The Kaiser family of space “traders” (sumgglers) is waiting on the oldest brother, Corvus, to return from his tour of duty with the military on his home planet of Titan. Eldest daughter Scorpia is expecting to inherit the business, and family vessel which she pilots, Fortuna based on her years of dedication to the family. Unfortunately, Mama has other plans and is handing off the business to Corvus upon that aforementioned return. Told through chapters from Corvus’s first person point of view and Scorpia’s first person point of view, Fortuna is the first installment of The Nova Vita Protocol series from Kristyn Merbeth. Merbeth has published a couple of apocalyptic vampire novels under the “K.S. Merbeth” name, this is her first foray into full blown space opera / science fiction.
Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occasionally drunk pilot of the Fortuna, an aging cargo ship and the only home Scorpia has ever known.
But when a deal turns deadly and Corvus returns from the war, Scorpia’s plans to take over the family business are interrupted, and the Kaiser siblings are forced to make a choice: take responsibility for their family’s involvement in a devastating massacre or lay low and hope it blows over.
Too bad Scorpia was never any good at staying out of a fight.
Amidst the family drama, there is of course a great deal of political strife in the galaxy. Considering the Kaisers are more smugglers than traders, they tend to find themselves hovering the gray areas of legality. As such, they find themselves compromised and forced to take some questionable jobs from higher ups in government that can lead to some rather unfortunate consequences.
The bulk of the novel is about the characters, with the politics of the galaxy as a backdrop. Merbeth gets readers deep in the heads of Scorpia and Corvus. This was an effective way to get readers’ empathy for their plights and made for some wonderful conflict when the siblings were finally reunited. I felt each character was correct from their own points of view. Scorpia feels a little bit more of the main character and what a wonderfully drawn character. Constantly in the shadow of her domineering mother, acting as an older and protective sister to the siblings who aren’t Corvus, Scorpia had so much energy when she was taking the spotlight of the story. What makes their eventual reunion so contentious is how close they were before Corvus abandoned the family. Well, that’s how Scorpia sees it. That anger has helped to lead to some bad decisions in the time he was gone. Further complicating Scorpia’s stress is her drinking problem. Corvus isn’t exactly perfect either. As a military man, “he’s seen some shit,” as the saying goes.
I couldn’t help find some resonance with this story, particularly Scorpia and the situation in which she finds herself with a writer and series of books I thoroughly enjoy – Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders series. Merbeth’s characterization, the way she thrusts her characters into uncomfortable family situations (like who inherits a family vessel, be it space-based, or living-sea vessel) is just about on par. That’s not a slight on Merbeth at all, Hobb in my mind does character probably better than anybody in the genre and to be in the same conversation or comparable is pretty high praise from me.
Fortuna is a character-driven family drama set amongst the stars. I’m sure if you enjoyed Firefly/Serenity you’d enjoy this book. More recently, readers who enjoyed Becky Chambers’s The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet as well as Megan E. O’Keefe’s Velocity Weapon will likely find a lot to enjoy in Fortuna.
Recommended.
© 2021 Rob H. Bedford
506 Pages | Trade Paperback
Orbit Books | November 2019
Excerpt: https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/76114/
https://ksmerbeth.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books
