The Devoured Worlds trilogy by Megan E. O’Keefe: The Blighted Stars, The Fractured Dark, and
The Bound Worlds (Orbit, May 23, 2023, September 26, 2023, and June 25, 2024). Covers by Jaime Jones

It’s January 17, and I’m doing a fairly good job on at least one of my New Year’s resolutions — catching up on some of my favorite blogs. I started with Rich Horton’s excellent Strange at Ecbatan, a review site that covers a delightfully eclectic mix of old and new books, from one of the most knowledgeable and astute readers we have. Rich’s most recent review was Howard Andrew Jones’ terrific debut novel The Desert of Souls, a piece resurrected from my first website, the sadly now defunct SF Site.

Back in September Rich discussed The Blighted Stars, the first book in Megan O’Keefe’s Devoured Worlds trilogy. I talked about the first two titles in the series here in July 2023. What drew me was the intriguing mix of SF and horror, and the promise of creepy adventure on a dead planet in the opening volume, in which an idealistic resistance fighter is stranded with the heir to an imperial space dynasty. But, as usual, Rich has a lot more insight to offer than I.

Here’s an excerpt.

The Blighted Stars opens with two starships, the Amaranth and the Einkorn, orbiting a world called “Sixth Cradle” — as it is the sixth known Earthlike world that may serve as a “cradle” for humanity — which, we soon realize, lives mostly in space after Earth and the other “cradles” have been overrun by “the shroud.” Tarquin Mercator is the son of Acaelus Mercator, the leader of the Mercator corporation, one of the five MERIT companies that rule humanity. Tarquin is a geologist, a good scientist but painfully aware that he doesn’t have the ruthlessness required to lead Mercator…

Naira Sharp had been a Mercator bodyguard until she had defected. She and her fellows have been blowing up starships and the like in the hopes of stopping the mining of relkatite. But Naira had been captured and put on trial, and Tarquin Mercator’s testimony about the impossibility of the mining operations causing the shroud had led to her conviction…

The world O’Keefe has built for the trilogy is pretty complex — and mostly interestingly so. And there are surprising realizations that arise during the story that alter our original expectations. The bulk of the story is set on the planet’s surface. The survivors establish a camp, and Tarquin must navigate their natural suspicion of him as a Mercator heir… Tarquin and Naira (who he still thinks is Lockhart) begin to reluctantly grow close. Tarquin makes some increasingly shocking discoveries about the planet, beginning with the fact that it too is infected by the shroud, and is thus dying. But there are other mysteries…

The world it is set in is intriguing, with some familiar ideas, yes, but well-handled ones. The central romance is pretty involving — it kept my interest and I was willing to believe in it. And I would like to see how the political and personal issues are resolved by the end of the trilogy. On the other hand, it’s a bit too long — some judicious editing could probably have cut 20% without harming the novel.

Read the whole thing here.

If, like me, you enjoy reviews of classic science fiction and fantasy book mixed with a steady diet of Anthony Trollope novels and other 19th Century classics, follow along with all of Rich’s entertaining reviews here.