"There Before the Chaos" by K. B. Wagers is a thrilling space opera that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The book is set in a vividly imagined universe, where powerful corporations and political factions vie for control of the galaxy. The protagonist, Hail Bristol, is a charismatic and complex character who must navigate a treacherous political landscape while dealing with the ghosts of her past.

Wagers' writing is fast-paced and action-packed, but never sacrifices character development for the sake of plot. The world-building is rich and detailed, and the diverse cast of characters adds depth and complexity to the story. "There Before the Chaos" is a fantastic start to what promises to be an exciting series, and I can't wait to see where Wagers takes us next.

It was an entertaining and engrossing read but I think I missed a lot as the start of a follow up series.
I appreciated the world building and the characters development but I will surely re-read it after the first trilogy.
It's recommended but I think it's a bit confusing if you didn't read the previous trilogy.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

There Before The Chaos is the start of a sci-fi series from K.B. Wagers, whose Indranan War trilogy I enjoyed immensely. That sequence was full of byzantine politics, brutal, close-order action, and a poetry of war in space. This book, well, this is like that too, only more so.

In part, that’s because this is the start of a sequel trilogy. You could probably read it without the context from the Indranan War books, but you’ll be missing a lot of subtext. And, possibly, some of the actual text. You can put together who’s who and what they’re doing pretty quickly, given a good headwind, and the characters are given the opportunity to drop some subtle exposition, without ever descending into “As you know, Bob” levels of silliness. Still, three books worth of history and characters and relationships and, well, a war...is a lot to have skipped over. If you go through this and feel like you have enough to go on, great. If you’re enjoying it, but struggling with the context, know that the first trilogy is also a great read, and worth going back to.


The focus is still on Hailey (Hail) Bristol. Once a gunrunner, with ties to organised crime, and a known and wanted face in quite a lot of civilised space. Now the Empress of a beleaguered empire, and, well, still a wanted face in quite a lot of civilised space. Hail, and her relationships, are at the heart of this book. Fortunately, Hail herself is great fun. She approaches each problem intelligently, but also from a human perspective. She isn’t perfect, and has a propensity to put the boot in before it’s warranted, and act impulsively (or at least, quickly). A woman with a penchant for evading the stultifying rituals and duties of Empire is now running one - but damned if she isn’t rather good at it. Because Hail is compassionate, and loyal, and smart. She values her friends, and takes their advice, and talks smack at them when they’re willing to take it. If she seems more comfortable in the role of Empress now, still, she’s got the iron and blood of a career criminal in there. Hail is a compelling, convincingly flawed heroine, trying to do her best, perhaps against some of her worse inclinations. She’s helped of course by a posse of delightful old friends (and a few new ones). I don’t want to spoil things here, but one of K.B. Wagers strengths is in writing friendships and affections which crackle electrically off the page. They feel like friends you’d want to help and live and die for, and you feel their pain and their sacrifices and their joys and their victories as Hail does - and the warmth and connection that they have makes the narrative more whole, deeper, more human.


Talking about the plot and the world is difficult without spoilers, so only a small thing here. Hail is brought on as a bridge between two quarreling alien parties. The Farians, whom we’ve seen before, are delightfully strange, and certainly don’t get less so as the story advances. They feel like an interesting blend of “like us” and unknowably alien and strange. I’ve been wondering about them since they turned up in the first book, so it’s nice to see them get the texture and depth they deserve, as it spools out of this story. The rest will have to be a surprise! But Wagers has expanded the universe from her original series, given it layers and unexpected complexities, which reward a second and third reading. This is a thriving, vividly alive universe, with a believable backstory unfurling on every page.


The story...well, it’s a blend of political thriller and outright sci-fi adventure in my view. However you want to characterise it, it’ll keep you turning the pages, to see what happens next - be it revelations of the history of the universe, or the relationship between two characters, or to see how a chase or a fight turns out.


In the end, like Hail herself, this story is a heck of a lot of fun, and has some hidden depths which will surprise you. Go pick it up!

So after having read the previous trilogy to get up to speed to read this, I'm pleased to say it was worth. I like the Indranan War trilogy, but this feel like a bit of a step up from that trilogy. The world building has been opened out here, and rather than the plot being all about Hail (Empress Gunrunner of the pulpy previous trilogy) she is instead embroiled on the side. An age old conflict between two alien races threaten to involve her planets as they have been allied to one side for a long time, but she spends most of the book trying to stay out of it because - and this is a point the previous books glossed over a touch - war is terrible, and also terribly expensive. And whilst there is plenty of action here, the real meat is in political negotiations between two parties who have hated each other forever, plus a third revolutionary party looking for peace in its own way.

