Behind the Throne

I wanted to think this might have been a vast empire-building SF epic, with spaceships galore and an underdog rise from the dregs, but no. Even the SF portions feel kinda tacked on, focusing more on taking a bit of world-building along the cultural lines and making a matrilineal succession the focus......more

2.5ish stars. A fast-paced, highly readable action novel that professes to be space opera but, as far as I can tell, only incidentally happens to take place in space. Approximately 85% of the novel, told from the POV of former gunrunner Hail, transpires as follows in slight variations: Thinking about m......more

(NOTE: Read and reviewed August 2016. Updated in 2021 to reflect my current review standards + fix author pronouns.) I really wanted to like this one. I loved the idea of the gunrunner princess dragged home to rule with no romantic sub-plot in sight. Alas, what I read was a mess. The Good – Gun......more

Basically: this is the book you're looking for *Jedi hand-wave* if you have an Ancillary Justice-shaped hole in your heart. Or if you miss the good Dune books but want something more readable. Or if you're dying for Rogue One to just get here already. For everyone who enjoys an excellent soft (in th......more

An Indian civilization in the future that's female dominated & still follows the Hindu religion to some extent made the setting interesting even if the heroine was a bit too good & the plot was obvious. The black sheep of the family comes home to set things right & it turns out that the wandering is......more