Spacer's Luck (Breach of Faith Book 5)
By Daniel Gibbs and Gary T Stevens
Welcome back everyone to the first fiction book review we’ve had in a while. Today we're returning to a series we've been covering for a while set in a universe we've discussed fairly extensively. Now I will be linking to the other reviews at the bottom of this one so if you want to take a look at those for an update as to the core concepts of the setting feel free. I will however give a quick update and a disclaimer here. Gary T Stevens is a friend of mine and someone whose friendship and support I'm very grateful for (Same. I’ve co-authored fanfic with him.). He is also a patron of this review series. That said, everything below is my honest opinion and I do not pull my punches here.
So update on the universe, the long, long-running war between the Terran Coalition and the League of Sol is over! An alliance of stalwart Saurians, mysterious Mantrinds, and Independent worlds organized into a new confederation called the Independent Systems Federation alongside the Terran Coalition met the last gasp offensive of the League and broke it in a final, bloody decisive battle. This was a counter-assault meant to rip the heart of the Coalition out after the Coalition fleet advanced into League space liberating many worlds. While the League is temporarily exhausted, everyone except the most pie-in-the-sky peace activists assumes they'll be back (Yeah, unless you can strike at the industrial base and remove their capacity to wage war, they’ll be back.). So the Coalition attempts to create a permanent defense alliance uniting everyone against outside aggression. However, some leaders in the Mantrind Alliance and ISF are more worried about the Coalition overwhelming and absorbing them (Given that the coalition is basically Space US, valid concern.{A reminder that I take no responsibility for the opinions of my editor here folks})
Against this Admiral James Henry, former captain of the Shadow Wolf, now Admiral of the ISF navy is working to hammer the navies and people of dozens of worlds and organizations into a coherent fighting force. Given the government he works for is dependent on donations from member worlds and has no way of taxing members just to start with, he's got his work cut out for him (Oh Jesus. Worst. Thing. Ever.). The fact that the council of the ISF is dragooning him into meeting with the Coalition to figure out if they even want to be in the alliance is an extra complication. On top of that is the fact that a mysterious new drug called Curall is showing up, claiming to cure just about every disease and ailment that afflicts humans and aliens alike (Panacea are always grifts). Unfortunately, Admiral Henry has little in the way of a formal intelligence service but he does have friends (He needs to fix that. A navy without naval intelligence is blind and stupid.{There’s an issue of with what bloody money to consider}).
Among those is Captain Miriam Gaon, a former Coalition spy carrying enough guilt to kill five men and the new Captain of the independent trade ship, Venture Star. While she's not looking to be an intelligence asset, it's hard for her not to get pulled into things, as she has what I call Peter Parker luck (The poor thing…). She'll get pulled into the worse situations you can imagine but she'll always get out alive through a combination of talent, training, and dumb luck. Captain Gaon inherited the crew that didn't end up in the ISF navy with Admiral Henry or became part of the government after a successful revolution on the oppressed world of Hestia removed their corporate oppressors, or died. We reviewed that book so I'll just tell you to take a look at it.
That crew would be the returning characters such as Pieter Hartzog, the often innovative but crusty chief engineer. First Mate Piper Lopez is a woman who wants to just be a normal spacer and as such is in the completely wrong place. The third mate, Brigitte Tam'si, is a woman who escaped the League of Sol and is bound and determined to make the most of her freedom. Engineer mate Samina Khan, is a practicing Muslim who loves machines and ships and is enthralled at the wonders of the universe she is allowed to see by working as a spacer. Some of these characters, Piper and Brigitte most of all, were a bit neglected in my opinion so I was eager to see them get more space. Mr. Stevens does do a good job of giving them more space and characterization now that there's more room in the narrative and I do like that.
We're also introduced to new ship characters, there's Allen Markson a former member of the Coalition armed forces. He's the second mate and honestly feels a bit bland. We also have Stepan Vasilievich Zakarov, a taciturn, introverted Russian pilot who is talented but rather standoffish. As well as Janet White, who lived on a Coalition World that was occupied by the League of Sol and is deeply scarred by her experiences. The friction between her and the rest of the crew is interesting and Mr. Stevens manages to make her sympathetic without making her pathetic. There's also Doctor Laila Opema who is a member of an alien species called Tal'mayans. Tal'Mayans seem fairly human but there are plenty of other aliens that appear in the series so I'm not going to fuss about it. Lastly is Khalid bin Tawfiq, we don't get much about him in this book other than he is also a Muslim and fairly pious. I'm hoping he gets more development in later books. A decent amount of space is also given to the new characters but with so many characters it's hard to give all of them the time on screen for good development (Mr. Stevens loves his huuuuge ensemble casts…).
