Behind the Throne

Behind the Throne

By K.B. Wagers

Hail Bristol has made a name for herself as one of the most fearsome gunrunners in the galaxy. But she can't escape her past forever: twenty years ago, she was a runaway princess of the Indranan Empire. Now, her mother's people have finally come to bring her home.

But when Hail is dragged back to her Indrana to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir, she finds that trading her ship for a palace is her most dangerous move yet.

I.e. Hail is summoned to come back home as the prodigal heir after her sisters have been killed and her mother has space madness.  Once she gets back though, it's very clear that whoever killed her sisters wants to kill her too. Blah blah blah, evil cousin who has been "helping out" in Hail's absence set all this up to take control.  One aborted coup later, Hail is crowned empress.

This was somewhat less "in space" than originally anticipated - although it feels very much like a space sci-fi book, our main character, Hail, spends all but the first few chapters on her home planet. It started out interesting enough, a good hook of former-outlaw-turned-missing-princess, set in an Indian subcontinent-inspired world, but the follow through is lacking. 

First: there is a confusing number of players and names thrown at you, most of them appearing, or discussed, only briefly, so remembering and keeping track of the various people (and even whether they are loyal or disloyal) was difficult.  We spend the most time with two sarcastic but incredibly skilled "Trackers" cum bodyguards named Emmory and Zin, who are also indistinguishable from each other.  

Second: the plot, such as it is, is pretty much the obvious person, and everyone seems to acknowledge this fairly early on, yet the plotters still manage to stage a (short lived) coup.  I mean, Hail hates Ganda (with no explanation aside from, essentially, what an asshole she was twenty years ago) and it turns out Ganda is definitely plotting for the throne, and no one is even watching her! Let's think about, I don't know, keeping tabs on the people you know are scheming behind your back.  And also, Emmory/Zin's decision not to tell Hail that another bodyguard, Nal is almost definitely a traitor too, until Hail gets mad and fires her for some other reason? Like, maybe Hail knowing who she can or cannot trust (and who might be used to plant misinformation for the other side) would be a pretty useful and important thing to know.  But instead we get Hail conjuring up the leader of the resistance (who is conveniently not trying to kill her) in a matter of minutes and having a heart to heart about how she's coping with her sister's death.  Is this how the Indranan government is normally run?  If so, I'm somewhat sympathetic to Ganda.  This seems both unskilled and incredibly messy. 

Third: I just did not care very much about any of the characters or what happened to them.  Hail's sisters and niece are murdered before the book begins, and we come back to find her mother being poisoned, and honestly, I assume (and Hail tells us) that she loved her family, but there's very little connection that we get to see as readers: no flashbacks, no mementos, just a distance that, frankly, twenty years of never contacting your family would realistically give you.  But it creates a problem because that sense of defending a home isn't there: all these people are barely acquaintances, we don't revisit any childhood spots, Hail could have been running a long con and had the same emotional attachment to the outcome. 

I don't think it's bad, per se, I just struggled to stay interested and finish it.  It took me weeks to finish and I had to renew my loan twice.  I hope the next one is good - I have two more to finish before I can get to another light read, and I'm cranky about it.

20: A Book Set In Space