Some thoughts on Nethereal's worldbuilding.

This is not a review of Nethereal, and I will try not to spoil too much of the plot. I am going to focus on an area of the book that I believe stands out above all the others: the setting and its worldbuilding, and what makes them unique.

Building a whole fictional world for a fantasy or science fiction book is a staple (if not a necessity) of the genre, but I think the correct label for what happens in Nethereal would not be simple worldbuilding but something like a "Pocket Universe." In other books a few kingdoms, a continent, perhaps a planet or even a galaxy are described as background. If the metaphysical aspects of that creation are explained at all, they are merely hinted, waved away as "mythology", or just another dimension for the protagonists to stroll about. But the origin, ending, and limits of those fictional universes are left murky enough, or they may not be relevant to the story at all.

The world of Nethereal, on the other hand, is defined and bounded physically, temporally, and -I'd say- spiritually. And those limits are not background fluff, they are directly linked to the plot of the book and what the protagonists do, see, and suffer. And talking about limits, it's also a small universe, and perhaps because it is implied that the whole material universe (The Middle Stratum) is under the control of The Guild (something like a non-mutant version of Dune's navigators,) there doesn's seem to be many worlds (or "Spheres") unclaimed or ready to be discovered (and, therefore, worthy of being described.)

That is, in fact, one of the reason behind the expedition the protagonists join: to discover new worlds unclaimed by the monopolistic Guild.  But where would someone discover new frontiers in a universe without any unclaimed lands? In other non-mundane dimensions. And because this book has been universally described as "space pirates in Hell," I'm sure you can guess where those dimensions end up being. Furthermore, unlike other space operas, there are no bizarre alien species, weird fauna, and so on. Hence the "Pocket" bit I mentioned since it feels like a small (or compressed?) -physically and thematically-Universe.

Temporally, the world of Nethereal also seems to be bounded, although there are hints of something much bigger waiting behind, including a brief reference to our own universe (the Judeo-Christian creation myths, to be precise) towards the end. Both its beginning and possible ending are part of the story, and the protagonists end up walking on the -if you can call it that way- ground where the universe was first created. They also met some of the gods or entities involved in that cosmic drama, so it's not like they are just following mythologies or prophesies coming from the mouth of a raving priest. For example, at the end of the book, one of the protagonists explains (as much as these things can be explained) how the universe was created and how it may be destroyed. And they are not listening to someone teaching them a theology lesson; it's a very real and immediate threat. 

I think now you may understand why I described it as a Pocked Universe. The whole worldbuilding process left me with the impression of an object that you can see, hold, and manipulate, almost as if it were a well-defined toy. In fact, that's somewhat similar to what the villain of the story believes, but I will come back to that later. 

While in most books the origins of "magic" are usually left unexplained, in Nethereal they are precisely defined (again, as much as these things can be defined.) Magic is an intrinsic part of that universe, although it is not named that way and the official worldview is a materialistic one; they understand those powers as equations, a form of mental discipline, and energy manipulation. And "energy manipulation" is probably the best description of magic in Nethereal considering its most obvious use is powering and running the spaceships (or ether-runners,) most of them controlled by The Guild. "Magic" is the manipulation and consumption of prana (yes, like the Hindu concept) through Workings (or spells,) and because prana is also the vitalistic principle and the basic building blocks of the Universe, Magic is essential to its structure and to Nethereal's plot. In other words, Magic is not something outside of ordinary reality, something to weave a few miracles and transform people into frogs,  or to perform a few pyrotechnic displays and make combat easier (although there is a quite a lot of these,) but an integral part of the laws of the universe. In fact, it is stated that prana is running low and that the Universe may be dying (e.g. whole species are disappearing.) It's not unlike a town whose well is running low.

That word, Well, is also appropriate because that's how prana's source is described, as the White Well. That is why I said "magic" is directly linked to the workings of that universe because it's nothing more than the manipulation (and exhaustion) of vital forces. That Well is not located in the physical or mundane Universe, but "above" it. For lack of a better description, that energy "flows down" through the Middle Stratum, "loses its potency," and ends up in the lowest (even lower than Hell) Stratum, the Void. That process sets the interplay between good and evil, life and death, creation and destruction, and the forces of entropy. It is also implied (or that's how I understood it,) that this process of universal creation and destruction (including a Deicide) has gone for a long time.

