Is it Science Fiction or Fantasy?
Review: In Spite of the Inevitable by Morgan Biscup
First of all, this is a competently written book, solidly executed. It belongs to that subset of science fantasy where magic is used to replace technology for space travel, kind of like spelljammer, although the ships resemble something from Star Trek.
Unfortunately, in parts of the book I wondered why the SF part was there. Then later I wondered why the fantasy part was. It does all come together, and it does suffer from comparison with a certain much more ambitious Space Necromancers story (there is, though, a lesbian).
The aliens fit the fantasy mold, and of the handful of races we see, there are classic dog people and cat people, pixies (called fae), and lizard people. Which is perhaps the problem…this book is tropey without really embracing the tropes.
Biscup also doesn’t quite sell me on Shane’s redemption arc…I love a good redemption arc, but I found myself wondering why I should forgive him in a few spots.
Still, this is competent science fantasy space opera with at least some understanding of how a space navy might work. The magic system is also fairly traditional, but is well done.
If you can’t get enough of this kind of thing, then pick this one up…it’s the start of a series and I suspect they get better.
There’s nothing original here, but what is here is worth the work the author put in.
Recommended for people who like necromancers in space.
Copy received for review and award consideration purposes.
Review: Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
CW: This review contains spoilers for Iron Widow.
Heavenly Tyrant is the sequel to Iron Widow and is a weaker book. That is to say it is only very good, not great. I loved the original and I enjoyed all 500 plus pages of this.
But…
Some of the weakness was inevitable. Part of the joy of Iron Widow was the slow reveal that you are not, in fact, in a wuxia fantasy but rather in a wuxia science fiction. The giant mecha, the Hundans, all of it is explained piece by piece with occasional “Ohs.”
Heavenly Tyrant starts firmly in that science fictional world, confirming all the stuff the savvy reader worked out in Iron Widow and doesn’t leave enough of the mystery. It’s such a small step from “the gods are on a space station” to “The gods are intentionally keeping people primitive and they want the war.”
The “It’s a penal mining colony” revelation gets a much smaller oh.
Instead, the focus of this book is on a socialist revolution that does not, in fact, go particularly well. It also, unfortunately, ties Wu Zetian and Qin Zheng together in a twisted Stockholm Syndrome version of the arranged marriage trope, and I think part of my problem is that I have never cared for that kind of forced romance.
And the revolution feels very standard to me, including its excesses.
Is this still a good book? Yes! Zhao is a fantastic writer and their worldbuilding is top notch. I also appreciate the beginnings of a hint that some of these characters may not be cisgender. Yizhi seems to enjoy dressing up as a woman just that bit too much and Wu Zetian is showing not just a hatred for how women are treated, but a bit of gender dysphoria. (Wanting to cut your womb out with a knife isn’t just a reaction to oppression, I don’t think). And this mitigated the one problem I had with book one, which was how gender essentialist the society (not the author) was.
I wanted them to break out of it, and they did.
Still a good book and I recommend it, but there’s a bit of sequelitis going on here. I do want to read the third one when it comes out.
And I also want to see what else Zhao has in them.
Recommended.
Copy received for review and award consideration purposes.