After the Crown: Once A Gunrunner Now Heir To An Empire

Now she's the empress and she has to try to keep her empire in one piece while also wanting to change things for the better, but there's another empire determined to kill her and survival is her biggest hope. Myself and my husband are reading these and enjoying them.

Wagers continues her fabulous space opera trilogy in this second book, which is just as intense as the first though the content takes a different focus. Whereas Behind the Throne emphasized political intrigue with action and assassination attempts, After the Crown has fewer politics and far more explosions and spaceships; both books are excellent. I continue to love the world-building here, as we step beyond the India-derived Indranan Empire and see more of the Saxons and Cheng. I love Hail's BodyGuards and enjoyed meeting more rogues from Hail's life as a gunrunner. This is, without question, one of my new favorite series and I'm excited for the end of 2017 and the release of the 3rd book.

Rating: Continuing right on to the third book in the trilogy, so that should say something.So, it turns out gunrunning is the best sort of training ground for a future empress. Haile, runaway princess, has been brought back home to become empress when her family is murdered. Things don't go so well. But then Haile isn't the sort of woman to just accept a coup without fighting back.Love the characters, all are well drawn. The world is interesting and you definitely want to find out what the heck Haile is going to do next. Thus, right on to the third book of the trilogy.

Bang. Book 2 keeps the same hectic pace as the opening, far from a mid-series slump. Good characters good lines, fast action and a lot of fun.Hailimi is just about back on her throne, and almost recovered from the deaths of those close to her that occurred during her ascension. She didn't ask for the honour, nor for their sacrifice, but now that she's empress she's going to do the best she can. Facing her are two big problems, one is the emancipation of men, and their terrorist supporters, and the other is the ongoing crisis with the neighbouring empire, who have seized these months of turmoil to capture some of her planets. Oh and raising an heir! The first is relatively simple, given her own criminal history, she simply summons the leaders to a conference with palace officials. While the negotiations are ongoing, Hail attempts the same tactic with her neighbours, and arranges discussions on a nearby neutral planet. Things don't go so well. Nobody in Hail's remaining security team had spotted that not all of the previous coup's leaders had been identified, and she's forced to flee into space on a ship from her former life. Fortunately she's still got plenty of contacts out their under her other name, and can form yet another plan to retake her empire. A couple fo minor issues linger from the first book, for one it's not all apparent what the political structure of the galaxy actually is. There seems to be a threat of not disturbing one of the other neighbours for example by breaking war protocols, but it's not apparent why they would care or if they'd have the power and will to intervene. The motive for the elusive Mr Wilson seems particularly disproportionate to the amount of effort he's gone to, and again not clear where he's obtain the skills and resources required. If he were raised in Indranian society neither would be available to him, but he if's made a successful life outside somewhere, then again why would he care. The societal structure also seems a bit distorted. I think its supposed to be reverse patriarchal, (definitely not matriarchal as normally envisaged) but there are large numbers of men in many high ranking places, especially the guards. So many of Hail's contacts and encounters are with men, that it casts doubts on the author's intended society.None of which effects the action and plotting. Good old gangsters versus the world never gets dull and it's even more fun in space. A worthy continuation.

SOO GOOOD!! I loved it! I love Hail, and he smart-ass remarks, and her quips, and her bad-assery. I love Emmory, and Zin, and everyone else in the book. I enjoyed the introduction of Hao's character as well. I liked that we got to see Hail more vulnerable, yet strong and willing to do anything for her people. She is just a great character.
I love the Indranan Empire and how everything is set up. The whole plot and concept of this story is great and so much fun. I could not stop reading. like that there is political intrigue, along with space battles. The pacing and writing were great too.

Overall, I love this series and can't wait to read the final book.

Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers was one of the best debut novels I’ve read and one of my favorite reads of 2016 period. It was with both excitement and trepidation that I started reading the sequel, After the Crown. I needn’t have worried. Now K. B. Wagers has written two of my favorite reads of 2016 and she’s only getting better. I get the same feeling as the first time I opened a book and met Miles Vorkosigan or Honor Harrington. Like Lois McMaster Bujold and David Weber, Wagers has created a character and a universe that I look forward to reading many, many more stories about.After the Crown picks up events soon after we left them at the end of Behind the Throne. Hail is settling into being empress despite the threats that exist both from within and outside the empire. The court intrigue and disruptions from factions within the empire is intriguing and exciting in its own right, but the story really kicks into high gear when Hail leaves the planet to meet with the King of the Saxon empire and try to avert interplanetary war. Soon after, more bullets start flying and more things start blowing up. This leads to the gunrunner empress proving that her reputation is no joke and that killing her is harder than it looks. Now Hail is on the run and relying on some of her more disreputable connections from her past to win back her empire and get justice for all the friends and family she’s lost.Wagers writes action scenes like nobody’s business and once things start rolling they keep on rolling until you are out of breath and there are no more pages left to turn. Even better than the action though is the characters. Hail Bristol is one of the best characters I’ve come across in a long time. She is larger than life. She is part Princess Leia and part Han Solo. The cast of characters around her is equally interesting. Emmory and Zin, the trackers turned bodyguards, are great characters, and there are many more among the court, the Indranan military and the government. After the Crown introduces us to more characters from Hail’s past, including her old boss Hao and the infamous Po-Sin. The Indranan War is one of the best new series to come along in a long time and After the Crown is an outstanding followup to Behind the Throne. Get in on the ground floor of the next great science fiction series. You won’t regret it. Highly recommended.I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.

{Second in the Indranan Wars trilogy; sci-fi, political sci-fi}This is the sequel to Behind the Throne (where the character calling herself 'Cressen Stone' was recalled to the Indranan planetary empire to take her place as Hailimi Jaya Bristol, the sole remaining heir to her ailing empress mother after her sisters were assassinated). Having now ascended the throne, Hail has to try to stop the threat of invasion by the Saxon empire while contending with civil unrest and with the factions at home who have been decimating her family. To this end, she goes off-planet to negotiate with King Trace of the Saxons and finds herself fighting a space war. Caught at a disadvantage, she turns to her gunrunning contacts and utilises assets that she had been forced to abandon when she returned home.I found this fun with the action flowing thick and fast but it felt somehow lighter than my usual sci-fi reading. It could be me - although I read the first book several weeks ago, I didn't immediately recall the tertiary characters. Part of the problem for me was that there were so many tertiary characters. Even while reading this book, I found it hard to keep track of who was who and even, since a lot of names are made up, who was male or female. Granted, as a matriarchal society, most of the senior personnel are female but there are some men. My favourite character is still Portis, her long time partner and lover who died in the opening scene of the first book.I think the fast pace, with Hail moving quickly from one situation to the next as she tried to save her empire and her people, didn't help my focus. And there were too many instances of her sticking her tongue out at people and her being given 'the Look' (no, I'm not quite sure what it is, either). I did find it easier to think of her closer to her age of 38 (although not all the way) than in her mid twenties, which is how old she felt in the first book.Fun. I intend to move on to the third book soon (while I can still remember who is who).3.5 stars

Hail Bristol, former gunrunner turned Empress, has enemies foreign and domestic, as well as lots of loyal allies. There’s intrigue, betrayal, and visits to criminal enterprises Hail knew in her previous life. It’s a brisk enough adventure but didn’t hold me as well as the first book in the series.

This sequel to Behind the Throne does not disappoint. It was nice to see more of the gunrunner parts of the galaxy, since the previous book was more focused on the imperial parts. Hail continues to kick ass and take names, while still being vulnerable and interesting as a character. A bunch of the great supporting cast also make appearances. I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the third installment in the series.

I had a lot of fun with the fist book in the series, Behind the Throne. By comparison, this second book felt like running head first into a brick wall. I lost all sense of fun I had from the first book and had to slog my way through. I spent a lot of time debating whether or not I’d finish this one, but in the end I felt like I’d put too much time into it to abandon it.Hail’s trying to organize peace talks with an antagonistic neighboring empire, the Saxons. Unfortunately things don’t go quite as planned. She’s about to face a whole new set of conspiracies and betrayals. Against the odds, she’s got to get back to her home planet and re-seize her throne.Typing out that synopsis made me realize how much After the Crown was retreading Behind the Throne. It feels like almost essentially the same plot line as the last book, with not enough new twists to differentiate it or keep me interested. I had so much trouble focusing on After the Crown. I’d pick it up and then put it back down again. I left it sitting untouched for days at a time while I started and finished other books. If it wasn’t for that, I might think this was more on me than the book. But if I was reading other things, then I can’t just have been in a bad reading head space.I was bored by the plot, which meant that the shallow characterization I’d already noticed in the first book really hurt. I could never remember who the supporting characters were. Besides Hail, I tended to get people mixed up. And honestly… and I didn’t care all that much about any of them.The pacing also felt slow, especially in the middle which was when I wandered away for a few days. I was never immersed in the story, and reading After the Crown felt like a chore. This one’s a resounding “meh.”Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.