Operation Lionhearted: Book Review
affiliate links below at no extra cost to you
“Here’s something for you to think on. I know it’s hard, and I know you think it’d drive you crazy, but I’d bet anything you’ll get over it someday … You’ll never forget it, and you shouldn’t. But one day, for some reason or another, I bet you’ll be able to conquer those memories, because whatever you’ll need to do at that moment will matter more than whatever it is you’re afraid of.” — Maribeth Barber, Operation Lionhearted (p. 45)
Many of us have memories that haunt us—I’ve shared about some of mine in relation to growing up with my unkind father and my traumatic birth with the twins. In this sci-fi novel, Operation Lionhearted, Maribeth invites us into the world of Lindy Tremaine, a girl with her own host of gripping memories and nightmares to accompany them.
Lindy works for Meridian Intelligence Department, and as a fashion journalist as her cover for her investigation work. What most people don’t know is that at a young age, before Lindy can remember much else, her mother was murdered by a cruel dictator in front of her own eyes, and he still rules her former home planet. While she grieves what is still happening on Valya, she steels her gaze forward on her current work and life with her adopted family.
Yet that all changes when she is asked to go undercover to Valya to protect the former royal family as they attempt to negotiate peace with the current dictator, Rael. On this mission, Lindy will unravel lies and secrets—both about herself and this seemingly forsaken planet she once called home.
In this book, you’ll follow Lindy and her friends Ethan (captain of the Hummingbird spaceship), Jo (her best friend and fashion photographer), and Frank (fellow MID trooper and co-worker with Ethan) as they work together to uncover these mysteries and strive to set a broken planet back to right. This is a captivating story with witty humour, tangles of interpersonal stories, and high action. I laughed, cried, and felt butterflies of suspense.
Unless you count futuristic dystopian books, this was my first YA sci-fi novel. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the genre as a whole; I’ve been hesitant about sci-fi most of my life, and probably my lack of skill in science class played a role in that. I figured all the technology and science aspects of the story would get in the way of enjoying the novel. However, the story kept me reading at every free moment; within the first few pages, I was drawn into the story and the characters, and the technology aspects didn’t feel like they were going over my head as I feared they might.
I think a lot of us come with misconceptions around particular genres, and there’s nothing wrong with not liking one genre and enjoying another. Yet I think we do ourselves a disservice when we refuse to stretch ourselves and try something different. Don’t write off a genre you haven’t tried. As I’ve written before, novels (especially speculative genres like sci-fi and fantasy) take our everyday struggles that have blended in with our lives and cast them upon a landscape of totally different colours, helping us see them afresh. Maribeth’s story did just that for me.
In this story, Maribeth shows us how we can be courageous even in the midst of horrific memories. I felt understood and seen as I thought about my own battles with nightmares and memories that grip me, and I saw how courage doesn’t always mean leaving the memories behind but doing what needs to be done in spite of them. I was reminded that diving into some dark corner of my mind to attempt to fight these memories alone isn’t where courage is found—rather, it’s unearthed alongside the hands of others.
This is a book about war within the Star System, technological horrors, family, and the strangeness and complexities of politics. But it’s also a story about friendship, courage, and memories. I hope you’ll learn about courage as well through this riveting story (even if that courage is simply picking up a genre you’ve never tried before).
