The point is the joy ride in getting there.įor those coming to the series fresh, Deviana Morris is a highly skilled, highly trained, totally focused mercenary warrior from the Paradoxian planetary system. Honestly, if you’ve read the books this far, you pretty much know the answer to most of these questions – but also honestly, that’s not the point.

There’s a lot to be reconciled in this final book in the series: just what are the alien “phantoms”, and the little glowing bugs that it seems like only Devi can see? Just what is the virus that Devi has contracted – it’s obvious that its effect is deadly for the xith’cal, but just why are the lelgis so very interested in it? Is Brian Caldswell really the monster he seems to be, and what is his true motivation? Is Maat really a tragic victim, or is she truly a mad child who needs to be contained for humanity’s – and her own – good? Do the ends ever justify the means? And most importantly, will Devi and Rupert ever be happy together?

If you’ve followed Devi this far, you won’t be disappointed with Heaven’s Queen.

Notice: if you have not read the other books in the Paradox series, the following contains spoilers. (Feel free to check out LitStack’s reviews of the other two books in the series: Fortune’s Pawn and Honor’s Knight). Some trilogies are written to allow a reader to jump in at any time – this is not one of those. While you would be able to piece together the action and background, and eventually the relationships, you’d be missing a very rich back story, and that would be a cryin’ shame. That being said, one caveat before reading Heaven’s Queen, the third book in the series: you really do need to read the first two before devouring this one. Bach’s ability to balance rote expectations with realistic outcomes, meaning that while some of the most dangerously overused tropes are in play (plucky, uber-leet heroine gorgeous, potentially unobtainable love/hate interest rebellion against the chain of command vs shifting loyalties unknown creature threats, etc.), she manages to handle them deftly, sans overblown, soggy story line, character or prose. (Sorry, no “Bodice Busters in Space” here, just the right amount of steamy.) In fact, the strength of this entire series has been Ms. Devi is the heroine of Rachel Bach’s Paradox series, a trilogy of sci-fi/romance novels that gets it right – a hefty amount of other-worldly, spacey content to appeal to science fiction fans and enough romance to keep it interesting without scaring anyone away.

Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach