Over the last few months, I’ve rediscovered just how spectacularly fun a good space opera can be. Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire had me hooked from its start, and reading Laurence Suhner’s captivating Vestiges has me baffled that no publishers have picked up her Quantika series for translation from the French to English. In addition to those, space opera fans can now add Megan E. O’Keefe’s Velocity Weapon to the to-read list. You may already recognize O’Keefe’s name from her successful steampunk fantasy, the “Scorched Continent” series, or you may have already caught the interview with her by Paul and I for the Skiffy & Fanty podcast. Her first book in The Protectorate series, Velocity Weapon is a well-crafted interplanetary adventure full of twists and turns, compelling characters, and irresistible teases of an expanded terrain for the chapters to come.
The novel begins on the outer edge of the galaxy-spanning Protectorate in the aftermath of an attack upon an Ada Prime space-fleet by the rival planet Icarion. Envious of the Protectorate’s gateway technology allowing interstellar travel and discontent with their political power and aspirations of expansion, Icarion has developed advanced Smartships and a potentially devastating weapon to resist Protectorate member Ada Prime. When her Ada Prime gunship is destroyed in the attack, emergency protocols eject Sanda Greeve in a life pod, her body protected from space in a biological stasis-providing nutrient gel.
Awakening from stasis, Sanda discovers that she has been rescued by the AI of an Icarion smartship, the Light of Berossus. Worse than reviving in the hands of the enemy, Sanda quickly learns from the AI, who goes by the name Bero, that centuries have passed since the battle while she drifted in stasis. Bero explains that the conflict between Icarion and Ada Prime has long passed, with mutual annihilation after the Icarion superweapon was used and destroyed not just Ada Prime but also unintentionally decimated the entire solar system, including Icarion. Sanda is the only human on board Bero, alone with the AI in a dead star system, without a gateway to reach any remains of Protectorate civilization except through a lifetime of travel at sub-light speed.
After this set up of devastation for Sanda, O’Keefe introduces Sanda’s brother Biran with a chapter set centuries before her rescue by Bero, just prior to the Icarion attack on the Ada Prime fleet. Biran has just finished his studies and been elevated to the position of Keeper on Ada Prime, a position of political leadership for the worlds of the Protectorate. The mixtures of joy, pride, and fear that Biran feels upon taking up the honor and responsibilities of his new office become upended when news of the Icarion attack arrives and reports circulate of no life signs or life pod distress signals coming from the remains of the Ada Prime ships. As tensions rise between the planets and prospects of outright war loom, Biran discovers evidence that life pod distress signals have come from the battle site but have been suppressed by his fellow Keepers. Intent on recovering his sister Sanda alive, Biran begins making political moves far earlier than expected for a new Keeper, forming alliances with some influential people and making potential enemies of others.
Thus, O’Keefe builds the plot of Velocity Weapon in alternating point-of-view chapters between the siblings. Readers experience Sanda coming to terms with her situation on Bero, then travel back in time to Ada Prime to experience Biran navigating politics to rescue his sister and avert a conflict: an effort that Sanda’s point-of-view suggests will disastrously fail.
To say any more about the plot would spoil far too much, and both summarizing or reviewing Velocity Weapon is a tricky endeavor because the novel succeeds admirably in giving readers multiple twists up to its end. If you have listened to the podcast interview, you’ll already have learned that the British edition of the book (perhaps also Canadian?) gives away the first major twist of the novel in its back-cover blurb. The twist was also present on the advanced reading copy I had. Nonetheless, this knowledge didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the novel; rather, it actually helped me enjoy some early clues. Approach spoilers as you personally see fit, but I’m making this review as spoiler-free as possible.
A satisfying space opera comes down to an author properly handling all levels of scale within the universe they build. The action can only be entertaining if it is both character-driven on the individual scale and folded within larger scale threats and political machinations. Sanda and Biran, O’Keefe’s two protagonists, engage readers on their own and as a sibling unit. I emotionally invested in these likable people who have been dropped into adverse situations that appear hopeless. Sanda awakens to knowledge that the people and planet she holds dear and for which she fought have been lost. Making her adjustment even more difficult, she has lost a leg from the attack and now has physical disability to adjust to. Despite these disasters, Sanda refuses to give into emotional despair or physical defeat. She focuses her intellect and the memory of her loved ones to seek the best out of her terrible predicament.
