I enjoy escaping into space opera, and as a librarian, I enjoy promoting my favorite reads. I loved K.B. Wagers’ The Indranan War trilogy, starting with 2016’s Behind the Throne, which starred a gun smuggler-turned-princess who leveraged her past in negotiating alliances, avenging her family, and stopping wars. So I was excited to hear about A Pale Light in the Black, which is the first in a planned “Neo-G” (Near-Orbital Earth Guard) duology, with a story focused on the underdog team trying to best rival military branches in a series of competitions. It’s billed as light sci-fi/space opera, but it came with a nice side plot that, while still light and a bit rushed at the end, made reading the story a lot of fun.
A Pale Light in the Black (2020)
Written by: K.B. Wagers
Genre: Space Opera
Publisher: HarperVoyager
Pages: 421 (Hardcack)
The Premise:
The Expanse meets the Battle Room in Ender’s Game as K.B. Wagers brings us the rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard — NeoG — a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard.
For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback — until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place.
Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own — away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option — and would only prove her parents right.
But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them.
Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG.
As this is a book club discussion, there will be spoilers ahead.
Discussion
Not gonna lie to you, it’s been hard finding the energy and/or the interest in reading… anything. Probably because, well… everything. *waves hands at world*
I chose A Pale Light in the Black back in April, hoping that it would be an entertaining, adventurous distraction — and this the best distraction I could have asked for. And of course, since it’s the first in a planned duology, I can’t wait for the next book. I know, I know. Every reader says that. But I’m reading again, and I bet a lot of people will also enjoy this if they haven’t already read it.
That said, the story takes a little bit to get going as Wagers introduces the future-Earth worldbuilding, complete with nefarious corporations and the Near-Earth Orbital Guard (aka the Coast Guard of today). Our heroes are members of the NeoG, and as a military branch that’s looked down on, they have a lot to prove.
Plus, Wagers throws out a lot of names in the first couple of chapters. I had trouble keeping track of everybody, but as the story develops, they do become more distinct, and eventually the pacing and character development balance out (I’ll get to that rushed ending). The characters do gel easily; although in the beginning that feels forced, forty pages later I realized I’d been sucked in. So, y’know, that worked.
Characters and their personalities really drive this story. Everyone has a strength and an insecurity. Main character Max’s super-affluent family cut her off when her career trajectory wasn’t what they wanted for her. Jenks is an orphan who takes solace in sarcastic wit and being the best at soldiering, but doesn’t know what to do when her beau says he’s in love with her. Rosa is the embattled commander, committed to balancing the tenets of her faith and being away from her family with her love of space, but who believes she cost the team the win at the previous Boarding Games. And the confident Nika, Jenks’s adopted brother, mysteriously is transferred off Zuma’s Ghost, shattering the Zuma’s Ghost crew’s dreams for a championship win at this year’s Boarding Games. They’re joined by a whole host of secondary characters, all with differing personalities and all just as engaging in their own ways. Which is fantastic — Wagers has written a book about people with many differences and working together anyway, with acceptance and collaboration as the main themes. It’s refreshing to see people focusing on lifting up and encouraging other people — or standing up for others against the system.
If you’re looking for LGBTQ+ representation, look no further. A range of sexualities and genders are present and there is romance aplenty in an atmosphere of acceptance. I did feel as though a few characters were shoehorned in, but they fit within the atmosphere of acceptance. My major complaint is that Max is written as ace (asexual), but since she and her romantic interest get together toward the end of the story, they aren’t really given time on the page to figure out how to define their relationship. (Maybe in the next book; in the meantime, read this and this.)
Except for the mystery subplot, problems are solved almost just as easily as they come up. And now let’s talk about that mystery. It should feel a lot more deadly than it does when crew members are targeted. It’s not; but again, this is lighthearted SF, so this is totally fine. However, the mystery plot ultimately is tied up in a rush. Wagers probably has the next book all planned out, and I have no doubt the villain will return, but I think the only ways this book could have been better is 1) de-emphasizing the mystery and solving it in the next book; and 2) some of the competition action at the Boarding Games was sacrificed to show character scenes and the deepening of the mystery. I WANTED TO SEE THE FIGHTS, PEOPLE. Every swing, duck, punch, kick, roll, sweep, block, etc. There is enough Olympic-style tension and description, don’t get me wrong, but if the main focus was on the Boarding Games, I wanted to at least see more about each competition.
