I mentioned something similar in my review for VELOCITY WEAPON, the first book in Megan E. O’Keefe’s THE PROTECTORATE trilogy, but with THE EXPANSE series coming to a close rather soon, I’m on the lookout for more righteous space opera series to get lost in.

And THE PROTECTORATE has become one of those series for me, for sure. VELOCITY WEAPON was just such an all-consuming, badass sci-fi novel, and CHAOS VECTOR expands on everything that was amazing about the first book. The cast of characters is quite a bit bigger in this book, and the overall effect is that this story feels increasingly character driven. Which is not to say it lacks for action, at all! Prepare yourself for some truly thrilling & badass action sequences here, something O’Keefe pulls off beautifully.

One of the things that caught me a bit off guard about CHAOS VECTOR was that Biran plays a smaller role than he did in VELOCITY WEAPON. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, especially with the addition of some great new faces to the mix. So this is just to say that if Biran was your favorite character from VELOCITY WEAPON, he’s not quite as prominent in book two. But I was really excited to see Jules’s storyline figure into the plot in a more significant way, as she was a character that really grabbed my attention in VELOCITY WEAPON.

Both books in THE PROTECTORATE are rather dense plot-wise, but O’Keefe is kind of a genius at pacing & the short chapters really keep things moving at a brisk pace. There’s a lot to take in, and a lot more characters to keep track of in this one, but this is just a fucking awesome space opera! Oof.

Artificial intelligence, cool robots, weird alien hijinks. Oh, and AWESOME SPACESHIPS!!! These books are incredibly smart, political, and dynamic. Sanda Greeve is as compelling a main character as you could ask for to carry such a big story, and gets a lot of help in this one from some very interesting new characters. A new character named Arden (although wait, they may have been a part of the first book to a point, my memory is trash!) has a rather large role in the story. I believe (again, my memory!) that Arden is the first nonbinary character in THE PROTECTORATE, and while they do have a key role to play here (as something of a hacker), I’m hoping to get a deeper dive into their character for book three!

While I worry that sometimes my commentary on a book’s representation isn’t always necessary, I do find these books to be rather diverse, and they feature some thoughtfully written queer relationships. Additionally, Sanda is a main character with a disability, and it’s a really fucking cool thing to see in a big huge space opera.

I’m all in for THE PROTECTORATE and for Megan E. O’Keefe’s work in general. Really looking forward to the conclusion of this trilogy, and also seeing what comes next from this really brilliant author!