In Paperback: Beyond the Red
/New in Paperback: Beyond the Red
by Ava JaeSky Pony Press, 2017Eros, despite being named after a sex god, doesn't fit in. The 18-year-old's got pointy ears, purple-tinted blood, and no clue who his real parents are. He's half an alien Sepharon, living among the nomadic human detritus who litter the red sands of the planet Safara. Jae's debut YA science fiction novel opens with Eros rustled at phaser-point from his tent by cloaked strangers, cuffed, and taken by transport to the Sepharon city of Vejla.The person responsible for this rough treatment is Kora Mikale Nel d'Ejla, the local Avra of the Sepharon. She was born before her short-fused twin brother, Dima, and so rules a society blessed with high technology (programmable nanites suffuse the atmosphere), but cursed with an aversion to the non-Sepharon (humans).“She'll always be the symbol of everything I cannot be,” thinks Eros, a mutt caught between the rebellious nomads and the domineering aliens, “of everything I don't want to be.” Kora, herself a striking example of space elf royalty, complicates Eros' life by sparing him the death her troops brought to his camp. His adoptive parents and brother all perished. Yet he's agreed to be Kora's personal guard, if only to avoid the more damnable fate that a half-blood might enjoy at the hands of the high ruling Sirae family.And why does fit, combat-savvy Kora need a personal guard? Because brother Dima is petty, and holds the rest of the guards in his thrall. Rioting in Vejla and multiple assassination attempts also seemingly prove that the Sepharon don't want her in charge. With Dima ruling, however, a quasi-fascist government might go full Empire and slaughter countless more innocents.It's refreshing then, that with numerous Star Wars-style tropes in play—the alluring desert planet, the human underdogs, the exotic creatures—Beyond the Red succeeds primarily as a love story. Chapters alternate the first-person perspectives of Eros and Kora, and Jae cranks the tension, both cultural and sexual, immediately. In their first meeting, Kora notices that her new slave looks with green eyes “at me—not over me.” And while he'd like to remember that she's a “cold-blooded murderous alien bitch queen,” Eros spends more time with her than anyone else. He sees her change clothes, sleep, and naturally, in her initial test of his battle-readiness,
Fabric slips off her skin—the skirt. She's fighting me in a skirt. A long skirt made of many layers of light colorful fabric, with long slits that reach the upper thigh. Which means, holding her foot like this, I've got a full view of her whole golden brown leg. And if I lift any higher...
Jae balances action, eroticism, and political intrigue while crafting a visually delectable alien world. The Sepharon indulge in white stone architecture set ablaze by twin suns and the surrounding red sands. Floating black orbs guide citizens who themselves are patterned in swirling black letters. Kora owns a nanite-tamed kazim—a large desert wildcat—named Iro. Outside her bedside window is a garden, and Jae offers an elegant, transporting view of
Curved, beautiful rows of the most precious desert flowers trimmed into elongated crescents. Blue-leafed moonflowers that open and glow under the light of the moons. Tiny temperleaf blossoms that change colors when you stroke their white petals, supposedly predicting your mood. Striped bright pink kazipetals, shimmering silver morningbushes, and of course, the luscious deep purple angled petals of the bloodflower.
The elephant in Jae's sumptuous room is of course Dune, that dazzling blueprint for building an elaborate science fiction world filled with tribal justice and cosmic gods (just ask George Lucas). Beyond the Red is a far more intimate event, however. Questions of how humanity arrived on Safara, or where the Sepharon came from, don't receive deep exploration. Jae's focus on Eros and Kora reveals a complex society slowly, and if you're turning pages for the next battle rather than our protagonist's “angled cuts of muscle,” this might not be the book for you.Sexiest of all is Jae's handling of what a trilogy should be. Modern storytelling has programmed us to expect an addictive opening tale that ends safely, hinting at darkness to come. Beyond the Red isn't down for that. The messages of love, death, and inclusion are exceptionally tight here. Eros and Kora's debut ends in a sprawling nightmare, and the author's daring makes me wish I'd read this the week it arrived.
