Fortune's Pawn (Rachel Bach)

Fortune's Pawn
The Paradox series, Book 1
Rachel Bach
Orbit
Fiction, Sci-Fi
*** (Okay)

DESCRIPTION: In the interstellar kingdom of Paradox, obedience to the blessed king and service in the military are compulsory honors, and few embrace them like Devi Morris. Though she was born a lowly peasant, she has a dream: to serve as one of the king's elite Devastator soldiers. Her military service and years with the reputable mercenary company the Blackbirds have taken her high and far, but she needs something truly exceptional on her resume before the Devastators will even consider looking at her. That will mean either another twenty years in the field, or taking on an assignment that's so risky that each year counts as five, easily: service aboard the Glorious Fool, a private trader widely considered the most cursed vessel in the universe for the rate at which it burns through crewmembers. She's hesitant, not just because the captain's a Terran and not a Paradoxian; though both are still human, there's little love lost between her kingdom and their republic. It's also pretty clear from early on that this is anything but a routine trading ship, with its eclectic and eccentric crew. But Devi didn't get this far in her career by avoiding risks, and the opportunity to cut decades off her plans is simply too tempting to pass up. Before long, she realizes she's in way over her head, not only with the too-handsome and enigmatic shipboard cook, Rupert, but with dangerous secrets that the captain may well kill to protect, even from his own hired security specialists.

REVIEW: I've seen this book recommended more than once as an action-filled space adventure with a strong heroine and fast plot, so I decided to give it a shot. At first, I got what I expected from those recommendations. Devi's a soldier to her bones, dedicated to making a career in her combat suit (which she lovingly has named Lady Gray; she also has named each of the deadly weapons with which she's carved her ambitious reputation). The Glorious Fool is your standard space opera trading vessel (that's very obviously not a standard trading vessel), a patched up ship with the requisite oddball crew (including a largely inert preteen girl, who is so clearly not the "captain's daughter" she's presented to Devi as being that I had to wonder what the point of the attempted subterfuge was) and a particular love interest for our heroine (who hits an eleven on the broody Forbidden Love meter, also clearly not at all the simple "cook" he claims to be; one wonders if the captain really thinks his mercenaries are imbeciles, to be honest, with the obvious lies he pitches them, though Devi's somewhat lunkish partner on the security team seems entirely fooled). We get some basic alien races to widen the political and societal tensions beyond the intrahuman rivalries. There's even something akin to the Force at play. So, so far, nothing too bad, if nothing hugely original.
What let this story down, unfortunately, was the execution. Devi tries, for the sake of her future career, not to dig into the myriad mysteries about the Fool and the crew, but her gut instincts for danger keep compelling her... all while she's coming down hormonal over Rupert the "cook", to the point where I had to keep reminding myself she was a grown adult and experienced mercenary and not a teenager in the throes of puppy love. Each discovery she makes only invites more blowback from Rupert and the increasingly stern captain, even when it is beyond clear that not only is she far more likely to be an asset in whatever they're doing than a liability (if they'd only let their security people know something about the things that are direct threats to their security - perish that silly thought), but the lies are growing far too flimsy to stand up to her soldier's instincts and scrutiny. Nevertheless, things keep moving well enough, even though I found myself growing increasingly annoyed by how much of the plot was Bach deliberately dangling a mystery in front of me without actually telling me anything relevant about it, dancing and pointing to the thing to remind me that, yes, something Very Mysterious and Dangerous and Big is going on, but, nah, not gonna tell you about it, reader. This dancing made certain events read as implausible rather than tension-building, as a lack of answers on the big mystery made me scrutinize other elements of the story and characters more closely. I remained somewhat intrigued and interested, though, if in spite of myself, and even was considering seeing whether the second installment was available on Overdrive as I neared the climax... and then the climax and its resolution happened.
Without getting into spoiler territory, I can't go into details, but suffice it to say that it yanked the rug out of that consideration and managed to drop the rating to a flat Okay in one fell swoop. I've read worse drops and rug-yanks, but this one was sufficient to cool my interest in the remainder of the Paradox series, for all that - aside from that - it wasn't that bad of a space opera adventure.

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