Traitors, Thieves and Liars

The Final Days of the White Flower II #1

by Rick Griffin

Centuries ago, we lost our world. Planetary Acquisitions keeps us alive solely to maintain their vast fleet of gate ships in an endless quest to find them new worlds to settle—or to conquer. Years flutter by like a tree shedding its spring petals, and so we desperately cling to this chunk of dirt-and-machine we call home. And all those centuries since, we've been looking for a way out, risky as it might be. Are we fools? Traitors, Thieves and Liars is the first book in a trilogy retelling the events of Ten Thousand Miles Up in a grand epic.The geroo have been trapped in slavery for centuries, searching for useful planets for their krakun masters. And then one day, pirates contact Captain Ateri with an opportunity that may prove too good to be true. Includes the short story Whatever Happened To Commissioner Sarsuk? Which details the downfall of the former commissioner of the fleet.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

358 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 19, 2019

Reviews

[Pão Pão · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damn fun! mild cliffhanger ending just so you know.
By far the strangest thing is how this book doesnt depict the actual sex scenes while going out of the way to be horny as heck.
I was way more moved by the geroo's overall storyline than I ever thought I would.

[Roz Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Traitors, Thieves and Liars is the first book in a trilogy set in artist Rick Griffin’s Hayven Celestia universe. The genre is SF space opera, with most of the action taking place on a large generational ship crewed by geroo, furry mammals that look like a cross between a kangaroo and a bear (think kangaroo body, head and tail, and bear legs). Besides the geroo, there are also ringel (ring-tailed lemurs), geordians (cats), dog-like anups, and enormous dragon-like Krakun, who are the literal heavies in the story.

While it’s not absolutely necessary to be familiar with the Hayven Celestia universe to enjoy this book, it does help. I would particularly recommend reading Greg Luterman’s Skeleton Crew first, which takes place on same ship some years ago, and gives an excellent introduction to the life of the geroo on the White Flower II. While the geroo are theoretically employees of their Krakun overlords, they’re actually slaves, living on their ship for generations, searching for new worlds for the Krakun to terraform. The Krakun are not benevolent employers, routinely terrorizing, maiming and killing the geroo at the slightest real or perceived infraction. Everyone on the ship is promptly ‘recycled’ at age 60, and births are allowed only to replace recycled workers.

The main hold the Krakun have over the geroo is control of ‘the trinity’ on their ship—the engine, the recycler and the gate that leads from the ship back to the Krakun homeworld. All three need to be on for the ship to function, and despite their best efforts to figure it out, the technology to subvert that safeguard has been beyond the geroo’s reach.

The current captain of the White Flower II, the geroo Ateri, is nearing sixty. For years he and some of the ship’s other officers have been working on a way to subvert the trinity and escape the Krakun’s control. But after seeing the horrible punishment inflicted on another geroo ship for the same plot, the captain reluctantly decides to abandon the plan, much to the dismay of his fellows, particularly Gert, who is in line to take over as captain.

But after the White Flower II discovers a new planet, they’re contacted by a mixed-species group of space pirates who make them an offer they can’t refuse: freedom from the Krakun in exchange for a Krakun terraforming device. But if the plot fails, the Krakun will probably kill everyone on the ship in retaliation. Should the captain risk everyone’s life without their consent, on the word of pirates who are probably not trustworthy?

Despite the hard SF premise, the book itself concentrates on the characters and their relationships, including romantic relationships. Gert in particular gets to see a lot of action, in and out of the bedroom. It’s not explicit stuff, but it is there. Despite all the characters being furry aliens, they generally act in human ways, so don’t expect bizarre, truly alien creatures. That also applies to the Krakun, which I had a bit of a problem with. For immortal beings with extraordinary technology, they’re surprising petty, vindictive and cruel, behaving like school yard bullies.

Any quibbles aside, this is a fun read, enhanced by the author’s excellent artwork (no questions about what the characters look like!) Strap in and enjoy the ride.

[Julian Ganster · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid reader of books from the Hayven Celestia universe I am really giddy about finding out more of this world and it's different species, so this book is just right for me.

Next to that, the story got me hooked real good. It's been a while since I had some marathon read sessions and towards the end I was just gobbling up as much as possible to see where it goes.

One thing that I thought as a bit of a missed opportunity is that the narrator is always rigid and static as the omnipotent third person narrator. Some chapters shift into other character's perspectives it may be cool to have a non omnipotent narrator to make things feel more dramatic or risky, but that's just a personal note of mine and for sure does not devalue the experience an iota.

So I am for sure going to get the sequels.

[Antoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the Kanti cycle trilogy

I have had a blast reading this first book. But I would strongly advice reading the Kanti cycle (at leats skeleton crew) -written by G. Lutherman- to be familiar with the universe.
Otherwise, great read and Ricks drawings are a great plus!

(Seems like there was one drawing of Sarsuk missing at the end of the kindle version)

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Space fiction with furrys.

Fun book, fun chacturse, perhaps a adult should read it, before giving it to a teenager, but it never really gose into detail.


Cant wait for more.