Tuesday, December 8, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge by K Eason

 



How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge is the second book in K Eason's Thorne Chronicles duology, a terribly titled* SF/fantasy duology featuring a young princess, her guards, her mentor in both politics and what is essentially magic, in a twisty plot featuring rival political factions around the universe all told in by a slightly-irreverent historian narrator.  I enjoyed the first book, How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse (Reviewed here), quite a bit - there was nothing essential about it, but it was a fun story, with an enjoyable heroine in Rory who used her intelligence, a magic gift to always hear the truth behind one's words, and her own magic-hacking skills to defeat a dictator, earn her freedom and change the universe.  So I was looking forward to a sequel especially in these rough times, just for a bit of fun.  

*As I noted in my review of the first book, this book uses the word "Multiverse" as a synonym for "Universe", for no particular reason, which is a bit annoying, and while this book is better titled than its predecessor as describing what happens sort-of, it's still not very descriptive.  

And this sequel is....odd.  The book's narration acts as if the novel is setup similar to the first, with Rory as its protagonist, but really the focus shifts to Rory's companions in two pairs: Jaed and Thorsdottir & Rupert and Grytt, dealing with an emerging universal crisis featuring a trio of alien races and a weapon that threatens everyone's existence.  The parts dealing with these two pairs are highly enjoyable and fun, even if they don't quite end the way I was hoping, and the expansion of the setting was always intriguing.  But the book doesn't do anything really with that expansion, or with Rory herself, and wraps an awful lot up at the end as if the author had a whole third book planned out but didn't have the opportunity or desire to actually write and publish it.  There's still a good amount of fun here, but it's surrounded by missed opportunities which make it also a disappointment.

Note: I read this, like its predecessor in audiobook format, so if I misspell any names below, my apologies.  That said, the reader is very good, so if you plan to read this, reading in audiobook is a solid choice.  


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------
Rory Thorne, accompanied by her former royal guards Thorsdottier and Zhang, along with fourth wheel Jaed (with nothing better to do now that he's betrayed his father), has abandoned her title as princess, to play the role of anonymous privateer out on the edges of human space.  If she and her companions get into trouble out there, well surely it will be small trouble, not anything significant, right?  

Well, maybe not so much, as Rupert, former/retired Vizier and master Arithmancer, learns when he is visited by one of the 13 faeries who attended Rory's naming.  The fairy gives him, and by extension Grytt - Rory's old chief bodyguard/nursemaid/cyborg-powerhouse - a warning: of a powerful new weapon and a dangerous Xeno race who might acquire it and use it in their plans for domination of the multiverse.  Knowing such a warning can only mean Rory would be involved, Rupert and Grytt leave their vacation home in search of her.  

But Rory and her companions are already in trouble, having come across a derelict Tadeshi ship, which was brutally destroyed in a way seemingly impossible by human-technology.  There, on board they discover the weapon...but the responsible Xeno species isn't far off, and as a result they soon find themselves holding possession of something that could change the multiverse entirely, especially if it falls into the wrong hands.  And when the four get separated, Jaed, Thorsdottir and Zhang may find that it is up to them this time, not Rory, to figure out what to do....for the sake of everyone in the multiverse.....
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Like its predecessor, this book is told by an omniscient narrator acting seemingly as a historian, chronicling events as if speaking to a reader who should supposedly know of them already from their living in this universe, in a tone that's kind of irreverent and amusing.  It's a wordy narration, often using 5 words where 1 might do, but it works for me to continue building the fun tone of the original.  Well, somewhat - the weird thing about that narration is that it tries seemingly to establish Rory again as the central focus of the novel, because from the narrator's perspective, Rory is the centerpiece of the historical record in her time.  

But as I hinted above the jump, Rory really isn't the focus of this novel, so it kind of feels disjointed.  Rory doesn't even pop up in this story as a point of view character till nearly 2 hours in to the audiobook, and she isn't the point of view character - or even seen at all - for probably the majority of the book, with the focus instead being on Thorsdottir and Jaed (and Zhang to a much lesser extent) or Mister Rupert and Grytt.  It takes basically till the end for Rory to even make a decision of any real consequence...and even there, it really isn't much.  Whereas the last book featured Rory driving the plot through her stubbornness, through her inventiveness with her quick thinking, political/practical wits, and her arithmantic (basically magical hacking) skills, here Rory is basically a bystander (and often a frightened bystander) the entire time as other actors make things happen.  And yet the narrator, and the occasional fairy appearance, treat her as if she was the person of main importance, with the book even concluding with an epilogue talking about all the great things Rory will do in the future (which do not occur in this book).  It's kind of jarring and weird.

Even more so because those other characters who are actually focused upon are great!  Rupert and Grytt once again make up a fun team - Rupert using his diplomatic/talking skills to go along with his arithmancy to try and maneuver his way into a position to help Rory, while Grytt uses her bluntness and mecha-body-parts to good effect as the two find themselves on board a ship with two strange alien (or "Xeno" in this book's parlance) races.  They're a lot of fun, but the real treat is Jaed and Thorsdottir, whose points of view make up the biggest parts of the book, and who grow a real relationship of trust and maybe something more by the end of it all.  Zhang is also fun in her small bit part of this plot (although one other reviewer noted that her personality and relegation to the side makes her kind of fit the quiet Asian character stereotype, which is a bit of a disappointment) but its really those two who shine the most as they both grow in character from beginning to end (Rory by contrast had all her development really last book).  My only complaint about these characters is that it all clearly is building towards something and I really wanted to see that something by the end and the book never quite takes the plunge.  I wasn't asking for sex here, but even a kiss would've been nice and appropriate, but we never get it despite the teasing.  

And so the end result is a book with a quartet of really enjoyable characters who made me smile....and yet also a setup of an expanded universe with interesting aliens, potential war and space opera conflict....that the book just skips over whenever possible, even in its ending.  It's as if there was a third book planned about how that war would occur and how Rory and the others would handle it, but Eason was told by her publisher they would only do a 2 book series or she just didn't want to write it herself. 

As a fan of books with fun and enjoyable characters therefore, I can't say I didn't enjoy this audiobook, and I was more than happy to finish it - I never did consider DNFing it at any point.  But the negatives kind of made it hard to recommend for anyone who didn't absolutely love the first novel and want to see more of these characters - if not you'll have fun, but you might also wish you read something else instead.  

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