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A review by jdhacker
Rissa Kerguelen by F.M. Busby
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This is a collection of three separate novels, much like The Demu Trilogy. After reading the two back to back, I actually think Busby's work suffers from the omnibus format somewhat. Despite all three stories flowing seemlessly into one another with minimal breaks in story, this kind of pulpy story was meant for short punchy action focused stories, not these 500+ page volumes and I think the pacing feels off as a consequence.
This definitely gives a lot more context for the Zelde M'Tana story I read previously. We get a little more direct view early on for just why everyone (including our protagonists) are kind of...I think 'terrible' is the wrong word, but 'hard' or 'ruthless' would be appropriate...people. Even still, we don't get a lot of context for just how awful and dystopian the world has gotten until the latter part of the final 'volume' in the series. And even then, its very after the fact and there are still some real blanks, things only vaguely hinted at rather than shown to us. I know that's not really the point of the books, but I think given just how objectionable the traits of many of our 'heroes' are a better idea of how objectionable the world had become would have been helpful. And some of the reveals of the 'Long View' about how Earth got where it did feel very...topical and relevant to the slope the US political system seems to be on presently.
While we do get a lot more Tregare here as a male protagonist, our main protagonist (and even a lot of the important ancillary characters) is still a woman, Rissa Kerguelen. I think its interesting that Busby's protagonists seem almost exclusively to be strong women, despite the overall misogyny of the pulps and that while they may not be the best written women (I'll leave that judgement up to female readers), they still seem better realized and written characters than his male characters.
This was totally solid pulp space opera, and I'll certainly read the remaining Hulzein Dynasty books I've laying around.
This definitely gives a lot more context for the Zelde M'Tana story I read previously. We get a little more direct view early on for just why everyone (including our protagonists) are kind of...I think 'terrible' is the wrong word, but 'hard' or 'ruthless' would be appropriate...people. Even still, we don't get a lot of context for just how awful and dystopian the world has gotten until the latter part of the final 'volume' in the series. And even then, its very after the fact and there are still some real blanks, things only vaguely hinted at rather than shown to us. I know that's not really the point of the books, but I think given just how objectionable the traits of many of our 'heroes' are a better idea of how objectionable the world had become would have been helpful. And some of the reveals of the 'Long View' about how Earth got where it did feel very...topical and relevant to the slope the US political system seems to be on presently.
While we do get a lot more Tregare here as a male protagonist, our main protagonist (and even a lot of the important ancillary characters) is still a woman, Rissa Kerguelen. I think its interesting that Busby's protagonists seem almost exclusively to be strong women, despite the overall misogyny of the pulps and that while they may not be the best written women (I'll leave that judgement up to female readers), they still seem better realized and written characters than his male characters.
This was totally solid pulp space opera, and I'll certainly read the remaining Hulzein Dynasty books I've laying around.