Winter's Orbit

This was the January 2021 Illumicrate box. I had heard some interesting buzz so I was curious to see what it was like. Unfortunately, it ultimately did not quite work for me. The basic premise has you following the political marriage the son of the emperor of a small planetary conglomerate. This has been done to try and secure the blessing of a larger galactic power, to recognise the Empire as being fully formed and willing, and thus protect it against other more powerful conglomerates in the Galaxy. I can see where the references to A Memory Called Empire come in - there are some similar vibes to the political intrigue, and I did really enjoy this aspect of it. The idea of being a smaller power within a connected galaxy is an intriguing one and the political machinations of the various sects within the power were well realised.

Where this book fell flat to me was on the other central pillar of its story telling, and that is the romance side. Essentially this is a romance story with Sci-Fi politics on the side. I am not a big romance fan, and this book has not changed my mind on this. The idiotic emotional chasing around that the too main leads do is just frustrating and detracts hugely from the interesting political stuff that had been set up. I can see how this might work for people who like romance, but for me it just became annoying.