Cat Rambo’s Devil’s Gun is the form of frivolously entertaining house opera that left little robust impression in its wake. Little on me, at the very least: this sequel to You Sexy Thing rolls alongside at as quick a tempo as its predecessor, however it feels extra like a group of disparate incidents than an entire narrative, and its oddball sense of humour at occasions sits oddly with its thematic concern with grief – individuals and relationships lifeless or modified past recognition, or each.
Niko Larsen was as soon as a soldier for the Holy Hive Mind, and a very good one. In order to flee being absorbed into the hive consciousness, she and a handful of the troopers she commanded pretended to have a calling to be artists with meals. It labored: she and second-in-command Darby Jen arrange a restaurant, the Last Chance, and had been superb certainly till the station the place they had been positioned began exploding. The occasions of You Sexy Thing led to their association with a bioship, the titular You Sexy Thing, and a harrowing encounter with the merciless and highly effective pirate chief Tubal Last and Niko’s long-lost ex-lover Petalia, whom Niko did not rescue from Last many years in the past. The encounter with Tubal Last resulted in a single member of Niko’s group, pastry chef Milly, attempting to betray the crew to safe her personal freedom, and the demise of the young were-lion Thorn, twin brother to Talon.
The crew thought Tubal Last was lifeless of their escape. Unfortunately he’s not, and he’s most likely out for revenge. Devil’s Gun opens with Niko deciding to trace down Petalia, who desires nothing to do together with her, so as to warn her concerning the risk posed by Last’s continued existence. Unfortunately, one of many Forerunner Gates that facilitate long-distance interstellar transport is down. Fortunately, there’s a girl who claims she will be able to trigger it to reopen. Niko thinks she’s a fraud, however this Jezli Farren each appeals to You Sexy Thing’s flamboyant and playful facet, and moreover claims to know the place to discover a weapon that may assassinate any particular person its wielder desires from an unlimited distance – an ideal resolution to the issue of Tubal Last. She travels with a paladin referred to as Roxana, and it’s this paladin who will information them into an historic and harmful Forerunner artefact often called an area moth to retrieve this weapon.
Meanwhile, Gnarl, a vicious dealer captain with a grudge in opposition to some members of Niko’s crew, is main Talon into making much more horrible life selections than his grief was already serving to him make. Such as giving him the material to make an unlawful clone of his lifeless twin, which Talon desires to fill the gaping gap of his loss however who won’t ever have Thorn’s reminiscences. And You Sexy Thing is facilitating Talon’s unhealthy selections and retaining them secret from the remainder of the crew. Gnarl is satisfied that he can get the higher of Niko’s crew, however within the guts of the house moth, confrontation is a chancy factor.
Atlanta, who thought she was an imperial inheritor when it seems she was a cloned spare, is mourning the life she’d thought she’d have and nonetheless struggling to discover a place for herself among the many crew. She has her personal demons to face – and a fascination with Roxana, and Roxana’s certainty of her calling.
Devil’s Gun feels slight. It’s an entertaining house opera journey, with many incidents and attention-grabbing worldbuilding, however it spirals round its characters’ collections of griefs with a spackling of lighthearted humour and by no means fairly coheres right into a gripping entire. I loved it and I’m curious concerning the characters’ subsequent adventures, however I discover myself indefinably disappointed by it, too.
This evaluate and extra prefer it within the August 2023 problem of Locus.
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