Heaven’s Queen by Rachel Bach is the final book in the Paradox trilogy 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 read1.
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 series
has long-since moved forward and so should we. Heaven’s Queen takes us from
the cliffhanger of an ending to Honor’s Knight and wraps up the trilogy in a
very satisfying way.
So far in the series, Devi has spent a lot of time reacting to the
situation she’s found herself thrown into – in Heaven’s Queen, she raises a rather giant middle finger to the
entire galaxy and makes them play by her terms. Now it wouldn’t be a very fun
book if everything went as planned, but it was a necessary shift in the narrative
for her to get the chance to take charge of the big picture rather than just
the tactical incidents of the past. This of course has been building through
the series, but it’s great to see it truly play out.
As I had come to expect from the series, loyalties are challenged
and unclear. Who is good and bad and ugly? What is the right thing to do? And
let’s not forget the romance, because there is a rather beautiful romance
underlying everything else.
As with the previous books in the series, it adds up to a great conclusion.
Call it a beach read, an escape read, or what you read on Tuesday night – it
has that feel. 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 a prison-break worthy of the Death Star2. All in all, this
is a great conclusion to the series, right down to the neatly wrapped end of
the end.
Fortune’s Pawn (My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
Honor’s Knight (My Review, Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
Heaven’s Queen (Indiebound, Book Depository, Amazon)
1 This is basically word for word out of my review of Honor’s Knight. I don’t
care, I liked what I wrote then and I like it now – it applies. And I can plagiarize
from myself as much as I please. In fact, this whole review is parasitic
plagiarism at its best.
2 Ok, this is a poor analogy, because the
prison break arc is well done and Star
Wars never could actually explain the ease of their escape. Even if they
did let them go.
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