Tuesday, August 31, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Oaths of Legacy by Emily Skrutskie

 


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 September 14, 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.

Oaths of Legacy is the sequel to Emily Skrutskie's romantic (M-M) space opera "Bonds of Brass" from last year.  I enjoyed Bonds of Brass (My review here), which very much took a Star Wars-esque setup (and may have started out as Poe/Finn slashfic) in some fun directions, as its main protagonist, a boy recovering after his world/home-system was violently destroyed by a conquering empire, went on the run with the boy he loved....who turned out to be the heir to that same empire.  And so you had a story dealing with love vs duty, a story dealing with whether one can put aside one's past, and you also had fun piloting and other action-y sequences, to go along with a third major character in a gutter-rat girl who was an absolute blast.  The biggest issue with book 1 was its reliance on a twist that was almost too far of a stretch to be believed, but I was interested in seeing how book 2 would be.  

And Oaths of Legacy.....is fine, but is very much not what I wanted or expected from this series.  The book shifts perspectives to that of Gal, heir to the (conquering) Umber Empire, as he finds himself imprisoned by the boy he loved, and is desperate to escape.  I expected the shift in perspective to further allow the book to deal with Empire, and with privilege, and about the sins of birthright, as those themes were somewhat important to book 1 and would make sense to be dealt with from the new point of view.  Instead, we get a book that very much feels like a Star Wars book - in fact feels very much inspired by the specific plot of one particular Star Wars book, which is fine, but nothing particularly special.  

Spoilers for Book 1 inevitable below:

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
When Gal, incognito heir to the Umber Empire, was forced to go on the run after an assassination attempt, he was able to bear it all, and was able to survive and make it almost to safety because he was there alongside Ettian, the boy he'd fallen for.  And then Gal and Ettian discovered that the Archon resistance was alive and growing - and in the process of trying to use it to escape, Gal found himself exposed and captured by the resistance.  

And then Ettian then revealed himself to be Ettian emp-Archon, heir to the Archon throne, in order to take charge of the resistance and save Gal from execution.  

Now Gal finds himself imprisoned, comfortably thanks to Ettian's weakness, but still imprisoned, while the boy he loved wages war against his own people and empire.  Gal's hopes of survival rely on Ettian being in charge until Gal can escape, and so he begins to try to manipulate Ettian, and their former companion Wen, to ensure both goals are met.  But as Gal sees Wen and Ettian faltering, he finds he can't just sit there and let it happen, even as he insists his love for Ettian must truly be gone and dead.....
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Bonds of Brass took place entirely from Ettian's point of view, which was both a strong choice and a frustrating one: strong because Ettian was an excellent character with compelling reasons to have doubts and personal struggles alongside his external ones; frustrating because it meant Gal's actions could never be seen from inside and because the book relied upon the twist of Ettian's parentage being a surprise despite us being always inside his head.  And so the shift to Gal's perspective promised to be very enlightening in many ways - first for showing how much of Ettian's feelings that Gal was abandoning his plans of trying to change the Empire to a more peaceful better version in favor of becoming more bloodthirsty was true and second for taking a look at this world from a more privileged perspective, with Gal always being confident in his world as a child, unlike Ettian whose family and world were destroyed when he was a child.  

Alas, the shift to Gal's perspective is equally, if not more frustrating.  For one, we lose Ettian's perspective as a lot of things happen off page where his actions and feelings are very relevant.  But mainly, Gal is just a very frustrating character for the development he doesn't make.  Yes he's privileged in his upbringing and grows up with a background that makes him feel the importance of power - such that he constantly finds himself outraged when Ettian promises that his power comes from the people, rather than his own birthright.  But Gal never confronts that privilege, and never changes his views on power; nor does he ever confront the realities of what his Empire has wrought in its conquest.  Ettian last book struggled between the idea of having a duty towards his heritage, which he thought had been rendered meaningless, and his hopes of moving forwards.  Gal's struggle here is not based upon his heritage and training and privilege vs the reality of the universe, but his heritage vs the love and friendship he feels for Ettian and Wen....and it's just not nearly as interesting, even if it's done reasonably well.  

In a way, it very much reminds me of a specific Star Wars Expanded Universe plot, the plot of Lara Notsil in the Star Wars Wraith Squadron trilogy (the fact that a squadron of pilots in this book are named "Wraith Squadron" doesn't help).  In those books, Lara was an Imperial spy who, to avoid capture, goes undercover among Rebel pilots, only to find she cares for them (and the pilot who falls for her), leading to her turning to their side.  Here, Gal attempts to manipulate Ettian and Wen (who has a fun plot as a girl desperate to find a role to play despite being an outsider), only to find he cares for them and would rather they survive and live than his own empire win, which you know is fine, but isn't that interesting.  It isn't helped by Gal being imprisoned for so much of this book and away from Ettian, such that they have so few moments to develop actual chemistry - Gal and Wen's relationship is a lot easier to care about, but Gal/Ettian is supposed to be the real romantic relationship, and the romance is really just not there.  

And really I think that's my biggest problem with the book - it doesn't deal with the themes of Empire or Privilege, it doesn't deal with issues of power and rule, and yet the romance that is supposed to be at the heart of the series just isn't there either.  There's a lot of fun here mind you in the battle scenes, especially once Wen gets taken off her leash (which also makes the novel feel very Star Wars-y or even Gundam-y, as Wen essentially gets a lightsaber), and I still really like Wen as the secondary character she is.  But while that's enough to make this book enjoyable at times, and not a bad read at any point, it's enough to prevent this book from ever becoming something really good or special, despite a setup in the first novel that promised such potential.  
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