Review: Who Can Own the Stars? (April Series Book 12) by Mackey Chandler

Who Can Own the Stars? by Mackey Chandler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Diplomacy

This is the 12th book of a continuing series, which means you need to have read the preceding books to understand this one. The narrative ends at a natural break, but the story definitely continues in future books. There is a connected series, Family Law, which is set in the future with some of the same characters. The reading order across these two series is given in this post.

With the space race to the stars going on, the USNA seems to have decided to pump money into their endeavour, despite not having control over their own country. Whilst Central and Home don’t have a problem with them going to the stars, they do have a problem with them taking serious weaponry with them. It’s up to The Three to stop the Earthies from starting an interstellar war before it even starts, by keeping the weapons inside L1.

This book, as with previous ones in the series, follows multiple storylines. As well as the issue with interstellar ships with weapons, there is also the issue with making money to keep everything moving forward with their own interstellar endeavours, the group of people in Northern California (Vic, Eileen and Alice) and dealing with Martians. It’s a complex juggling act, that I sometimes wish was formatted differently. Jumping between storylines with little demarcation can be confusing at times and the first paragraph may need re-reading once you realise you are dealing with a different group of people. However, despite this challenge, it does make for an entertaining read.

It’s interesting watching April, Jeff and Heather develop in different directions. They’ve always had different interests but their personalities and strengths are diverging and becoming more entrenched. This doesn’t mean they are growing apart, but they have to work to make time together with Heather being on the Moon and Jeff and April being on Home.

I’ve now come to the end of the published books in this series and find myself wanting to read Family Law again now I’ve read this series because I know it would be a different experience reading about the characters from this series set 100 years in the future. The two series have been published alongside each other, alternating in schedule, so I’m not sure which one will come next. It will be fun to see.

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