Review: Between Home and Ruin by Karl Gallagher

In his sequel to Storm Between the Stars, Karl Gallagher turns up the intrigue and the action. The result is a story that is both a natural development from its predecessor and yet completely different.

The story

The Azure Tarn is back on the water world of Corwynt, this time carrying a delegation from Fiera, hoping to reach a peaceful accord with the Censorate. The first part of the story focuses on the Fieran delegation trying convince the Censorate to leave them alone rather than launching an invasion. While the negotiations go on, Marcus Landry spends time with Wynny, searching for a permanent place for the Fieran Embassy, while also cementing their relationship as husband and wife.

As one might expect, the negotiations don’t go well and end when the Censorate issues an ultimatum that amounts to a demand for full surrender. Given the much greater military might of the interstellar empire, the Fierans briefly consider it before fleeing for home to prepare for war. In the process, Marcus and Wynny are separated, with Marcus being forced to fly back on the Azure Tarn and Wynny stranded at her home on Corwynt.

From there we are led into an intrigue of secret societies and murder as Wynny tries to recover Bibles and other books left by the Fierans in their retreat as well as solve a murder.

At the same time, the Fierans and the Censorate both prepare for war, pitting the two very different societies against each other. The Fierans turn their free market towards building warships and converting every other ship possible into a missile platform, including the Azure Tarn. The Censorials on the other hand, while possessing much more weaponry, thanks to being able to call on the resources of several worlds, are hampered by layers upon layers of bureaucracy and a lack of experience in actually fighting a war.

The characters

Wynny is the standout character in this book. While before she was little more than a love interest for Marcus, in this we see that she is possessed of a great deal of intelligence and determination as she goes about trying to solve a murder and navigate Corwynt’s underworld of secret societies. She also struggles with coming to understand the faith of her husband Marcus and the consequences it has not just for society as a whole but for believers in general.

Marcus also shines even brighter than in Storm, growing as a leader in several ways, stepping into various roles such as speaker, negotiator, and even gunner, all while worrying about Wynny back on her world.

There is even a priest, Father Murphy, sent as part of the delegation to try and learn if there is a Pope outside of the Bubble. He’s the picture of a down-to-earth Irish priest, willing to teach and break or rule or two and being very aware of the typical human failings.

We also get more familiar with Bridge Yeager, Corwynt’s Governor and the one who insists on the raising of a fleet to invade and subdue Fiera, believing the existence of any free world to be a threat to the Censorate. He isn’t just a simple villain though as throughout, we see numerous examples of him caring about his men, though at the end of the day, his main concern is crushing what he sees as a rebellion waiting to happen.

The world

Gallagher again gets to flex a lot of muscle here, especially in the way Wynny’s part of the story revolves around a theological dispute that arises during a brief sermon given by Father Murphy. I won’t spoil it at all other than to say the dispute is both funny and somewhat sad because it’s all too plausible.

The Censorate is also explored more as we learn just how limited they are due to the strict control of information. Even Yeager can’t get directly to his boss. He has to piece together transportation bit by bit because even experienced spacers know only a small amount of the empire’s territory. The military preparations also reveal that the Censorate has been approximately the same size for a long time as only a handful of officers in the fleet the governor puts together have seen any battle at all, let alone an all-out war.

The author also gets to show off his engineering background, particularly during the battle. He clearly enjoyed planning out the tactics and the weaponry, putting them together in such a way that the battle for Fiera is one that is believably not one-sided.

The politics

Given that the protagonists are obviously free market individualists and the Censorate is a brutal dictatorship that censors even the year and is willing to launch an invasion fleet to impose its will on a peaceful world, the politics of the book are pretty clear. Not that all collective action is viewed as an evil, far from it. However, when it is enforced form the top down, it becomes something that Orwell warned us about.

Why read it?

If you enjoyed Gallagher’s Storm Between the Stars, you will definitely want to delve into Between Home and Ruin. The sequel fleshes out the characters more, explores the competing philosophies exceedingly well and ups the stakes in every way. Main characters are tormented by separation from each other while fighting for their lives against the Censorate, although in very different ways.

In short, Karl Gallagher doesn’t just break the sequel curse, he shatters it, grinds the pieces into dust and launches them into hyperspace never to be seen again.