Remember when I said that the villain also saw the universe as some kind of a toy? Well, the exact word he uses is "clock" -and here it is impossible not to spoil a little-, and that's what the cosmically bored villain says when asked about what does he want:

"I wish to pass the temple's threshold, the point from which creation sprang. And beyond that: another universe? Countless others? Nothing at all? None know, though it matters not. I only wish to be quit of a world run down like a neglected clock."

Having said all that, do not mistake this book for the brainy version of a worldbuilding fancy or a theological thought experiment. There are no dump expositions here, and the novel is an action adventure through and through. In fact, I would have enjoyed a few more explanations and descriptions about the inner workings and customs of this or that Circle (my favorite part of the book was the 5th circle of Hell and the description of Despenser's domain.) 

Philosophical as they may be, in Nethereal, problems are solved by punching them and sending them back to Hell (where half the book happens, anyway.) And the bigger the predicament, the bigger the punching. If there are stories that are described as "from rags to riches," I guess you could call Nethereal a "from barely being able to pay the bills to punching God (or Satan)" story.

Nethereal, Chapters 13-20

Chapter 14: The Shibboleth delivers the stones to Caelia station, located inside a system-wide debris field.  Once there, Vernon introduces himself to Jaren as a member of the Arcana Divines.  The Divines are building an experimental ship, the Exodus, from a design made by Jaren’s father.  Vernon offers Jaren employment in the hopes he can clarify some of his father’s notes.  Additionally, they want Navkin and Deim to helm the ship.

Unlike the conventional ether-runners of the Middle Stratum, the Exodus is designed to explore the uncharted realms of the Fire and Stone Strata.  Which sounds great until we learn that the ship is built using forbidden Guild knowledge.  The Arcana Divines rely on the ancient Mysteries from which the measured science of the Guild developed.

The strata are different dimensions.  At the “top” of the multiverse is the White Well, source of all prana and thought to be divine.  Below it is the Fire Stratum, followed by the Middle Stratum, where all the action in Nethereal has occurred.  The Stone Stratum lies below that, and at the bottom, there is the Void.  For the first time, we see an opposite to the gods.

***

Chapter 15: Jaren’s crew eats breakfast with Mithgar Navy sailors.  Mithgar also chafes under Guild rules, and the navy wishes to be explorers instead of Guild heavies.  During the conversation, Deim grows infatuated with a sixteen year old girl named Elena, who none of the sailors or pirates can see.  He also claims the girl visited him in the night.

To man the Exodus, Jaren need his crew.  The Divines give him coordinates to a prison ship that holds old shipmates that had been captured by Marshal Malachi.  During the raid on the prison ship, Malachi springs a trap.  Surrounding the Shibboleth with courier ships, he demands that Jaren surrender, using the captured pirates as hostages.

Using Workings and the Wheel have long been stated to cause madness.  Deim appears to be showing the first signs of insanity.  However, Elena actually exists, and is not a figure of Deim’s imagination, even if her presence around him might be.

***

Chapter 16: Aboard the prison ship, Jaren and Deim consider their options.  Impulsively, Deim takes control of the ship and attempts to ram Malachi’s courier.  The Guild ships disable the prison ships engines, but an old hauler appears and rams Malachi’s vessel instead.  While directing repair and boarding operations, Malachi realizes that his crew is vanishing into the air around him.  He runs to his ship’s bridge, chased by the screams of men dying around him.  A masked figure looms near the Wheel and offers Malachi a chance to “gather in the dark with us.”  Instead, Malachi uses Guild Workings to transport himself, and only himself, through the ether.

Mordechai has returned, revealing himself as the handiwork of the Guild from five generations earlier.  And whatever he’s doing to the Guildsmen, besides the head splitting and the mutilation, he isn’t just killing them.  The harvest imagery in “gather in the dark with us” is an unsettling clue, as “gather in” is synonymous with “reap”.  The purpose of Mordechai’s harvest has yet to be explained.   While the gods abandoned Nethereal’s universe, whatever embodiment the Void might have walks among it.

