Title: Bonds of Brass
Series: The Bloodright Trilogy: Book One
Author: Emily Skrutskie
Publisher: Del Ray/Random House
Length: 320 Pages
Category: SciFi, Teen Fiction
At a Glance: I love a good space opera, and Bonds of Brass is, overall, a really satisfying one. Filled with plenty of action and suspense and danger galore, it leads readers on a journey that offers up no few surprises and plenty of twists.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Ettian’s life was shattered when the merciless Umber Empire invaded his world. He’s spent seven years putting himself back together under its rule, joining an Umber military academy and becoming the best pilot in his class. Even better, he’s met Gal—his exasperating and infuriatingly enticing roommate who’s made the academy feel like a new home.
But when dozens of classmates spring an assassination plot on Gal, a devastating secret comes to light: Gal is the heir to the Umber Empire. Ettian barely manages to save his best friend and flee the compromised academy unscathed, rattled that Gal stands to inherit the empire that broke him, and that there are still people willing to fight back against Umber rule.
As they piece together a way to deliver Gal safely to his throne, Ettian finds himself torn in half by an impossible choice. Does he save the man who’s won his heart and trust that Gal’s goodness could transform the empire? Or does he throw his lot in with the brewing rebellion and fight to take back what’s rightfully theirs?
Review: I love a good space opera, and Bonds of Brass is, overall, a really satisfying one. For fans who can never get enough FinnPoe fanfic, Emily Skrutskie has lain the foundation for her own version of the relationship dynamic in the brewing teen romance between flyboys Ettian Nassun and Gal Veres, two cadets at the Umber military academy who have secrets. They both have big secrets. Explosive secrets. Not to mention that there’s a complicated and complicating war of allegiance steeping in Ettian’s heart and conscience. When a deadly ambush during flight training places Gal squarely in the crosshairs of what turns out to be an assassination attempt, it leaves Ettian in a mad scramble to save the boy he’s committed to stand beside and protect in every way and in everything—the boy Ettian has developed some feelings for that transcend the definition of friendship.
Ettian and Gal are roommates and developed a bond, which means the sense of betrayal runs deep when Ettian discovers that Gal Veres is, in truth, Gal emp-Umber, the heir to the entirety of the Umber Empire. The hurt goes beyond the mere fact that Gal kept one of the most important aspects of his life a secret, though. Ettian hails from the former Archon Empire—the territory that was brutally decimated by Gal’s mother, Iva emp-Umber, leaving Ettian an orphan with little choice but to assimilate and offer his allegiance to the Umber Empire, or risk death on the streets. In every possible way, Gal should be Ettian’s sworn enemy.
That Ettian has never shared his own history with Gal, however, becomes an issue which not only makes Ettian himself a bit of a hypocrite, mitigating circumstances notwithstanding, but it also causes a dearth of anything that resembles real trust between them. Ettian occasionally gives himself over to the feelings of hurt and anger he thought he’d put behind him when he left Archon and its destruction behind. But, then he recalls his love for Gal even as he wars with his yearning for and loyalty to the home territory and heroes who, he will come to discover, have been busy plotting a resurgence. With the plan to return Gal safely to the seat of the Umber Empire hinging on Ettian betraying his past, and his home world, and the people who wish to overthrow the Umber rule, it adds more strife to Ettian’s already embattled conscience.
So, what could possibly go wrong? Apart from everything.
Filled with plenty of action and suspense and danger, Bonds of Brass leads readers on a journey that offers up no few surprises and some nice twists too. Heroes and villains populate the spacescapes and landscapes, and the addition of a street kid, Wen Iffan, to Gal and Ettian’s team gives meaning and purpose to Ettian’s need to connect with someone he feels safe sharing his story with. Wen’s more than a handful of annoying, but when push comes to shove, her instincts and street smarts get them out of at least one more spot of trouble than she gets them into—they’re all still alive, so success—even if I didn’t particularly appreciate her role in the story as more than the requisite scamp, and felt her overall characterization missed the mark on sentimentality points.
As one might expect from a teenage protagonist, Ettian’s thoughts and emotions are all over the place, and run the gamut from “I love him” to “I loathe him” to whatever lies between. His feelings for Gal are nothing but a mess of confusion and contradiction as Gal’s true identity opens up a rift between them, even as Gal has shown time and again that he is not his mother’s clone. The BIG bait on the hook at the end of this first book in the Bloodright trilogy, however, comes in a revelation of massive and unexpected proportions which again—I hate to say it, but it’s true—makes a hypocrite of Ettian. At least, I believe so. It remains to be seen how he will resolve his own duplicity and assuage his conscience while he was busy judging Gal for not baring all his deepest secrets.
Emily Skrutskie has effectively teased the dramatic arc that will carry readers through the next book, and beyond. It promises much more conflict to come between Ettian and Gal and begs the question, how will these two boys topple a dark empire and save the galaxy?
You can buy Bonds of Brass here:
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