Review: The Kassa Gambit, by M.C. Planck

"You should totally judge a book by its cover." That was the advice of a friend back in college when recommending fantasy and sci-fi novels. This was in the days before the ubiquitous blogs, review sites, Amazon recommendations and tweets helped us to pick out our next read (I'm severely dating myself, aren't I?)

I picked up The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck almost entirely due to its cover, catching my eye from its perch at the end of a library shelf. It depicts three people in menacing-looking exosuits walking through a snowstorm, armed with rifles. This is taken from a scene from early in the novel and, on closer inspection, the face inside the nearest figure's helmet is decidedly non-menacing, probably belonging the the book's female protagonist, Prudence. But I didn't notice that at first, just the suits. This cover fairly screamed space opera and I have a weakness for space armour and battlesuits (I love Warhammer 40K's Space Marine esthetic) . It's also possible it evoked fond memories of the Fighting Fantasy book Space Assassin (despite it's poor reputation among FF fans, I still like it, dammit; rolling a die for damage from the assault blaster was like the thrill of illicit alcohol for an 8 year old nerd). However, the edges of the cover are hazy and, ultimately, there's not too much to distinguish it beyond the central action, which pretty much sums up the novel.

Watch out! That assault blaster
can do 1d6 damage.

The Kassa Gambit is a debut novel. Like many debuts, perhaps it was overly ambitious in the grand themes Planck wanted to include, trying to pack them all in rather than focusing the characterization. It suffers from other debut flaws, most notably a too-quick resolution, a major plot hole and a romantic subplot that felt shoehorned in during a late draft.

The central narrative is solid and briskly paced, wedding a conspiracy thriller to the space opera genre. Humanity has spread across the cosmos, linked by "nodes" that allow jumping from one star system to the next. Even so, travel between settled worlds takes days or weeks at a time, leaving each settlement in relative isolation, like the early days of European colonization of North America. In this case, however, there are no indigenous populations to speak of, with alien life restricted to the most basic organisms. One of these worlds is suddenly and mysteriously attacked by an unknown enemy fleet and amid the wreckage, interstellar trader Prudence Falling and police officer Kyle Daspar seek out the truth behind the attack, at first separately, then together.

The plot has the compact feel of a political thriller, more than an expansive space opera. With its close focus on the two protagonists, there is not a lot in the way of building out the specifics of the worlds around them. I actually don't mind this lack of specificity, letting my imagination do a bit of extra work to fill in the gaps. I think such an open world fits very well with the frontier mentality that dominates Planck's universe, emphasizing the fact that so much of space, even the settled worlds, is unknown. It also highlights the fact that the two protagonists never feel at home anywhere.

The story's world does have some foundation in science. In particular, I was impressed by the imaginative details of gravitic drives and space travel through nodes being akin to ocean voyages in the age of sail. The science, though, takes a back seat to the social themes Planck wants to expound upon. This is where The Kassa Gambit suffers most, in my opinion. While there is clarity in describing how a very obviously Nazi-inspired movement called the "League" takes over the society of the most advanced settled world, taking advantage of human complacency and laziness rather than any popular dissent, many other details are lazy. The League's motivations are thinly sketched at best, and their methods are often describe through libertarian screeds that pass for internal dialogue. I found myself baffled at the opposition movement, with no sense of who they are or how they're organized. The haziness of Kyle's involvement with this opposition made his own motivations frustratingly unclear.

The plot ultimately carries things through. The pacing was very good and although there were some parts of the writing that felt clunky, like awkward romantic interludes in the middle of a crisis and the jarring use of present-day idioms, I rarely felt anything screaming "debut novel" at me. Penalty points, however, for saying that Marvin the Martian is green. Of all the flaws, my biggest complaint is that the love at first sight romance between the protagonists is not at all convincing. It would have made more sense if the author had really played up the desperate loneliness beforehand, rather than telling us that's why they were drawn to each other.

Still, flaws and all, this is an enjoyable page turner. I particularly recommend this to people who appreciate the thriller genre, but would like a dash of sci-fi with that. I want to see more from Planck and his world and hope future novels improve on this solid base.

out of 5