As mentioned in the previous post, Nethereal has been filled with action.  However, instead of focusing on the corkscrewing of ships through space and the spray of bullets piercing flesh, as is common in the milSF of the present, instead the action focuses instead on mood.  It use the techniques of implied horror, where monsters are hidden because no image can be scarier that that imagined by the audience, and applies the lessons to action.  If Nethereal ever becomes a TV or film series, there will be time to develop the action sequences into the harrowing chases that space pirates deserve.  Meanwhile, the book will worry more about suspense.

***

Chapter 17: While Malachi’s ship dies, Teg boards a second Guild courier.  He rescued his imprisoned shipmate, sparing – but not forgiving – the gunner who had almost killed him back during the Guild’s Tharis raid.  Meanwhile, Jaren decides to tow the surviving courier and the prison ship back to Caelia station.  At the asteroid base, Vernon inspect the hauler, muttering about Teth.  Jaren ignores the mutterings, and asks instead for his father’s notes.

Teth is an evil force opposite to the prana of the White Well.  Worse, it is considered to be Pure Evil, capable of corrupting a man.  Back in Chapter 5, Mordechai mentions using it to fuel whatever happened in the darkness of the freighter.  (Nethereal does not reward careful reading, it demands it.)  Teth is also the ninth letter of the Gen alphabet.  Since Nethereal relies on metered revelation, usually over the course of three chapters, I wonder if the Gen alphabet will become significant.

***

Chapter 18: For four months, Jaren has been kept from the shipyards building the Exodus, despite a growing involvement in the design and procurement of the ship’s experimental systems.  Two Mithgar navy ships arrive, bringing supplies and naval crew for the Exodus.  Captain Craighan, an officer with anti-Gen prejudice, convenes the military and pirate crews, and gives a speech marking the upcoming maiden voyage.

Craighan and Jaren are jockeying for position.  Neither has the upper hand.  While Craighan claims military command, it is Jaren and his navigators who can actually fly the Exodus.  This creates a system where, like the Spanish navy of old, the authority and the expertise needed to command a vessel are split into two persons.  But while the military man and the space pirate fight, their conflict is rooted in a clash of personalities.  Instead of a conflict between military regimen and cavalier smuggling, both men want to be in charge.  Craighan cannot fire his annoying contractor, and Jaren cannot claim the authority to be master and commander of the Exodus. 

It surprises me that the Exodus, a ship that relies on experimental systems and propulsion, is going straight into a maiden voyage, and not a shakedown cruise or operational test.  Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make proud.  Well, at least if they haven’t abandoned the universe first.

***

Chapter 19: Compelled by a sense of foreboding, Jaren gathers his crew and boards the Exodus.  There, they find Craighan preparing the ship for combat, manning the Wheel himself. Out in the asteroid field, a fleet of Guild ships led by the massive Serapis is attacking the shipyard.  Amidst the Mithgar Navy’s crumbling defense, Jaren orders broadsides against the Serapis, but is overruled by Craighan, who opts for warning shots instead.  Aboard the Serapis, Malachi scoffs at the response and directs his fleet to destroy Exodus’s escorts. Meanwhile, the Exodus tries to flee to the hyperlimit.

During the prison ship fight, Marshal Malachi managed to fashion a sort of prana thread to Jaren’s ship.  This allowed the Guild minister to follow the thread to the shipyards.  Notice that it required months to track the thread to its end.  There are limits to prana Workings, but more implied than explicitly stated.

I am unimpressed by the Mithgar Navy.  Perhaps malcontents and mutineers might not make the best fighters.  But they were outgunned by the Serapis, and, on the Exodus, Craighan was suffering from the effects of too much time on the Wheel.  But the use of warning shots against a foe killing your men is unforgivable poor judgement, almost cowardice.

