The novel “Aftershocks” by Marko Kloos was published for the first time in 2019. It is the first book in The Palladium Wars series.
Aden Robertson was a prisoner of war for five years on the planet Rhodia after participating in an interplanetary war as part of the planet Gretia’s elite military corps. When his sentence ends according to the terms of the peace treaty, Aden finds himself with many uncertainties about his future, also because he intends to stay away from his family.
Color Sergeant Idina Chaudhary leads a team on patrol duty on Gretia as part of the occupation force. For years, there have been no incidents when her team is attacked by someone who is very well equipped. Lieutenant Commander Dunstan Park is on patrol duty at Gretia’s fleet, which was seized and waiting for the Allies to decide how to split it, when an unknown spaceship is detected in the area. Solveig Ragnar is the daughter of a powerful Gretian industrialist who was underage when the treaty was signed that ousted Falk Ragnar from his industry and as a result, she can go to work as an executive in her father’s company.
Marko Kloos established himself over the past decade with a military science fiction series. The Palladium Wars series also has strong elements of this subgenre but begins years after the end of an interplanetary war to explore its long-term consequences. It’s set on various planets and interplanetary travel is normal but in many ways, the technologies are very familiar and sometimes don’t seem very advanced.
This initial book follows the points of view of some characters divided between winners and losers, which represents an important choice in the development of the different subplots. Gretia was the aggressor planet that started the war, and for this reason, its population was forced to accept harsh conditions after the surrender imposed by an alliance of other planets.
Character development is central to this novel and the protagonists all display different facets of personality. For example, Aden Robertson doesn’t seem like a bad person at all despite having been part of Gretia’s elite military corps. He had his reasons for enlisting and he found himself fighting for the wrong side.
Through very different situations in which the protagonists find themselves and work, Marko Kloos slowly tells the story of that post-war period. Various details included here and there related to the different points of view of the protagonists are used by the author to offer information about the war and what prompted Gretia to start it. There’s a peace that seems to be lasting until someone starts carrying out attacks of various kinds that could endanger it.
The military science fiction parts and some other action-packed parts are fast-paced but are alternated with other slower and more introspective parts. In particular, the chapters following Aden Robertson tend to be slow in this character’s discovery of all that happened during his captivity.
“Aftershocks” can be defined as a prologue that is almost 300 pages long and used to lay the foundations of the events that will be developed in the sequels. This is the beginning of a great story and consequently has no conclusion but requires continuing with The Palladium Wars series to get some answers to the many questions included in this book.
Due to its characteristics, “Aftershocks” is a novel without a real ending. You might like it if you appreciate series with great stories that span multiple novels and have the patience to read them all to reach its ending. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
