Friday, March 13, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik




Polaris Rising is the first book in Jessie Mihalik's "Consortium Rebellion", a series of stand-alone space opera novels with a heavy romance bent.  In the latter sense - it very much fits what I sometimes call a "trashy" novel, filled with a protagonist and love interest just barely trying to keep it in their pants.  But as I've said before in other SF/F "trashy" novels, that's not a bad thing - and when done well, these novels can be a lot of fun to read.

Polaris Rising is definitely fun to read.  The book has a setup that in other hands could lead to a lot of discussion of interesting and perhaps serious themes - but it never has any interest in doing so.  Instead it uses that background setup to create a universe in which our fun cast of characters, particularly the heroine and her love interest, can get repeatedly into trouble, requiring quick thinking and quick shooting to get out of it all....and helping get the two of them closer in the process.  It's a book of fun space opera action and lust filled moments, and if that's what you're looking for, you could do a lot worse.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Ada von Hasenberg was a younger daughter of the head of House von Hasenberg, one of the High Houses that lead the Consortium that rules the universe, and as such, was one of the wealthiest and most privileged people in the universe growing up.  But when she was to be betrothed to a man from another House she neither wanted or respected, she fled the House and went on the run.  And despite her father putting one of the highest bounties in the universe on her, Ada has successfully stayed one step ahead of him for two years....until her luck runs out, and she winds up imprisoned on a mercenary ship.  A mercenary ship carrying one other prisoner: Marcus Loch, the second highest bounty in the universe, a man known to have killed his entire squad during a military action and famed for his brutality.

But to escape her fate, Ada will have to team up with Loch, a man she could not imagine trusting less....even if he is incredibly attractive to her.  Their escape will require them to dodge not only mercenaries, but the forces of her inflamed suitor, and will draw Ada and Loch closer and closer together, until the temptation of mutual attraction become almost unbearable.  But Ada will find her want of this dangerous man to be perhaps the least of her problems when her escape reveals a secret which could change the balance of power in the universe, and may require her to make choices that will change her future forever....
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Polaris Rising is told entirely from the perspective of its heroine, Ada.  Ada is a highly competent woman, trained in self-defense as part of her privileged upbringing, and having learned how to survive on her own through 2 years of being on the run.....although at the same time she's still incredibly advantaged due to the assets she's squirreled away from her childhood.  This book does not really examine that privilege too hard honestly, as while it causes her love interest at first to distrust her, it's more in the sense that he assumes she's a spoiled brat, and the book is more interested in how that privilege allows Ada to get away with the rest of the plot.

Let me say that Ada's personality, and how she feels about Loch, is something that is very different than how I can imagine ever thinking: from the moment Ada meets Loch, she basically wants to jump in his pants, and has to force herself to resist the temptation for a while as she focuses more on escape and the fact that he's supposed to be a brutal murderer - hardly the type of person she can trust.  It's not much of a spoiler to say that pants-jumping does eventually occur, and I'll say these scenes are written incredibly well.  More importantly, how these scenes eventually wind up taking place always makes sense, even if I don't personally get Ada's viewpoint, and the chemistry between the two characters is very believable.  A sweet, slow, and tender romance this is not, but as a lust-filled one, it's done particularly well, and helps drive along the plot.

Also helping, Ada's competence in getting herself out of situations with action, from sneaking around, to fighting her way out, to using quick wits, all in the name of getting wherever she needs to go (or away from whomever she is running).  She's incredibly fun to read, and Mihalik writes the plot to keep giving her situations where she needs to employ all these skills, and is excellent at writing the action sequences involved.  Again, this is not a serious book in the least, even if you could've seen the setting (universe ruled by an oligarchy of aristocrats who bend the rules for their own ends....) going in that direction, but the book is always fun, whether it be in the action or the steamy romance.  And while the characters don't otherwise have tremendous depth, they're still really well done, even for the minor ones we don't really get to know too in depth other than Ada or Loch.

And well, sometimes that's what you want, fun space opera with moments of action and steamy love, and Polaris Rising does that pretty damn well.
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