HELL HATH NO FURY (BOOK 2 IN NEW MULTIVERSE SERIES) [Hardcover]

Hell Hath No Fury (2007) is the second SF novel in the Multiverse series, following Hell's Gate. In the previous volume, Commander of One Hundred Hadrign Thalmayr finally arrived to relieve Hundred Jasak Oldenhan. When Thalmayr tried to take the prisoners -- Shaylar Nargra-Koymayr and her husband Jathmar Nargra -- Jasak declared them to be shardonai, under his personal protection. Jasak took them back to his homeworld when he left the command.

Two Thousand Nith mul Gurthak quickly sent forward Masters Rithmar Skirvon and Uthik Dastiri of the Union Arbitration Commission to conduct a parley to gain time. Under the orders of his secret masters -- the Mythalan Council of Twelve -- mul Gurthak carefully prepared a counterstrike. Arcanan troops and dragons assembled on islands near the portal.

In this novel, Dorzon chan Saskey commands the group of soldier functioning as diplomats in the parley with the Arcanans. His Talents are beginning to distrust the motives of the Arcanans. Saskey sends a Flicker message to his backup team and passes the word within his group.

Half the Arcanan honor guard at the parley are Special Operations troops, who have been briefed on the operation. When the time comes, Tharian Narshu uses a hidden dagger stone to take out the Voice. The dragons are due shortly afterward.

Unfortunately, Hulmok Arthag is ready for any aggressive move by the Arcanans. When Natshu draws his hidden weapon, Arthag draws his pistol and his men are close behind him. Unluckily, Natshu's single shot takes out the Sharonan Voice as well their Flicker Talent.

The Sharonans win that small fight, but have no means of warning their backup forces without the Voice and Flicker. They quickly interrogate their prisoners for immediate intelligence and learn about the dragons. Then they take the prisoners and head toward a side gate within the portal cluster.

In this story, the Arcanans move through the portals one by one, taking out the Voice network as they go. They attack the portal forts with dragons -- about which the Sharonans know nothing -- and push down the multiverse chain for four thousand miles. Then they reach Fort Salby.

Nith mul Gurthak regularly sends reports on the attack back to his secret masters. The Council has provided him with a spell to encrypt and compress these reports and embed them within ordinary mail to his brother-in-law. Only two others have the spellware to retrieve these messages.

Voice Darcel Kinlafia heads back to Sharona. After forty-eight thousand miles of travel, Kinlafia is escorted into the presence of Zindel chan Calirath, the Emperor of Ternathia and the designated Emperor of Sharona. He finds the Emperor to be very easy to relate to, although Zindel is somewhat terrifying if only for his heritage.

Kinlafia shares a Glimpse with the Emperor and learns about his future relationship with the Secondary Heir, Imperial Princess Andrin. He also meets Privy Voice Alazon Yanamar, who is to coach him on political affairs. As Voices sometimes do, both Kinlafia and Alazon suddenly recognize each other as the love of their life.

Meanwhile, Shaylar and Jathmar have traveled over halfway to the Arcanan home universe, with only forty thousand miles to go. Shaylar has discovered that the marriage bond between Jathmar and herself is wakening. When Jathmar tries his Mapping Talent, he also discovers that it is weaker. They carefully don't tell the Arcanans about their failling Talents.

This story concludes with the end of Arcanan secrecy. The Sharonans at Fort Salby have discovered the Arcanan aerial transport and combat capabilities and have finally gotten word back to Sharona. Moreover, the Sharonan relief division has arrived at Fort Salby.

The military story resembles the Japanese drive through the Pacific islands during World War II. However, the story includes at least two factors that differed from that operation: the communications blackout and the bottleneck at the portals. Submarines and airplanes provided the Allies with intelligence and caused havoc among the supply ships during the island campaign. Yet the Sharonans did not even know that they were under attack until the dragons flamed their forts.

