Customer Reviews

Guardians of Paradise (Hidden Empire)

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This continued a long string of ok'ish but ultimately disappointing 2010 Gollancz novels for which I had the highest expectations; I am not sure that it is due to me just getting saturated of the relatively light and mindless sf-adventure Guardians of Paradise represents or that the book is considerably weaker than the first two, so I will take a look at the next installment but not sure if I continue the series.

There were flashes when the book was exciting or interesting and I found myself turning pages eagerly to see what's next - the scenes with Marua were great and most of Nual's pagetime, but Taro was just annoying, boring and I wish he got lost on the vacation planet - he was interesting in Khesh but out of his depth he is just a huge drag on the series in the wider universe, while Jarek was in turns boring and annoying and another miscast type completely outside of his depth.

I also saw a large amount of typos or at best questionable author's choices of words, surprisingly so for a supposedly edited book - and these are things I tend not to notice with all the arcs and indies I read, but here somehow they stuck out; the plot verged on ridiculous on more than on one occasion too and I would drop the series if not for Nual who keeps being an interesting character I want to see what happens too.

The story is told in the blurb, but to summarize: after two related books - Principles of Angels featuring Nual and Taro on the Orbital City of Khesh - great debut of the series - and Consorts of Heaven featuring Jarek on an obscure planet which was another superb book but due to the local characters first and foremost, the three meet in the wider universe and go looking for proof about the nefarious Sidhe that were supposedly overthrown a long time ago, but influence humanity in secret; Nual is actually one of them, so they are more-or-less humans with extra-powers and a nasty gender-split for reasons that are slowly revealed in the 3 books

More stuff is introduced here and some back story that is interesting, but Taro and Jarek drag the book down to much

I love Jaine Fenn. Her characters and intriguing world building is superb. She is one of my favorite authors and Guardians of Paradise is one of my most anticipated books this year. Let me start by telling you a bit background.

The Hidden Empire series is about the Sidhe, a race with overwhelming mental powers and beauty that has been screwing with the human race in secret for a long time. Centuries ago their Protectorate ruled the human race. But their tyranny was so great that the males of their own race joined the subjugated humans in an uprising believed to have killed all of them and freeing the human race. But now a few humans learn that they are still around.

One good thing with Jaine is that her books are self contained and can be stand by themselves. That is especially true for the previous two books that can be read independently.

Principles of Angels is about a conspiracy that could destroy a floating city to kill Nual, a renegade Sidhe. This is where Taro and Nual meet and become what they are now.

The second book Consorts of Heaven is about a secret colony where the Sidhe breed a special kind of talent only to lure them with fake religion and put them in stasis to send them off planet to use their tortured brains as jump-cores. This is where Jarek Reen regains his memories among the local barbarians and helps them overthrow the Sidhe and escapes with the secret.

Guardians of Paradise brings together the characters and plots from the previous books. Nual and Taro are now both certified Angel assassins hiding in the house Nual inherited from Elarn Reen. Jarek arrives at his dead sister's house in time to foil an assassination attempt on them and they decide to join Jarek in his crusade against the Sidhe.

The hunt takes them trough hard personal dilemmas, arduous jumps, elusive allies and equally elusive enemies. Nual and Taro goes ahead to the vacation planet that was the destination of the Consorts of Heaven to try to find the operation there while Jarek goes to a trading hub to find a hacker competent enough to hack the Sidhe datacore he stole from their ship.

The story is well paced, captivating and thrilling. I especially enjoyed the artificially induced love between Taro and Nual. The Sidhe power of healing induces love and she saved his life at the end of Principles of Angels. He is a 17 year old kid, a bit more mature than most in some respect since he grew up in the Undertow but very much his age in others and she is an alien with different ways of thinking brought up as she was in a hive-mind-like community. It has many surprising twists and turns. And every good story should have a love interest in it. The captures and escapes kept it thrilling too. And the overall journey of discovery has some big surprises at the end.

The world building is one of Jaine Fenn's strengths. This world is well thought out with its history and different political solutions. The seemingly rural vacation planet with hidden high tech corporations at war with each other while maintaining a tabu against killing is well executed and made believable.

The characters are easy to love and root for. Jaine makes them sympathetic, lifelike and believable like 'ordinary people' with special circumstances. They are human and they make mistakes maybe thats what makes the threats to them so gripping. The powers they have are not superpowers that take them out of any bind, rather the opposite it is their ingenuity that saves the day unless their friends have to come and help them. The multiple main characters hold together well and the plot doesn't diverge much.

Another great thing is that I finally get to know about how Nual became a Sidhe rebel and how she as a child was rescued by Jarek. That explained a whole lot but it also opened a can of worms that I am sure the reader will enjoy in books to come.

I got this random thought. Interesting the way you thinks about female alien villains. It doesn't feel like a gender issue here but what would I think if a male writer had the same female villains? I would probably never think about it at all if they were male...

I love journeys of discovery like the one here. Guardians of Paradise is an action adventure that puts two Angel assassin and a Free trader against sinister alien conspiracies. Jaine proves again she is a master at doling out revelations and pacing the story that keeps me captivated from beginning to end. This is enjoyable science fiction with a spice of fantasy. This book is less standalone than the previous two and I would recommend that you read them first. I don't know how long you can keep calling someone a promising new author, Jain Fenn is one of the most promising authors of this century and I am sure you would enjoy her books too.

The ending keeps me thinking and speculating on where this is going but we will have to wait until July 2011 for Bringer of Light.