Review Tuesday: The Origin of Pietas by Kayelle Allen -- #SpaceOpera #ScienceFiction #ReviewTuesday

The Origin of Pietas (Bringer of Chaos #1) by Kayelle Allen

Romance Lives Forever Books, 2016

Open the novella The Origin of Pietas and you are dropped into the middle of a war. Humans created the immortal Ultras but distrust, envy and hatred have made the two races into bitter enemies. When treachery turns a supposed peace negotiation into a betrayal, the Ultra leader Pietas finds himself helpless, trapped in a suspension pod on a space ship without sustenance of any sort. Deprived of food, water, and air, he dies repeatedly, only to revive and suffer further agonies.

Still, he is not entirely alone. A human soldier—a “ghost” engineered to return to life each time he is killed—watches over Pietas’ pod and manages some minimal communication, though he’s unable to free the Ultra. Six, the soldier, should be Pietas’ mortal foe. However, compassion and admiration for the Ultra, along with a touch of rebellion against his own miserable fate, lead the ghost to protect Pietas. When they finally land on the planet of Sempervirians, Six nurses the skeletal, powerless Ultra back to health—at the same time giving him a crash course in the meaning of friendship and the importance of trust.

I’ve known Kayelle Allen for more than a decade and read quite a few of her books, almost all of which take place in the same universe—an enormous universe that spans galaxies, with personal histories going back thousands of years. Her immortal characters live multiple lives over time, sometimes adopting new identities. I’m in awe of her imagination and her world-building skill, not to mention her ability to keep track of thousands of details.

Pietas remains an important character in many of Ms. Allen’s books—the Immortal King of the Ultras, proud, arrogant, yet surprisingly vulnerable, feared even by his own people but craving a connection with others. The Origin of Pietas series attempts to show the forces that initially shaped his personality and that have continued to influence his behavior, including his early and unexpected friendship with Six.

The tale of that friendship offers a lot of emotional satisfaction. Unfortunately, I find myself unable to like Pietas at all. He blames his faults on his (admittedly horrible) family background and expects to be accepted as he is—no matter how rigid, arrogant, authoritarian and unreasonable that might be.

I know that many readers adore the ambiguity that defines Pietas. He actually needs love and friendship but is too stubborn and self-involved to bend and adapt to others. Six treats him with remarkable kindness, flexibility and humor. Pietas meets this initially with suspicion and later, it seemed to me, with only minimal gratitude.

Despite my personal reaction to Pietas, I have nothing but praise for the writing and the emotional complexity of this book. When I receive reviews of my own work that talk about how a reader could not relate to a character, I shrug. Tastes vary. I hope this review won’t stop others from meeting Pietas and sampling Ms. Allen’s universe. The number of five star reviews associated with this book suggests that I’m in the minority.