2019 Dragon Award Finalist, Best SF Novel: "A Star-Wheeled Sky"

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Greetings to all my internet friends and neighbors, and a MOST auspicious day for those of you who are following the Dragon Race To Review, because I BELIEVE you are going to get two installments today! And to any of my family who have made an appearance: do you know if there was ever any serious consideration given to settling in an area a bit less hot and humid?

A comparison with Robert A. Heinlein usually results in a collapsed modern author, but Brad Torgersen does just fine, in my humble opinion. I don't make the comparison lightly; I can point to four separate profound influences on my life from Heinlein's books, from “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” in 5th or 6th grade, to my discovery of a dog-eared copy of “Starship Troopers” in the day room of Charlie 2 at Ft Sam Houston in 1972. Perhaps, if I were found in the form of an impressionable 12 year-old lad, and someone gave me a copy of “The Chaplain's War,” similar life-changing understandings would emerge, because Torgersen did two things in that book I've never seen before.

In the first place, in all the military movies and literature I consumed in my life, there was never anyone like ME, or any of my family. My grandfather took care of the mules in France. My father was a B-17 door gunner during WWII, my uncle was an aircraft mechanic in Korea, and I was a medic in Germany. It wasn't until they send my cannon-cocker son the Afghanistan, and turned him into infantry for the good of the service, that any of us who served did something that looked like what John Wayne did in all those movies. So, who is the hero of Torgersen's book? A chaplain's assistant, later turned into a chaplain, for the good of the service.
The second thing that Torgersen did in that book was to come up with a brand new take on the Bug Eyed Monster. I can't spoil it for you, but every prior BEM was going to eat your face, OR you THOUGHT it was going to eat your face, but it turned out to be harmless and gentle and helpful. Well, that's not the nature of Torgersen's BEM, and read the book.

Here's another Heinlein tie-in: he wrote a short story called “Goldfish Bowl,” in which inscrutable and undetectable aliens create giant structures that humans don't understand. The story has NO resolution, except to equate our relationship to the aliens with the relationship existing between goldfish and humans.

And, in “A Star-Wheeled Sky,” inscrutable and undetectable aliens have constructed an interstellar network of passages between star systems that humans can't understand. However, as far as I can tell, there is nothing else that connects the stories in any way: just: two guys, seventy years apart, thinking about things and then writing them down.

“A Star Wheeled Sky” is set in the far future, long centuries after humans boarded arcologies and fled some impending disaster to Earth. So much time has elapsed that only the tiniest fragments of  Earth history are known; not even the location of the home planet, nor the reason for the exodus. Surviving humans, separated into five factions, have settled a region of space, which they refer to as the 'Waywork,' linked together by mysterious passageways (Waypoints), which can only be opened by alien artifacts humans call “Keys.” The Keys can only be operated by a select few, those with the talent to make psychic contact with them. The drain on the operators is intense, and they have to be closely monitored to prevent burnout.

We discover early on that there is an ongoing war in the Waywork, with the Nautilan faction determined to conquer all. People of the Starstate Constellar provide the primary POV characters' they are the number one enemy of Starstate Nautilan. Minor players include Starstates Yamato, Sultari, and Amethyne. Nautilan has overwhelming military superiority, however, and it seems that their goal of total conquest will be realized.

That path is completely disrupted by the unprecedented appearance of a new Waymark, with unknow resources on the other side. The structure of the book is set by the race of the competing factions of Constellar and Nautilan to secure the Waypoint, and whatever is on the other side of it,

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:
1. This is book one of a new series. No idea how many are planned, but while numerous story plots are resolved, the main issue is only JUST broached.
2. These are not trivial characters, and they aren't treated trivially. Clearly, the Nautilans, with their desire to conquer and tyranical rule, are the Bad Guys, and the Constellars are the Good Guys, but there is plenty to be ambivalent about with both sides. Some of the Good Guys die, usually heroically; some of the Bad Guys die, and it's a bit sad. One of the primary characters voices the truth that war requires good people to do bad things to other good people.
3. In my mind, this story unfolds like a path in the woods. We go down the path, and then, there is a fork! Okay, Mr. Author, let's see how you handle THIS! And .every.single.time. Torgersen pulls a ptarmigan out of his trilby. He makes this work with technical problems, story-line resolutions, and relationships between the characters.

There are MANY examples of this masterful writing, such as his explanation of why the humans stopped expanding, and a wonderfully played, throw-away few lines about current habitats, but my favorite involves an interaction between what passes for royalty, First Family heiress Garsina Oswight, and her long-time bodyguard, Elvin Axabrast. For Garsina, no image comes to mind, but maybe Natalie Portman would fit. However, for crusty Elvin, I DEFINITELY have the image of some combination of Lee Marvin and Sean Connery (the gray-haired version). They have a heart-to-heart about his past, and his loyalty, and why he has a tattoo on his hand that says, essentially, “I HATE FIRST FAMILIES” and quite frankly, I didn't see HOW Torgersen was going to write his way out of the situation he had set up.
And then, he did it, and it was as perfect as we have any right to expect.

And for those who would like a look behind the scenes, here's some backstory on Elvin Axabrast.

“A Star-Wheeled Sky” contains “Death before Dishonor!”; desperate ruses; a tiny, tiny hint at potential romance maybe; “so crazy it just might work”; the demands of service; exploding spaceships; David vs Goliath; and a huge portion of technology-indistinguishable-from-magic. There is even some slight taste of Bug Eyed Monster. No scantily-clad maiden fainting into the arms of a rescuer, though; Torgersen ain't that kind of writer. Other than that, it's got it all that you could want in space opera.

Query: is it a contender to win the Dragon Award?

Here's one factor that I don't know how to evaluate, or even if it's relevant: is a stand-alone novel a more likely winner than a series novel? I know that at one point, back in yawn-take-a-nap, there was some serious discussion about a separate category entirely for books considered as a series. I know this, because I read about it in Isaac Asimov's autobiography; he won the award with “Foundation.” But apart from that bit of trivia, I have no clue. Furthermore, this is only my second review of a finalist in the Best Sci Fi Novel category, and I don't know the nature of the other four entries.

With that caveat, I've got to say that Torgersen has lost NONE of his ability to generate compelling story, and what he has produced is NOT some other kind of story, with a thin veneer of science fiction spray-painted over it as a disguise. It's solid, with respect to characters, interaction, setting, technology, and I don't know what else a reasonable person could want. So, for the second time in this review series, I find myself saying: if this wins, I will be neither surprised not disappointed.

Peace be on your household.