Despite the alien war the book takes its time to unfold, its set about a year after the previous trilogy ended and so we do get a bit of day to day governance (and therefore the attempts at getting reform into place). Everything seems far too centralised too, but much like having aliens who can bread with humans and warp drives, these are the building blocks which you either take or leave. What is most interesting is the idea of being the neutral negotiator, what is the price the neutral party has to pay. There is also a trip to Earth in the process, which considering the thousand years has not changed all that much, but finally solidifies much of the pre-history of these books in just enough bedrock to let the story play out.

What impressed me the most was having moved from a broad adventure tale, Wagers has managed to use the same characters and tell another quite breathless bit of action whilst most of it really being about peace negotiations. As the neutral party it is also relatively even handed between all parties, it may shake down to a single aggressor in the end, but there is enough unexplained about the alien cultures which are left open (one side literally murdered the gods of the other) that this will continue along the same line and add increasing political complexity to its already solid adventure narrative.

Tenía bastantes ganas de conocer la obra de K.B. Wagers y cuando vi que There Before the Chaos parecía ser el comienzo de una nueva trilogía, pensé que sería una buena puerta de entrada. Es por esta razón que ha resultado un tanto frustrante la lectura, porque no nos encontramos ante el primer libro de una saga si no ante el cuarto, camuflado de inicio de trilogía. Lo cierto es que el primer cuarto del libro se usa para situar al lector en un mundo que quizá desconozca, pero no es menos cierto que se desmenuza tan pormenorizadamente lo acontecido en los libros anteriores que espero que mi cerebro haya decidido borrar esa información por que si no, va a ser muy difícil leerlos sabiendo lo que ahora sé.


Salvando estos escollos que al fin y al cabo son culpa mía por no haberme informado adecuadamente, There Before the Chaos es una space opera bastante disfrutable. Señalaría como puntos fuertes los personajes, especialmente la emperatriz Hailimi Bristol, pero está perfectamente acompañada por todo un elenco de guardaespaldas, relaciones familiares y antiguos contactos que le dan mucha profundidad a la historia. El hecho de que el imperio Indrano sea un matriarcado lo hace aún más singular dentro del subgénero y aunque se quiera crear una tendencia para aumentar la presencia masculina en los órganos del gobierno, las excusas y razones que se presentan en contra nos sonarán conocidas aunque con los géneros invertidos.

Como digo, la narración gira alrededor de los personajes y sus relaciones afectivas, aderezadas por intrigas políticas pero haciendo especial hincapié en la lealtad y el honor, en el compañerismo. Es un libro que destila empatía por los cuatro costados, a pesar de que no todo sea color de rosa. El conflicto vendrá pues de un elemento externo, del enfrentamiento entre dos razas alienígenas que tiene lugar por causas poco claras, pero enconadas. De una manera un tanto sorprendente se solicita la intervención de la emperatriz como mediadora de unas negociaciones que parecen condenadas al fracaso desde un principio. También es muy de agradecer la representación de este complicado papel, en busca del equilibrio de oportunidades entre las distintas facciones pero sin menoscabo de la propia posición del imperio Indrano, en precario tras la guerra que se narra en la primera trilogía.

No quiero dejar de comentar la ambientación del imperio, que dentro de mi desconocimiento yo relacionaría con influencias indias, algo que no me atrevo a señalar con certeza debido a mi desconocimiento. Además, creo que es muy acertado el tratamiento que hace la autora del síndrome post-traumático, con unas descripciones que resultan realmente angustiosas al ponernos en la piel de quien las sufre.

Una space opera no lo parecería tanto si no hubiera enfrentamientos entre naves espaciales y también escenas de acción que están narradas de una forma muy correcta, aunque quizá resulten algo confusas en determinados momentos. Aunque se trata de un libro con una trama eminentemente política, lo que no deja de ser interesante. también.

No hagáis como yo y no empecéis a conocer a K.B. Wagers por aquí, ya que si este libro vale como muestra, sin duda merecerá la pena comenzar por el principio e ir descubriendo todo el universo que la autora ha creado.