Tuesday, February 9, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Out Past The Stars by KB Wagers

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 23, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.   

Out Past the Stars is the third book in KB Wagers' "The Farian War" trilogy and the sixth book in their space opera series featuring their "gunrunner empress" Hail Bristol.  I've come to really enjoy Wagers' work ever since I picked up the first book in this trilogy, There Before the Chaos, two years ago (My review is here) which spurred me to pick up the original Hail Bristol trilogy (The Indranan War trilogy, which is referenced and explained enough in this trilogy that you don't need to have read it to enjoy this trilogy) before continuing on with this trilogy and picking up Wagers' new series (the NeoG).  So I was hugely anticipating this book, especially coming off the heels of its predecessor, which dealt greatly with the trauma of dealing with overwhelming grief in a tremendous fashion and ended on one hell of a cliffhanger.  

And Out Past the Stars is a tremendous finale to this trilogy, with it subverting my expectations at times and winding up in the end at a very very satisfying ending.  The story still deals a little bit with grief, but continues past that to common Wagers' themes of the use of violence or other methods in order to resolve conflicts between different peoples and these themes, not to mention the great characters, are all really well done.  The book even manages to avoid for the most part some of Wagers' more common pitfalls in their last few books, making this one even easier to recommend.  If this is the last Hail Bristol book - and I for one would love some prequels - the series has gone out with a hell of a finale.

Spoilers for prior books are inevitable after the jump, fair warning.

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Hail Bristol has finally reached Faria, where she hopes to cement a peace between the alien Farians and the Shen, so her people and the galaxy can once more be safe.  But any chance of peace is threatened by the revelation that the Farian "Gods" are actually Hiervet, the race of aliens who once nearly devastated the peaceful Svatir race and whom Hail's Farian allies have seen returning to destroy everything she holds dear.  The three remaining "Gods" offer to make their amends in exchange for Hail's help, but it is obvious that the three aren't telling Hail everything, and what they are leaving out could prove deadly. 

The revelation about the gods will shake Faria to its core, only making Hail's job of bringing peace to the two alien races even more difficult - especially when one of the former Farian leaders still plans on waging war on both the Shen and Hail herself in revenge.  When the truth emerges about the Hiervet, Hail will see herself forced between choices that threaten all the people she has come to love - both romantically and platonically - and knows that to save everyone, it might take the ultimate sacrifice...... 
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Much of this trilogy has dealt really with the fight for peace between the Farians and the Shen and so I was a bit worried when book 2's cliffhanger suggested that we might instead be pivoting to an alien invasion force plot - not that those plots can't be done well, but it would've been less interesting than where we'd been going.  I needn't have worried, the alien invasion plot is used mainly here as background still for the battle for peace between the two peoples - with the Hiervet's presence threatening to destabilize things further rather than really being some overarching threat that would serve as an easy way to unite the two peoples.  Things aren't quite that easy and Wagers knows it, so they're not so easy in this book.  

Instead we have a finale that features protagonist Hail Bristol trying desperately to make peace in a way that causes the least amount of harm possible - as her friend and follower Dailun says: Less violence, not more is always an option, and usually a better option.  We have a conflict between peoples that has been festering for generations, thanks in large part due to others' manipulation, which is not so easily remedied.  And we have other peoples too - the Svatir and their hidden fighting force, the other coming Hiervet, and of course the humans in the galaxy, who have their own fears and interests at play.  And of course Hail has a personal stake in all of this, having fallen in love with Mia Cevalla in the last book and being desperate to prevent any harm from coming to Mia....whether such harm has been foreseen or not.  

The result is a book that is tremendous not just for the characters but how it takes everything that comes before and puts it together in interesting and unexpected ways.  Allies who you think might've come to Hail's aid in one way turn out to be entirely different, prophecies turn out to be both true and not true - one particular prophecy that was averted in the last book/the beginning of this one indeed turns out to have been very true indeed, and by averting it things arguably become much much harder, which is rather clever.  Hail's desperation to prevent her from suffering any more grief - because well, obviously she's not fully past all she suffered in the prior books just like no one really can just put all their traumas completely behind her - further guides her and the friends around her all know it.  There's no cheap plots caused by people foolishly hiding things from one another here, just solid character and plot work that leads to a very very satisfying ending.  

This book even averts for the most part some of the more annoying parts of prior books in the series, particularly the undeserved worship of Hail by other characters, who constantly make bizarre comments about underestimating her or about her being a savior when she hasn't actually done anything worth such comments - there's a hint of that at the start, but for the most part, Hail is actually doing things now to deserve the rare comments she gets.....and then she finally meets people who actually don't know who she is and its a relief for both this reader and Hail herself. 

That said one prior problem from the series returns: a major character/subplot just disappearing randomly.  In this case, that's one of the three major characters introduced as a potential antagonist, who the book repeatedly keeps forgetting about in favor of the other two, with that third eventually dying completely off page in an unexplained manner, which is just weird - especially when the trilogy had previously made something of a deal about there being 3 of these aliens instead of 2, which would've avoided the problem altogether.  But everything else is so well done that it's easy to get past that, so it's not really a big deal.  

Like the rest of this series, Out Past the Stars isn't a book I'd call must read, but it's still a really great combination of serious fun moments and strong serious themes, with a cast of characters who I have come to love, and it ends it all with an ending that is truly truly satisfying.  I hope that Wagers revisits this world one day, but if they don't, well most series don't have an ending so good, and I cannot complain.  Highly recommended for space opera fans that they try out this trilogy, now that it has been completed, which surpasses its predecessor trilogy by a bit.  


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