Sanda’s brother has a similar drive to never give up, despite the fact that his world comes crashing apart with the news of his sister’s death in battle. In the absence of hard evidence, he refuses to give up hope of her survival, even if that threatens his developing prestigious political life. Moreover, Biran’s committed pursuit of helping his lost sister soon leads to a realization that the reality behind his idealistic views of the Keepers carries deep-seated corruption.
I adore that neither Sanda nor Biran are particularly exceptional in talent or ability when facing their challenges. They are not characters “destined” to change their universe or right wrongs. They are simply compassionate and passionate people, dedicated to their jobs and their family. Even to the enemy, neither of them wish any ill will. They are optimists trying to keep their society intact and to improve the areas where they see problems. Like them, I also felt optimistic, in spite of Bero’s revelations to Sanda, because I knew that somehow, these siblings would find some measure of triumph. I wanted to read on and discover just how they would pull that off, how they would survive given the setup of the novel.
On many levels Velocity Weapon becomes a novel about survivorship, about continuing on when all is seemingly broken or lost. It is about individuals, AI, planets, and empires fighting to survive. What I particularly liked about O’Keefe’s novel is that her characters’ successes at surviving neither come easy nor through individual effort alone. Even apart, Sanda and Biran’s relationship represents a strength for them to call upon, a reminder of what values they hold above all others. On Ada Prime, Biran’s efforts are strengthened through the love of the siblings’ two fathers and the professional support of a journalist committed to the truth.
For Sanda, despite being the only human on board Bero, the presence of the AI means that she is not truly alone. Reciprocally, her presence also becomes a much-needed relationship for Bero, who has experienced mysterious traumatic events as well. Their discovery of another life pod with a living Icarion on it throws a third wheel complication into this human-AI mix. Velocity Weapon uses their interactions — and the developing plot — to probe that familiar SF theme of human vs. machine intelligence. Albeit commonplace, O’Keefe takes that theme into interesting directions that involve those twists and mysteries that I’ve alluded to. Some of the mysteries you might already guess for yourself, but the novel raises them nonetheless: Why is no one else aboard Bero? How did only Sanda and this Icarion manage to be the only survivors of the battle? How could Biran escape the solar-system-wide destruction that occurs for his story and point-of-view to continue?
All of these mysteries drive the forward momentum of the novel, and surprise turns keep their fulfillment of a pay off. The construction of Velocity Weapon could easily make it into something gimmicky, out to trick the reader for the sake of pranking the reader. Instead, O’Keefe incorporates these elements as hallmarks of a well-crafted space opera tale, not revealing too much, but also not cheating the reader with absurdity or unearned reveals.
As the first book in a series, Velocity Weapon still has to leave some mysteries to set the stage for what comes. Interspersed among alternating chapters from Sanda’s and Biran’s point-of-views, O’Keefe includes some from the point-of-view of a thief named Juliella (Jules) who is involved in a heist in a neighboring star system. O’Keefe uses Jules as a character to bridge to future books of the series while also giving Velocity Weapon a bit more depth beyond the contained activity on and near Ada Prime. In particular, as an underprivileged character on the margins of her society, Jules’ brief appearance illuminates some of the darker corners and injustice in the Protectorate that the sibling protagonists have never experienced.
Though Jules’ chapters add something significant in building for future books, they are also so few that the character appears relatively underdeveloped. If O’Keefe expanded Jules’ presence in this novel, the story would balloon to something unmanageable. But including just a bit also makes it feel tangential. In the end, I agree with O’Keefe’s decision, but I can see how other readers might be disappointed.
The end of the novel finally ties the chapters with Jules into the outcome of events that befell Sanda and Biran. It also ties in interlude chapters throughout the novel that are set in the distant past, describing the corporate foundations of the Protectorate and the source of their technology that made the gates possible. O’Keefe’s surprises for the reader don’t let up until that end, making Velocity Weapon a satisfying stand-alone book while also promising really intriguing things to come for the remainder of the series. I recommend diving into it now.
Velocity Weapon was released by Orbit Books on 11th June 2019. An excerpt is available from the publisher, and the full novel is available where all good books are sold.
