By Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
“Space opera” is a sub-genre of science fiction that emphasises space warfare.
According to Wikipedia, this type of work features “technological and social advancements…in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies”.
Traitor’s Run is the first book in Australian author Keith Stevenson’s The Lenticular Series.
In his words, this space opera trilogy portrays “species slaughter, invasion and rebellion where humanity are the bad guys”.
In this series, Earth controls a federation of worlds and civilisations called the Hegemony.
Relentless and ruthless, it will sacrifice anything – including aliens and its own citizens – to dominate the galaxy and protect humanity.
Against this backdrop, we meet Udun, a member of the Kresz, an insular and peaceful species native to their Homeworld.
Here is a description of the Kresz: “Tall and heavily armoured, like a cross between a crab and a lobster but with only two arms and two legs, although these were strangely jointed and much longer than a human’s. The eyes too were human-like, even if the thing’s mouth looked like a horror show.”
More importantly: “The cowl behind the head [like a cobra’s hood]…is an extra-sensory organ which allows the Kresz to ‘pick up’ on the empathic state of other Kresz nearby.”
As Udun explains it: “The sensation of others’ feelings was natural for a Kresz, as natural as looking up in the sky and seeing the suns, and just as assuring.”
This is why the Kresz are peaceful creatures, because “it took a deep madness to inflict [any injuries] on someone when that suffering instantly became your own”.
Simply put, such ability for one Kresz to immediately understand another in any situation is the bedrock of their society.
Yet, when Hegemony forces invade the Kresz Homeworld, they brutally harvest the hoods from everyone who dares oppose them.
“This is not simple occupation and suppression. It’s beyond even calculated murder. It’s the malicious destruction of the soul of an entire people, something only a species that has lost its own soul could contemplate. This is the human race.”
One of the witnesses of the Hegemony’s capacity to cause carnage, destruction and suffering is Rhees Lowrans, a disgraced human pilot working for the so-called Diplomatic Corps.
But there is no diplomacy here, with the Hegemony encouraging factions in various alien societies and then launching full-scale invasions in the name of quelling local “civil disorder”.
As one character describes it: “The Hegemony always come in friendship, one hand extended but the other clutching a weapon behind their back… They move secretly wherever possible. They stay strong by driving outwards and sweeping aside all those who might challenge them. They will never stop.”
Stevenson’s representation of the human race is refreshing yet chilling.
Can Udun and Rhees help overthrow the Hegemony and restore peace and order in the universe?
We can only wait and see what happens next in The Lenticular Series.
