As a station-born war orphan, Fianna Callan has never had choices. She didn't choose to have her independent space station colonized, she didn't choose to be a woman who was only valued for her womb, and she definitely didn't choose to be forced into the matchmaking program, where she would have to take a husband and bear his children within the year. A lifelong battle with PCOS wasn't enough to save her from her obligations to the state
When war comes to her colony, and a new enemy weapon leaves her home destroyed and her brother in a coma, a draft notice gives her two options: She could continue to accept her life as a vessel for childbirth, or she could disguise as her brother and take his place at an elite war academy, where the soldiers are taught to pilot giant humanoid robots known as Shinkas. Without another thought, she cuts off her hair and gets on the first transport to the capital on Saturn.
But an Elite War Academy is anything but a walk among the stars, and she quickly finds herself in over her head between Elio, her Saturn-born dorm mate who immediately distrusts her and makes her life hell, Sebastian, the over achieving son of a General and her new squadron leader who has no time for her physical inadequacy, and Breaker, her sunshiny mentor who gives her only bad advice. She refuses to give up, no matter how high the odds are stacked against her, and when she's able to synchronize with a Shinka for the first time, everyone quickly discovers that her bench press weight wasn't a predictor for her ability to dole out mass destruction
Only, her affinity for controlling these humanoid mechanized weapons isn't natural, and there's far more to the plight of war orphans in the Democratic Territories of Mictlan than any of them ever imagined.
Mulan set in space, mixing the large humanoid mechs of Mobile Suit Gundam with the dystopian backdrop of Handmaid's Tale, Code Vessel is a romantic space opera with multiple love interests, told from all POVs, and an adventurous tale of epic proportions.
If you enjoyed the war academy of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, with the sarcastic humor of Blood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas, and the dystopian enemies to lovers arc of Daggermouth by H.M. Wolfe, all in the fashion of a Star Wars style space opera, you'll love the high stakes and action packed world of Code Vessel.
