Space Mercenaries, secret missions, bizarre aliens, romance, intrigue, battles…these things are plentiful in Rachel Aaron’s Fortune’s Pawn, the first installment of her Paradox trilogy. Devi Morris is the protagonist here, and like some of the most popular and influential Military SF novels, Fortune’s Pawn is told with Devi’s voice as the first person narrator. She’s headstrong, aggressive, and very good at her job: being a soldier for hire. Hired as security for the captain of the Glorious Fool as one of two Paradoxian soldiers, which she hopes brings her one step closer to becoming part of the elite Kingsguard – the Devestators. Of course, space is a dangerous place, even for a soldier with the best power armor and weapons money can buy.
Devi meets and interacts with the motley crew of the Glorious Fool, – Captain Caldswell, who runs the ship with near military precision; Rupert who is “just a cook” (not); the bird like aeon pilot Basil who literally navigates from a nest; the tall lizard-like xith’cal doctor Hyrek (right, a doctor from a race which enjoys the taste of human flesh); the captain’s daughter Ren who is protected by Rupert; Cotter, the other security mercenary who joined the ship with Devi; and Mabel, the ship’s engineer who has the longest relationship with Captain Brian Caldswell; and Nova, who oversees the ships diagnostics. . Amidst this backdrop, the Glorious Fool is a trading vessel, not unlike the Serenity of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Of course, we’d have very little story if the vessel were a simple trader. The character with whom Devi has the closest relationship as the novel progresses is Rupert; he is the love interest. He is the unconquerable man who doesn’t give into Devi’s charms immediately; Rupert is initially something of a stonewall. If anything, he may be a little too perfect. The romance between the two takes up a significant portion of the narrative energy.
The plot involves various jobs the Glorious Fool takes on, from moving goods from one planet to another in need to checking out a supposedly empty alien vessel. Mission to mission, the Glorious Fool is attacked, stops at various planets to take breaks and have equipment fixed. Each mission does build on the previous; much more is going on with Caldswell and the Glorious Fool than the surface details would imply and Devi becomes curiouser and curiouser. Because the novel is first person, this allows for the details to be very limited to only what Devi sees and hears which makes the reader (at least this one) just as inquisitive about what is really going on as Devi herself.
I was a fan of the Eli Monpress novels written under the author’s real name Rachel Aaron, so when I learned she was shifting to space-based science fiction (so far, these books seem an equal mix military science fiction, space opera, and adventure SF), I was excited. That excitement was fulfilled. In the Eli Monpress novels, Aaron played with some genre conventions, but here writing as Bach she does much more upending of the genre tropes. For starters, the protagonist is a woman where a majority of protagonists in military SF have been male. That said, Devi is as aggressive on every level of her character as any male protagonist who preceded her in the genre. She goes after the men she wants, goes after the targets at which she aims, and tackles just about every obstacle in her way. She names her weapons and her power armor. Point being, she’s larger than life and in your face and I felt as if I got along well with her voice.
It isn’t clear how far in the future this series takes place, but humanity is spread across the stars and in two opposing factions. The governmental structure has changed as well, with the Pardoxian government being an Empire with ties to a religion that doesn’t become too clear in the narrative. I would say this approach to world-building is a strength of the novel; Bach doesn’t throw too many details at the reader that would bog down the narrative. There are details, sure, and they come up when appropriate in conversations between Devi and the other characters allowing the world to be breathed into life through the characters, a method of relaying the fictional world I’ve always felt to be very effective.
With any first person narrative, the success of the novel with the reader will lie a great deal in how the reader feels about the protagonist. I’ve tossed a couple of books across the room in frustration because I found the first person narrator so damned annoying. This is far from the case with Devi; I liked her, I felt very invested in her plight throughout the novel, and was just as curious about the things she discovered along the way as she was. For me, that speaks a great deal to Bach’s success in crafting her character, because I am really looking forward to reacquainting myself with Devi in the next volume.
There were a few little things that did not entirely connect with me. The chief love interest for Devi is a man named Rupert, a name that (to me; and apologies to all those named Rupert) elicits either the teddy bear of a baby bent on world domination or an obsessed fan of a fictional late night talk show. The only thing that felt a bit repetitive regarding Devi was how she continually brought up the names of her weapons and armor. Those two items aside, I can’t find much more fault with the novel.
Fortune’s Pawn was a very entertaining read; it ticked off nearly all the mental check boxes I set up when I open up a space-based science fiction novel. With her Eli Monpress series, Rachel Aaron brought a great deal of fun to the genre of Sword and Sorcery flavored fantasy. As Rachel Bach, she brings that same flair for fun and engaging storytelling to Space Opera/Military SF.
Recommended
© 2013 Rob H. Bedford
Orbit November 2013
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-316-22111-5 | 352 Pages
Book 1 of The Paradox Trilogy (http://www.rachelaaron.net/books-paradox.php)
http://www.rachelaaron.net/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit
