Jon Del Arroz's Knight Training

I don't usually read anything in a series out of order. I had a bad experience with that in the Nineties with L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series. (Shut up. I was twelve.) I started at book six, not realizing it was book six and then had to start over and then re-read the sixth one. It made much more sense the second time. But, I figured I'd pick up Jon Del Arroz's latest novella anyway. I had hear it worked well as a standalone and it does. I still do plan on going back to pick upFor Steam and Country but Knight Training worked just fine without it. I had a good time.

Our hero is a young apprentice Knight named James. (I approve. I find all guys named James to be both awesome and humble. Yes, that is my name. What does that have to do with anything?) He has a problem: He's good at what he does and he has the favor of the royal family. Why is that a problem? Because the other apprentices hate him. They basically see him as a teacher's pet. His life is hell.

I found myself identifying with this kid. I was the guy in high school whose teacher gave him a pet name (I spent my freshman year answering to “Scribble” in my biology class. Yes, my handwriting is that bad.) and check tests. A lot of people hated me as well. The difference is that this James can't just go home at the end of the day to get away from the crap. He spends his nights in a dorm with the people who are tormenting him. I couldn't help but to feel bad for the kid.

The fact remains that this not some “Woe is me. My life sucks. I'm being bullied.” story. James's solution to being tormented is to work harder and make his fellow apprentices eat their words. And, put bluntly, he really is that good. His instructors love him because of his talent and work ethic. He puts in the time. A competition is announced. It's just when that happens that James stumbles onto something...

I don't want to give too much away here, so I won't say what it is or where it leads, but James ends up doing even more than I expected him to when I picked this Knight Training up. I really like this kid. He's the kind of person I wish I had been at his age. He has been through a lot but he keeps persevering. What didn't kill him really did make him stronger. James is a real dynamo.

James and friends do not have it as bad as the characters in a George R.R. Martin novel, but they don't have it easy either. In a way, James himself almost has a Harry Dresden feeling to him. Either that, or he's a Timex watch. Regardless of how you view it, he takes a beating and keeps on fighting. This kid can absorb more punishment than a quarterback for the Detroit Lions. If he were any tougher, he'd be your mama's pot roast. The lost thing I saw get beaten like that was my...

Uhh...

Nevermind.

The thing is, he's not that super competent, Honor Harrington type, ominpotently awesome dynamo that some other characters are. He's willing. He's able. He wants to do what he needs to do. The problem is that James is an apprentice. He knows that he doesn't know everything but that knowledge, in and of itself, is not enough to save him. He has to get some help from his friends sometimes and is not always smart enough to seek it. There is a bit of Harry Potter in this kid and it's not because he has a lightning shaped scar or gets treated like The Chosen One. No, James wants to do it all but can't always get 'er done. The thing is, he never stops trying.

I hear a lot of people complain about the boarding school cliché in Young Adult literature but it works here. Knight Training starts at the knight training academy. James states (the book is in first person) early on that he has the goal of becoming the youngest Journeyman knight in history. I find myself wondering if that's because of flat out ambition or if he's just trying to escape all of the assholes. It may actually be a little bit of both. Either way, the reason the boarding school has become so common in these types of stories is because they provide a big enough place to tell a story and a place small enough to keep things from getting out of control, especially in a novella where the author may not have room to introduce an entire planet full of people.

You know, I keep telling myself I'm going to read more Steampunk and then not doing it. That's sad because this really is a great genre and I am looking forward to reading more Steampunk by Jon Del Arroz soon. I love this setting and others like it. I confess to being more of a fan of the “electronic stuff hasn't been invented yet” thing than the “all the electronics have failed” gimmick but the former is what Del Arroz uses here. It really does work. Because electronics haven't been invented yet, Knight Training is able to focus on the future instead of constantly pining for a lost past.

Del Arroz also avoids the trap that some Steampunk works fall into. Any good story focuses on the people in it. Don't get me wrong. Any Steampunk novel needs to have Steampunk tech in it, but the author needs to keep in mind that the tech is part of the setting and not the whole story. The 1999 version of Wild Wild West fell into this trap, but Knight Training didn't. You might read about horseless carriages in the background or a special gun but the tech is kept in its place. Kudos to him for getting the balance right.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Wooden Swords.

Knight Training
Jon Del Arroz
Superversive Press, 2018

Knight Training is available for purchase at the following link:

Jon Del Arroz's The Stars Entwined

(Authors note: I'm not sure why, but I can't seem to write this review without spoilers. So advance and read at your own caution. You have been warned.)

