I decided to review these two together, having read the first of the series about a month and a half ago. Overall, I really enjoyed this trilogy. It was good “fluff” reading, by which I mean, I could read it during an extremely busy time at work and still get a good story out of it. The main character, Hail Bristol, is a former gunrunner who has now become the empress of Indrana. But her throne and family are in peril and she is on the run to reclaim her throne.
The story is told in first person, which I liked for this story. It allows us to really get into her head and see what she sees. Some of the emotional reactions she has and other characters have are fairly predictable or overdone (repetitive, not exaggerated) but I did feel like she was a real person.
The world is rich with the matriarchal society based on Indian culture, a war with the Saxons (who I never had a clear picture of) which was patriarchal. There are political intrigues, wheels within wheels, and a big mystery… who has worked to dethrone the Bristols?
My biggest complaint is the sheer number of characters (and many of them end up dying!) and it was very hard for me to keep track of them all without a glossary; that would have been a good addition. Perhaps had I studied this book and read it more quickly it would have been less of an issue. By the end, there were the core 5-8 characters I knew and cared about, and I just followed their story.
There is a side story about the Farian healer who grows into something more by breaking a cultural more that seems to be leading to a larger story. I know that Wager’s next trilogy is the Farian war and I can’t help but wonder if this story leads directly to that, or if it is a dead end.
All in all, I enjoy Wager’s style and rich textured world building. Military space opera done well.