Written by Ryk Brown

Number 7 in The Frontiers Saga: Part 2: Rogue Castes

Publisher: Frontiers Saga Publishing
Pages: 289
Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera
Published: 2017-11-29
Original Language: English

Old allies go dark… New worlds join the fight… A rescue from an enemy held world… A lone operative with a dangerous plan… The Karuzari finally have the support of an industrialized system, but they need time to build their forces. Unfortunately, time is the one thing they may not have. Captain Scott now faces a difficult To risk it all on a single roll-of-the-dice, or to turn his back on an old friend, and a plan that could buy them the time they so desperately need?

Read from 2024-01-01 to 2024-07-03
Read in English
Rating: 4/5
Review: I came back to this book after taking a bit of a book-reading-break where much of my reading time has been consumed by news and magazines. So what better way to return than to dive into the familiar world of the Frontiers Saga?

“Who Takes no Risk” takes, or rather continues to take, a turn toward the futile and sad. There’s a darker, more desperate, atmosphere hanging over this book than what has been the norm so far, and even though we still get a fair share of plot-powered improbable successes, the feeling of “this is a series where things will generally go well” is being gradually dismantled. Which is a good thing.

There’s also a couple of really great sub-plots in this book, and it’s almost a bit of a pity that they’re bundled in with such a substantive main plot. They don’t exactly serve to add much levity, but I found the sub-plots more emotionally engaging than the main plot. They gave me time to digest what was happening, rather than being a full-on series of events that were thrown at me.

This book has flaws. Some, if not all, of the main set pieces feel a bit dragged out, and once it’s obvious what is going to happen, it takes too long for it to actually happen. But while this series took the leap from being a joyously superficial, feel-good space opera to a more emotionally absorbing story many, many, books ago - this book definitely serves to affirm that fact.