, but he is aware of this shortfall and does try to be aware of others.

Now they’ve reached the stars I can’t wait to see what happens next!

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