This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs

This Brutal Moon is the third and final volume of Bethany Jacobs’ high intensity space opera Kindom Trilogy. The series started with These Burning Stars a book which introduced readers to the universe of the Treble and the cat and mouse game that involved a cleric called Chono, a noble called Esek Nightfoot, a renegade just known as Six and a pirate known as Jun Ironway. This was a stunning debut which has some jaw dropping reveals and set up for a more complex second sequel in On Vicious Worlds.

On Vicious Worlds left the story on a cliffhanger with the reveal of the ultimate antagonist and the falling of dangerous information into their hands. By slowly catching up with all of the main characters in the first few chapters, Jacobs does her best to bring readers up to speed again. But there was a lot going on in the second book and a large number of characters to keep track of. So, unless it is still recent in memory, I would highly recommend reading Jacobs’ own plot recap before jumping into This Brutal Moon.

Without speaking too much about the plot to avoid spoilers suffice to say that This Brutal Moon slowly accelerates to an even higher intensity than On Vicious Worlds. Each of these novels has expanded out its major conflict set piece – from the personal in the first book to planetwide in the second and now to the whole of the Treble. By the time the action kicks off, however, readers should be well back in the lives of Jacob’s main characters, the world of the refugee Jeveni and the scheming mercantile First Families. And once it does, Jacobs handles the multiple separate but connected parts of conflict really well.

This Brutal Moon brings this trilogy to a satisfyingly open-ended conclusion. Plenty is resolved, but Jacobs is keen to make clear that just having a big battle and clearing the table is not an end in itself. It is the beginning of another, potentially more painful process. And she does this through a series of cascading endings that not only let readers know where surviving characters end up but opens their lives and their universe up in ways that allow the readers’ imagination to continue to roam.

Jacobs is one of a bright and excitingnew group of space opera authors that includes the likes of Arkady Martine, Megan O’Keefe, Ren Hutchings and Linden Lewis. With this trilogy behind her it is exciting to consider what she might deliver next.

This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jaconb

8.5

8.5/10