Honor’s Knight by Rachel Bach (aka Rachel Aaron) is the second book in the Paradox series which falls somewhere in the area of new space opera
or military science fiction, or whatever – really it doesn’t matter how you
choose to (or not to) shelve these books. What does matter is that they are so
much fun and such a pleasure to read.
In my review of the first book in the series, Fortune’s Pawn, I get into a bit of discussion on entry-level SF
and even the similarities of Fortune’s
Pawn to urban fantasy. I think that all was an interesting discussion, but Honor’s Knight moves the conversation
forward and so should we. This book does what most (good) second books in a trilogy
do – it ups the stakes, expands the world (or galaxy in this case), and gets a
bit deeper. All in all, it’s a classic second book in a space opera.
All of the fun, exciting and adventurous aspects of Fortune’s Pawn are here, only bigger.
And of course things get a bit more interesting as true moral crisis begin to
appear – who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? Where does Devi stand in
all of this? And let’s not forget the romance aspect of Devi and Rupert –
because things get complicated.
All of this adds up to a great book. Call it a beach read, an
escape read, or what you read on Tuesday night – it has that feel for me. A
good, fun, entertaining book. It’s complex and ‘deep’ enough to not feel cheap,
but it’s still got plenty of explosions, violent encounters with aliens, lovely
moments of romance, and even arena-based mortal combat. All in all, Honor’s Knight is a step up from the
already good Fortune’s Pawn, and I
can’t wait to read the conclusion of the series, Heaven’s Queen.
Fortune’s Pawn (My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
Honor’s Knight (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
Heaven’s Queen (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
