King's Test

Star of the Guardians #2

by Margaret Weis

By calling a temporary truce, Derek Sagan and the rebels thwarted the alien Corasian invasion. Enemies once again, the rebels have resumed their defiance and Sagan has retumed to his campaign to topple the corrupt galactic government.  He plans to set up Dion as king of the Starfire dynasty--and to place himself as the ruling power behind the throne.  On a remote planetary sinkhole of sin and corruption, a small weapon-barely ten centimeters on a side--is hidden.  If activated, this seemingly harmless crystal cube could tear a hole in the universe. . .and destroy the fabric of creation.  Sagan wants it.  Lady Maigrey wants it.  And so does Abdiel, a cruel genius who commands a drugged army of mindless slaves. And now Dion is caught in this momentous struggle as he faces his greatest trial yet in his battle to gain the interstellar throne.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Collections, Space

469 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Margaret Edith Weis is an American fantasy and science fiction author of dozens of novels and short stories. At TSR, Inc., she teamed with Tracy Hickman to create the Dragonlance role-playing game (RPG) world. She is founding CEO and owner of Sovereign Press, Inc and Margaret Weis Productions, licensing several popular television and movie franchises to make RPG series in addition to their own.
In 1999, Pyramid magazine named Weis one of The Millennium's Most Influential Persons, saying she and Hickman are "basically responsible for the entire gaming fiction genre". In 2002, she was inducted into the Origins Hall of Fame in part for Dragonlance.

Reviews

[Zackery · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Just non-stop action.

[Steven Bates · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those that know Margaret Weis with Tracy Hickman from the epic Dragonlance series, you will no doubt know she is an amazing author with an eye for detail, a talent for weaving stories, and a skill for pulling you in and making you fall in love with every character of her stories. This series is no exception. Writing solo this time, Margaret Weis delves into fantasy and science fiction together in a way I have encountered from no other! Her characters are rich and involved, detailed and with great depth to every one, pulling the reader into loving a whole new universe with a entire new cast in such a way that I have found myself re-reading this series at least 4 times completely now, (and I will be reading it all over again within the year, they are that good!!). I am copying this review on the entire 4 book set to encourage everyone to try this series out. If you love space opera with suspense, fantasy with science fiction, and characters you'll cheer and cry for, respect and rail against, love and hate simultaneously, you'll fall in love with the Star of the Guardians series. Trust me on this one.

[Leslie Munday · Rating 3 out of 5]

Illogical fantasy romp across many worlds.
Continuing from where the 1 st book left off, Darth, Leia and Luke instantly teleport between worlds while using telepathy to communicate, using magic crystals and magic swords to slay the bad guys.
Although mostly entertaining, it is difficult to follow any logic between character interactions. Darth is responsible for the death of Luke and Leia's family and friends, but Leia is sleeping with Darth and Luke is pissed off with both of them. In the first book you could understand the 2 opposing sides joining forces to combat a common enemy, but there is little reason for the alliance to continue once the enemy is defeated. Maybe Darth really is THAT Good in bed. Otherwise the story is mostly predictable. The main characters have miraculous escapes and the supporting characters have inconvenient blind spots at the wrong moments. Bad guys that have survived assassination attempts all their lives, conveniently die and good guys can get away with walking into an obvious trap with no plan.
Couple of points of note:
1. Why does the author take us back in time half-way through the book, when that story would make a sensible prologue?
2. In the last 1/4 of the book a character named 'God' is regularly mentioned. The characters can communicate with God, but there is no appearance or evidence that this character even exists. The author appears to be introducing their personal life into the book for no apparent reason.

[Jay Kawasaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the far future, we will still be assigning the same high school English curriculum and the Jedi will be quoting Yeats, Homer, and Steely Dan.

The real protagonist is the boy’s surrogate mom, who is beautiful and magic and everyone (including the boy—they specifically mention Freud) is madly in love with her but she’s also smart and crying all the time, but she saves the day by clever and mysterious.

The book can’t stand to let a secret breathe—so if any new information is revealed, it’s beamed to everyone else via literal psychic powers or by an a phone call. Chekhov’s gun only appears the second it’s being fired, and the book’s vertiginous pacing would be more frustrating if most plot points weren’t so dopey.

