Wednesday, September 2, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May



Seven Devils is the first in a new space opera duology by authors Laura Lam and Elizabeth May.  I haven't read any of May's other works, but I did find really interesting Lam's solo published work from earlier this year, the feminist SF novel "Goldilocks."  Seven Devils is also described by the press marketing as "Feminist Space Opera", and received some positive push from other writers I followed, so I tried to get a copy through NetGalley when it was posted there (I was rejected) and put it on my TBR pile when it came out.

And I have very odd feelings about Seven Devils - I really liked it for most of its page-length, with some strong characters and a strong setting, which made it hard for me to not finish it all in one day (it took me two).  On the other hand, perhaps because I didn't quite realize it was a duology, I really hated the book's eventual ending, which ends not just on a tremendous cliffhanger, but in a really dark place that felt somehow out of tone - even for a book in which the heroines are fighting against an evil fascist Empire that controls its citizens often with a mind controlling AI.  The result just wasn't really satisfying for me, which gave me a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, even though I enjoyed nearly everything up to that point and would almost certainly read the concluding half of this duology.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
The Tholosian Empire is the Galaxy's most ruthless expansionist force, relying upon a near entirely vat-grown populace, who are implanted with a mind controlling AI to ensure obedience when push comes to shove, as it attempts to conquer the rest of the galaxy, no matter what others stand in its way.

Eris was once one of the most famous people in that Empire - the Empire's murderous heir herself, Princess Discordia - before she faked her death and joined the resistance, with her secret only known to the resistance's two commanders.  But when a technological glitch revealed her true face to another high up resistance agent, a mechanic named "Clo", Clo wound up rejecting her and almost dying as a result.  A year later, the Resistance has made sure to keep Clo and Eris as far apart as possible, for both of their sakes.

But when a mysterious shipment by the Empire is detected by the Resistance, the only two agents who can investigate the mystery are Eris and Clo.  Forced to work together, the two discover a mysterious cargo as well as three other defectors from the Empire with unusual skills, seeking to escape from the Empire's tyranny and control.  The three defectors, a trio of women - a soldier, a concubine, and the programmer behind the Empire's AI - want only to escape the horrors of the Empire and to live in peace.

But they may not get that chance, because Eris and Clo quickly discover from the cargo that the Empire is plotting something game changing, which may result in a new reign of death across the entire galaxy if isn't stopped.  But to stop it, they will have to infiltrate the Empire even deeper than ever before, where one wrong move could spell all of their deaths....or worse.
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Seven Devils is billed as a feminist space opera and it's certainly a strong example of space opera, even if I don't quite think the feminist label fits - other than the main cast for most of the novel being all women (mostly by story-coincidence) there really isn't anything to make the book feel feminist.  The story spends its story bouncing between the perspectives of its first two and then later five main protagonists, with occasional chapters flashing back to fill in the characters' backstories.

And while it may not be what I'd describe as "feminist", it is still a setting with dark undertones that have applications to today's society, with the galaxy being largely ruled by a fascist empire literally implanting an AI (known as The Oracle or "The One") into all of its populace's heads - a populace that it grows to its own specifications rather than allowing for natural births and selection - so as to maintain total control of their bodies in the event they may choose to turn against the Empire.  The deprogramming process is painful and often fatal....and even successfully removing the Oracle's direct voice in someone's head and its control over their bodies doesn't fully remove its influence on their thinking - a fact which is horribly felt by the few who have managed to survive the deprogramming.  The Empire further wages a genocidal war against all other peoples, with only one other major alien race left as a significant power, who it preaches must not be allowed to exist.  And its rulership is transferred between a ruler to his heir, who is determined by a creche of genetically modified and grown kids being trained brutally from birth and then being set upon each other until only two remain - the heir and the spare.  You can see quite easily how this dark setting can be analogized to our own world, but it's honestly impressive that the book manages to establish this setting without becoming completely grimdark....sorta.

