Furious Heaven – Kate Elliott

he sequel to “Unconquerable Sun” is here after a long wait. It appears to be the middle book of a trilogy, but it does not suffer from middle-book syndrome: Story development and world building never lose steam.

Sun, the main character, seems to be based upon Alexander the Great. She has inherited a powerful war machine from her mother. Her mother used that war machine to achieve stunning local victories. Sun said “Why stop?” The Phene empire, like Persia of old, should have been too powerful to attack.

One of the pervasive sub-themes is slavery. Slavery has no legal existence in any of the societies in this milieu - but there are so many ways to be unfree. You can be locked into a job until you pay off your debts, and those inherited from your parents and theirs. You can be forced to do as you are told by programmed implants. You can be subject to the complete control of a social superior. You can be a clone, which in this milieu makes you an illegal commodity. You can be placed on a hazardous frontier world with no choice of occupation and no way to leave.

Much of the story is told from the perspective of Sun’s Companions - especially the Wily Persephone. (Her chapter’s have titles that start with that phrase, along the lines of “In Which The Wily Persephone Goes to Town”. She did not come by ‘Wily’ honestly, as her main skill appears to placement of foot in mouth.) Persephone is, in fact, a clone.

The immediate story - of Sun, her Companions, her campaigns - is embedded in a much larger story. Thousands of years ago, humanity fled its world of origin - which has since been lost. The current interstellar-travel network was put in place by a successor empire - whose technology has since been lost.

I had to read this book in small chunks; the writing is dense. Rewarding, though!