This Brutal Moon - Bethany Jacobs

This Brutal Moon takes off right where it left off at the end of On Vicious Worlds, the second book in the Kindom trilogy. Which is where everything, or almost everything, is in a bit of a mess, and when I say mess, I'm not referring to the plotting or its complexity. That is easy to pick up even if you read the last book like I did a year ago. I won't give a summary of where we are now or how we got here. If you've read the first two books you'll know, if you haven’t it won't make any sense, but as a reviewer you still want to keep a review as free from spoilers as possible.

So when I say mess, I of course mean a good mess, with the Kindom in turmoil, the fate of some of its characters unknown, the Treble facing rebellion and promising a brutal put down. Those most at risk from the vengeance of First Cloak Seti Moonback, the self-styled Kess, are of course the Jeveni refugees on Capamame. Betrayed from within by spies working for the Kindom, Seti has the key to the jump gate, the only thing keeping them safe up to now. Besides the fact that he has a lot of rebel insurgencies to deal with on many fronts, his feared arrival it is certain will be sooner rather than later. They could close the jump gate but that would leave them stranded and cut off from the Treble and civilisation altogether. It's been put to a vote, but there is no guarantee the people will support such a drastic option; the Jeveni are used to being enslaved and consider that there are worse outcomes. Not that notorious caster Jun Ironway or Effegen ten Crost, the Star of the ruling authority the Wheel, are going to let any of those happen.

That's just one strand in this multi-layered but interconnected (and time split) story, including one related to Drae sen Briit, who supervised the creation of the gate key in preparation for the Jeveni almost 100 years previously. That element adds depth to the world and its history at the same time as it illustrates why the current situation is so fractious and important. The range of characters also adds to the richness of the work, with the exception (for me anyway) of the love interest aspects. It's not quite in SF-romance territory, but the tearful healing sex scenes are quite icky. Sorry for appearing juvenile about it, but I didn't find these scenes and relationships appealing and they were really got in the way of the more interesting drama. Sure, it's a way of humanising the characters, love giving them something personal and meaningful to fight for rather than some abstract ideal, but the sentimentality all too often proves to be a handicap to them fulfilling their roles.

In my review of the last book, I was willing to put those weaker aspects aside since the promise remained of an explosive finale, and in a way This Brutal Moon doesn't entirely meet (my) expectations. The majority of the plotting here involves a lot of negotiation and bargaining between the many interested parties in the rebellion, and there are a lot of them; too many to be able to recognise or keep tabs on them. When Chono and Six are involved however that means that there is still plenty of drama and tension. While many of the interesting world creation elements of the first book have taken a back seat - understandably as the world has changed considerably - the real strength of Jacobs' writing is in the characterisation of these two figures: sparks fly off the page when they are placed in any kind of standoff situation, bristling with intensity and violence, even when outwardly appearing to be measured and calm. Confrontations are where the real action occurs here.

In the afterword to the conclusion of this trilogy, Jacobs recognises that the work has some relation to what is currently happening in the world, specifically the Middle East. Those elements were hinted at in the first book, but events in the real world have overtaken the SF fictional world she has created, not that it shows all that obviously in the writing. Nonetheless, I found This Brutal Moon a little dissatisfying, neither this nor On Vicious Worlds fully living up to the possibilities and invention opened up in the award-winning debut These Burning Stars. The trilogy does genuinely appear to follow a natural line of progression, and you can't criticise the author for that, but it seems to have become overly complicated with families, new leaders and players, while the original truly interesting figures of Six and Sunstep have become more romantically than motivationally driven, lessening their unpredictability and any unexpected developments in the plot.

Actually, I don't think that's entirely true, as both Jun and Six certainly have their moments towards the conclusion of This Brutal Moon, and Chono continues in her growth to become a/the major figure through the series. But far from the explosive conclusion I might have been hoping for, it feels like the undue emphasis placed on the love interest side has tended towards softening the darker edge that was evident in the earlier parts of the trilogy. On the other hand Jacobs could be right and that might just be a reflection that the reality world we are living in at the moment is a much darker one that needs a little more love and a lot less violence.

Reading notes: This Brutal Moon by Bethany Jacobs is published on the 2nd December 2025. I received a preview eBook proof from the publisher through NetGalley.