This tale combines military combat with political intrigue in Weber's successful style. The storyline has mostly concentrated on Sharonan politics in the first two volumes, but the Arcanan side probably will dominant the next volume. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Weber & Evans fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of military conflict, political intrigue, and a touch of romance.

-Arthur W. Jordin

[Warning: Plot spoiler.]

Weber and Evans continue their Multiverse series with this second book. Much improved over the first, if only because it now has three things lacking in the former. A map of the network of Earths. A glossary of two sets of terms. (There are two different worlds that are clashing, and each has its own references.) Plus a list of characters. Of necessity, I still had to continually refer to all three while reading. But much more convenient than trying to keep a scad of unfamiliar names and relationships in my head. Which was the big drawback of book 1. Still, there is room for improvement in book 2. The main battle scene could have done with a map. Complicated enough to warrant this. Perhaps the authors don't think so. But they undoubtedly were conversant enough not to need it. It's different for the reader.

The plot of this book seems to be a reworking of the Pacific War, from Pearl Harbour to Midway. Arcana as Imperial Japan and Sharona as the US and its allies. To be sure, the analogy is not as close as in Turtledove's Civil War series, where the latest books are an explicit recap of World War 2. But the resemblences here are still striking. Arcanan diplomats stall negotiations long enough for their forces to launch a surprise attack. Much like Japanese diplomats in DC while their fleet approached Pearl. Arcana has air power, while Sharona completely lacks any such capability. Ok, here is one instance where the analogy does break down. The US, of course, had an air force. So you should not take the analogy too far.

More correlations arise. All the conflicts in this book take part on land. Initially, seemingly different from the Pacific, which were mostly naval conflicts. Actually, the book's battles are really akin to being fought over small islands vastly separated from each other. The worlds being explored are sparsely populated with Sharona and Arcana forts.

Another overlap is where Sharona's technology is roughly that of the US, between the World Wars. With the exception of electronics, where this has been replaced by psionics. So Sharona has the equivalent of radio and radar. Also, despite differences between Arcana and Sharona, the latter has far more logistical capability. Not a significant factor in this book. But it may come into play later. There is a strong hint of this in one character's observation. And I give nothing away by saying that there will be future books.

The overwhelming of the Sharona fort at Hell's Gate is the first battle of the book. How this occurred maps onto the attack on Pearl. One difference is that Arcana captures the fort, while Pearl never fell to the Japanese. (Though Turtledove has provided a history where this happened, if you're interested.)

Arcana then goes on to take a series of Sharona forts, mostly by surprise, with trivial casualties. These are the Japanese successes in the Pacific (Guam, Wake, Phillippines, etc) until Midway. Another correlation is in how the sides treat prisoners. Sharona does so humanely. But Arcana has several officers who deliberately torture and kill prisoners. Notably, not all the Arcana officers approve of this. But it is condoned as military necessity.

Finally, Midway. Sharona has a prince present at a key fort, with many soldiers and weapons. His visions of an Arcana attack are timely enough for his side to prepare and defeat it. The visions are the American breaking of the Japanese cryptography that told Spruance and Nimitz of the fleets approaching Midway.

Keep in mind that the analogy is thus far only in book 2. Book 1, while it laid the groundwork for this book, really did not use the analogy. And there is no guarantee or necessity for the authors to pursue this device in later books.

One possibly disappointing aspect to some readers is the death of the prince in the last battle. Used as propaganda by the Sharonan government to motivate its people. If you have read Weber's recent "On Armageddon Reef", he does a very similar action at the end of that book. While both scenes are well written, you can really see Weber at a figurative photocopying machine, simply pushing a button.

This book hits the nail on the head of every criteria for a 5 star book you care to name.

Believable and emotionaly provoking characters? Check

Well thought out and executed battle scenes? Check

Intruiging and original plot? Check

Bad guys that are Realy bad and good guys that are realy good? Check

Thought provoking political debates? Check

Believable civilizations? Check

And of course the centerpiece of any sci-fi novel. Inteligent, Well thought out, magic and technology.

In short, this is among the best books I have read in Years.

5 stars