Down Among the Dead

Starred review from October 1, 2019

Betrayed and attacked during a peace talk on Earth, Hail Bristol, empress of Indrana and former gunrunner, has lost many of her subjects, including her brothers. Now Hail and her remaining bodyguards are "guests" of the Shen, ruthless, immortal aliens at war for centuries with Indrana's allies, the Farians. While Hail's friends attempt to find a way to escape, she deals with her crumbling mental state and the ghosts of her dead people. When the Shen reveal dire truths about the attack on Earth and the future, Hail is forced to question everything she has believed--and decide whether to remain true to her Farian allies or fight for the Shen. Through grief, blood, death, and resurrection, the Star of Indrana shines in her loss and fury. Readers will root for Hail, despite her faults and missteps, because her loyalty inspires all those who follow her. VERDICT Wager's follow-up to There Before the Chaos is action- and emotion-packed, folding political tension, personal relationships, and trauma into a vivid space opera that does not pull any punches.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 25, 2019
Wagers’s rough and raucous gunrunner empress Hail Bristol returns in the exhilarating second installment of the Farian War series. The massive blast that ended There Before the Chaos killed almost everyone Hail loved and left her in the hands of mysterious enemy aliens called the Shen. The Shen need Hail’s help to stop powerful beings posing as gods and try to sway her to their side by showing her visions of a devastating future. Hail doesn’t know what to believe or who to back in the ongoing war. The only thing she knows for sure is that eventually she’ll have to fight her way out. Though Hail’s mental health is failing, her hard-edged toughness persists. Wagers viscerally portrays both Hail’s violent rages and her loving protectiveness over her surviving loved ones as she teeters on the edge of losing her mind. This excellent, electric space opera will delight Wagers’s fans and appeal to lovers of political speculative fiction. Agent: Andy Zack, the Zack Company.