Recently discharged AED soldier Vio Recarey arrives on the frontier world Obcasio II to make a life for himself. When he saves the lives of a local philanthropist and his stunning wife, Vio is thrust into a world of wealth and violence where the lines of morality are blurred, and where his actions, or inaction, can have grave and far reaching consequences.
This novel plays like Space Opera, but with serious themes and empathetic characters it delivers much more.
I read this story all the way through without stopping. No notes, no pauses for reflection. I just enjoyed the tale and the characters.
I must admit, there were times when I was reading that I said, “Wait a minute. That’s not right. You can’t do that!” And you can’t do that in a Space Opera. But this isn’t just a Space Opera. It’s a three-part novel. Each part could be an opera in itself. But put together, they are so much more.
Oh, there is enough Space Opera material to satisfy the ardent fan. A galaxy of plundered planets with deteriorating societies, abandoned by rapacious interstellar corporations. Wild-West type settings with all the cobbled-together hi-tech gadgets you can scrounge. Slums and abandoned machinery and bordellos and bars with all their denizens. And, of course, a smattering of the ultra-rich feeding off the suffering of all. Lots of conflict, lots of action, and more than enough death and destruction. Life is cheap on the Outer Planets.
This situation just cries for someone like Vio, a romantic former military pilot — with all the ensuing mental baggage — who is a tragedy waiting for a place to happen. But he is the opposite of a tragic hero. They turn their backs on society, go their own paths, and fail in the end. He goes his own way, but he always tries to do his best for society. It takes him three stories and twenty years or more to get there, but finally he makes it in the same manner he has lived his life: sort of, after a fashion and always on his own terms.
But along the way the author has time to show us some up-close portraits of people trying to do their best in an unfair world. Vio himself is an in-depth study of PTSD. Most of the secondary characters are rounded and sympathetic. Even the less-than savoury ones. Who, come to think of it, constitute most of the cast.
This novel is mainstream Sci-Fi masquerading as Space Opera and giving us all the advantages of both. Highly recommended.
