Friday, December 7, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beyond the Empire by K.B. Wagers




Beyond the Empires is the conclusion of K.B. Wagers' first trilogy, the Indranan War Trilogy, following her debut novel "Behind the Throne" and the follow-up "After the Crown."  The trilogy began as what I'd call a Political SciFi Thriller and then expanded to full on Space Opera, featuring as its heroine, Hail Bristol, a galactic gunrunner who is forced to take the throne of a multi-planet Empire, only to deal with threats to her reign both from within and without, as a neighboring Empire begins to make moves towards war.  And the first two books' characters and their plots have been really really enjoyable, so I have barreled through this trilogy quite quickly and was glad the third book was available so readily thanks to inter-library loan.

That said, Beyond the Empire is a bit of a let down as an ending for the trilogy.  The story tries to both expand this universe further and to start solving various loose plot threads dangling from book 2 at the same time, and it often feels like some plot threads are resolved incredibly easily just to get them out of the way.  Moreover the final ending is just plain silly.  But still, the characters remain mostly excellent and I was happy to have yet another book with them, even if it couldn't live up to the prior two books.  It may not have been the conclusion I hoped for, but I'm certainly glad to have found and read this entire trilogy and look forward to the completion of its successor trilogy over the next few years.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Having reclaimed the system of Canafey from the Saxon Empire as well as the powerful Vajrayana ships that were left there, Hail Bristol is ready to reclaim her Empire from the usurper Eha Phanin and his backer, the mysterious Wilson - the man who killed the rest of Hail's family.  But doing so will not be easy - Wilson has been somehow plotting his moves for over 20 years without being detected and is clearly setting a trap for Hail and the unstable King of the Saxon Empire is still out there, threatening an outside war against Indrana.  Even with Hail's allies from her gunrunner days, the odds are against her.  And then there's the fact that Hail's ally Fase - the alien who resurrected her ekam - is starting to act strange, as if she suddenly can see the future, including events that don't look good for Hail.

But little things like walking into a trap or bad looking futures aren't going to stop Hail Bristol, the Gunrunner Empress.  To beat Wilson, she will reach back to every trick from both her training to be Empress as well as her training as a gunrunner - including a ruthless streak that no one possibly could've anticipated.  But even that may not be enough, when Wilson begins to make good on his promise to target all the remaining friends and family that Hail cares about and Hail is forced to take desperate measures in order to try and save everyone....even at the cost of her own life.
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Beyond the Empire finishes the first story of Hail Bristol, the gunrunner Empress, and the story again takes place from her third person point of view.  If you couldn't tell from these reviews - and my review of There Before the Chaos - I love Hail so damn much.  She's has the perfect mix of a ruthlessness and compassion to make a character that is often unpredictable in her steps but is also incredibly easy to root for even when she's taking actions that seem awfully cruel.  She's a survivor at this point and more, and most of the fun of this book is seeing how she'll handle those who stand in her way.

The other characters in this book for the most part remain excellent - we don't really get many new characters this time around (being in the 3rd book of a trilogy), but the development that occurred in Book 2 continues here for the better.  Hail's bodyguards, from Emmory and Zin on down, remain excellent, as does her gunrunner allies Hao and Johar, and it's easy to care about all of them as they get put into greater and greater danger.  The greatest development occurs with Hail's Farian (alien) soldier Fase, who starts to develop knowledge of the future and takes actions with dangerous consequences as a result.

Speaking of Fase, now that I've finished this trilogy, I'd point out one of the greatest feats it performs is making it seem clear how the side characters are having their own relationships and lives off-page.  Fase and Hail's maid Stasia continue to grow their romantic relationship here off-page, and it still feels completely natural despite the fact we never see any of the scenes where they grow attached to each other ever displayed on-page.  The same is true of Hail's heir Alice and her childhood friend Taz, seen generally through communications.  These minor characters have their own lives and the brief glimpses we get of them feel quite natural, even as we're missing so much from them.

That said Beyond the Empire is the weakest of the trilogy because of quite simply, while I love our heroine and seeing how she reacts to things, the ending of the various plot threads often feel too easy and abrupt throughout this book.  The final confrontation with the main antagonist of this book is like something out of a Bond Movie, and honestly a Bond Villain would probably have found the antagonist's actions at the end too damn dumb even for that level of enemy - and this is an antagonist thought of as a master planner and devastating as an enemy.  Similarly, the major exterior conflict between Hail and the Saxon Empire, particularly its leader Trace, feels like it was rushed so that it could be removed from play in order to allow Hail to get back to her capital as soon as possible.  The last book promised a grand potential conflict between the two Empires, but this book eliminates that possibility almost immediately.

Still, the whole Indranan War trilogy is well recommended for anyone looking for fun characters in a space opera/political scifi series, even with this finale being a bit of a disappointment.
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