Behind the Throne
The Indranan War, Book 1
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3.3 • 4 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Meet Hail: Captain. Gunrunner. Fugitive.
Quick, sarcastic, and lethal, Hailimi Bristol doesn't suffer fools gladly. She has made a name for herself in the galaxy for everything except what she was born to do: rule the Indranan Empire. That is, until two Trackers drag her back to her home planet to take her rightful place as the only remaining heir.
But trading her ship for a palace has more dangers than Hail could have anticipated. Caught in a web of plots and assassination attempts, Hail can't do the one thing she did twenty years ago: run away. She'll have to figure out who murdered her sisters if she wants to survive.
A gun smuggler inherits the throne in this Star Wars-style science fiction adventure from debut author K. B. Wagers. Full of action-packed space opera exploits and courtly conspiracy - not to mention an all-out galactic war - Behind the Throne will please fans of James S. A Corey, Becky Chambers and Lois McMaster Bujold, or anyone who wonders what would happen if a rogue like Han Solo were handed the keys to an empire . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taut suspense, strong characterization, and dark, rapid-fire humor are the highlights of this excellent SF adventure debut. Hail Bristol has spent years earning a reputation as one of the galaxy's most notorious smugglers. But her biggest challenge is dealing with her mother, the ruler of the Indranan Empire. The empress has sent two relentless Trackers, Emmory and Zin, to drag Hail to the last place Hail wants to go home to the empire to be the new heir after her sisters were murdered. Hail doesn't care about duty, but she does intend to find out who killed her sisters, especially once she realizes the assassins may have also killed her father years before. Byzantine political intrigue, the empress's growing senility, and a looming war mean the initially despised Emmory and Zin may be the only people Hail can trust, and her gunrunning skills will serve her well at home too. Wagers's debut is a deviously labyrinthine adventure in which smuggling is less dangerous than interstellar politics. Hail is at her most intriguing when she's unashamed of who she was and may still need to be, and her personality is a perfect mix of cunning and flaws that she never quite patched.
Customer Reviews
It’s an OK start to a series
A credible first book and good enough that I will consider buying the second book. The characters are pretty much two-dimensional and there’s not much mystery about the conspirators that murdered the royal family. The blurb compares this book and lead character to Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan series; do not be fooled - it is nowhere near as good. It is also compared in the blurb to a James S A Corey novel - and I agree as I personally find the novels from that collaboration very dull as are portions of this book - but the pace picks up towards the end and sets the stage for a hopefully more interesting book 2.