Live in Infamy

It's been 80 years since the allies lost WWII.  The United States has been carved into pieces ruled by the Axis powers.  The Germans have the east coast, and Japan has the West.  Chinese American Ren Cabot has grown up under this oppressive rule.  In fact, he was forced to watch his own mother's beheading for her role in the Resistance.

You'd think that would keep him cowed, and he does struggle to maintain his temper around the soldiers, but Ren has a secret.  Everyone is talking about the Viper, a revolutionary who writes essays and somehow gets them out into public places.  Love or hate, everyone is talking about the Viper.  But not even Ren's father knows he is the author.

Now Ren is caught up in a mission with the Resistance to free the prisoners held on Alcatraz.  Being imprisoned is bad enough, but there are rumors the Empire is experimenting on the prisoners, trying to give them extra-human abilities so they can be used as weapons.

Ren wants to help, but this mission will take him to the very heart of the Empire and very real danger.

This is Caroline Tung Richmond's second book set in this world, but it's only the first one I've read.  From a plot perspective, this is a stand-alone/companion book, but I do think it would be better to read the books in order since the protagonist of The Only Thing to Fear makes an appearance here.  I still enjoyed it a separate story, and I think the human experimentation creating super-human abilities was an interesting twist and a natural sci-fi outcome of the real experiments performed by Nazis during the war.  Recommended, but be aware there are some gruesome scenes.