6 May, 2002
The Price of the Stars
Debra Doyle and
James D. Macdonald
1992
440 pp. (MMPB)
I had it on good authority that the Mageworlds series was the (or, at least, a) place to go for good, exciting space opera action. And, indeed, that's exactly what this book, the first in the series, serves up.
Kate's review originally drew the series to my attention, and she's absolutely right that there's a strong Star Wars-y vibe to the book. It's not like Doyle and Macdonald directly ripped off Lucas, or anything like that; it's just that they play with a lot of the same classic space-opera tropes (galactic federations, a warrior class with mystic powers, a rival, "dark" group of mystic warriors, etc.) and character archetypes which make Star Wars so enjoyable.
In particular, it feels like the authors asked themselves, "What would the children of Han Solo and Princess Leia be like, and what sort of adventures would they have?" The main character of the book, Beka Rosselin-Metadi, is, in fact, the daughter of two people who might be like Leia and Han, twenty-some years after Return of the Jedi. She wanted no part of the political aspect of being the heir to the crown of a planet which doesn't exist, so she ran away from home at the age of 17, to become a starship pilot. When her mother is assassinated, her father recruits her to find out who was responsible, and gives her his old ship-- the "fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy"-- in order to do it. Shortly afterwards, Beka hooks up with a mysterious old guy, who claims to be a former retainer of House Rosselin, fakes her own death, adopts a Han Solo-esque disguise of her own, then kidnaps a Space Force medic who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meanwhile, her brother Ari is having problems of his own. Eventually the siblings team up, along with an Adept (kind of like a Jedi) friend of Ari's, and the groups sets out to avenge the death of Beka and Ari's mother.
I'll say it right out: any fan of space-opera adventure should give this book a try. The characters are fun and appealing, the plot is exciting, and the romantic side-plot isn't stupid. What more do you want? Exploding spaceships? It's got that, too.
The main plot is wrapped up at the end of the book, but the authors left quite a few loose ends dangling, obviously setting things up for sequels.
Various comments:
1) In my review of Triplanetary, I complained about the wanton way the heros killed innocent people at the drop of a hat. There's some of that, here, in the form of dozens of poor working-stiff security officers who lose their lives during the heroes' assault on the main bad-guy's stronghold. However, this didn't bother me nearly as much here as in Triplanetary. For one thing, Doyle and Macdonald could write rings around E. E. Smith. For another, the characters in Triplanetary were portrayed as the best humanity has to offer, in terms of moral rightness and goodness. Beka Rosselin-Metadi, on the other hand, makes no such pretensions. She's determined to have her revenge, and is perfectly willing to mow down anybody who gets in her way.
2) I know I've been reading too many detective novels of late: Beka's discovery of who arranged her mother's murder came too easily for my taste. Essentially, the information was handed to her, without any serious investigation on her part. Of course, there's no reason why it should have been, since this is an action-adventure-revenge novel and not a mystery. After reading a book full of Lord Peter Wimsey stories, my brain was still stuck in detective mode, is all.
3) I'm not kidding about this book being action-packed. The last 90 pages of the book are non-stop action: vehicle chases, fight scenes, a space battle, and daredevil piloting. I think this book would make a swell movie of the "things go fast and blow up" variety. It probably would get dismissed as a B-grade Star Wars ripoff, though.
4) This book is very different from the other Doyle and Macdonald book I've read, Knight's Wyrd. That one is a medieval fantasy, written in a very different tone. Both books are good however, which says good things about the pair's writing ability.