Seven Mercies

Seven Mercies is the second half of the Seven Devils duology. (Read my review of the first book.) Like the first book in the series, it's a mixed bag; a lot to like, and a few things that don't quite work. 

Synopsis

Seven Mercies starts a few months after the conclusion of the first book. The rebel forces are decimated. The empire is stronger than ever, and our heroes are struggling to find supplies. Rumors arrive that the other empire has found a way to free people from the Oracle's mind control. So two of the devils go under cover to verify it. 

In the mean time, the others try to free one of their former leaders from prison before he is turned into a mindless vessel for the AI that runs the empire. It's too late, of course, he's already fully under the AI's control. So when they bring him back, the AI speaks through him, persuading the youngest rebel to return to her job as the AI's programmer and engineer. The AI then persuades her young engineer to write the code that lets it take over everyone in the empire. Everyone with a chip in their head across the entire length of the empire is reduced to mindless drones. (Yep, that's essentially what just happened on Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 9.) 

The rebels must fight through an army of drones to rescue their young engineer and destroy the AI. 

Most of the characters are well developed (although some make really stupid decisions) and action is intense. Making the book enjoyable to read.... if you can ignore the occasional clumsy writing and a basic world building error.

The Writer's Perspective

The first book was marketed as a feminist space opera. But the second book reveals that  four of the characters are bisexual and one is transgender, making this more of a queer space opera. This also creates an internal contradiction that shows the authors failed to do their research. 

In the real world, sexual identity and orientation develop during gestation. The genetic engineering program and artificial gestation process that the authors described would never have allowed the development of homosexual and transgender traits in just a few random individuals among a creche of engineered soldiers. 

This basic flaw in the world building prevents the suspension of disbelief necessary for the reader to totally immerse themselves in the fictional universe. It also highlights how important it is for science fiction writers to research the science they write about.

If you can ignore this basic error, you'll enjoy both Seven Devils and Seven Mercies.

Seven Devils

Seven Devils is the story of five women fighting for freedom against an oppressive intergalactic empire. Eris, the former heir to the throne, threw away her heritage after being forced to kill most of her brothers to earn it. Clo, a mechanical genius from the slums. Nyx an elite soldier who grew tired of killing. Rhea, a genetically engineered concubine. And Ariadne, a genetically engineered computer genius. 

Together they fight against an oppressive empire and the Artificial Intelligence system that controls the minds of nearly everyone in that empire. 

Most novels with more than two POV characters change POVs too often. This makes the characters feel like 'paper dolls', or plot devices to advance the action. The frequent POV shifts prevents me from connecting with the characters or caring what happens to them.

Seven Devils solves this problem by introducing the characters more gradually. We get several chapters to know Eris and Clo before we're introduced to the other three. More importantly, the early chapters illuminate the history of these two, giving considerable depth to the conflict between them.

The book frequently shifts back to the past to describe the traumatic events that led each of the five main characters to breaking away from their former lives. Each of these flashback chapters adds more depth to the characters and helps explain their attitudes and actions in the novel's present. 

 The Writer's Perspective

A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing supporting characters with a fellow writer in the workshop. One of her supporting characters had acted inconsistently from chapter to chapter. In early chapters, she was hostile to the main character. Yet later, she said she'd always been a supporter of the main character's family. This continuity error resulted from the author not developing the supporting character's background early enough to see the story through their eyes. 

Although most novels would not benefit from the back-and-forth structure of Seven Devils, I think authors need to develop their supporting characters' histories, perspective and motivations early in the writing process, or at least when the character is first introduced. Not only does this give the character depth, it also helps inform how the story progresses. And Seven Devils illustrates one of the ways to do that. 

Seven Devils isn't perfect. Because of the frequent viewpoint changes, the writers frequently remind the reader whose viewpoint their reading. They do this by starting or ending sentences statements like "Eris knew..." And this often feels clumsy or heavy-handed. Also, many parts of the novel (especially the space ships and the weapons) would have benefited from clearer descriptions. But the main characters do engage you, especially Eris and Clo. You want to see them overcome their past and resolve their differences. That makes the novel worth reading, and I'm looking forward to the second book of the series