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Starquest #2
Secret Agents of the Galaxy
A Grandmaster lifts his pen to restore Space Opera to long lost glory!
If you are weary of the wasteland of wokeness, your wait is ended!
The despotic Galactic Empire is gone, and the Dark Overlords are dead.
But from the embers new menaces a Dark Sun Weapon quenches living stars; Pirate King Ahab gathers space corsairs to form warfleets of conquest; the Crime Syndicate corrupts consuls, fixes vote, paralyzes the polity to pry planets from the new Constitution.
Space Princess Lyra Centauri, exiled Shrine Maiden, employs her astral powers on behalf of the mysterious spymaster Nightshadow, and finds the shades of ancient foes alive in the dream realm.
Senator Napoleon Lone, and his illegal super-robot valet, must thread the maze of stellar politics to rouse a lethargic senate ere war clouds can crush the fledgling republic!
Patrolman Athos Lone wins the Black Badge of a Vindicator, and is able investigate without warrant and execute without trial. He seeks the Murder Mansion of Pirate Captain Liska, who slew his brother. As the iron-masked and lion-clawed vigilante called the Ancient Mariner, he seeks bloody revenge.
Shall the darkness thrive and dead devilry revive?
Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!
If you are weary of the wasteland of wokeness, your wait is ended!
The despotic Galactic Empire is gone, and the Dark Overlords are dead.
But from the embers new menaces a Dark Sun Weapon quenches living stars; Pirate King Ahab gathers space corsairs to form warfleets of conquest; the Crime Syndicate corrupts consuls, fixes vote, paralyzes the polity to pry planets from the new Constitution.
Space Princess Lyra Centauri, exiled Shrine Maiden, employs her astral powers on behalf of the mysterious spymaster Nightshadow, and finds the shades of ancient foes alive in the dream realm.
Senator Napoleon Lone, and his illegal super-robot valet, must thread the maze of stellar politics to rouse a lethargic senate ere war clouds can crush the fledgling republic!
Patrolman Athos Lone wins the Black Badge of a Vindicator, and is able investigate without warrant and execute without trial. He seeks the Murder Mansion of Pirate Captain Liska, who slew his brother. As the iron-masked and lion-clawed vigilante called the Ancient Mariner, he seeks bloody revenge.
Shall the darkness thrive and dead devilry revive?
Read On! For All True Tales are but Part of a Greater!
- GenresScience Fiction
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 11, 2025
22 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
John C. Wright
147 books456 followersJohn C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 10, 2025
The plot thickens!
Took a while for me to get to the sequel book, but I found time to do so this week in preparations for the third books release. I really enjoyed the first novel in the series, and a few chapters into the sequel, I was honestly worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much, but once we get to chapter 4 or so, it takes off hard. This book does a really good job expanding upon pretty much everything book one set up! There's a lot of good backstory for characters, even some minor ones. The narrative deepens our understanding of how Lyra Centauri came to work for the mysterious Nightshadow after her planet was destroyed, and we get fascinating glimpses into the Lone family history.
This is where the StarQuest series truly establishes its own identity beyond its initial Star Wars inspirations. While it certainly uses familiar space opera tropes, Wright has created something uniquely his own, and he did it by blending elements of classic pulp space opera like E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series with spy novel elements. The universe expands dramatically from the first book's single planetary system focus to encompass galactic politics of the new Republic formed after the Empire's fall.
Unlike Star Wars' prequel trilogy politics, Wright handles the political intrigue MASTERFULLY by mixing it with this cloak-and-dagger spy drama, completely with planetary infiltration and high-stakes action sequences! And the final hundred pages accelerate into thrilling pulp action reminiscent of Flash Gordon serials.
My main complaint remains the first few opening chapters weren't quite as good as I was hoping them to be (they're certainly above average though), though the payoff is absolutely worth it. The cover art for this book is also fantastic, which was a significant improvement over the first book's cover that I had criticized in my review for Book 1.
Really looking forward to the third book!