Notice also that Craighan’s overexposure to the Wheel manifested itself as poor judgement, lost composure, fatigue, and shortness of breath.  Nowhere among these symptoms is Deim’s strange girl that only he can see. 

***

Chapter 20: Marshal Malachi orders the Guild pursuit of the Exodus.  Frustrated by Craighan’s actions on the Wheel, Navkin fires orbital bombardment weapons at the Guild fleet, committing a war crime.  The Guild counters by shutting down every Working aboard the Exodus.  In that darkness, Mordechai appears on the bridge and points out the Deim has seized control of the Wheel.  As the junior steersman activates the Exodus’s inter-strata engines, he glows a sickly yellow.  Darkness falls over the Exodus once more.

Another chapter better experienced than described.

***

In the next post: Hell.

Nethereal: Me Am Like Book

Rather than simply provide another general review of Nethereal – Nathan provided an excellent synopsis last week, and continues to do yeoman’s work laying out chapter by chapter observations – allow me to zero in on the setting of the novel.  That setting is one of the books strengths and its weaknesses.

The setting of Nethereal is different.  Very different.  Mention has been made that it blends fantasy and science fiction in a way that harkens back to the days when science fiction and fantasy were considered one and the same.  This is true, but it doesn’t really help nail down where on the spectrum the setting truly lies.  Consider Disney’s animated film Treasure Planet, which was for all practical effects, was simply the novel Treasure Island dressed up in a steam-punk style of science fiction.  Yes, it featured planets and aliens, but the setting and plot were no different from an age of sail adventure.  The setting for Nethereal on the other hand, could not exist without both the science fiction and the fantasy aspects.  The two are intertwined in ways that go well beyond the cosmetic.

This is not a science fiction novel that uses, ‘a wizard did it’, as a crutch to explain every instance where the action violates the laws of science.  Instead, the magic in Nethereal works according to consistent and easily understood principles that go beyond, ‘because it was necessary to the plot’. 

The nearest parallel that leaps to mind is perhaps that of the Warhammer 40K universe.  Before we get too deep into this comparison, understand that Games Workshop has licensed a large number of tie-in novels that range in quality from excellent to Hugo Award worthy.  This is not a discussion of merit, just one of setting and flavor.

For both setting, spaceships all have a bridge and cargo holds and corridors and blast each other into smithereens using weapons that feel like lasers and missiles.  Space wizards tap into a flow of energy – here they tap into prana where 40K wizards tap into the stuff of raw chaos – to create effects not possible through science.  In both cases hokey religions really are a good match for a blaster at your side. What’s more, a decent sword at your side is also a good match for a trusty sidearm.  

As with the 40K novels, simple naming conventions help remind the reader that this universe is like our own, but different.  The space pirate captain doesn’t wield a sword, he wields a splintersword. That word doesn’t really have any meaning beyond, ‘it’s like a sword, but it has a power boost that makes it valuable in a science fiction setting.’  We don’t need to know what that edge is, just that we’re talking about something more than a sharp hunk of steel.

The creative setting, and the consistent approach to the rules of that setting, is both blessing and curse.  On the one hand, it allows a setting that is familiar enough to feel comfortable and yet creative enough to feel new and different.  On the other hand, the complexities and default assumptions involved take a little getting used to.  Doing so is complicated by two things, the slow reveal of the rules and the need to come to grips with the setting while also getting a handle on the plot and characters.

As Nathan said in an earlier post:

I am impressed on how Nethereal avoids the dreaded exposition dump.  Other authors have spent entire chapters setting up worldbuilding, or worse, brought the plot to a screening halt to provide key information to the reader.  Nethereal uses a more metered approach, by stretching out explanations over the course of chapters, introducing new facts only when pertinent to the story without disrupting the action.  And, in a tale that has already had thievery, murder, assassinations, dungeon crawls, police raids, running gun fights between ships, and kidnapping attempts before the main plot kicks into gear, there’s a lot of action.  And the metered approach only adds to the mystery of the tale.

For my money, that’s one too many mysteries at the same time.  The mystery of the plot and character was sufficient.  Adding in the mysteries of the setting detracted from this reader’s experience.

