Tuesday, March 26, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Revolution's Shore by Kate Elliott




Revolution's Shore is the second book in Kate Elliott's* Highroad Trilogy, after "A  Passage of Stars" (Reviewed on this blog here).  I enjoyed that first book in this Space Opera trilogy, which felt very much like a prototype to some extent of later books in Elliott's career, but had enough distinct touches to be its own thing and rather enjoyable.  And since Elliott is one of my favorite writers still writing today (if not ever, honestly), I was certainly excited to see how this trilogy would continue to play out.

*Actually this book was originally published under her real name, but the rerelease I read has the "Kate Elliott" pen name on it, so I'll use that here in this review.  

Revolution's Shore is indeed a step up from A Passage of Stars honestly, with the book still seeming very reminiscent of some later books by Elliott (particularly the Spiritwalker trilogy), but also still having enough unique and different touches to be its own thing.  The story kind of settles its space opera plot down a bit here, with it being more focused on one of the two conflicts set up by the first book, but in doing so it features a cast of characters who tend to be rather interesting and very different - particularly in the heroine Lily and her love interest, Kyosti.  It doesn't quite hit that must-read territory of some of Elliott's other works, but it's been really hard for me not to download the finale to this trilogy immediately (which I really shouldn't due to already outstanding library books).

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
With her mentor Heredes dead, killed by the Central government, Lilyaka "Lily" Ash Ransome - no, Lilyaka Ash Heredes - has decided to put her talents and intelligence to good use: to help the resistance movement led by the mysterious charismatic dissident named "Jehane."  Gathering together the allies she has made in her wild travels - her lover Kyosti, the strange blue haired man from the League, ex-immortals Jenny and and Aliasing, the Ridani pilot Pinto, and others - she embarks on a path through space to help Jehane defeat the oppressive Central government and put something more just in its place.  But is Jehane really to be trusted?  Lily isn't quite so sure.

Yet there is more out there in space than just the Reft - somewhere out in space are the worlds where humanity was born, and the powerful League that governs those worlds.  These worlds are considered merely a myth in the Reft, but Lily is one of the few who knows better and knows that ships from League space have begun to re-enter the Reft and possess overwhelming and strange abilities and behaviors.  And nothing could demonstrate that strangeness any more than Kyosti, who starts having strange, murderous reactions when Lily reunites with one of her former lovers, reactions he refuses to explain.

As Lily deals with all of this, she finds herself thrown into a leadership position for a small but growing group of people, it will require every bit of her quick thinking in order to protect not just herself, but her growing team as they get further and further involved in the flames of revolution.....
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The thing that really impresses me about this book, and the series so far, is how absolutely strange the personalities and moralities are of its main characters.  Don't get me wrong, our heroes - well, Lily mostly - have some traditional ideas about right and wrong, whether that be fighting against oppression and prejudice, for equality, or to protect innocents.  But Lily, Kyosti, and a few other members of the book's cast face or cause some very strange situations, and their reactions are very much not what you'd expect.

This is a world that is very different from our own, and Elliott makes that shine.  Where Kyosti can murder a man whose only "sin" is being Lily's former lover and while the action is horrifying, it is not something that can't be forgiven and dealt with.  Where customs such as refusing to allow women into college unless they've already bore two children are not considered horrifying - as suggested by Lily rebelling against them in book 1 - but just a rational part of life.  The people of the League have weird customs compared even to Lily's own, and I could go on and on.

The result is that the characters in this book are generally really interesting and as usual for Elliott, they're pretty well done.  Lily is a different heroine than any I can think of in Elliott's books (she's probably the closest to Tess from Jaran, but still very different honestly in her rationality and lack of romantic drive) but she's really well done - again, she's quick witted and physically skilled, naive but quick to adjust, and able to cope with nearly anything the world throws at her without her seeming like a bizarre savant.  Kyosti remains very much a cipher, but we learn more about him as the plot goes on, and his reactions to things make more and more sense as we learn more - and those mysteries and strange reactions make him very different from the traditional love interest.  And the side characters are generally excellent as well, with a half-human half-sta new character who goes by "The Mule" being perhaps the most interesting.

The plot is also excellently done and really quickly paced, so that I finished with this not too long book within a single day.  Again, there are some pretty clear similarities to some of Elliott's later works here (particularly the Spiritwalker Trilogy), with potential antagonist Jehane seeming very similar if not a clear prototype to Spiritwalker's Camjiata, and the multifaceted levels of conflicts reminding me of more than one of Elliott's later works.  But the main cast here stands out, allowing this book to step out of its successors' shadow I think.  I still wouldn't quite call this book, or the series so far, quite as good as those later books - I'm really interested in the characters and how things play out, but I don't think I'm quite as in love with them as I was with Spiritwalker's Cat and Andevai or Jaran's near-entire cast - but that's mainly because those later books set such a damn high bar.

I'll be getting to the finale of this series next month when my Hoopla borrows renew.  I can't wait honestly.


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