Like a lot of us here at Speculative Chic, I went to Seton Hill University for their Creative Writing program, as did Rhonda Mason. When I heard she’d gotten one of her books published, I picked it up since I like to support my fellow graduates — plus it sounded pretty awesome. And let me tell you, Ms. Mason does not disappoint.
The Empress Game (2015)
Written by: Rhonda Mason
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 352 (Paperback)
Series: Empress Game Trilogy
Publisher: Titan Books
The Premise:
One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the females of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reinumon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena.
The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.
No spoilers.
Discussion: Every now and again you stumble upon a book that drives you bonkers simply because you’re unable to read it fast enough. I’m becoming an impatient reader, and when something is good, I admit, I start cheating. I sneak peeks ahead to see if someone is going to kiss someone else, if someone dies, or what someone’s super-important backstory is. I totally cheated with this book. Several times. I just wanted to know! But the only way to get it all is to actually read it like a normal person. It’s just one of those books that make you lament that you have to go to work in the next ten minutes or that dinner is waiting for you on the table. “Just spoon it into my mouth for me, will you? I need to finish this chapter.”
The story swings between two POVs: Kayla and Malkor, the man sent to recruit her to fight in the Empress Game. Malkor works for Prince Ardin and Princess Isonde, and their goal is to put Isonde into the Council of Seven. This means she has to win the Empress Game. While Isonde is a natural at handling politics and people, she sucks at fighting. This is where Kayla comes in. She’s the ringer for the whole shebang, except that also means they’re cheating, which is punishable by death, so failure isn’t exactly a great option. But if they win, everyone might just get what they’ve always wanted. Kayla especially, since she is actually royalty from Ordoch. She’s just been in hiding for the last five years with her younger brother so they don’t get murdered like the rest of their family. Details, details.
Kayla is a fun character for me because she’s always ready to kick ass, though that’s sort of the requirement. Still, she has her weaker moments so you don’t fall into thinking she’s an undefeatable superwoman. She does take the occasional injury here and there, and gets surprised by foes even though she seems like the type to never be surprised. Malkor is a bit of a stereotypical badass with a soft n’good side, but I really don’t care. I love those guys no matter where they show up or how stereotypical they might be. When a man sticks around with you even though there’s a possibility of nanites eating your face — and his — he’s a winner. It’s pretty obvious from the get-go that the two will be together in some fashion, but it blends in perfectly with the rest of the story, so don’t worry about it taking over. There’s far too much going on for a love story to overshadow anything. (Not that I have anything against a good love story!)
I enjoy science fiction with vast settings that don’t feel impossible. Here you’ll find one with the same feel of Dune, Star Wars, or my other recent read, The Collapsing Empire. Thousands of planets and peoples with all manner of technology and politics and plans. But the size doesn’t get exhausting. You’re zeroed in on specific characters at all times, and focused on what they’re doing because it’s so danged important. You get a taste for the galaxy, but don’t drown in it.
There’s plenty of excitement with the occasional downtime, which gives the pacing a good feel. The fight scenes are well-executed, and you get a little bit of everything. Swords. Knives. Hand-to-hand combat. While a few plot moves are predicable, on the whole you won’t really know what’s coming. And the bad guy is excellent in the way that he’s not even a bad guy you love to hate. You just straight up hate the guy because he’s one sick bastard.
My only pet peeve? Frutt.
“Frutt” is a made-up word clearly meant to replace “fuck.” I swear, every time I saw this word my brain, I immediately read it as “fruit.” It took quite some time to adjust, but even as I hit the second book, I’m not quite there yet. Now, I don’t care if all cursing is replaced, but it annoys me when “fuck” is replaced with another f-word (let’s not talk about “frack”), especially when any number of other swear words are accepted (there’s no Earth, yet somehow “bullshit” made it to this galaxy) and the highly versatile and fantastic-to-say “fuck” did not. I believe at the time this book was written it was a publisher decision (coughIDIOTScough), which is frustrating to say the least, given the literal number of “fucks” in books like John Scalzi’s. Maybe it’s different now, or maybe it just depends on the publisher in general, but overall, how about everyone stop pansying out over “fuck,” hmm?
In Conclusion: If you enjoy Dune and other vast space operas, want to watch a woman kick tons of ass Mortal Kombat style, or just need a new galaxy to explore, this is the book you need, and I suggest you pick up yesterday. All three books in the trilogy are out now, so there’s no reason not to. I make a point to hand-sell this at the bookstore where I work, and I’m always delighted when the sale goes through. Frankly, I’d love to see these books as movies, but as usual I’m terrified of how Hollywood would frutt it up.
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