However, I also feel too much space is given to Admiral Henry. This may sound odd as he was the protagonist of the last 4 books, but after book 4, I question what's left of his character arc. He's redeemed his name, reforged his faith, and found a place for himself in the wider universe. I'm not saying he should disappear from the narrative but it might time to relegate him to a periodically appearing background and mentor character in my view (In full agreement. His arcs are done. Off to be the quest-and-advice-giving guy). In this book, he takes up a good amount of space in a political arc, which while important just didn't hold my attention as much as the ship's crew did. I suppose you could argue that his part of the plot provided needed context but I was left lukewarm. I would have rather spent more time with what are supposed to be our main characters but your mileage may vary.
The main plot is interesting as Captain Gaon takes a job running medical supplies out to a far-flung colony world called Starfall. This world earned the name due to a quirk of the star system resulting in dense fields of debris that the planet's orbit takes it through causing weeks at a time when no starship can land or take off. Because of this and the sheer distance from other settled worlds, Starfall is a divided world, with fairly well-off city-states and large stretches of wild, ungovernable land held by quarreling warlords. When a pirate attack forces the Venture Star to stay longer than planned on Starfall, Captain Gaon and the crew are pulled into a rapidly developing situation.
One of the warlords is called the Droog Lord, which is a name that I love in all honesty but I also giggle a bit when reading it. This guy is something out of a mad max movie and I love it. He's the leader of a cult of violence-worshiping, mask-wearing, maniacs, who call themselves Droogs. Everyone who is not a Droog is a Skrag and deserves nothing but abuse. The Droog Lord is using a new drug named Curall, to subvert the populations of the city-states and expand his control of the wilderness. Because Curall does seem to alleviate symptoms and pain, it is also wildly addictive and the withdrawal kills everyone. When the Droog Lord conquers a settlement, he ensures that enough people have been forced onto Curall that there is a large group of people who will do anything to ensure their supply. Meanwhile, Curall is being sold on the streets of the larger City-states to increasingly desperate addicts who believe it's the only thing keeping them healthy. This is... pretty damn evil I’ve got to be honest but is certainly something I could see all sorts of powers and groups doing as a means of profit or power.
It doesn't help that the Droog Lord also has some mysterious benefactors (And I wonder who those could be… Hmmmm.{Read and find out folks!}). After all, it's not like the Droogs have the medical or scientific base to come up with Curall all on their own. Oh no, someone or something is providing it to them. When the Venture Star's crew gets pulled into this, they have to find local allies and resources quickly or risk being butchered to protect a secret they haven't even figured out yet. This is complicated by yet another opponent; the pirate who started this whole mess decides to carry a grudge and try to hunt them all down to kill them. So now they have to dodge threats from above and below while figuring out just who is trying to kill this time and why.
Mr. Stevens is at his best when he can focus on a diverse range of characters and their interactions with each other. As well as develop colorful antagonists and supporting characters and when he's able to do that in this book he shines. When he's pulled into further developing Mr. Gibbs' world I feel like it slows the book down a bit. Parts of this book are awkward because he's trying to weld a political/diplomatic high-stakes plot with a more small-scale plot of "figure out why everyone is mad at us this time". He can do it rather effectively but the fact he has to take up time and effort is better spent elsewhere in my opinion. That said, I love that the Droog Lord, despite his name, isn't a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain but comes across as a cunning leader of savages willing to exploit every opportunity while refusing to do wasteful things like kill messengers or murder people over failure. The larger foe in the background is interesting as well and we're given just enough information to hold our interest in them. All in all, I'm rating Spacer's Luck by Daniel Gibbs and Gary Stevens a B. It's a fun novel but I think some parts don't gel as well as they could.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s review. If you did, consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where you can vote on upcoming content, see bloopers from the videos (That you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLxet0k0gJBuYTkZgkprIlg ) and more for as little as a dollar a month! Next week we’re going to turning a discussion about kidnapping in mythology and folklore and I’ll be posting a video on that. Hope to see you there and until then stay safe and keep reading!
Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders.
Prior reviews in this universe:
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/08/breach-of-peace-by-daniel-gibbs-and.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/09/breach-of-faith-book-ii-by-daniel-gibbs.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/03/breach-of-trust-by-gary-t-stevens-and.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/03/breach-of-duty-by-daniel-gibbs-and-gary.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2020/05/echoes-of-war-fight-good-fight-by.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2021/12/echoes-of-war-strong-and-courageous-by.html
http://frigidreads.blogspot.com/2022/01/so-fight-i-echoes-of-war-book-iii-by.html