To be honest, that isn’t so much a complaint about the book as it is an admission of my own liabilities as a reader.  At the risk of making this review personal, most of my reading occurs at the end of a long day, after the work is put to bed, the kids wound down, and the house put back together.  More often than not, that means reading in bed with the sandman cramming handfuls of magic dust under my eyelids – not the most conducive setting for sussing out the intertwined intricacies of setting, plot, and characters.

Those are great things, but this book just has too much of it presented in a ‘sink or swim’ manner.  This reader largely sank, and it was only around the midpoint of the book, when all the different aspects started to gel in my mind that the book really took off.  This series might benefit from a short story or two off in a corner of the universe with a more compact plot.  Those often feel like filler stories, but in a challenging series like the Soul Cycle, giving readers a chance to splash around in the shallow end and get used to the water might provide an easier entry for casual readers.

Nethereal, Chapters 7-13

Congratulations to Brian Niemeier.  His novel, Souldancer, the sequel to Nethereal, won the first Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel.

***

Chapter 7: The Shibboleth follows Shan’s coordinates through an asteroid field in search of the weapons cache.  Using clues carved into the landscape by the theurg, they arrive at a complex bearing Thera icons.  Jaren and Navkin lead a recovery team through the site, but the site has been picked clean.  Dejected, the pirates leave the asteroid, sped along by an attack from a bat-like stone monster.

Ships in Nethereal require the use of a Wheel, a device that allows a Guild steersman to link his awareness to the ship to control the vessel.  As this is an alien experience to a human mind, discipline and will are required to maintain one’s sanity. 

I’m having a hard time not thinking of space-elves whenever the Gen are mentioned.

***

Chapter 8:  The Guild attacks the pirate’s den.  After improvising an explosive trap, he makes his escape, harried by Guild Enforcers.  The Shibboleth arrives to pick up the survivors and almost kills Teg while providing close air support.  On board, Teg and Jaren confront the gunner, who had been swept up in the emotions of the fight.  Teg attacks the gunner, but is subdued by a scratch from Navkin’s envenomed blade.

Between the empty vault and the Guild raid, Jaren’s plans for a Tharis independent from Guild rule have died.

***

Chapter 9: The Shibboleth arrives at Ambassador’s Island after a long flight from Tharis and the Guild.  Jaren intends to use his contacts on the asteroid base to revive his rebellion.  While at a station bar waiting for their contact, the pirates and the patrons are sedated by gas.  Only Navkin remains awake.  The assailants enter the bar.  To protect herself, Navkin summons a wolf the size of the bull.  It devours her attackers.  Before it can continue its rampage and sate itself upon the sleeping pirates, Navkin commands the beast to leave.  For the first time, the wolf listens to her.

***

Chapter 10: After the crew wakes up, Jaren browbeats his contact, who sold him out after blackmail from the minister of Tharis, Marshal Malachi.  The minister has masterminded the Guild’s pursuit of Jaren as well as the empty cache.  Learning that the Guild has arrived in the asteroid’s hanger, Jaren leaves immediately.  On their way out, a thin man in black offers them a job to salvage a missing ship.  As a sign of good faith, the thin man, Fallon, has already massacred the Guild Enforcers in the hangar.  The Shibboleth leaves the station, pursued in a running firefight by four corvettes.  Within the ether, an explosive version of hyperspace, the Shibboleth flies too close to an exploding corvette.

This chapter ties together all the previous plot threads with the exception of Mordechai’s. 

In structure, I am seeing potential influence from Chinese storytelling and long form Japanese anime.  At the same time, Jaren’s decision to accept the salvage mission is clearly an inciting action in the five act formula.  As this could be an essay of its own, let me summarize by saying that Chinese works, from literature to Shaw Brothers cinema, tend to follow a plot event-exploration of consequences-new plot event structure. Longer anime series would often devote the first 2-6 episodes to a hook adventure before developing the main plot arc.  I will likely develop the five act formula in a post devoted to it.  At this point in the formula, though, the protagonist makes a decision from which all conflicts in the story flow. 

