Traitor's Run by Keith Stevenson
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Couer de lion Publishing
Published – Out Now
Price – £13.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook
Two outcasts. One goal. Stop Earth.
Earth's Hegemony controls the surrounding alien civilisations with ruthless force. Its aim: dominate the galaxy to protect humanity.
On Earth, disgraced pilot Rhees Lowrans is thrust into a job she doesn't want. She sees firsthand how the Hegemony will sacrifice anything - including her - to keep Earth safe.
In the Lenticular, Udun - one of the empathic Kresz - is on a secret mission when he learns of the Hegemony's expansion into nearby space. But his warnings are ignored and the Hegemony invades his world and mutilates any Kresz who oppose them.
Can these two outsiders stand against the might of the Hegemony? And will the human race survive if they succeed?
Space Opera often has a clash of not just worlds but empires and ideologies. Its scale and power is where we can sit back and enjoy the space battles. But Empire always raises questions that we should think about and an interesting aspect of Keith Stevenson’s start to a new series Traitor’s Run we have an unusual case where we humans indeed are the bad guys!
The human race is in a desperate battle with the K-Chaan race and war is on the brink. Pressure amounts on a peace meeting but it ends in violence (instigated unknowingly to people by a human being named Volmar). The aftermath of that twenty years later saw the human race grow in limitary strength, power and domination in the guise of the Hegemony. Its reach ever growing and Volmar lurks in the background. Udun a rebellion alien from the Kresz race hungers to reach the stars and get away from their home planet. But Udun finds signs that a mysterious danger known as the Hegemony is on their way to their home world and they fear the worst may be coming.
In the hegemony Rhees is a disgraced military pilot now seconded to the Hegemony group under the watchful eyes of Volmar. He assigns Rhees to a strange attack on a Hegemony world suggesting something new in the galaxy is going on. These two individuals may hold the fate of star systems and billions of lives in their hands.
I enjoyed this overall. Stevenson has a good grasp of scale and a neat line in unusual character building. Rhees is a misguided guilt-ridden soul looking to do better but the more interesting and unusual character is Udun a wholly alien character with different physiology, mindsets and culture to us humans but still with their desire to head for the stars someone SS readers can relate to. Udun’s plotline is really interesting as its someone rebelling against a very alien society. Overall though this still feels a very traditional space opera but there is clearly a lot to come. This very much is a series first novel butideally, I wanted a little more pace and action than this tale offered in a relatively short page spa for this kind of tale. I Aldo think those who enjoy traditional SF space opera will enjoy this a lot and there are a few unique touches in particular with the approach to aliens to keep you occupied. Worth a look!
