Review: Friends in the Stars (Family Law Series Book 5) by Mackey Chandler

Friends in the Stars by Mackey Chandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ratcheting Up The Tension

This is the fifth book in a continuing series. You need to read the preceding books to understand this one and the story continues in the next book, despite the natural break in the narrative at the end of the book. This series is also connected to the Alice Series in terms of shared timeline, history and characters. The reading order of the two series can be found in this post.

Lee is now based on Derfhome. She has a suite in the best hotel in town and finds herself enjoying the service and view. She is trying to get on with creating their rival organisation to the Claims Commission. She’s also developing the jump drive inspired by The Three. Now she’s witnessed that it exists she is determined to get it for herself and her allies.

This book focuses a lot on Derf. There are humans now living in the capital city and they are linked to outside powers. Derf has become very important to lots of people because Earth, in particular USNA, does not want Derf to have any more power.

The tension on Earth is increasing and The Three realise that things are going to come to a head soon. The agreement of Central and Home with Earth, to ask permission for armed ships to transit L1, was always a cease fire rather than a peace treaty. Seeing the way the wind is blowing means Queen Heather has to make some hard choices about her people and about how to handle Earth to prevent their brand of crazy infecting the universe.

This book has a lot more about The Three and I have a feeling that the Alice Series really should have been read in parallel to this series. I can understand that plot, but believe that there are a lot of subtleties I’m missing. However, as there is only one more book in this series, I’m going to read it then go back to the beginning in the Alice Series and try to ignore the spoilers.

Despite feeling like I’m missing something I really enjoyed this book. Lee is coming into her own as a figurehead for something bigger than just her and Gordon. She has stepped into a position of authority and she is trying to embrace it. We saw a lot less of Gordon in this book, which saddened me because he’s an amazing character. I feel if there is going to be a war we may see a lot more of him in a future book. Seeing less of Gordon though meant that Lee took on more responsibility without oversight on more occasions.

We also got to know The Three and some of their people much better in this book. They are stuck right next door to Earth and as they are the front line in dealing with the Earthies. We see more and more that they have a very similar attitude to life and morality as Lee and her allies. I can’t wait to see what they achieve together in the next book.

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