AURORA ASCENDING

In Ideue’s SF novel, an Earthling special forces leader-turned-diplomat plots vengeance after aliens attack his planet.

In the 26th century, humanity has only just started colonizing space when they make contact with representatives of the alien Aetherian Empire, who look human. Their princess, Ember Peregrine, invites Earth into their protectorate, despite humankind’s relative immaturity. Then, shockingly, Ember is assassinated, apparently by someone from Earth. The enraged Aetherians launch an invasion, and when humans fight back, the aliens’ wrath only increases. A small fraction of Earth’s population evacuates and becomes refugees. Among them is Elliot Greyjoy, “the most highly decorated officer in the United Terran Federation,” who has some influence with the Aetherians because he briefly became Ember’s liaison and consort; officially, his job is to chase human fugitives in an Aetherian ship. Secretly, though, Greyjoy plans revenge, and he connects with escaped members of the Terran military to begin building a fleet to attack the fortress-like Aetherian home world. Greyjoy’s key asset (and new lover) is Earth survivor Aurora Rickon, a clerical worker who uncannily looks like Ember; meanwhile, readers get an early tip that Ember’s death was not Earth’s fault, but an inside job. Multiple first-person perspectives—including that of space marine Willa Carlyle, who’s infatuated with Greyjoy—alternate to tell the story in this initial volume of Ideue’s New Terrans space-opera series, although the various voices tend to sound very similar. However, many readers likely won’t be bothered by this, as the plot—which moves briskly, despite its length of nearly 500 pages—deftly bounds from military SF to melodramatic palace intrigue to gruesomely detailed mass-destruction and social upheaval. Ideue’s fondness for vintage SF effectively generates a convention-ful of references that call to mind Babylon 5, assorted Star Trek shows, the SF novels of James P. Hogan and H.G. Wells, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, among other tales. Several more series entries are planned.

A vigorous outer-space saga of grand-scale strategy, catastrophe, combat, and romance.