ON VICIOUS WORLDS

The interplanetary political plotting continues in this follow-up to These Burning Stars (2023).

The minority group known as the Jeveni has escaped from the oppressive Kindom government to a secret colony on the planet Capamame. Unfortunately, not all of the new settlers are happy in their hidden sanctuary, a situation exacerbated by a mysterious group of saboteurs vandalizing key infrastructure, murdering prominent people, and hacking into vital systems. In the Treble planetary system, the Kindom require the Jeveni for their expertise in processing sevite, the fuel that powers spaceships. The government is in chaos, due to the abrupt departure of the Jeveni, confusion over who controls the current sevite supply, threats of rebellion, and power struggles among the three parts of the Kindom (the Clerics, the Secretaries, and the Cloaks). Various powerful figures seek the endorsement of Cleric Chono, a popular and genuinely pious person who’s concerned with justice, not politics—a difficult position to maintain in this corrupt and ruthless milieu. Her only (and not necessarily reliable) ally is her secretive former schoolmate Six, currently disguised as Esek Nightfoot, an almost universally despised but well-connected sociopath whom Six murdered and replaced. Can the Jeveni save their colony from invasion by the Kindom or destruction from within? Will the Kindom simply implode before it can take concrete action? This is a middle volume in a trilogy, so these quandaries will not reach resolution just yet. We are simply plunged deeper into an intricate labyrinth of intrigue, where everyone’s motives and even their identity are subject to question. This installment also carries forward the message from the previous book: Do not try to help people without consulting them; it’s likely to blow up in your face (possibly literally). While you’re pursuing your own plan based on what you think they want, they might not be grateful for your efforts and aren’t standing still waiting for you to finish.

Elaborately constructed motives, action sequences, and plotting make this book difficult to summarize but a pleasure to read.