Most things in this story get resolved by “oh here’s a magic item the reader wasn’t told about” or “it was literally an illusion.” Special note for “everyone relevant is psychic so they instantly recognize when someone’s telling the truth and so now the conflict that’s built up for three chapters isn’t gonna happen.“

[James]

By calling a temporary truce, Derek Sagan and the rebels thwarted the alien Corasian invasion. Enemies once again, the rebels have resumed their defiance and Sagan has retumed to his campaign to topple the corrupt galactic government.  He plans to set up Dion as king of the Starfire dynasty--and to place himself as the ruling power behind the throne.  On a remote planetary sinkhole of sin and corruption, a small weapon-barely ten centimeters on a side--is hidden.  If activated, this seemingly harmless crystal cube could tear a hole in the universe. . .and destroy the fabric of creation.  Sagan wants it.  Lady Maigrey wants it.  And so does Abdiel, a cruel genius who commands a drugged army of mindless slaves. And now Dion is caught in this momentous struggle as he faces his greatest trial yet in his battle to gain the interstellar throne.

[Martina Sanjaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Once again I was captivated into complicated plot of Weis... The dark one became not-so-dark (as was Raistlin in Dragonlance). And again, I fell for the dark character rather than bumbling, naive prince Dion.
Just one small crack. I'd rather have the flashback in the beginning of this book than in the middle. Ruin the mood, methinks.
Anyway, great job, as Weis' standard. Love the variety of the characters, even the new races and the tech. Continuing to the conclusion, third book, of course.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still enjoying the plot, even if the universe is quite similar to Star Wars. But here's the thing: what happened to all the characters' likability? Maigrey is a self-defeating drama queen, Dion is a turd who gets wrapped up in a truly appalling villain, Tusk is pretty much an ineffective buffoon, and Sagan is no longer the Darth-Vader-threat. Indeed, Weis seemed to enjoy Snaga Ohme's characterization the most. I'll still be finishing the trilogy, but my momentum has been slowed by this one.

[D.G. Post · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another romantic adventure. I'm a sucker for space ship books, including space operas, so I gave this one more star than I might have otherwise. It's not the most profound novel in the world, but it is a good escape from reality.

I always meant to read the third book, but never got around to it.

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still feel like the story is well written and has a lot of depth. The characters are good, you love some, hate some and aren't sure about how to feel about others. I feel like the author spends a lot of time rehashing feelings of the characters, more than I like and this makes it move a little slow. But all in all a decent read and I'll finish the remainder of the series.

[Xitron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read the first 3 of this "Star of the Guardians" series by Margaret Weis, and I've loved them! I've read them twice.

I just learned today that there is a fourth book, and I promptly bought it for my Kindle. I'll start reading it today!

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Weis' style of writing and pacing. In the second book of the series, the story continues on the theme of what people will do in their lust for power and blurs the lines between heroes and villains.

[Anastasia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing is always good, just the teenager doingbwhat teens always do was boring!

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of the first book I didn’t feel I would enjoy the reread of this one, but it held up well. Still liked a lot of characters. Looking to third again

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Nabil Hussain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly interesting book

. This novel was mildly interesting. It formed as a bridge between books two and book three. It was just pleasant to behold. It was a bit of a chore to read through and it was laborious to finish. It was moderately exciting

[Divia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this one took a while. I was busy and didn't get to read as much as I'd like to. On the other hand, the first half was dull for me. Once Maigrey and Derek were back on the same page and Dion started interacting with Abdiel the story became more interesting. The Betrayal was still better than that. I loved that flashback: the palace, the royals, all of the Guardians, Sagan's inner conflict and the betrayal Derek suffered from Abdiel and Robes.

Abdiel is a good villain and his presence was necessary to make this book interesting for me.

Sagan and Maigrey's relationship bored me in the first half. It's not that I don't understand the mistrust. I do. I just don't care to read the back and forth. They started both books in the series so far not trusting each other and then ending up on the same page and they regress and end up of the same side again.

Dion just annoys me. I tried really hard to like him so far but I just found him annoying. I feel the same way Sagan feels about him. I guess he's getting there. Maybe the third book will feature a less annoying Dion.

Tusk and Nola were alright. Tusk is funny.