Took a while for me to get to the sequel book, but I found time to do so this week in preparations for the third books release. I really enjoyed the first novel in the series, and a few chapters into the sequel, I was honestly worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much, but once we get to chapter 4 or so, it takes off hard. This book does a really good job expanding upon pretty much everything book one set up! There's a lot of good backstory for characters, even some minor ones. The narrative deepens our understanding of how Lyra Centauri came to work for the mysterious Nightshadow after her planet was destroyed, and we get fascinating glimpses into the Lone family history.
This is where the StarQuest series truly establishes its own identity beyond its initial Star Wars inspirations. While it certainly uses familiar space opera tropes, Wright has created something uniquely his own, and he did it by blending elements of classic pulp space opera like E.E. Doc Smith's Lensman series with spy novel elements. The universe expands dramatically from the first book's single planetary system focus to encompass galactic politics of the new Republic formed after the Empire's fall.
Unlike Star Wars' prequel trilogy politics, Wright handles the political intrigue MASTERFULLY by mixing it with this cloak-and-dagger spy drama, completely with planetary infiltration and high-stakes action sequences! And the final hundred pages accelerate into thrilling pulp action reminiscent of Flash Gordon serials.
My main complaint remains the first few opening chapters weren't quite as good as I was hoping them to be (they're certainly above average though), though the payoff is absolutely worth it. The cover art for this book is also fantastic, which was a significant improvement over the first book's cover that I had criticized in my review for Book 1.
Really looking forward to the third book!
April 25, 2025
Grand adventure
Navy of pirates, psionic temple maidens, and a giant furred manservant. Good Ole space opera. It gives you just what you want.
Navy of pirates, psionic temple maidens, and a giant furred manservant. Good Ole space opera. It gives you just what you want.
March 27, 2025
Full of action, intrigue, wonders, and....
...editing errors.
This would be 5 stars if not for the numerous errors peppering the text. Hopefully they get corrected - inverted word order, misspellings, etc.
Still looking forward to the next book as the series thus far is rollicking fun full of colorful characters, reverential nods to pulp sci-fi of ages past, subverted tropes, and inventive gadgets. Good ckean fun from one of the 21st century's most creative wordsmiths!
...editing errors.
This would be 5 stars if not for the numerous errors peppering the text. Hopefully they get corrected - inverted word order, misspellings, etc.
Still looking forward to the next book as the series thus far is rollicking fun full of colorful characters, reverential nods to pulp sci-fi of ages past, subverted tropes, and inventive gadgets. Good ckean fun from one of the 21st century's most creative wordsmiths!
March 28, 2025
The second Starquest novel. Spoilers for the first ahead.
As in, we do learn that a character survived the danger at the end of the first. And this book follows three characters: once again Lyra and Athos, and also Athos's brother Napoleon.
Succoring the innocent victims of crime, skullduggery and wheeling and dealing politics, a promotion refused and replaced, a bold venture to a planet, questions of whether something is piracy, and more.
As in, we do learn that a character survived the danger at the end of the first. And this book follows three characters: once again Lyra and Athos, and also Athos's brother Napoleon.
Succoring the innocent victims of crime, skullduggery and wheeling and dealing politics, a promotion refused and replaced, a bold venture to a planet, questions of whether something is piracy, and more.
November 26, 2025
If you enjoyed the first book, you will probably love this one even more. In this second book, the setting expands and the characters come to life as the author shows his diverse talents.
In "Secret Agents of the Galaxy," the narrative diverges into parallel plotlines. Whereas the first book was mostly an adventure story and an introduction to the setting, this one's plotlines feature a lot of intrigue and drama, and flesh out the story into a coherent narrative.
I especially appreciate that the author gave the plotlines and characters a different and appropriate feel, not merely an adventure story told from a few differing perspectives.
In one plotline, we have a princess whose world was destroyed, performing secret missions in the hopes of revenge. There are scenes of deep pathos as she spies on the people her missions have helped, desperate but unable to aid them further.
Another plotline, that of an Imperial Deathtrooper, has a feel of horror that gave my jaded self goosebumps when he needed to hide his true thoughts from a Grand Inquisitor whose line of questioning suddenly took a sharp turn into the sinister.
