Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – 4/2

Price –£8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

The Iskat Empire rules its vassal planets through a system of treaties - so when Prince Taam, key figure in a political alliance, is killed, a replacement must be found. His widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with the disreputable aristocrat Kiem, in a bid to keep rising hostilities between two worlds under control. But Prince Taam's death may not have been an accident, and when Jainan himself is a suspect, he and Kiem must navigate the perils of the Iskat court, solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war . . .

Communication is one the most difficult skills people learn. The ability to read what a person says with the tone they say it with; how their body moves when they say it and what they may really mean is something we constantly learn all our through our lives. It is easy to get wrong especially in new relationships as people learnt to talk and more importantly understand each other. In science fiction and fantasy its often also going to perhaps have the fate of worlds attached too. Everina Maxwell merges these two ideas into the impressive Winter’s Orbit a tale of a politically arranged marriage where two men representing very different worlds try to form a new partnership and then find themselves in danger as someone would much prefer a war to begin.

Kiem is a lowly Prince in the Imperial Royal family of Iskat. The type of royal who will often be seen getting drunk, dressed up inappropriately or with many boyfriends and girlfriends on his arm. But his Emperor has finally found a use for him and she orders him to replace the recently deceased Prince Taam…in his marriage. Taam was married in a political alliance to Count Jainan of Thea while generally a very agricultural world it has been recently found to have many important and valuable materials to be mined in space. On top of which the alliance between worlds in the Empire is important as the mysterious galactic power known as the Resolution is about to conduct its regular twenty-year audit of its affiliations. If they were to see the Iskat Empire as falling apart they would remove their considerable wider protection leaving the entire system open to many rival and often quite ruthless galactic factions. Kiem has no choice despite his fears that marrying another man will be a terrible pressure while grieving. Jainan is indeed in a horrible place quiet, withdrawn, afraid to speak or challenge and afraid that already Kiem will view him as a disappointment. But as the marriage begins it appears that Prince Taam didn’t die in a random accident but was murdered and the suspects are surrounding Jainan in alarming ways.

Mixing of tone is one of the hardest things I find in books. Dark and Tragic or Light and Joyous I think can be fairly easy to set out but what impressed me the most here is Maxwell gives the reader a romance of two men who don’t know how attracted they are to each other but also puts that with a more sobering tale of domestic abuse and its repercussions; as well as a wider more typical SF tale of how some people will always want to hurt others in order to climb for power. Kiem and Jainan are a brilliant initially seemingly ‘mismatched’ pairing. Introvert meets extrovert – motormouth versus silent type but cleverly over the book we see their inner thoughts and realise these people are much more three dimensional. Kiem talks a lot because he is nervous, afraid people will realise he is not academically gifted and yet he loves working with charities to help people and has a skill in talking and getting to know people. Jainan is an expert engineer who thanks to his previous marriage has been cut off from academia and his entire family back home and his new life with Kiem allows him to start embracing these other aspects. The reader gets to see these people actually could fit together.

There is a delightful unpeeling of the characters, for the reader to get invested in them both but then it is a real joy watching both Kiem and Jainan slowly work out each is not quite what the other is thinking they are. But the impressive thing is that this isn’t a pride and prejudice style scenario but it’s Jainan’s past relationship that is haunting him, and this comes out as he is finding that his previous husband who dominated his last five years was likely murdered. Jainan’s behaviour and use of words has an undercurrent that makes the reader start to see this less as a tale of someone socially awkward, but someone abused. This is done sensitively and ultimately empowering for Jainan moving on but something some readers may want to know about upfront.

It could be tempting then to say this is purely a well told SF Romance but what is intriguing is Maxwell sets up a bigger star system and universe. Political tensions between an Empire and a unexpectedly valuable planet they now need to pay attention to; a wider galactic power that is considerably more powerful and has some hidden agendas, space raiders hiding in plain sight, student rebellions and much more. Maxwell brings on a cast of really interesting characters from the grouchy Emperor to Kiem amazingly competent yet funny PA Bel. Social media and news networks are used as propaganda and it is clear that there is a lot of galactic tension not just between the two leads who really must learn to KISS (ahem). My one reservation is that I feel we could have done a little more exploration of these worlds as action is largely confined to the Emperor’s palace and it’s surrounding areas. But if Maxwell wishes to do more in this universe there is by the end plenty of opportunity to explore further and tell many other types of tales.

This was a joyous smart read and one that strongly reminded me of Lois McMaster Bujold’s early Vorkosigan tales. Maxwell has a similar gift for creating amusing characters that have a lot more going on beneath the surface and not afraid to add some shade to their lives and explore some social issues SF tends to not touch very often. It also for me fizzles with potential and if this does become a series and uses all the aspects being suggested it could become something truly special. Hugely impressive and marks Maxwell clearly as an author to be on the lookout for.