Furious Heaven

The dense second installment to Elliott’s Sun Chronicles series, an epic gender-swapped retelling of the life of Alexander the Great, lives up to the promise of its predecessor, Unconquerable Sun, delivering delicious space opera action webbed with intricate court intrigue. Princess Sun, heir to Queen-Marshal Eirene of the Republic of Chaonia, has trained her entire life to become a leader, lessons she both takes on and chafes against. When she’s unexpectedly called to take up her mother’s mantle on the eve of an ambitious attack against both the hated Phene Empire and the Rider Council, she has only tenuous support from the rest of the government but the wholehearted backing of her seven Companions. Elliott alternates between a handful of point-of-view characters to create a nuanced exploration of this fraught political landscape. Phene pilot Apama, for example, proves a perfect foil to both Sun and Companion Persephone, who is herself an unwitting party to a long-held Chaonian secret. The result is a byzantine plot enhanced with lovingly detailed action sequences, romance, and moral and philosophical questions about personhood and duty. It’s a lot, but readers who stick with it will be richly rewarded. (Apr.)