I'll note that the remnant of Empire in this series is more interesting in its villainy than I am used to seeing in these kinds of stories. More than merely "they are the bad guys because they kill too many people," the Empire has a unique character based on control through deceit. The Dark Overlords who rule it tell their populace that they don't exist and psychic powers aren't real, and officially hold that the Empire actually won the last war and are soon to squash the last of the rebels. Much more engaging than Yet Another Evil Empire.
Another plotline is about political scheming, focusing on a young senator who is trying to play the political game while pretending to be a drunken layabout who poses no threat. It actually manages to make a political intrigue narrative fun and exciting.
Also worth noting, since politics has been mentioned: I am not against politics in stories. I am against storytellers pulling my leg, and the two often sadly go together. That's not an issue here. The new Republic is not painted in rose colored glasses in which the author's political team is The Good Guys with no subtlety. Although I believe the author does politically sympathize with the Republic, the narrative is quite clear that this is a new system of government, still very crude and inefficient, and many in the galaxy still don't trust it enough to sign on. Like the Empire, the Good Guys Republic is also more interesting than the stereotype.
Overall, Secret Agents of the Galaxy kicked the series into gear, bringing life to the characters, the stakes, and the lore. If you like epic series with depth, pick up the second book and read on.
Disclosure: I backed the crowdfund campaign, so I received an advance copy for proofreading. I was not paid for this service.
In "Secret Agents of the Galaxy," the narrative diverges into parallel plotlines. Whereas the first book was mostly an adventure story and an introduction to the setting, this one's plotlines feature a lot of intrigue and drama, and flesh out the story into a coherent narrative.
I especially appreciate that the author gave the plotlines and characters a different and appropriate feel, not merely an adventure story told from a few differing perspectives.
In one plotline, we have a princess whose world was destroyed, performing secret missions in the hopes of revenge. There are scenes of deep pathos as she spies on the people her missions have helped, desperate but unable to aid them further.
Another plotline, that of an Imperial Deathtrooper, has a feel of horror that gave my jaded self goosebumps when he needed to hide his true thoughts from a Grand Inquisitor whose line of questioning suddenly took a sharp turn into the sinister.
I'll note that the remnant of Empire in this series is more interesting in its villainy than I am used to seeing in these kinds of stories. More than merely "they are the bad guys because they kill too many people," the Empire has a unique character based on control through deceit. The Dark Overlords who rule it tell their populace that they don't exist and psychic powers aren't real, and officially hold that the Empire actually won the last war and are soon to squash the last of the rebels. Much more engaging than Yet Another Evil Empire.
Another plotline is about political scheming, focusing on a young senator who is trying to play the political game while pretending to be a drunken layabout who poses no threat. It actually manages to make a political intrigue narrative fun and exciting.
Also worth noting, since politics has been mentioned: I am not against politics in stories. I am against storytellers pulling my leg, and the two often sadly go together. That's not an issue here. The new Republic is not painted in rose colored glasses in which the author's political team is The Good Guys with no subtlety. Although I believe the author does politically sympathize with the Republic, the narrative is quite clear that this is a new system of government, still very crude and inefficient, and many in the galaxy still don't trust it enough to sign on. Like the Empire, the Good Guys Republic is also more interesting than the stereotype.
Overall, Secret Agents of the Galaxy kicked the series into gear, bringing life to the characters, the stakes, and the lore. If you like epic series with depth, pick up the second book and read on.
Disclosure: I backed the crowdfund campaign, so I received an advance copy for proofreading. I was not paid for this service.
April 29, 2025
Another ride, though not as wild as the last one. While the previous book pulled us through the death-defying pirate hunt of Athos Lone, this second book focuses more on the psyonic espionage of Lyra Centauri. This is less exciting, and her story and Athos's have little to do with each other. Between the first and last scene, both of which are excellent and gripping, the rest of the book sags. However, I'm still eagerly awaiting book three. Wright's mediocrity is everyone else's mastery.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews