Abendau's Heir is the first in a trilogy (The Inheritance Trilogy) by first time author Jo Zebedee, although you wouldn't believe it to be a first time effort. The general gist of the story is that there is an 'Evil Empire' vs 'Rebels' war in progress. Our hero, Kare, is the key to the future, to victory for one side over the other. His Mother is The Empress, his Father the leader of The Rebellion. They both want Kale on their side but what Kale really wants is to survive.
Just from that synopsis you will get the idea that this is very Star Wars like in concept so you know what you are getting but the characters and story are much deeper than you would expect, so, certainly not a Star Wars clone. One aspect of the story I really appreciated was that the characters are not all cut and dried Good Guys and Bad Guys. Prepare yourself to be wrong footed every now and again is all I will say on that matter ;-)
This is Space Opera done right, in my opinion, plenty of action, entertaining story and not too much deep science. I do sometimes find that some Space Opera novels leave you wishing you had a degree in the sciences so you could understand just what is going on - with Abendau's Heir this is not the case. It isn't Space Opera Lite but neither is it brain boggling stuff, just a well told space romp.
As for the book itself - I ordered a copy from Waterstones and have to say, this is a really well produced, high quality book. Tickety Boo Press, the publishers have made something that is a pleasure to own.
I've been torn as to what score to give Abendau's Heir ( it kept me well entertained on a recent beach holiday). Everything about it worked for me so I was going to give it 5* but, I just have a feeling that the next in the series is going to up the ante even more so I've decided to split the score (don't worry, it'll all make sense)
Story - 4/5* (just because I need to be able to go upwards with the next volume)
The Physical Copy - 5/5* (a really well put together book)
Abendau's Heir total -9/10*
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