Old Dork Yells at Clouds

I can't think of any successful science fiction book that doesn't go on to become a series today. I wish that there were more books in the genre that are stand-alone, single experiences. The genre should encourage more single works as it allows for writers to play with different speculative situations. Isn't that the core of science fiction?

I enjoyed the first Kindom book, These Burning Stars. Esek is a good anti-hero, and Chono is a great reader stand-in of how a person with modern-ish mores would handle having to cater to a borderline psychopath. The universe is different, alien, and intriguing. It is very much a more violent version of Martine's Teixcalaan series.

However, On Vicious Worlds falls into the middle book of a trilogy problem. The book largely exists to bridge the next book in the series. The conflicts and struggles of the protagonists of the novel don't end up meaning much in the end, as the events are transitory and lack permanence. The climax of the book is unsatisfying as the antagonists machinations just collapse and give way to a more cliched villain. I don't have a spoiler plugin for my CMS yet (anyone recommend one for Pelican?), so I won't leave the details here.

Six is a poor replacement for Esek, and whenever the focus shifts to them, it just reminds me of the better first book in the series. Hopefully, the next book will deliver better than On Vicious Worlds.