Tim Pratt kicks off Aconyte Books’ range of Twilight Imperium novels with The Fractured Void, a tale of space pirates, covert operatives, and an infuriating but potentially very important scientist. Captain Felix Duval dreams of one day sitting at the Mentak Coalition’s Table of Captains, but for now he’s relegated to piloting his ship The Temerarious in a dull posting out on the fringes of the Coalition where nothing exciting ever happens. When they foil the attempted kidnapping of a scientist named Thales, however, Felix and his small crew face all the excitement they could ever want, as they attempt to keep the deeply aggravating Thales safe while he perfects a technology that he claims will change the face of the galaxy forever.
As part of the Mentak Coalition – for anyone [like me] unfamiliar with Twilight Imperium, imagine if the Federation in Star Trek were pirates rather than diplomats – Duval and his crew are naturally entertaining to read about, their loose morals and mercenary tendencies providing an interesting angle to the rescue missions, heists, boarding actions, space battles and mercantile negotiations that they find themselves embroiled in. Ranged against them are the unlikely pairing of Amina Azad, highly skilled but endlessly flippant black ops specialist from the Federation of Sol, and Severyne Dampierre, a disciplined and wary bureaucrat from the Barony of Letnev. Despite their inherent mistrust of each other, Azad and Severyne forge a cautious alliance that threatens to steal the show as the two polar opposites try to work out how much (if at all) they can trust each other, and what to do with the simmering tension between them.
While the central concept – Thales’ promise of artificially-created wormholes, and all their associated strategic benefits – is fairly weighty, it’s buoyed up by this tremendously entertaining cast and a generally light tone throughout. The characters come to life with effortless ease, leaping off the page to wind each other up, crack jokes and generally just have fun whether things are going well or not (ok, so Severyne doesn’t have much fun, but she’s fun to read about). Duval and Azad both have a knack for making the best of a bad situation, which is a bit of a recurring theme here, but while Azad is quietly content with who she is and what she does, both Duval and Severyne are trying to find ways of making more of themselves. The final piece of the puzzle is Thales, who’s genuinely – hilariously (albeit sometimes darkly so) – objectionable; you wouldn’t want to spend time with him in person, but it’s great fun seeing just how quickly and easily he irritates everyone he comes into contact with.
Space opera is usually fairly serious, but this takes a pleasantly different tone with its light, entertaining perspective on the genre that gently subverts some of the usual tropes and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a breezy, fun read that progresses with an easy, enjoyable pace throughout and crucially stands on its own whether you’re familiar with Twilight Imperium or not. Pratt doesn’t try to cram in too much exposition for the setting, focusing mostly on the Mentak Coalition and the Barony of Letnev and touching lightly on lots more in order to give a sense of scale, but the world building is an unobtrusive element there in the background. It doesn’t detract from the storytelling, but there’s plenty to enjoy and more than enough to leave you wanting to find out more. All told this is just a lot of fun, the sort of story that isn’t really trying to reinvent the wheel but rather focuses on making sure the reader is having a good time – and what’s not to like about that?
Many thanks to Aconyte Books and Tim Pratt for providing me with an advance copy of The Fractured Void in exchange for my honest review.
See also: my interview with Tim Pratt talking about The Fractured Void.
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