The crew discusses the urban legend of the Byport Gouger, a face-slashing monster akin to Jack the Ripper.  While not of the Theran mythology, keep this urban myth in mind for the future. 

***

Chapter 11: Marshal Malachi reviews the progress of the Peregrine chase.  He deems the losses in personnel and ships acceptable.  After a discussion of philosophy and Guild magic, he puts further plans in motion.

For such a spiritual universe as Nethereal’s, Malachi is a hardcore materialist.  Magic is technology, complete with equations not found in the hardest of Sanderson’s magic systems.  Clinging to the certainty of determinism, if he thinks of the gods, he thinks of them in similar terms as the wind-up watchmaker of Deism, content to let the universe run according to its own laws without so much as a thumb on the scales of its workings.  As a member of the Guild, this makes him a materialist and a magician.  It will be interesting to see if his characterization follows that of C. S. Lewis’s materialist magician of the Screwtape Letters, “the man, not using, but veritably worshiping, what he vaguely calls ‘Forces’ while denying the existence of ‘spirits’”.   Right now, though, Malachi worships power 

and competence, like a proper Machiavellian.

***

Chapter 12: The Shibboleth assess their damage.  Their Wheel is beyond repair, but the ship can limp along on backup systems.  Worried by strange dreams of an unknown temple, Jaren resolves to complete the salvage.  The Shibboleth finds the freighter, locked in an embrace with a derelict Guild corvette.  They recover a strange cargo of living stone cubes from the hold.

Could this be Mordechai’s freighter?

For once, Jaren dreams of more than the mission and revenge.  A golden city with architecture unlike anything seen in the universe haunts him.  Despite its splendor, the city is empty, similar to another city of vacant halls and strange temples.

In Guild magic, inanimate objects are worked, while living objects receive glamers.  This distinction is important, as the strange stones in the freighter’s hold only accept glamers.

***

Chapter 13: Marshal Malachi tours the shipyards where the lead vessel of a new class of warships, the Serapis, is under construction.  Meanwhile, the Shibboleth limps into the port of Concordia.  After great difficulty in selling the salvaged stones, a fat broker approaches Jaren with a million guilder offer for the cargo…and continued employment.

The Nethereal universe is in dire straits.  Not only have the gods abandoned it, mass extinctions and desertification of worlds run rampant.  Despite the Guild’s reassurances, many link the loss of life to the continued emptying of the White Well, a reservoir of magical energy called prana, which the Guild uses to fuel both space travel and Workings.  The Gen worshipped the White Well as a god.  How this dying god may or may not be linked to the dying and transforming gods of Zadok and Thera is yet unknown.

Speaking of the Gen, the Guild rated them as better mages than humans.  Marshal Malachi states that this was reason enough to kill off the Gen.

The Serapis immediately recalls the naval duel with Captain John Paul Jones, of “I have not yet begun to fight” fame.  After capture, the original Serapis was converted into a privateer and later lost.  Serapis is also the name of a Greek and Egyptian god of the underworld.  We’ll see how significant a naming choice this may be.

***

I am impressed on how Nethereal avoids the dreaded exposition dump.  Other authors have spent entire chapters setting up worldbuilding, or worse, brought the plot to a screening halt to provide key information to the reader.  Nethereal uses a more metered approach, by stretching out explanations over the course of chapters, introducing new facts only when pertinent to the story without disrupting the action.  And, in a tale that has already had thievery, murder, assassinations, dungeon crawls, police raids, running gun fights between ships, and kidnapping attempts before the main plot kicks into gear, there’s a lot of action.  And the metered approach only adds to the mystery of the tale.

Congratulations, Souldancer!

The Dragon Awards just announced that the sequel to this month's Puppy of the Month title has won Best Horror Novel for 2016.

If the sequel is as fun as Nethereal, the award is well earned.  The first in the series is a strange and creative descent into a hell that operates on rules that are alien, understandable, and frightening in their implications.

Congratulations, Brian Niemeier, on the award. 

