Allegiance completed Allegiance AUTHOR: Kokopelli
LEAD: Tao
GENRE; SETTING: Romance, angst, dystopia; military
CHAPTERS: 25
READER INFORMATION: [M]   

It is Lee Sooyeon's twentieth birthday, and it is not cause for a celebration.

Today is the day that her future is decided: whom she will marry, how her family will turn out. Today is the day that the government reveals just exactly what her future will hold: and there is no choice.

thoughts PLOT: This is a short fic – I'm talking maybe 20-25k words. The plot itself is pretty straightforward and tight. The Federation decides absolutely everything – who you marry, when, how many kids you can have (and when), etc. It was interesting to actually see this come at from the point of view of somebody in the system who might not have been happy about it but who isn't an all-guns-blazing revolutionary plotting to change it, which is very realistic – both Tao and the OC, Sooyeon, are trying to toe the line and get by without hurting each other. Of course, life isn't as easy as that – Tao's relatively high ranking in the military and he gets called up to deal with first rioting and then invading rebels, while Sooyeon is ordered by the Federation to get pregnant with Tao within three months when she doesn't want children. I'm not totally sure how Tao wound up being viewed as a lynchpin from the Federation's side, but otherwise no complaints.

CHARACTERISATION: I have to admit,