Wednesday, September 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Hold Fast Through The Fire by KB Wagers

 




Hold Fast Through The Fire is the second book in KB Wagers' NeoG series, after last year's "A Pale Light in the Black" (which I reviewed here).  The series follows a 24th century world, where humanity recovered from a 21st century collapse to a better but not perfect (and entirely queer normal) world, and features a team of NeoG agents, basically a space version of the Coast Guard.  I loved A Pale Light in the Black (I even did a weekly reread series on this blog!) - the book had flaws, but its NeoG characters were such a fun cast of lovable characters, who had each other's backs, even the newcomer, and really worked together to be a family as they both did their job and competed together against other military services in an inter-service sporting competition (which includes swordfighting, hacking and piloting, no less).  The team's coming together, the way they deal with their various love lives (with sex or not), and just gel as a family was just special.  It's like a happier, less car happy future version of The Fast in the Furious, just without any coronas.  

Hold Fast Through the Fire is a very different book in a lot of ways, with things getting far more serious, and the team going through several roster changes.....and facing breakdowns of trust amongst themselves, something that never happened in the last book.  The plotting isn't quite as strong, with certain characters making decisions to setup emotional situations, and the bad guys just seeming to fizzle out...., but the emotional depth of the story is still really well done, as the team deals with betrayal and how possible it is to forgive and relearn to trust when those they love betray them for what those loved ones thought was the greater good.  It's not quite the charming optimistic tale that I loved in the last book, but it's still a very solid novel that I pushed through in a single day without regret, and worth your time if you liked the last book - just beware it's not simply more of the same.  

Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation.  


-----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Things are changing for NeoG's top interceptor crew, the crew of Zuma's Ghost.  After a second year in a row winning the Boarding Games, Commander Rosa and Master Chief Ma are retiring, leaving the crew without their commander and emotional lynchpin.  In their place, Nika is returning to the crew from intelligence, Jenks finds herself promoted to Master Chief to take over for Ma, and the crew gets a new member: a Spacer named Chae Ho-Ki.  

But Chae holds a potentially deadly secret - they're being blackmailed by threats to their fathers by agents of a corrupt senator, who has gotten rich by stealing supplies from the Trappist-1 colony, and has plans to ensure that no one, especially the NeoG, can stop him. 

It's a secret that could do grave harm....but one that NeoG is well aware of, and has let Nika know about in advance.  But Nika is told by NeoG intelligence that he cannot share this information, lest the team give up the game to Chae's blackmailer.  Yet keeping the secret carries its own dangers to the team, both physically and emotionally, as the secret keeping not only threatens their lives, but the bonds of trust that have made them who they are and has allowed them to find peace and happiness for once in their lives.......
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A Pale Light In the Back focused upon Jenks, Max, and Rosa (the 3 biggest POV characters) as they dealt with their own insecurities, their issues with love, and bonded together with the rest of the team to become a loving healthy family.  It was an optimistic and hopeful (and queer friendly) book, even if not every part of the world was perfect, and it was filled with main characters whose foremost character trait was their constant looking out for one another.  

Hold Fast Through The Fire not only breaks up the team (and our main POV characters now are Nika, Max, Jenks, and the new character Chae), but throws a wrench into the comradery - secrets that put the entire team at risk for the supposed greater good.  With Chae, those secrets are dangerous but ultimately forgivable - Chae is a newcomer to the team who doesn't know whom they can trust and whose loved ones are being threatened....Chae's secrets threaten their lives, but not their souls, and as the book goes on, the team establishes to Chae that they can be trusted.  It's the type of plot that, on its own, would not be that far out of place in the last book.  

But with Nika, things are different, because Nika is keeping secrets from the rest of the team despite knowing that those teammates - from Max, who he loves, to Jenks, his beloved sister, to Sapphi and Tamago, his longtime comrades - are trustworthy and would benefit from knowing what he knows.  To make things worse, in his new role juggling command and these secrets, he belittles the rest of the team to try and get them to stop digging, despite the fact that he should know they are going to figure it all out.  And to be fair, it's not just Nika - also involved are Luis, the guy Jenks has come to love (see last book) and Tivo (with whom she now has a poly relationship that is enormously cute given all the flirting Tivo, the big bad navy fighter from last book, had with Jenks in that book), which only makes the feelings of betrayal of trust all the worse once it comes out.  And this isn't really spoiling here, because well of course it's gonna come out.  

And so the second half of the book, becomes in large part our beloved characters trying to figure out how they can forgive the others for their lack of trust, and how they can regrow that trust and love once again.  And it's heartbreaking at its lowest moments - exacerbated by a dastardly plot turn by Wagers that really ups the grief and pain everyone is feeling, which is a feeling that the last book never tried hitting (and boy does this book hit it).  Still, it all comes together well, with the team figuring it out and finding a way to move forwards, so don't go thinking this is going to end on an altogether depressing note - the character arcs are complete and well done, leaving things off in a very satisfying way.  And the characters themselves remain great, whether that be the returning characters, the new character Chae, or one more newly-prominent character who I grew to absolutely and utterly love.  

As with the first book, not everything works, and the plot itself features some moments that don't quite make sense if you think about them.  Nika's behavior in concealing the secrets is just so uptight and stupid that it makes you wonder how he could possibly think it's the right thing to do, especially given what he knows about Max and Jenks' relentless push for the truth.  The bad guys are seemingly untouchable until they pull some extremely risky and damaging stunts that honestly have no real value to them in aiding their cause (as much harm and death that they cause), but do wind up with them basically folding like cards - made even more notable when the bad guys that the team does know about and doesn't apprehend because they want to see what happens basically fold immediately upon interrogation.  And as usual for a Wagers work, some early plot and character beats are fairly quickly abandoned and don't quite make sense - particularly, even before the secrets becomes an issue, Max has issues with her relationship with Nika for reasons that don't make sense and never come up again.  

But here's the thing, I nitpick about these things because of how much I enjoy these characters and how much I want to see them happy, whether that be Nika & Max, Jenks with Luis and Tivo, Chae with their fathers, or the team altogether.  And that's the sign of a really good series, and the NeoG has become that.  Can't wait to see how things go next (again, hoping for more time with Sapphi and Tamago.....and Doge).

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