Congratulations also on demonstrating that the mass of sci-fi and fantasy fans recognize quality works regardless of source.  When presented with a level playing field and a process that doesn't actively work to exclude 'the wrong kind of fans', even common fans insulated from the back alley politicking recognize the high quality of Puppy-approved works.

Introductions and Nethereal, Chapters 1-6

Greetings.  My name is Nathan and I have been a Puppy since the initial Campaign to End Puppy Related Sadness.  In addition to being a Wrong Fan, I have been a chemist, a satellite controller, and an office drone.   I’ll also add failed writer and unrepentant bookworm to that list.  Thanks to an English literature course in college, I tend to read books with an eye on how different works shape each other.  Think of the approach as a grown-up version of TV Tropes without the obsessive need to pigeonhole every little thing into a pithy phrase. 

But enough about me.  On to Nethereal.  There will be spoilers.

***

Chapter 1: Navkin lays in bed with Shan, unable to sleep.  She has sedated Shan and waits for the venom to take effect.  At an opportune moment, she steals away to work on Shan’s warded safe.  Using her Workings, she defeats the protections and cracks the safe.  Shan confronts Navkin, and using his own Working, tries to kill her using the same forces used to propel spacecraft between planets, but a monster mauls him to death before he can complete his spell.  Navkin leaves with the contents of the safe.

The first chapter introduces us to Navkin, a Steersman, thief, and major viewpoint character for the rest of the novel.  We also first see the Clarke’s Law magic for Nethereal in the Magi and Steersman, whose ranks include Navkin and Shan.  Using wizardry for space travel is not a new concept, but it identifies Nethereal’s universe as a spiritual one instead of the materialism of hard science fiction.  It is too early to determine if the Workings of the Steersmen are soft magic, like that used by Tolkien, or the hard, rules-based magic of Sanderson.

As you read on, remember the Gen, a despised people, and the monster at the end of the chapter.

***

Chapter 2: On the planet of Tharis, Teg Cross, swordarm for space pirate Jaren Peregrine, travels across fields of ash in a drifter car.  A sandstorm forces him to seek shelter, where he sees an ominous thin man in a suit and mirror-black shoes standing out in the wasteland.  The storm passes, and so does the thin man.  Spooked, Teg arrives at Sojourner’s Cut to fence stolen goods for his captain.  After making the arrangements for the exchange of goods, he is knocked-out from behind by an unseen assailant.

Teg’s mind wanders during his trip across the ash, providing some key world-building exposition.  The Steersman’s Guild is further developed as enforcing an ironclad monopoly on the ether needed for space travel.  Jaren Peregrine flaunts this monopoly while he gathers men and material for a revolt against the Guild on Tharis.  The cosmology of Nethereal appears in the terms Cardinal Spheres, Middle Stratum, and Nine Circles, which invoke both the Nine Worlds of Norse myth and the Nine Circles of Dante’s Inferno. 

The thin man is eerily reminiscent of the Men in Black.  Gamers might be forgiven for thinking of the thin men from XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

***

Chapter 3: Near the end of his voyage from Mithgar, Marshal Malachi prepares to assume the post of Guild minister of Tharis.  During the briefing from the outgoing minister, Malachi confronts him with information linking the minister to smuggling.  Malachi also insinuates that the minister’s support of piracy led to Shan’s death. The real quarry, however, is Jaren Peregrine’s band of space pirates.  Malachi blackmails the minister into helping break the piracy ring.

Cultured, competent, and Machiavellian, Malachai is the youngest Master Steersman in the Guild.  Discworld’s Havelock Vetinari and Honor Harrington’s Victor Cachat would be proud.  I expect to see reverses in the fortunes of Jaren’s pirate crew, beyond whatever trouble Teg is currently in.

Jaren’s reputation grows, chapter by chapter.  Not only is he a smuggler and a revolutionary, the Guild actually considers him a threat as the Gen pirate is charismatic enough to rally supporters to his cause.  Rebellion is now certain on Tharis, but we have yet to see if Jaren’s strategic acumen matches his charisma.

