Steelheart
An android is caught in a conflict between humans and aliens in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Galactic Bounty. Years ago, when humans and androids crash landed onto the planet Zuul, whatever remained of their society quickly succumbed to the ravages of earthquakes and a never-ending winter from volcanic dust clouds. As humans and machines scavenged to stay alive, they also faced the Zid, an alien race that abhors all technology with religious fervor. Add to that the Mothri--giant, bug-like aliens with brilliant minds and their own nanotechnology--and it is no longer simply the planet’s geological upheaval that proves volatile. War between the races looms. Will Doon, tired and reluctant, rise to lead the fight? Can humans harness technology to save the planet, itself, before the Zid arrive? And, what secrets does Doon carry inside of him that might help them all?
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Summary
The planet Zuul was established by the vanished Forerunners, but is now occupied by humans, huge insectile Mothri, nanomachines, synthetics, and roughly humanoid Zid. Some of the Zid have established an anti-technist church and accepted human converts. But there's a problem - the planet is starting to fall apart, and the explanation is at risk of vanishing in a bloody religious war.
Review
I don't know much about William Dietz, but I previously enjoyed the first two books of his Pik Lando series, so I picked up a few more e-books some years back. I suppose this first one pretty much met my expectations – competent and enjoyable, but not outstanding.
The main problem with Steelheart is simply organization. Dietz introduces far too many characters and locations, switching among them without warning. For at least the first half of the book, I began each chapter with little sense of whom I was following or where they were. He does tie all the characters together at the end of the book, but this approach would have worked far better with more signposting.
It's a shame, because the story itself is interesting. We only touch on the edge of the most interesting question – who made the world and why – but it's a character-driven story, so that should be alright, and would be if only the characters were fewer. As it is, the whole thing is something of a muddle for quite some time. I never really felt grounded in the location, and only began to feel engaged about halfway through, once the flood of characters had slowed enough to begin tracing the paths of some of them. Overall, the book feels more like a well-developed sketch than a full-blown novel.
The book isn't helped by a low effort conversion from paper, with OCR errors fairly prevalent. They rarely interfere with comprehension, but they're annoying.
