Teaser

On a regular patrol of the solar system, the Khidr and its crew of able spacers encounter a freighter in trouble. But what should be a simple rescue mission soon drags everyone into a conspiracy that puts all on board to the test . . .

Review

Capping off my mission to read all the books I bought at last year’s FantasyCon before buying more at this year’s event (which is only a month and a bit away), we have Allen Stroud’s Fearless. Look, it’s a book with a cool spaceship on the cover. Of course I was going to buy it. In fact, the combination of spaceship and eyes reminds me a lot of the covers for The Lost Fleet. Not a bad series to be reminded of. Cover aside, the obvious comparison piece for Fearless is James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes. There’s a settled solar system, but humans have gone no further. There’s a crew who answer a distress call only to end up in over their heads. It’s very much playing in the same territory, albeit with a slightly more military edge.

Fearless opens with a small patrol ship and its crew of two dozen deep into their patrol. That’s quite a chunky cast, and so it’s only natural that most are realised very quickly in broad strokes. The eager new guy, the jaded veteran, etc. You know the drill. This being an action-oriented book, some of the characters are killed off before we ever really get a chance to know them. Thankfully, there are only three points of view to worry about. That’s a much easier number to keep track of, and the trio of protagonists spend enough time away from one another that we get a good overall look at the situation. In terms of page count, the viewpoints are far from equal, with our beloved captain Shann getting the lion’s share, as is only right and proper. It’s also worth noting that Shann is physically disabled, but this rarely comes up in the narrative. It’s not a plot point or a part of her character arc, but a simple fact about her that informs the character. Put simply, it’s disability representation done right. at least, from my limited perspective. Other opinions are available.

There’s a tendency in the more space operatic end of science fiction to treat ships (when they don’t have a personality of their own) as little more than a means of conveyance. I mean, even the Millennium Falcon could have been replaced with another ship at times with no bearing on the plot. Fearless treats a spaceship as what it would more realistically be. A place of work. Everyone knows their way around, but it’s not a home.

Why do I bring this up? Because Fearless is set entirely on spaceships, mostly the Khidr. After all, you can’t leave without exposing yourself to the vacuum of space, and the nearest planet is weeks away. This really ramps up the tension when it becomes clear that there is a traitor onboard. Few books I’ve read recently have managed to be quite as tense, and once the crew starts suspecting and turning on one another, you know there’s no going back.

Fearless is the first book in a trilogy, and that does come with a price. While the main story beats are wrapped up nicely by the end of the book, it does still end abruptly. the final page feels more like a chapter break than it does the conclusion of a novel. Happily, this just makes me more likely to buy the next in the series, which will probably happen at this year’s FantasyCon.

If you’re okay with not having a neat end to the first book in a series, and you’re craving some well-paced, near-future space opera, then Fearless is definitely worth a look.

Book Stats

• The Fractal Trilogy #1
• Published in 2020
• 361 Pages