The Eyes of God

Mark Kreighbaum 1998 Buy from Amazon.com

I was curious about how the sequel to Palace would read given that Katharine Kerr worked with Mark Kreighbaum on Palace but not on The Eyes of God. I wondered whether it would be consistent with the style of the original, whether the characters would be the same ones I remembered so fondly, frankly whether it would be as good. I was delighted to find that it did not disappoint in the slightest.

The story begins very shortly after the close of Palace, and Vida L’Var is trying to realise her own ambitions despite pressure from the First Citizen Karlo Peronida, her father in law, to tow the family line. There are still tensions between the Lep and humans and there is still no clue to the identity of the mysterious Lep cybermaster Riva.

I would say that this book is darker than the first, and sharper. The story progresses faster and there is a strong undercurrent of violence. The characters seem shadowed by increasingly dangerous events in a way that they weren’t in the first novel.

The characters themselves are further developed by Kreighbaum in a way that is not inconsistent with what we knew of them in the first novel, yet some of their behaviours and attitudes are now taken into unexpected directions. The characterisations are handled very well indeed and I enjoyed the new information, rather than simply seeing the same characters exactly the same way as they were shown in the first novel.

It is revealed that Karlo’s home planet had some very bizarre ideas about childrearing and his poisoned relationship with his son Wan is explained by the attitudes he formed growing up there. We see some new personality traits in Wan, making him a far more interesting character than we knew previously. Perhaps most disturbing are the actions and motivations of Dukayn, Karlo’s blood bonded security chief, whose violence and psychopathy are truly frightening.

Vi-Kata’s mate Zir has continued their fight against the humans as an agent of Riva, the Map is still being attacked and no trace can be found of the culprit, and there is a new threat hanging over them that comes from a most unexpected source.

Vida herself has not changed a great deal, but her character was fairly well developed with little that could be added anyway. She is still a very likable character and her relationship with Rico the cybermaster is just one of the things that make her life complex and difficult. Vida struggles to find a way between the demands on her by the powerful Peronida clan and her own beliefs and hopes for Palace. When Karlo declares marshall law and another attempt is made on her life, she begins to feel that it is time for her to speak up for the Lep.

This novel is full of action and the clues dropped about the identity of some of the hidden players are just enough to make you wonder without revealing the truth until near the end of the story. The sections on the Map are rendered just as well as they were originally and cleverly draw the reader in.

Anyone who has read Palace and wonders if it is worth picking up the sequel shouldn’t hesitate, this is a fabulous book in its own right and it makes me wish that Mark Kreighbaum would write some more science fiction.

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