Behind the Throne

Starred review from June 13, 2016
Taut suspense, strong characterization, and dark, rapid-fire humor are the highlights of this excellent SF adventure debut. Hail Bristol has spent years earning a reputation as one of the galaxy’s most notorious smugglers. But her biggest challenge is dealing with her mother, the ruler of the Indranan Empire. The empress has sent two relentless Trackers, Emmory and Zin, to drag Hail to the last place Hail wants to go—home to the empire—to be the new heir after her sisters were murdered. Hail doesn’t care about duty, but she does intend to find out who killed her sisters, especially once she realizes the assassins may have also killed her father years before. Byzantine political intrigue, the empress’s growing senility, and a looming war mean the initially despised Emmory and Zin may be the only people Hail can trust, and her gunrunning skills will serve her well at home too. Wagers’s debut is a deviously labyrinthine adventure in which smuggling is less dangerous than interstellar politics. Hail is at her most intriguing when she’s unashamed of who she was and may still need to be, and her personality is a perfect mix of cunning and flaws that she never quite patched. Agent: Andrew Zack, Zack Company.

Starred review from August 1, 2016

Hail Bristol's career as a successful smuggler is abruptly halted when trackers from the Indranan Empire storm her ship and inform her that her empress mother is sick and her sisters have been murdered, leaving her the sole heir to the throne. But this is a life Hail fled, and even the need to obtain justice for her siblings will not make it easy for her to accept that she must rejoin the palace. Luckily, Hail picked up a few skills from her gun-running days that will serve her well as a princess in a hostile court. This debut ranks among the best political sf novels in years, largely because of the indomitable, prickly Hail. The secondary characters--from the trackers who are Hail's only allies at first, to a conniving cousin--are fascinating as well. The matriarchal structure of the Indranan Empire leads to some interesting gender dynamics, and the cultural influences being largely from India make for a welcome change. VERDICT This fast-paced, twisty space opera borrows the political machinations from fantasies such as George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor. [See Eric Norton's "Genre Spotlight" feature, p. 24ff.--Ed.]--MM

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
Debut author Wagers opens a promising science-fiction series featuring Hailimi Hail Bristol, known throughout the galaxy as a ruthless gunrunner. Since her father's death, Hail has done everything she can to track down his killers and avoid her responsibilities as a princess of the Indranan Empire. From the Trackers sent by the ailing empress to retrieve her, Hail learns that her sisters and niece have also been assassinated, leaving her the sole heir. She reluctantly returns home to an empire in crisis, entering a tangle of intrigue without clear allies. Pulling few punches, Wagers creates an intriguing and technologically advanced matriarchal society based on the Indian culture of its early settlers. Behind the Throne investigates power dynamics, family, and trust as it explores the story of a clever and determined woman struggling to find her place in the face of great loss. For fans of stories with plenty of action and political maneuvering.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)