Book Review: Starquest #2: Secret Agents Of The Galaxy

Master and Commander as Space Opera continues

May the Fourth Be With You.

Starquest book one, Space Pirates of Andromeda was an insane, mad dash through a pirate ship, into a planet’s atmosphere, and through a primordial planet laden with boobytraps and a finicky robot with an ethics issue.

Or, as the opening puts it:

EPISODE TWO: SECRET AGENTS OF THE GALAXY.

PREVIOUSLY.

The Tale is not Ended!

For all True Tales are Part of a Greater

Captain Athos Lone, ace agent of the Star Patrol, enters the Living Mountain of Death to investigate the secret space pirate base hidden there, when the mountain is obliterated by a hail of nuclear holocaust from orbit!

Temple Maiden Lyra Centauri, the sole witness to the disaster, reports to her mysterious spymaster, the spectral figure known only as the Nightshadow.

Nightshadow alone believes her tale that the Greatest Empire still lives, and blotted out the sun of her home world, Centaurus. What is this terrifying power that can quench the stars?

Cue the John Williams Music.

I don’t want to hear ONE WORD about how she’s holding the arrow.

The Story

Shrine Maiden (not Jedi) Lyra Centauri is still working for the Shadow—er, Nightshadow, they only have similar names and dress similarly—digging through the realms of the galaxy in the hope of unearthing the hidden empire, dragging them back into the light. Unfortunately, staring into this abyss is more hazardous than one would think; this abyss is occupied. And these not-Sith look very much like they’re second cousins to Cthulhu.

Meanwhile, Captain Athos Lone, having survived his little excursion to the planet of pirates, has been given a promotion… to a desk job. But his superior is a wily old walrus (literally) and has gotten him a different promotion, to Judge Dredd. (The title is Vindicator, with a license to “investigate without warrant and execute without trial” … he’s Judge Dredd.) It seems that the pirates he encountered were a small corner of a larger threat, and he’s handed cases that are clearly going to become plot points for at least one book more. But all roads first lead to pirate Captain Nemo.

On top of all that, there is Senator Napoleon Lone (not Solo, honest), who is threading through a maze of stellar politics, conflicting cultures, attitudes, trying to bring to rouse this new republic to war before war comes to them.

Secret Agents Of The Galaxy is a somewhat gentler novel compared to the last one. Remember how the now infamous Star Wars prequel trilogy tried to handle politics, leading to some odd conversations about trade embargos in what should have been formatted like a Flash Gordon serial? Now imagine of those conversations made sense, and they were basically political chess, with moves and countermoves … and an irate Shine Maiden knocking over the chess board somewhere in the middle.

It’s all very well done. The narrative is almost poetry. Like with the Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander novels, you could get lost enough on the sea of words that you might miss a detail. But it’s so well written, you don’t mind rereading. Surprisingly, there are as many rules and regs around the secret agents of the galaxy as the standard Honor Harrington novel.

And the last hundred pages turn into a Flash Gordon serial, complete with Megalodon sharks underneath the trap doors in the floor.

Thankfully, this cliff hangar is less annoying than book one’s was.

The Characters

Here, we get more back story on … pretty much everyone. Even Eobard the Duck (no, I did no make that up. Wright did.) We find out more about how Lyra ended up in the employ of Nightshadow after her planet was destroyed.

There’s more background on the Lone family, such as how Athos’ grandfather became a Templar hunter for the Empire, or how his father once “drew his weapon under the table, and shot first.” (There was of course, a conflicting narrative from a nanny, suggesting that the other man had shot first, but she was immediately fired.)

We meet up again with Athos Lone after the planet sort of blew up, and the natives basically decided that he is the Ghost Who Walks.

This is the first time we meet Athos’ brother, Senator Napoleon Lone; we don’t quite know how much he’s playing Percy Blakeney, and how much isn’t an act. He has the reflexes of someone who was brought up by a Pirate Queen and a commando, but hides it so well, even the reader can’t quite figure him out.

And then there is Ko-Manu, long-term friend to the Lone family, who is less Chewbacca, and more Henry McCoy from X-Men (see the cover above).

And the funny thing is that there isn’t a single character that is stupid. Literally. Even the random showgirls… long story.

The World

Book one was a frantic action thriller.

Book two, we do world building.

Because John C Wright is not George Lucas. No. While Lucas is content to have a few cultures about the relevant aliens, if Wright has an alien appear on screen, said alien has a specific culture, way of speaking, general attitudes, and does not merely have background aliens for better authors to flesh out at a later date. (Looking at you, Tales of Mos Eisley Cantina.)

Where Star Wars had a thousand aliens, with maybe two dozen named in the films, Wright is trying to name them all and give them personalities in a few lines at a time, without slowing down the plot.

Politics

There is plenty of in-world politics. If you want to translate them to real-world politics … well, good luck with that.

Content Warning

I think Secret Agents Of The Galaxy has even fewer content warnings than Star Wars. The book doesn’t feature anyone making out with their sibling.

Who is it for?

If Honor Harrington is “Horatio Hornblower meets Star Wars,” then this is Star Wars by way of Master and Commander. If you’ve ever read Gene Wolfe or Tim Powers, you’re going to love this.

Why buy it?

John C Wright brings us back space opera as we have longed for, with action, smarts, and a sense of wonder … and laser swords.

(And while we’re here, book three is also up for order.)