Review: Twisty, Turny Space Opera Noir
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2014
This is the first book in the "Twilight of the Empire" series, the trilogy prequel to Green's eight volume "Deathstalker" series. If you've read and enjoyed the Deathstalker books I expect you would enjoy this trilogy. If you are new to Green's work, this would be a fine place to begin."Mistworld" displays Green's finely balanced ability to tell a stirring space opera style tale while still injecting bits of humor and other business that lighten the mood at appropriate times. Some of Green's other series are played more for humor and snappy patter, (the supernatural Nightside books, especially, and the pun filled James Bond homage "Secret History" series to a lesser extent), and I'm a big fan of both. "Mistworld", though, follows a more serious and traditional line.Green does great villains. His bad guys are remorselss and creepy. Maybe it is the underlying air of arch and bemused detachment he brings to the affair, but in any event they just jump off the page in waves of malice. As a complement, he does menace with real aplomb. Not scary, but malevolent. In Nightside this is played a bit for laughs; they are just so over the top. Here, he tones it down a bit, and that just makes the villains even creepier. In opposition to this his heroes, (or anti-heroes or reluctant heroes), are conflicted, and never fully confident in their odds of prevailing, despite their outward appearance of confidence and capability. This makes his heroes particularly appealing and engaging.Once you have that going for you, pretty much any space opera plot will work. But even here, Green supplies twists and turns and layers that keep the reader interested and invested. This book is interesting because everything happens on Mistworld, and Mistworld is a pretty claustrophobic place. Hemmed in and blockaded Mistworld is hanging on by a thread. All the characters have histories with each other, but there are still plenty of surprises as the plot and its various subplots unfold.So, this isn't sword and sorcery, or light sabre and sorcery, or supernatural, although there are hints of that style. This is gritty and dark and sometimes reads more like futuristic noir than anything else. All of these are good things, and if any of this sounds interesting, well Green is a good author to know.Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.