2024 SF, second of a planned trilogy. The big events of the last book
are bringing down the repressive government! Guess what comes next…
Spoilers for These Burning Stars.
After some early flashbacks, this book mostly happens in the
setting's present day, though split between locations. On the new
colony world of Capamame, settled by the ethnic-minority Jevese at the
end of the previous book, there's a whispering campaign against the
government, and ongoing sabotage which even the great caster (hacker)
Jun can't seem to get a handle on. Back in the Kindom, Chono and Six
have returned to try to free the first batch of Jeveni who came back
from the new colony and were promptly put in a labour camp; and of
course they too are promptly arrested, but they may have political
uses.
Esek is not here, but Esek's influence very much is, among the people
who knew and mostly despised her. They;re determined not to repeat her
errors, which helps resist temptation when the new tyrannical
government (not the same flavour at the old one) starts to offer it.
I was reminded somewhat of Heavenly Tyrant and its portrayal of the
way a hopeful revolution can suddenly turn into Tyranny 2.0, but I
found this middle volume much more positive, partly because the
protagonists here are astute enough not to let themselves get sucked
in.
"You do sound righteous, Graisa the Honor. But I came back to the
Treble to see five thousand wrongfully imprisoned Jeveni freed. I
came back to defend the rights of the Jeveni who never left. From
Capamame, I've watched reports on the rising number of resistance
cells. Have any of those cells put their energy toward protecting
the endangered Jeveni? No. Have they used their fight with the
Kindom to remind people that the Jeveni are mere scapegoats for
Kindom atrocity? No. This Treble you imagine, freed from Kindom
oppression: What room have you made in it for the Jeveni?"
There isn't as much progress in plot here as in the first book; this
is after all a middle volume. But there is progress in character, and
I very much enjoyed it.