For starters, whatever you do – don’t pick up this one if you haven’t first read Moonstorm. Not only are you likely to flounder at exactly who is doing what to whom – the story is a continuation directly from the first book and a lot of what happens is a direct consequence of events that played out in Moonstorm. So not only will you spend too much time being confused, you’ll also likely get a tad fed up with Hwa Young’s flip-flopping loyalties, as you won’t have experienced the traumatic raid on her home on Carnelian when she was a child.

I enjoyed this book more than the first offering. Knowing that Yoon Ha Lee’s strength is plotting, I’d been just a tad disappointed that I knew where the story was going more or less all the way through Moonstorm – until the final major twist. That isn’t the case with his adult books, so I thought it was because this series is aimed at a YA audience. However this time around, just as I think I know where we’re going, the plot takes a left turn in a different direction. And as with all great plotting – while I didn’t see that coming, it makes utter and complete sense within the story.

I liked how Hwa Young struggles so badly to regain a sense of loyalty and affection to her heart-mother, who she discovers hadn’t died in the Empire attack on Carnelian, after all. The relationship between mother and daughter is also seen through another lens in this story, as the lancer squad commander, Ye Jun is the bastard daughter of the Empress, herself. It’s always an interesting relationship – and I like how we get to see two aspects of it in this story. Both highly problematical.

Hwa Young’s relationship with her very dangerous and rather creepy lancer, Winter Axiom, which she is mentally bonded to, has been the culmination of all her training ever since she was rescued by a lancer pilot as a small child. Her loyalties were always torn regarding the Empire, but two things made life bearable – her single-minded determination to become a lancer pilot and her friendship with Geum.

Now she is back with the people of her birth and in daily contact with her heart-mother, surely everything now should be so much better. Except that Geum was left behind. For reasons Hwa Young couldn’t comprehend, the leader of their lancer squad refused to wait for one of their best technicians to be available, before they fled to shelter with the clanners. And as the days roll by, Hwa Young continues to be convinced that Geum will be rescued very soon, managing to send zie messages to that effect.

The interplay between the clanners and Hwa Young is beautifully handled. Once again, Yoon Ha Lee’s skill in balancing characterisation with plotting is apparent as the events stack up until an action-packed denouement shows how allegiances have shifted both within the squad and personally.

Comparisons have been made with Brandon Sanderson’s Skyward series – and I certainly see why. Both Hwa Young and Sanderson’s gutsy, gung-ho heroine, Spensa, choose to be defined by their relationship with the lethal killing machines they are bonded to after personal trauma makes family life very difficult. But there the similarities end. Spensa never spends a second worrying about the effect of her attacks on the drones attacking their settlement, whereas Hwa Young always has a nagging concern about the consequences of her actions. This is a clever, nuanced and engrossing space opera adventure I thoroughly enjoyed – and I’m now waiting very impatiently for the next slice of the adventure to find out what happens next. While I obtained an arc of Starstrike from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10