Book Review: A Princess of the Aerie

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

A Princess of the Aerie     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
John Barnes
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction
Series: Jak Jinnaka # 2
Aspect Jan 2003, $6.99, 316 pp.

Fifteen hundred years into the future, mankind has not only reached the stars, humanity has tamed them. Mercury is mined for the precious metals needed by the rest of the galaxy and most people live past three centuries. Marik Space station is the hive and the Aerie house billion of people living on many artificial worlds. Politics remain much the same in the thirty-sixth century as it does in the present day and there is a great need for the PSA located in the Hive to train intelligent agents.

Jak Jininaka and his friend Dujou are agents-in-training who need to practice their skills in order to complete the Junior Task. The opportunity arrives when Princess Shyf of Greenworld sends him a message saying she needs his help. Jak and Dujou race to the rescue only to find the message was a hoax. When an operative sends a message to Greenworld saying trouble is brewing, Jak and Dujou are sent to investigate. They find out that Jak’s greatest enemy is trying to establish himself as ruler of that planet. The two PSA trainees devise a plan that will foil his scheme and hope they live to see it succeed because after all they want to pass their Junior Task.

Set in a far distant future where anything is possible, Jak sets out on a quest to help a friend and finds himself placed in the princess’s harem considered raunchy, but the scenes are played for laughs. In fact, John Barnes does a brilliant job satirizing space operas in general as a final send off salute to Star Wars and the numerous clones.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner