The novel “A Good Death” by Steve Ramirez was published for the first time in 2023. It’s the third book in the S’orne Saga and follows “In the Shadow“.
Sam sees strange objects in the sky that don’t look natural at all. He tries to follow their path to find their starting point in the hope of discovering what they are, but on his way, he encounters a completely different danger.
News reaches the village of Kyu Shin that the community’s best-kept secret has leaked out. King Cortez heard stories that seem hard to believe but wants to make things clear. That’s not the only concern for his kingdom and he decides it’s time to use the most modern weapons available to end fights.
“A Good Death” offers a conclusion to the s’orne saga, which began with the attack of the human-like beings who have superhuman strength and behave like rabid animals known only as s’orne. Various developments, with surprises and revelations, had already created a decidedly broad framework for a fantasy-flavored story that includes elements that show science fiction foundations.
Prince Sam was mentioned several times and becomes an important character in this final book. This allows readers to understand what he was doing away from the Kingdom in a part of the plot that takes him in a direction that’s very different from the one he was following.
Actually, Sam ends up witnessing the important events that concern the village of Kyu Shin while his actions mostly create headaches for the officers in his father’s service who try to keep him out of trouble. Agent Cordero also ends up having a role similar to Sam in this final book, since he finds himself in the eye of the storm, so to speak.
Events such as strange sightings and references to knowledge that goes far beyond that of the natives are useful to remember the science fiction element of this saga. Without them, the fantasy flavor would overwhelm everything in a saga set on a planet where the most advanced native technology is that of muzzle-loaded muskets.
The genre label is something of little use from the beginning of the saga that can even be a distraction. Steve Ramirez has always focused on the characters, developing their personal stories, often through hardships, and the relationships between them. In particular, the parallel stories of Bellona and Princess Dorinda highlight some similarities and some differences, even profound ones. Those are stories of loss and attempts to recover, also by forming new interpersonal relationships.
Life and death contrast each other from the beginning of the saga and this is also true in this ending. The resolution of various subplots is strong from an emotional point of view but the fast pace leads to a focus on certain narrative elements preventing certain in-depth developments. For example, the story of the Botai people remains in some ways incomplete since its development is interrupted.
Honestly, at the end, I was a bit perplexed because it seemed to me that Steve Ramirez had sacrificed parts of the story to focus on some of them and for once a longer saga would have been useful to fully develop all the elements. However, in the acknowledgments he included at the end of this book, the author explained his plan to write more books to develop various parts of the saga. It’s a solution that will offer greater completeness to the various stories included in the original trilogy without weighing it down.
As it is, “A Good Death” offers a conclusion to the s’orne saga that may not be entirely satisfying but is still an epilogue. For this reason, while waiting for Steve Ramirez to add other books to complete parts of the story, for readers who enjoyed the previous books, this one is a must read. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