The name Mithgar confirms the influence of Norse myth on Nethereal.  Since each of the Norse Nine worlds is the home of its own people, I expect to see more alien races besides the Gen to be revealed.  Also introduced is the myth of Zadok and Thera, a pair of father and daughter gods eternally annihilating and transforming into each other.  Nethereal is a spiritual universe where the supernatural is normal.  It would be wise to pay attention to the myths.

***

Chapter 4: Navkin flees from the scene of her crime.  Old memories of captivity, escape, and her involvement with the Peregrine family resurface.  She returns to the pirates’ den and reports to Jaren.  Navkin has obtained the coordinated for a weapons cache from Shan’s safe.  Jaren intends to use the contents to equip an army against the Guild.  But first Navkin must tend to Teg, who was shot in the back at the end of Chapter 2.  During the treatment, Jaren interrogates Teg about the trip to Sojourner’s Cut, including the thin man in black.

Navkin is old, at least a hundred years old.  During that time, she has served in turn as rescuer, mother, and sister to Jaren.  Her escape from the Guild kicked off the chain of events that led to Jaren having the means –and the ship- to take revenge on the Guild.  At this time, it is not certain if her long life is due to Guild magic or the technology of the Cardinal Spheres.  She is also a conventional medical expert.  I expected her to use her Workings to heal Teg, not antibiotics.

We meet Jaren for the first time.  With waist-length red hair and a long tan coat, he resembles the shaggy-haired space captains of the golden age of anime space opera.  Firefly fans might also notice that his coat is kind of a brownish color.  Jaren is half Gen, and the last of a race genocided by the Guild during in war that was long over before Navkin was born.  He possesses the intensity and bloody-mindedness of his Gen parentage.  His internal dialogue reflects this, focusing solely on the strategy, logistics, and rage required for revenge.

***

Chapter 5: The captain of the freighter Sunspot confronts his mysterious recluse of a passenger, Van Mordechai.  Since Mordechai boarded the ship, crew and passengers have been vanishing at an alarming rate.  Viewing the unsettling Mordechai as a jinx, the captain wants to kick him off at the next port instead of continuing the voyage to Tharis.  Later, the captain awakes from a nightmare of his dying crew.  Life support is gone.  He reaches for the lights but grabs a bitterly cold blade that shrivels his arm.  Muttering about murder and mutilation, Mordechai confronts the captain about broken promises.  He disappears, leaving the captain alone in the dark…

This chapter is one filled with implied horror, and is better experienced than summarized.  That said, Thera’s star, around which Tharis orbits, is drawing a strange group of people towards it.   Perhaps this is a sign that the gods of Nethereal play an active role in human events.

***

Chapter 6: At the pirate’s den, Teg goes to fetch Deim, the backup Steersman for the Shibboleth, Jaren’s ship.  Deim awakens, but before he leaves for duty, he performs the morning rituals required of a devotee to Thera Souldancer.  Afterward, the two of them board the Shibboleth, a black frigate with swept wings.  Inside, they join the rest of Jaren’s crew as they plan to recover the weapons cache.

Every space pirate needs a spaceship.  Jaren’s Shibboleth has  a passing resemblance to Grumman’s X-29.  Its name also comes from a story in the Old Testament, found in Judges 12.  Suspected fleeing soldiers hiding among the Israelites were forced to say the word shibboleth.  If the foreigners could not say the word correctly, they were slaughtered.  The last member of a massacred race has named his spaceship after a massacre of hidden people.  This is also not the first point of resonance with the Old Testament, as Malachi and Mordechai are names found within. 

Deim’s faith is also significant, both in treatment and in plot.  It is an odd faith in a goddess who has abandoned her universe, but Teg treats it as worthy of respect.  Science fiction tends to treat religion with contempt, and fantasy is littered with plots that can be summed up as “Our god is an evil bastard.  Let’s kill him.”  It is refreshing to see a depiction of faith rooted in the ideas that it is real and it might actually be good.  As for how it relates to the plot, well, as the sergeants used to say in classroom training, you will see this again.

As predicted, other alien races besides the Gen were mentioned.

***

Six chapters down, sixty to go.  Since the next chapter begins an action sequence, I will pause here.  Feel free to post your own observations in the comments below.