When one receives a request for a review from The Leading Hispanic Voice in Science Fiction, one reviews the book. If it kicks ass, that's just a bonus. So, when I received an email from Jon Del Arroz requesting me to do a review of The Stars Entwined I did. And the fact that it kicked ass was just a bonus. See what I did there?

I had a bit of trouble slotting this one into subgenres. I mean, The Stars Entwined is kind of Science Fiction, but it's kind of Science Fantasy (I'll get into that in a bit.) It starts out looking like it's going to be a police procedural, then it turns into a spy novel. You can never get comfortable with this thing because it changes in an instant. There are lots of twists and turns, but they all make sense in the story.

Seriously, if I should ever have the good fortune to meet Mr. Del Arroz at a con I will, after having bought him a drink and congratulated him on writing such an awesome book, stick my tongue ALL the way out at him for making me chase my tail like this. I like to slot books into sub-genres and this one doesn't freaking fit. I guess I'll get over it. I mean, it was a good book.

Despite my problems fitting works into little boxes The Stars Entwined is, at its core, a story about learning and functioning in a foreign society. Our protagonist, Lieutenant Sean Barrows, first encounters a species of beings called the Aryshans in his space station. Barrows is a security officer and runs into a stunningly beautiful Aryshan named Tamar.

Before long, Barrows finds himself undergoing radical surgery to make him look like an Aryshan and sent off on a spying mission. There he makes friends and discovers things about both Aryshan capabilities (his true mission) and culture (not really his mission but potentially more useful). There is a lot to be said for both. His friends are important people in their own right as well. His lover is the well... not really captain... but... first among equals in command of the ship. There is a lot of depth to the other culture because there has to be. The majority of the story takes place within it.

The reason I labeled The Stars Entwined Science Fantasy is because, although it has strong elements of SF like starships and space travel, the aliens in it are different. The Aryshans have a strong empathic sense among members of their own clan, similar in some ways to the Betazoid empathic sense from the Star Trek universe, only more limited. The sense is more pronounced among “entwined” couples. When Sean entwines with Tamar, unless I'm hallucinating, he actually gets a more advanced connection that even most purely Aryshan couples get. It surprises Tamar too. It definitely sounds like they're able to communicate better than their entwined friends. It's more of a telepathic link than an empathic one. It leads me to believe that Aryshans and humanity might just have a shared ancestry somehow.

Don't get me wrong. The Stars Entwined isn't a book that focuses on anthropology. It actually includes my favorite scientific process, which I like to refer to as “blowuptuation.” There is a ton of action. This thing is actually action packed. Ok, so maybe one really scary moment was way too telegraphed, but it still made me say, “Oh shit.” so I'm gonna call it good. Generally speaking any oh shit moment is a good moment. Especially when it doesn't go the way I expected it to.

I've always wondered about spy novels where the protagonist doesn't identify at least a bit with the people they were spying on. It never sat right with me that a spy could just run along with no compunctions. I mean, sure they might not have any when they got there. They're spying on the enemy. But once they get to know they people they're spying on...

Yeah, it should get weird. I'm happy to say that in The Stars Entwined it does. Sean starts to feel weird about selling people out. The reaction of his new wife when he confesses to her is epic. The crazy part is that he doesn't realize that she can't allow him to come to harm. He just feels like he has to do it. It's not rational, but not everything a human being does is rational. He does it because he loves her.

*SNIFF*

It's just so beautiful!!!

Ok, so maybe I'm being a bit of a smartass but it's true. It makes sense. I like it when the actions of characters make sense in context, based on human emotion. Sean did the only thing he could here. He did what the vast majority of people would have done. It's almost like it's a universal human emotion and Mr. Del Arroz was acknowledging that his character might have something in common with all people. Even the ones who didn't look like him. Hmm...

Oddly enough, one of the things I also like about The Stars Entwined is that it really does have an actual villain. One of the Aryshans really is straight up crazy and out to cause problems regardless of the cost. He believes in his own cause, such as it is, but so does every bad guy. A story has to have someone to cheer for, but it really helps to have someone to root against as well. And I hate that guy. I'm just not going to try to spell his name from memory.

Other than my sub-genre confusion, there is nothing I can find to complain about here. The plot cooks. The characters feel real. I feel like I could have a drink with Sean. I feel like I could talk nerd stuff with his friend Tol. I want to walk through Tol's workshop. I want to tinker with his crap and offer impossible improvements because I have no knowledge of engineering and only a senioritis-infected knowledge of high school physics. Ok, so it has an almost, kinda, sorta cliffhangerish type ending but it's not as bad as it could be and honestly, I'm suffering from complaining-about-cliffhanger fatigue.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Entwined Couples

The Stars Entwined
Jon Del Arroz
Superversive Press, 2018

The Stars Entwined is available at the following link: