How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason was one of my Top 10 Reads of 2019. (You can listen to our interview with the author here.) I was, as you can imagine, pretty excited to read the second book of the series, How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge, when opportunity arose.

Did it hold up?

Ehhhh.

As a whole? No.

As an interesting plot with fun characters I adore completely separated from the frame narrative? Yes.

Allow me to explain.

As you may recall, Rory Thorne ended with the titular character; her bodyguards Zhang and Thorsdottir; and Jaed Moss, son of Rory’s captor and sort-of rival, flying off into the sunset never to be involved in politics again. At the same time, Vizir (now Messer) Rupert, badass cyborg Grytt, and the 50 millionth clone of Rory’s intended to settle down to herd sheep.

As you can imagine, it all goes spectacularly wrong and the sector is invaded by not one but three species of xeno, all of whom want access to a biosphere-destroying biological weapon named Rose and are willing to massacre for it. In addition, everyone is recalled to their old job, though some of them have new titles (with some of those titles being forged out of greatest necessity), except for Jaed who has actually grown up quite a lot and is actually pretty rad now.

Everyone continues to be deliciously snarky, and I quite enjoyed the time Eason spent developing Thorsdottir and Jaed in this book. They were both important but most definitely secondary in Rory Thorne, and it was nice to see them stretch a bit, especially in relation to each other. I would have liked the same for Zhang, since she actually falls back a bit into the “inscrutable Asian” trope – and thanks, I hate it, not only for her but for spec fic in general, especially given the current climate.

I do like that not all of Eason’s xenos are homo sapiens-like (they have a varied number of limbs, eyes, different digestive systems, etc), and she designed the ships to reflect each species’ biology and aesthetic. I also appreciate that she took the time to build each culture from its foundations, focusing on language, manners, priorities, and even death rituals.

What then, is your damage, Shiri, I hear you asking?

My damage is thus:

In How Rory Thorne Destroyed The Multiverse, Eason used an Austin-esque, fourth wall breaking, tee hee frame narrative sparingly and with a deft hand. It enhanced the plot by pointing out important, or hilariously stupid, events and individuals, highlighting and emphasizing Very Good Moments. The frame narrative and the through plot were always integrated, however – two parts of a single whole that played off each other but were wrapped over and around the other… and balanced perfectly.

How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge dispensed with that integration and let the weeds of frame narrative take over the entire garden until it was difficult to see the flowers for the crab grass. The copious narrative continually dragged me out of the story (often kicking and screaming, a couple of times literally) and transformed what could have been a joyous reading experience into a dutiful slog between too-short moments of gleeful abandon.

There were just so… many… words. Words that seemed unnecessary. And lecture-y. And boring. There were several points at which I almost DNF’d this sucker and only hung on because I loved Rory Thorne so very much. I figured that if I was a very good girl and kept going, I’d eventually dig deep enough to recover both the arithmancy and the alchemy.

I did not. For it was not there.

Readers, she Austin-ed the climactic battle. She “we need not concern ourselves with the details of”‘-ed it.

How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge is a space opera.

There’s no “we need not concern ourselves with the details of” the climactic battle in a fucking space opera.

In summary: I loved How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge, but I wasn’t in love with it. I still love Rory and Co., and I love the xeno species Eason has introduced. I love the expanded, pissed off Multiverse. I like Eason’s storytelling and dialogue styles. But I want to hear from the characters Eason has crafted in the context of the world she’s built – not from the author so self-consciously and demandingly that it doesn’t simply break the fourth wall, it shatters said barrier so completely there’s no hope of reconstruction.

Should you read it? Yes. But don’t feel bad about skimming the asides. If I hadn’t been reading to review, I would have.

How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge (The Thorne Chronicles) by K. Eason (DAW) is scheduled to release October 27th, 2020.