But honestly — those are my only quibbles, and they’re not large at all.
In Conclusion
If you’re quarantining and miss being around other people, if you need a story with drama, action, humor, and great characters, this book’s “this ship is a family” dynamic will give you All The Feels. If you need a lovely distraction from all of the awfulness in the world — this is your ticket. Read it and let’s talk!
Recommended Reading
Need more space opera? For lighthearted, “found-family” adventure, read Becky Chambers’s The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet (title kinda says it all!). I’m also going to suggest T.J. Berry’s Space Unicorn Blues, which I am bumping to the top of my to-read pile. And people keep telling me I need to read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga.
Participation Poll
Loading ...
This is actually one of the last books I read pre-pandemic – I checked it out from the library, and didn’t have a chance to return it before the libraries closed, so it sat on my bookshelf for a long time before I was able to return it when they reopened a few months ago.
My feeling about it tracked pretty closely with yours. This is what I said in my Goodreads review:
“This book is recommended for fans of Becky Chambers, and I can see the comparison. It’s a warm, upbeat, found-family space opera with lots of queer characters. I really enjoyed the character-focused story.
Wagers isn’t as deft a storyteller as Chambers – the writing was less graceful, and the actual plot felt a bit formulaic (although the characters were anything but). The main things that knocked this from 5 stars to 4 were some narrative choices that I found disconcerting and bewildering. If one of a book’s A-plots centers around a huge sports competition, not getting to see the climactic moments of that competition on the page is disappointing as a reader. Similarly, some of the early adventures that the team has are completely left off the page. This felt strange, and it threw me out of the story to start thinking about why the author would make that choice.”
Despite my critiques above, I liked this book a lot, and am also looking forward to the sequel. I agree that it would be great to see more about the romance and how it gets worked out in the context of Max’s ace identity and other complications.
Thank you! This is it exactly, in fewer words. Character development is one of Wagers’s strengths (I think) and this story almost takes a backseat to the people in it. There were definitely places where I felt Wagers could have tightened the writing, which might have got them more room to insert the play-by-play fight scenes. Overall I think the experience could be compared to Thanksgiving dinner–Wagers hosts, dishes out the plates with a sample of everything on the table, and afterward you’re stuffed but also content.
I liked this for many of the same reasons you did. It’s light, fun, and immersive, and that was something I sorely needed this week. And yes, we should have seen more of the Boarding Games after all of the lead-up! But overall I just wanted to hug my ebook for the combo of found family, representation of diverse sexualities, and problem solving competency.
I’ve been reading and rereading the Vorkosigan Saga for the last 20 years. The books hit me differently and I pick up new insights every time I go through them. I recommend starting with Cordelia’s Honor (Shards of Honor + Barrayar) and then continuing in chronological order (going back for Falling Free at some point). These books are the best mixture of integrity battles, humor, adventure, and madcap delight.
Yes, hug the ebook! 🙂 I really enjoyed the found-family dynamic. I really want to know what happens to all of them in the next book.
As for the Vorkosigan saga, well, that’s a great recommendation if ever I heard one! I think I will try the first book close to the winter holidays. Your description reminds me of Jodi Taylor’s madcap time travel series, The Chronicles of St. Mary’s, which starts with the aptly named “Just One Damn Thing After Another.”
Great review, and thanks for your selection. I had a lot of similar problems. WAY too many POVs and I had a lot of difficulty keeping everyone straight in my head. I even ended up taking a break from the book for a bit, but I did hit that point where I could keep things straight and I breezed through just fine. I am definitely interested in the sequel and Wagers’ back-catalogue!
I don’t know when I hit the point that all of the characters gelled into distinct entities for me. But once they did, it was a lot of fun. Yes, if you haven’t read the Indranan War, you should! There’s another series they wrote in between that one and the Neo-G, and I haven’t read that yet, but I am absolutely going to look them up.