Publisher - Solaris

Price - £7.99 paperback

Published - Out Now

I would like to thank the publisher for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he’s a seventeen-year-old cadet – but his body belongs to a man decades older. Hexarch Nirai Kujen orders Jedao to reconquer the fractured hexarchate on his behalf even though Jedao has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general. Surely a knack for video games doesn’t qualify you to take charge of an army? Soon Jedao learns the situation is even worse. The Kel soldiers under his command may be compelled to obey him, but they hate him thanks to a massacre he can’t remember committing. Kujen’s friendliness can’t hide the fact that he’s a tyrant. And what’s worse. Jedao and Kujen are being hunted by an enemy who knows more about Jedao and his crimes than he does himself..

Spoiler warning - I shall be mentioning some plot points from earlier novels

I’ve been a fan of Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire novels for several years.  I think they’re a very apt SF series for the decade we are in; as on top of glorious space battles and technology they have also been an intriguing look at the concepts of tyranny and rebellion.  In this concluding volume we continue the strong tradition of both novels and also have a closer look at two of the more mysterious characters’ motivations.

Jedao has been a running theme through the series.  In the first instalment Ninefox Gambit we see him as a Hannibal Lector like centuries old ghost fitted into the consciousness of young Kel Charis where his tactical know-how and her sense of mission resulted in the unexpected start of a revolution guiding his host onwards for reasons that were yet to be fully explained. Following a botched assassination by the Hexarchate Cheris finds herself free of the Kel control but with the memories and tactical brilliance of Jedao which allows her to create a revolutionary act that splits the empire across and kills most of their leaders. This book asks the question what comes after a revolution and why do certain people want to become a dictator.

The reader will be surprised to find themselves in the mind of Jedao but not as we’ve seen him.  Neither centuries old brimming with bile or an impersonation but actually the young student who will one day become the notorious destroyer of squadrons.  He’s more relaxed and humorous than any version encountered to date but surprised to find himself in the body of a much older version of himself and about o command a squadron when he’s never been in a ship before.  Only the last remaining Hexarch Kujen appears to know what is going on and has fitted Jedao with an amazingly powerful ship that could destroy fleets and worlds. 

Across the gameboard on the other side is re mains of two factions the Compact; the main group that came out of Kel Charis’ rebellion that wants to promote democracy and against the Hexarch’s desire for Remembrances (where Heretics are tortured to death) and the Protectorate the last remnant of the Hexarchate wanting to try and preserve the old ways…to a point under the rule of a powerful general. Realising that Kujen is alive and is clever enough to take both sides down and fully restore the old order an uneasy truce us created and preparation for a final battle begins.

This really is the space opera the previous entries to the series have been building towards. The reader moves across planets and ships over the years since Cheris’ act of rebellion and watch how the varying sides vie for power. In keeping with the series so far; the technology that is used is rarely specifically defined but instead these ‘exotic technologies’ play with dimensions, minds and planets. Jedao’s ship has an immense doomsday weapon that can wreck either a fleet or a planet. But this time there is a larger focus than before on the AI that sits behind the power. The basis of the Moths (the various types of starships used by all parties) and servitors (the small robots who perform myriad tasks to keep the world going). There is a theme that they have reached their own level of consciousness from becoming addicted to soap operas to aiding Cheris in her rebellion. But how much longer can such a force be subservient to humanity?

For me the highlight of the series is that it isn’t primarily focused on the big battles (which again are when they arrive immense, tactical and portray the horror of battle) but how people react to power. Four primary characters are used to explore this; Brezan the de facto leader of the Compact didn’t seek power but his unique ability not to fall in line within Kel leaderships marks him as independent but now he has to start considering the consequences of his own decisions and the need for the ‘greater good’ may lead to casualties. Cheris from the first novel shows how far she has come to continue her determined battle to save her own people using all the ruthlessness and guile that Jedao’s memories taught her. A worrying thought that in all revolutions the heroic leaders may eventually harden their principles to save the world.

This is neatly mirrored in the scenes focusing on Jedao and Kujen. Kujen is explored through the people who have encountered him over the centuries and the question is asked how could a man who wanted to save the starving become the tactical monster who thrives on the Remembrances? Jedao here being the young man without the baggage of the having to learn to live and comply is given an opportunity to try and reconcile these two men he was aware of as well as his own growing horror of the monster he is accused of being of. That discussion on choices and that they can take you down paths that while may achieve your original objective but at the cost of your humanity I think has been a running theme in the series and this time the focus on the four and arguably the two antagonists within the tale asks some unsettling questions.  How can empires that feed all the poor, are socially liberal, highly advanced willingly fall into dictatorship?

There are few final answers, but this is a series I have been thinking about where it was going and what it had to say about our times for several years. Ha-Lee deserves to be recognised as creating some of the most interesting science fiction out there and I’m intrigued to read future stories and if this universe will ever be returned to.