With the universe’s most powerful ship under her command and some of the most skilled hackers, fighters, and spies on her team, it will still take everything she has to find the key to taking down an immortal enemy with seemingly limitless bodies, resources, and power.
One of the only reading goals I set for myself this year was to make an effort to finish some trilogies/series that I had started. I just took a quick look and…I guess depending on how I count things (it’s more complicated in my head than it needs to be), I’ve finished at least seven or so trilogies/series this year.
So that’s pretty good!
And fucking hell, Megan E. O’Keefe’s THE PROTECTORATE trilogy comes to a close in a big way with CATALYST GATE. I think all told, this is my favorite book of the trilogy!
There’s such an effortless fusion of different sci-fi subgenres in these books…there’s a heavy political element to the story, there’s some BANANAS action sequences, and there’s also some grimy/cyberpunk-y planetside stuff happening. And, more so in CATALYST GATE than in the first two books, you’ve really got that special found-family-of-misfits-in-space vibe.
Sanda Greeve is for sure one of my all-time favorite sci-fi protagonists, full stop. CATALYST GATE shows us a Sanda that’s nearly stretched to a breaking point, as she and her crew continue to deal with the existential threat to humanity that is Rainier Lavaux.
Sanda is just such a vivid, badass character. She’s resourceful, stubborn, raw, and full of righteous fury. She also shows an incredibly vulnerable side to her personality here, as Tomas is back in the fold in a big way. Not much I can say about his storyline without giving too much away, but oof…there are some really big emotional scenes in this one.
One of the things I had hoped to see in CATALYST GATE was a more expanded role for Arden, the super-genius/smartass/hacker extraordinaire, and that was definitely the case here. We spend a lot more time with Arden here, and get a much better feel for them as a character.
Sanda’s whole crew, really, is just fucking incredible & a lot of fun to hang around with. I really grew fond of Nox in this one, the heavy/weapons expert. There’s maybe some traces of Amos Burton or Jayne Cobb baked into Nox’s DNA, but there’s a whole lot to discover about this guy, and his interactions with Tomas in CATALYST GATE are especially entertaining.
Look, this is an incredibly non-specific review. I know. This is a huge story, with intergalactic politics, the potential extinction of all human life, a droll sentient spaceship, some seriously badass action sequences…this is just such an incredible trilogy of books & I’m really looking forward to reading what’s next from Megan E. O’Keefe.
THE PROTECTORATE just kept getting bigger & bolder as the story went on, and I loved this trilogy hard. There’s great disability & queer representation throughout these books, and a cast of characters that have a tendency to lodge themselves in your heart…yeah, I adored this trilogy.
Grimdark Dad 