PARIAH by W. Michael Gear – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Pariah by W. Michael Gear
Series: Donovan Trilogy #3
Published by Daw Books on May 14 2019
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 496
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: The action and intrigue continue with another winning entry in one of my favorite SF series.

Warning: mild spoilers ahead for the first two books in the series.

This series is so much fun, and I’m happy to report that the third book does a great job of moving things along plot-wise, while allowing the characters to change and grow in a believable, organic way. You should definitely start at the beginning with Outpost if you haven’t already, as these are not standalone books.

In book two, Abandoned, the story takes place mostly on the surface of the planet Donovan, but in this third installment, we get more information about the fate of certain ships, lost while making the journey from Earth to Donovan or vice versa. The story opens aboard a spaceship called the Vixen, where a small crew is about to enter inverted symmetry in order to complete the two year journey to the planet Capella III (now called Donovan by its settlers), where they will be the first to land and explore the uncharted planet, or so they think. However, something goes wrong during this critical phase of the trip, and in the blink of an eye, the crew is shocked to discover that they’ve actually arrived in the planet’s orbit. Even stranger, their fuel stores are nearly empty, as if they’ve been traveling for years, not minutes.

And the most shocking thing of all? Capella III is already inhabited with an established colony, dwellings and a mining operation. Dr. Dortmund Weisbacher, a stuffy and entitled professor who was determined to preserve the natural flora and fauna of the planet at all costs, is horrified to see that humans have already ruined the planet, and that his life’s work is about to become irrelevant.

When the crew of the Vixen land and meet the inhabitants of Port Authority, the main town on Donovan, they have one more surprise to absorb: it turns out the Vixen was lost fifty years ago, and never made it to Donovan—until now. Trying to come to terms with this fact besides Dr. Weisbacher is a man named Tamarland Benteen, a notorious killer who escaped certain death back home, and now has his sights set on taking over Port Authority.

Meanwhile, Talina Perez, who has the DNA of a dangerous creature called a quetzal inside her, is struggling to remain human, as the quetzal seems to be slowly taking over her mind. In an attempt to understand her predicament, Talina heads off into the bush to find answers, and ends up spending time with Kylee, the little girl who ran off at the end of the last book. Kylee understands quetzals better than anyone, and Talina is hoping she can help her.

It isn’t long before the residents of Port Authority realize that with the arrival of Tam Benteen, they have a sociopath on their hands. But their best hope of winning against Benteen is Talina, and she’s not there to protect them…

Once again, Gear has written a fast-paced, compelling, interesting story, with so many cool elements there’s literally something for everyone. This time he delves deeper into the science of what’s going on between quetzels and humans, which I’ll admit went over my head at times. But it’s carefully researched details like this that make these books so good. I also loved the social/economic/political dynamics between the characters, and the way Gear explores the ideas of governments and how they are established and destroyed. When the series started, the Corporate entity from Earth tried to govern the planet and establish rules, but the people of Donovan rebelled and decided to live by their own rules, which more or less seems to work for them. Now that another group of outsiders has arrived, those rules are challenged once again. I love the ever-evolving aspect of people trying to live together, especially when there are outside threats like quetzals and other native creatures and dangerous plants to deal with.

Gear’s characters are my favorite part of this series, and once again he brings them to vivid life, makes them human and fallible, and best of all, shows us how they change and grow over time. In my opinion, one of the best developed of the characters, shockingly enough, was the slimy Dan Wirth, who played the role of villain in the first two books. I hated Wirth in both books, and I couldn’t wait until he finally got what was coming to him, hopefully a slow and painful death. But surprise, surprise, Dan is no longer the worst character in the story! Enter stage left, the despicable Tam Benteen, a man with no regard at all for human life, who will do anything to get his way. And since this is fifty years in Benteen’s future, I found it interesting that he’s literally in the history books. All the characters on the planet know who Benteen is and what he’s done, which added an interesting dynamic. Because of Benteen’s presence, Wirth’s role on Donovan changes (although I won’t give away any details), and I absolutely loved this change!

There are a lot of different things going on in Pariah, and the short chapters alternate among them. I do love this method of storytelling because it adds tension to the story, when the chapter suddenly ends and you’re left hanging until the author decides to return to that story line. But this method also has a downside, if a particular group of characters isn’t as interesting to the reader. Unfortunately this was the case for me. One of the biggest sections revolves around Talina and Kylee out in the bush, while Talina is trying to come to terms with her visions and dreams, and trying to understand why the quetzal inside her is taking over. This “vision quest” story line just didn’t interest me that much, which isn’t surprising since I rarely enjoy stories that take place in the metaphysical dreamspace of the mind. I did like that the author incorporated Mayan mythology and customs into the story, but I grew tired of some of the repetitious symbolism and couldn’t wait to get back to the meaty, complex interactions between the citizens of Port Authority and the crew from the Vixen.

In addition to this, I just didn’t like Kylee’s character at all, and I didn’t like her in the last book either. I was hoping that she would grow on me, but she’s so unlikable in Pariah that I couldn’t wait to get through her chapters and return to the story that I was really interested in. Kylee is only eleven, but she swears like a sailor and talks about sex as though she’s a pro at it, which was a little disturbing. Her behavior reminded me of a teenager’s, but she was just too young for those adult character traits to be convincing.

But overall, this is a fresh and exciting series, and I couldn’t be happier to discover that the Donovan “Trilogy” is actually going to continue with at least two more books, according to the author. Fans of action-packed science fiction with an emphasis on character development are going to love this series, so if that describes you, I suggest starting at the beginning with Outpost. You won’t regret it, and you can thank me later!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Stop by tomorrow and catch my interview with W. Michael Gear!