Monday, January 10, 2022

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

 


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 January 25, 2022 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.    

Seven Mercies is the second half of a "feminist"* space opera duology by authors Laura Lam and Elizabeth May, which began last year with "Seven Devils" (reviewed by me here).  I really liked Seven Devils' strong setting - crapsack space opera world largely ruled by an Empire that utilized terrifying AI and bio-engineering technology to control its citizens - and main characters, and Lam and May's prose was really easy to read, making me tear through this book quite quickly.  On the other hand, I did NOT love its ending, which was incredibly dark and kind of jarring in how it came about, leaving things in a really crappy cliffhanger ending.  If this wasn't a duology, I probably would've been put off enough by that not to come back, but it is, so I was willing to give this second book a try to see if it would resolve the cliffhanger in a more satisfactory way.  

*I put feminist in quotation marks because, as I noted in that review, very little about this space opera's first half was feminist other than our main characters all identifying as women - which might've been enough to define something as feminist in the past, but I don't think it does nowadays.  The Empire they're fighting against is dystopian and evil, but doesn't seem sexist or chauvinist, nor is that really a theme.  The Empire does enforce a gender binary, but that's an issue of Queerness, not Feminism?  So it's kind of an odd word to use. 

To my pleasure, Seven Mercies does exactly that, with its seven main characters all now getting point of view chapters (previously, only 5 did), and them having deal with that dark crappy ending in a way that works fairly well - which is impressive given how low the authors left those characters at the end of book 1.  Again, I'm not sure I'd call it feminist, but it's certainly Queer, featuring trans and non-binary characters in the main cast, and the story's themes of free will, of struggling with one's past misdeeds, and of found family and working towards a better future vs simply accepting the awful world for what it is work really really well.  It's still not something I'd describe as must read, but it is very enjoyable, and I'm happy I came back for book 2.  Spoilers for Book 1 below:
---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
The Seven Devils are now the most wanted individuals in the galaxy, with both the Tholosian Empire and the Evoli believing they and Discordia/Eris were responsible for the terrorist attack on the peace summit - which was really masterminded by Damocles, now archon of the Empire.  The Noventae resistance is in disarray, with one of their two leaders taken over by the Oracle and their bases of operation discovered and destroyed.  And the reveal of Eris' identity has led to many resistance members just giving up.  

And so the Seven Devils are more alone than ever, with little time to recover from the traumatic rescue mission they've just completed.  And with the Empire turning more and more citizens into the mindless gerulae, mere drones under control of the oracle, it soon becomes clear that the Devils' only chance is to send Rhea to the empathic Evoli people to see if there's a way to reverse the process.  

It's a mission with little hope of success.  And the Devils soon realize that even that might not be enough to turn the tide, as the Oracle is out of Damocles' control, and is willing to do anything to the galaxy to get its daughter back: Ariadne......
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seven Devils took basically the entire book to bring together its titular seven characters - former Tyrant Princess and all around badass Eris, engineer Clo, former courtesan/half-evoli-experiment Rhea, the programmer of the oracle Ariadne, ex-royal-guard Nyx, deprogrammed pilot/medic Cato, and resistance leader Kyla.  Eris and Clo got the majority of the page time and point of view chapters, and since Cato and Kyla weren't really clearly part of the team till the end, they never got any.  By contrast, Seven Mercies is very much split amongst its protagonists, with each one getting both point of view chapters and a character arc of their own.  

And these work very well because all of these characters are so so well done and highly enjoyable.  Eris is badly shaken by Damocles being able to outplot her and is desperate not to kill anymore now that her identity is known to the world, and naturally that hesitation and struggle not to kill are major impediments.  Clo is struggling with her newfound love for Rhea and some questions over her own gender identity.  Rhea struggles with the idea of going to the Evoli she was designed to infiltrate, whose unified empathic way of life is so so appealing, even if her existence would be considered heretical to them if discovered.  Nyx struggles to stay useful despite contracting the ichor disease and Ariadne struggles with how her work on the Oracle to make it into a being that would love her has empowered it to do awful things.  The expansion of each of these five's character arcs work very well, and are joined by Cato and Kyla's new arcs - Cato struggling with his programming and mysterious skills and memories, and Kyla (revealed here to be trans in spite of the ways of the Empire) feeling guilt for allowing Sher to be taken back by the Oracle.  

Add in a setting where things get once again very very dark - with the Oracle turning more and more people into drones, the Evoli deciding to let it happen because they can live in peace in unity on their own world, and seemingly everyone thinking the Devils are responsible for Damocles' atrocities - well, you have a plot that will keep you turning pages quicker and quicker once again.  Themes such as finding peace while others suffer, sacrifices and the costs they make, betrayals of trust, and the importance of love and found families abound, and they're done pretty well here.  I still don't think the "feminist" description here works - at one point someone tells Damocles he has issues with Eris/Discordia because she's a girl and that makes no sense whatsoever in context for example - but what there is here generally is impressively done from beginning to end.  

And this time, the ending is one that didn't make me angry - as it does end in a way that's fitting to the story and provides hope for a better future, even if it's not an ending that is 100% happy for all of our main characters.  The story doesn't take shortcuts with that ending too, which I really appreciated - too often you see natural problems and conflicts brushed over in an ending to imagine people rightfully realized who was actually good and who wasn't, but this book doesn't do that, even as its ending is hopeful at the same time.  So yeah, this book justified my decision to try Seven Devils for sure, and I'd definitely recommend the duology for those craving dark character based space opera.  
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)