Synopsis:
Earth That Was has faded into myth. After millennia spent wandering, humans are no longer nomads. Twelve tribes stand allied under the United Tribal Axis; but there is a signal in the darkness that threatens to destroy everything.
All Skyla wanted after leaving the Navy was to be left alone. Just her ship, the stars, and a new adventure. But when a strange virus disables her ship, she is thrown into the middle of a conflict she doesn’t understand, forcing her to take on responsibilities she swore she never would again.
Hinata always followed the rules, honor above all else. He always won, until he didn’t. Sentenced to exile for his failures, he is determined to prove himself, until a mysterious woman arrives on his station and chaos threatens to break already fragile alliances.
Freyja was always angry, an outcast, playing the part of admiral and black ops operative. But she is tired of being a pawn in the Empress’ games and when she’s stranded on the wrong side of enemy lines after a vengeful battle, she’s forced to ally with her adversaries to clear her name.
Review:
Umbra hits all the notes of a classic space opera; humanity has taken to the stars, there’s a major conflict brewing, lots of inter-tribe conflict, a plethora of interesting tech, and plenty of worlds/habitats to explore. While the main characters were each interesting in their own way, the worldbuilding (galaxy-building?) was my favorite part.
The story begins with Skyla, who is an adventurer/archeologist seeking ancient tech. Most of what she finds is human in origin, even if the worlds she finds it on have been abandoned for generations. She keeps her distance from the United Tribal Axis (UTA) due to her past, so when circumstances align to bring her into contact with Hinata, and later Freyja, who are both high-ranking officials in the UTA navy, it’s not something she expected. She’s an explorer at heart and the rigid rules of the UTA aren’t for her.
Hinata is the classic, duty-bound, noble soldier who always follows orders and works for the greater good. Of the three main characters, he’s the only one from a different tribe. They’re all human, but the rules his people follow differ from the others. For instance, his tribe believes the AI ships many naval officers bond with are only tools. Both Skyla and Frejya interact with their AI ships as if they were fully sentient people (in the context of this book, they pretty much are.)
Freyja was a difficult character to like. She was always angry, and often running errands for her very powerful mother—against the directives of the UTA navy. It was hard to trust her, even after certain things come to light.
The technology featured throughout the book was really interesting. I already mentioned the AI ships, but the preferred weapons used by most were fairly unique. Since projectile weapons aren’t suited for battles waged in spaceships or small space stations, they’ve fallen out of popularity to be replaced by “older” sorts of weapons like swords and staves. But those weapons were integrated with tech that can produce localized EMPs, or blunt the edges for training… I find little elements like that are fun to uncover in a story. The “wetware” defense system they encounter was an inventive idea too—bioengineered plants that act as building security aren’t just creative, they’re kind of scary.
There were a lot of pieces to this book that I don’t want to go too far into due to spoilers, but I will say this: Umbra sets the stage for the rest of the series. There are a lot of “beginnings,” but not much is resolved here. (The good news for readers is that book 2 is on the horizon.)
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