In this setting comes a plot of a pair of resistance fighters from very different backgrounds which put them at odds forced to work together to investigate and stop a new plot by the Empire for murder and domination.  Clo is from the last generation of impoverished naturally born people from the slums (who the Empire sterilized) and who joined the resistance after her mom took in and cared for the man who would become a co-commander of the resistance.  She is desperate for revenge against the Empire who took someone close to her (as revealed in the flashbacks) and which created the oppression of her childhood.  But while she's devoted to the cause and is not only skilled as a mechanic but also desperate to be out as a full on agent, she absolutely hates the idea of killing, because that's what the Empire does.

That puts Clo into conflict with Eris, who used to be known by another name, "Princess Discordia" - the heir of the Empire.  As Discordia, Eris murdered most of her siblings in order to gain the title of heir, and put her stamp on orders that killed and affected millions.  But after an event revealed throughout the book through flashbacks, she couldn't do it anymore and faked her death and dedicated herself to destroying the empire from without.  Eris thinks of herself as being beyond forgiveness and is thus willing to kill and do more horrible things to destroy the Empire if its necessary, which brings her in conflict with Cho....but despite that, she really deep down doesn't want to do those things if she could avoid it, which becomes an issue not just with Cho but herself as events proceed.

The two of them are later joined by a trio of additional characters, with more later to come (spoiler alert: the book is called "Seven Devils" for a reason) all of whom have interesting backgrounds and traumas from their interaction with Empire and wants and desires to make them each really nice complete characters.  These strong characters follow a plot that follows a number of archetypes, from heist plots to general space opera plots, as our characters investigate and desperately try to stop the evil Empire from enacting its newest plan at the behest of its current heir, Eris' only living brother (who goes by the nice name of Damocles).  It's a plot that's extremely enjoyable, with really strong character moments and dialogues throughout, and up till the end I liked it a lot, which made it easy to read.

But the Ending......well, I mentioned above that despite the dark setting, with our freedom fighters fighting against a fascist and extremely controlling evil empire, the book manages to not get extremely grimdark in its tone, which is something I appreciate (I'm not really a fan of grimdark).  That's not really the case in the ending, where almost every thing goes wrong in the end.  It IS an ending that wraps up this arc of the story, so it's not just an unsatisfying cliffhanger, but at the same time its a result that kind of soured me on the whole thing, which might've put me off for the rest of this series if it was supposed to be more than two books long. Thankfully as its a duology, I will be back since I hope that everything will finish in a more satisfying complete way in the next volume.

Spoiler in ROT13 for the Ending: Gur obbx fcraqf n ybg bs gvzr, rfcrpvnyyl va gur synfuonpxf, rfgnoyvfuvat Revf/Qvfpbeqvn nf zhpu fznegre guna ure rivy nagntbavfg oebgure Qnzbpyrf, jub gurl ner nyy gelvat gb fgbc.  Ohg va gur raq, Qnzbpyrf pncgherf Revf, univat orra nurnq bs gurz gur ragver gvzr, erzbirf ure gbathr, qehtf ure jvgu n zvaq pbagebyyvat qeht fur'f abg noyr gb shyyl oernx orsber fur xvyyf ure sngure naq ranpgf uvf cyna gb fcernq n cynthr hcba gur bgure nyvra enpr.  Gur znva perj znantrf gb hfr gurve onpxhc cyna gb yvzvg gur fcernq fb vg bayl xvyyf gur nyvraf' yrnqrefuvc naq vf abg n shyy trabpvqr, ohg Qnzbpyrf fgvyy unf gur pncnovyvgl gb fcernq vg nsgrejneqf naq Revf bayl znantrf gb gnxr bhg uvf rlr, abg uvf yvsr.  Rira jbefr, orpnhfr rirelbar frrf Qvfpbeqvn'f unaq ba gur gevttre, ur'f noyr gb oynzr ure naq gur Erfvfgnapr sbe vg nyy naq gnxr perqvg sbe ceriragvat gur trabpvqr.

Vg'f n qvfzny raqvat onfrq hcba n evqvphybhfyl pbaibyhgrq yriry bs rivy cynaavat sebz n punenpgre jr jrer cerivbhfyl gbyq pbhyqa'g ernyyl qb gung, naq jryy vg vf na vaperqvoyr qbjare va gur raq gung ernyyl chg zr bss.
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