Naira and Tarquin have escaped vicious counterrevolutionaries, misprinted monsters, and the pull of a dying planet. Now, bound together to find the truth behind the blight that has been killing habitable planets, they need to hunt out the Mercator family secrets. But, when the head of Mercator disappears, taking the universe’s remaining supply of starship fuel with him, chaos breaks loose between the ruling families. Naira’s revolution must be put aside for the sake of humanity’s immediate survival.
I think Megan E. O’Keefe has been quietly turning out some of the best space opera novels in the last few years. I absolutely adored her previous trilogy with Orbit, THE PROTECTORATE. And with THE FRACTURED DARK, book two in THE DEVOURED WORLDS, it’s clear that she’s got another gem of a trilogy on her hands.
THE BLIGHTED STARS was such an amazing start to this trilogy, and while I don’t think THE FRACTURED DARK was quite as thrilling, this is still an extremely worthy follow up, and sets the table for an explosive book three.
This one picks up a few months after the events of THE BLIGHTED STARS, with Tarquin having fully joined Naira, Kav, and Kuma as a member of the crew. The slowly simmering romance between Naira & Tarquin takes on even more of a back burner vibe, because Naira has been reprinted & doesn’t have all the memories of her time with Tarquin on Sixth Cradle.
So that’s pretty fucking weird.
Meanwhile Acaelus is missing, which kind of leaves Tarquin as the head of the Mercator family? And then there’s this whole canus infection business which literally could wipe out all of humanity.
So just a few small issues to work though here, no big deal.
If there’s one thing Megan E. O’Keefe is going to do really well it’s give her characters seemingly insurmountable odds amidst a powder keg of ecological/political concerns. All while keeping a tight focus on the core group of characters, and developing them into a messy, extremely believable found family.
THE FRACTURED DARK also features a really insidious villain (I believe he was at least mentioned in the first book, or may have appeared in a few scenes…fuzzy memories are fuzzy) in the form of Naira’s ex, Fletcher. He is incredibly manipulative and the amount of gaslighting that happens on the page is worth mentioning, as it could be troublesome for some folks to read.
This was a really solid sequel, for sure. I’ve fallen super far behind on reviews, after having a decent run of “keeping up,” which means a lot of the details of this one have faded already for me. But I enjoyed this a lot, just as I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by O’Keefe. Naira & Tarquin are easy characters to root for here…two people in a dangerous galaxy, trying to do right by the people they love, even when it’s not always clear what the “right” thing to do is. The very best space opera is deeply character focused, and that’s the thing that Megan E. O’Keefe always gets just right.
Also, I mixed in some chapters via audio & Ciaran Saward is a great narrator! Really enjoyed what he brought to the table for the audiobook & highly recommend it if you’re an audiobook listener!
Big thanks to Orbit for sending this one my way! I’m really looking forward to THE BOUND WORLDS!!
Grimdark Dad 