Thursday, January 9, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Down Among the Dead by K.B. Wagers



Down Among the Dead is the 2nd in KB Wager's "Farian War" trilogy (after last year's "There Before the Chaos" - which I reviewed here), and the fifth story in their space opera universe featuring as its protagonist the gunrunner empress Hail Bristol.  I actually came to this universe with the start of this trilogy, and only then went back to read the original trilogy (The Indranan War trilogy) later - having really enjoyed There Before the Chaos first.  Wagers' writing has some annoying quirks - her heroine getting randomly praised by basically everyone throughout would make a fun drinking game - but it results in an addictive narrative as the series shifts genres seamlessly between political thriller and space opera and back.  As a result, I've been awaiting this novel for a while.

*Note: As should be obvious from the above paragraph, you don't need to read the prior trilogy before starting this one.  You DO need to read There Before the Chaos though before starting this novel, as you'll be lost otherwise.*

 Down Among the Dead is a really fascinating novel, featuring the series protagonist in a bad way, driven mad by grief, for pretty much half the novel, and even afterwards she never fully recovers.  It's an interesting exploration of grief and pain, working well given all that we've seen of Hail previously.  The story also takes a turn for the fantastical, as the powers of the alien races become available to our human protagonists as well, taking us away from the political thriller and space opera genres a bit, and most of the second half of the book leads up to a point that winds up being the book's cliffhanger, which is a bit of a disappointment.  Still, the narrative remains compelling throughout, and I'd definitely recommend this book, if you're able to handle the rough things that occur, just for the exploration of grief throughout.

Trigger Warning: Self-harm, Suicidal Inclinations.  These are major parts of this book, as it explores our main character's grief, so if those things are a problem, be forewarned.

Note: Spoilers for the first book are inevitable below, sorry:

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Hail Bristol, the Gunrunner Empress, was supposed to help negotiate a peace between the two warring Alien races: the Farians and the Shen.  Instead, the talks on Earth were interrupted by the acts of mercenaries on Earth, and Hail finds herself, her bodyguard Gita, her chamberlain Alba, and former mercenary friend Johar as prisoners of the Shen.  And worse, just before her capture, the embassy on Earth was destroyed, seemingly with nearly all of the other people Hail cared about inside.

Now, as the Shen's sibling leaders - the dangerous Aiz and the attractive Mia - try to convince Hail to take their side in their war against the Farian gods, Hail finds herself struggling to find a reason to live, as she sees and hears the ghosts of her friends and family everywhere.  In desperation, Hail throws herself into learning the brutal fighting and energy powers of the Shen, suffering repeated injuries and deaths as a result.  And as Hail comes to learn of the aliens' abilities to change their appearance, she finds herself unable to trust the reality around her - and unable to tell what is real and what is false.

But both the Shen and Farians still believe that Hail will be the lynchpin in the conflict to come, a conflict that could devastate the entire galaxy - humans and aliens alike.  If Hail cannot find some way to go forward, the Empire she has grown to care about, and the remaining people in it, will burn.  But it is one thing to say that Hail needs to put aside her grief, and another to actually do it.....even when the stakes are so high....
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For all her hyper-competence a times in these books, series protagonist Hail Bristol has faced a lot of trauma over the course of the story (and beforehand), and has always had to find ways to cope.  She's always had claustrophobia due to an incident from her childhood, and after she was nearly drowned in a small box (at the end of the last trilogy), she suffers from PTSD that is frequently triggered by the presence of running water, which has made things like showers particularly difficult to deal with.  And then there's her way of coping with those she's lost, with them - particularly her former lover Portis - appearing in her head at times to speak to her in times of need.

But what Hail seemed to suffer at the end of the last book - the loss of her bodyguards and the people she calls family - has put her over the edge, and it's something that Hail deals with throughout this book....and not particularly well.  Seeing Ghosts everywhere, feeling like she led all these people to her death and being invited to learn a particularly brutal form of fighting by her captors - these are not things that go together well, and Wagers writes the results of this incredibly well....and in an incredibly devastating fashion.  And when other knowledge is passed on to Hail by her captors - the knowledge that her enemies can use illusions and the knowledge of how to heal physically from pain - it all stampedes in traumatic fashion.*  There is no easy way out from this grief, and Hail will be dealing with it probably for the rest of her life, and it's awfully hard to read.

*Spoiler in ROT13: Guvf fvghngvba vf znqr rira jbefr ol gur snpg gung Snfr jnf hfvat n cbjre (juvpu vf arire ernyyl rkcynvarq) gb gel naq gryrcnguvpnyyl pbzzhavpngr jvgu Unvy gb svaq bhg jurer Unvy vf, juvpu gb Unvy'f zvaq ybbxf yvxr whfg nabgure bs ure "tubfgf".  Nf n erfhyg, jura Unvy'f obqlthneqf naq snzvyl ghea bhg gb or nyvir naq erfphr ure (abg ernyyl n fhecevfr gb nalbar ernqvat), Unvy svaqf vg vzcbffvoyr gb oryvrir gung ure erfphref ner erny naq abg Snevnaf/Fura hfvat gurve vyyhfvba grpuabybtl gb nccrne nf bgure orvatf.  Naq rira nsgre Unvy npprcgf gurve ernyvgl, fur fgvyy pna'g trg cnfg gur genhzngvp qbhogf, erfhygvat ure phggvat urefrys naq oernxvat obarf whfg gb gel naq pbaivapr urefrys pbafgnagyl gung guvatf ner erny.  Vg'f jryy qbar, ohg cnvashy gb ernq, rira nf vg nyy znxrf frafr sbe gur punenpgre.

That said, it's well done and fits into the theme of this book and the series, of Hail making new friends and family and having to deal with those people's importance to her life, especially as her dangerous life as Empress and Gunrunner puts them in constant jeopardy.  The rest of this book works out pretty well, as we learn more and more about the Farians and Shen and the "gods" that are at the center of the conflict, and the dark future they are trying to prevent.  Along the way we get some minor romance and some fantastical elements here, as it turns out that the Farian/Shen healing/harming abilities with energy are not innate to their species, and can be taught to humans....such as Hail herself.  And Wagers' narrative, for some reason I can never quite put a finger on, remains incredibly well done and makes it hard to put down, once again.

The two weaknesses of this novel are kind of common ones for Wagers' novels.  First, yet again, you could easily make a drinking game out of the number of times a side character will respond to even a minor action of Hail with a declaration of praise or that they "underestimated her" - it's really really stupid.  It's made even more awkward given the fact that Hail is considered the chosen one by the two alien races not because of anything she's done, but because of prophecies essentially, which almost makes her seem ridiculous (why is she the hero? because everyone says she should be!  Huh.).  It works because the ridiculousness of that last part is called out, but the constant praising remains a bit nuts.  Also, like some of the earlier novels in this universe, Wagers spends a lot of time building to events occurring that don't occur until the very end of the novel, and in this case, the events basically serve as the cliffhanger of this book for the final novel - which is a trend I hate, because if you're going to build up to something in a book, I expect to get some gratification by seeing that event to some extent before I finish.

Still, the narrative remains compelling, with great characters, and Hail's traumatic experiences with grief are really interesting to read, if hard.  Two books in, this trilogy remains recommended.
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