From Emily Skrutskie, Oaths of Legacy, Book 2 in the Bloodright Trilogy, to be published later this year.
Note: this review is based upon an ARC furnished to me for free by NetGalley.
It’s always a joy when a second book in a series surpasses the first, and Emily Skrutskie does that and more with the YA SFF space opera OATHS OF LEGACY. It’s all here, folks: political intrigue, heartbreak, unreliable narrators, tropes riffed upon and honed to glorious excess, brilliant action scenes, and a few space battles that will make Babylon5 and Firefly fans deliriously happy.
Because it’s also M/M romance, there is a whole lot of romantic pining between the two star-crossed lovers/enemies: Gal emp-Umber and Ettian emp-Archon. Seriously, be prepared for the pining. Since it’s YA and the plot doesn’t call for it, don’t expect anything but Meaningful Looks and a kiss (maybe two). This isn’t a M/M romance on the templates of the thoroughly-adult stuff from digital small-press publishers. But, oh, there are All The Feels, story beats that hit like neutronium hammers wrapped in silk velvet.
You really need to read the first book, BONDS OF BRASS, for this one to have its best effect. Here’s my review of BONDS, from last year.
Where the first book held to Ettian-the-Unreliable-Narrator’s first-person point of view, this one follows Gal’s POV. If anything, Gal is even more of an unreliable narrator than Ettian. Where Ettian had stomped down his dark secrets almost into his subconscious, in order to simply survive in an enemy empire, Gal is far more self-aware. He plays with his own mind, as he is manipulating, maneuvering, and mentoring his way out of dire captivity.
Gal knows exactly what he is doing and risking with his own long game, as his innate humanism clashes with his training as the ruthless authoritarian heir to his vicious mother Iva emp-Umber. We get a sense in this book that Gal can be as coldly logical as he can be warmly heroic. He has two goals at odds with each other, and we end the book still not quite sure which path he will choose. Or if *he* even knows.
One of the fun parts about a second book in a series: the author has already introduced the basic worldbuilding to everyone with decent reading comprehension, and can now add delicious bits of backstory and detail.
The fallen and rebuilding Archon Empire has a feel of Marvel’s Wakanda-meets-Helion Prime from the Riddick movies: a diverse and humane nod to Africa without ever being too obvious.
Wen Iffan—mobster’s daughter, gutter rat, genius mechanic, and superb pilot—comes into her own as a character equal to Gal and Ettian. She gains the recognition and honor she’s been craving, and does so with powerful grace, snark, and courage. If she survives, this woman could become someone’s Empress, or a ruler in her own right.
Other side characters are drawn sparely but sympathetically, and we have glimpses of their depths and goals. Even Gal’s mother Iva is shown as shrewdly…likely…guessing everything that is going on inside her son’s brain, and allowing it for the moment.
The plot is much tighter than BONDS, as Skrutskie packs a lot of action and emotion into a few months of elapsed time.
5 out 5 stars from me, and a definite pre-order.
And now, some rants under the spoilery stars:
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In June of 2020, in answer to some criticism about being a white author portraying Black and Latino-inspired characters in a SFF futuristic setting, Emily Skrutskie did something either brave and noteworthy, or self-serving (depending on who you listen to about it.)
She donated her advances to causes that help POC and other marginalized groups get published in SFF.
I think it’s a good foundational gesture, and I applaud that she enlisted Del Rey and other authors to join in.
Privilege is often hard to see, when you’ve been forged in the middle of it. I write diverse SFF space opera and high fantasy. I call myself white. I didn’t think of myself as ‘rich’ growing up, but my family made sure I was literate early, exposed to a lot of different influences, and encouraged to try new things.
I work among people who never had that advantage. Who are surly about undiagnosed dyslexia and impoverished backgrounds, to the point they are *proud* of never setting foot in their local library. They have trouble spelling ‘zinc’ and ‘condiments’. Watching a SFF movie is jarring to them; reading SFF is so foreign it might as well occur in the next galaxy.
They might have stories to tell, and never know it.
So yes, Skrutskie’s gesture is a sound one.
Would I make it, in the same circumstances? I don’t live off my writing, but on my day job and investments. I’m also unlikely to ever have an advance-paying publishing contract. It’s something to think about.
And definitely donate to, in my small fashion!