Synopsis
Get ready to be blown away by this searing standalone space opera where corporate samurai fight beneath merciless stars, and death is always a mere breath away.
Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow–to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy. But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it’s one she can’t refuse. Soon, she’s thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets. What she uncovers will change humanity’s existence in the stars forever.
The Last Contract of Isako is the space opera you didn’t know you needed: corporate samurai… in space. This is the first adult science fiction novel from the award-winning author of Jade City.
Review
“This accursed planet has always tried to break the human spirit, but it keeps failing. I don’t want to die– but I’ve been a partner of death for long enough that I’m not going to try to cheat it either.”
This book is a bit hard to review. I like it a lot and I am going to recommend it favourably to everyone but I also think people might need to go in with some adjusted expectations. The Green Bone Saga is pretty much my most favourite fantasy series at this point but this book is decidedly different from it. I do not mean only the setting and the nature of the story – this is Sci Fi/ Cyberpunk while GBS was epic urban fantasy. I feel like the emotional beats and the observations the reading experience will generate for The Last Contract of Isako itself is going to be different.
“The line between who you think you are and who you could be is awfully fucking thin.”
I am going to try and explain it a little bit. This book made me pause and reflect and think about so many different things. I work in the corporate world and I’ve always been viewing it from the perspective of someone who has gone through my specific experiences but here Fonda is letting me view everything from a totally different lens. Large scale enterprises, hierarchical structures, and strategic business goals are pretty much the pillars that hold up the corporate world. Viewing it from a top down focus point is definitely adding more perspective. The world of corporate strategy might not sound very appealing in a speculative fiction book, but neither does geopolitics and the economical aspects of jade trade in a gangster story and yet that worked in Green Bone saga and this works for Isako. The reader might just need a small adjustment period but it is worth it. And I don’t think I will find much opposition when I say that the goal of the Green Bone Saga was to extract as much emotional pain as can be done from the readers but this one is different- This one seems to lead the readers to a much different place of reflection, calmness, and acceptance. The biggest highlight for me comes from that place- how close to reality this book has drawn to.
“Christ, I’m up against Quickblade and Strikebreaker. Agency legends. I know when my number’s up.”
Fonda’s usual strengths are also on display again. It is very easy to fly through her writing and the character work wins you over. It speaks to Fonda’s strengths that the character I most engaged with, most like, and felt most real are actually not the MC Isako. Don’t get me wrong, Isako is a fully fleshed out character who is the quickest draw amongst all corporate samurais and she calls her knees ‘traitors’ because she’s old now and they do not cooperate with all of her wishes. That’s an incredibly appealing MC right there, but Martim, Rain Kob, and River Thea definitely take the aforementioned titles for me, respectively. Especially River Thea feeling the most real- That’s just Fonda showing off how strong she is at character work. River Thea has very limited scene time compared to the other characters but felt all the more real.
In conclusion, I like the book. It is different from the Green Bone Saga and people might need to slightly adjust their headspace to enjoy this one because the world of corporate strategy is slow. Fonda Lee is one of my most favourite authors and I’ve read 6 books and 3 novellas from her so far. Needless to say, she’s an auto-buy author for me and I’m going to be there day one for all of her works.
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