XJ is by far the best character in this series and my favourite. I can't believe that a computer was more entertaining than people.

Maybe I was just too depressed and it just seeped into my feelings about this book.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the Star of the Guardians trilogy for the first time when I was 17 years old - I had NO idea how much it subtly introduced new ideas into my life.

The book list that one of the main characters, Maigrey, works through in part of the book, is one of the reasons I went on to become a book reader myself - Weiss used Sci Fi to open my mind to the world of books out there!

To this day, Charles Dickens is one of my favourite authors... not because he was one of Maigrey's favourites, I've grown to appreciate him apart from that fact.

It's a sad story, all in all, with some strange theology and a world view that I no longer subscribe to. In fact, I'm not sure I'm going to recommend the series to my own kids some day, and I'm not even sure if it's worth a 4 star rating, to be honest, but the series is certainly one of those that shaped me as a kid, and those are always memorable, aren't they?!

[Greymalkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too much of Dion, who I found annoying.

(update to review upon 10 years later re-read: Ugh, still hate Dion. What a self-righteous over-privileged useless lump of reactionary idiocy. From the way the other characters react, I think that the author means for him to be this way, but that doesn't mean I like it. All the bits without Dion were mostly fine but yes there is still far too much of him. I did like that Maigrey finally did something of her own. The racist "white male is the default" stuff is increasingly cringey. There's only one major PoC in the series and it's constantly pointed out that he has "ebony skin" and he's the "black" pilot, whereas no one else is described by their race, not even some of the aliens. Sigh.)

[Shana · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this second book in the series, all of the main characters reappear (with the exception of John Dixter) and new characters are introduced. They include Abdiel (who controlls zombies), Snaga Ohme (a wealthy and corrupt weapons dealer), Raoul (a charming man who is an expert on poisons), and the Little One (a small alien empath). Raoul and the Little One appear in the spin-off series, The Mag Force 7, as main characters.

The plot of this story deals with an incredibly powerful bomb. There is a struggle for power as various characters try to obtain it. Also, flashbacks reveal exactly what happened on the mysterious night the revolution took place.

This book was great. If you like space opera, you should give this series a chance.

[Amanda Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just remembered something about the first book that I completely forgot about until I read part two.

There's a character named Vangelis (and the author's note mentions the band Vangelis) and one with the last name Sagan (after Carl Sagan) and a character with the nickname Tusk.
The beginning chapter quotes are sometimes too on-the-nose and specific giving what is going to happen in the chapter you're about to read. They quoted a lyric from "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac. That's a bit too...obvious. I mean, I'm all for putting in references to things you like in a science fiction book and given that the book was published in the early 1990s (putting the writing at least mid to late '80's) maybe it could stand to disguise some a little.

I don't know. I think its kind of dorky.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I normally associate these authors with fantasy, but this is a really fun space opera trilogy. A bit depressing, though. Still, lots of action with blood swords & blood space ships - only those of a specific breeding or something can operate these super weapons. If you liked Simon R. Green's Deathstalker series, you'd probably like this which predates it, although only by a decade or so, as I recall. I liked both, but have no urge to re-read them.

[Alexander Draganov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serious improvement on book one here. The main villain Abdiel is finally introduced, Dion (the cool main character) gets more "screen time" and the relationship between Derek and Maigrey develops nicely. Add to this a super weapon which can destroy the universe and you have a captivating space opera. Another bonus is that the book finishes it story ark, and, although it is obvious that we'll have a third book, Weis does not use annoying cliffhangers. Recommended for fans of Timothy Zahn and George Lucas :)

[Rob Marney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Weis tells the tightest story in the series and I'm here for more cheesy space opera. This time there's a great creepy villain, a flashback that actually moves the plot forward, a fun "Las Vegas in space" setting, and a crime-novel "who has the MacGuffin and who has the key" story with real drama. Even the minor characters get some hero moments. She continues to be self-indulgent with all the names and 20th century cultural references, and the title is completely inaccurate, but those are minor gripes.

[AliceAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've discovered that I just don't care much for Dion as a character. I also didn't feel the same excitement when reading from Saran's or Maigrey's POV's either. Sigh. I still really like Tusk and Rana, and XJ will always be my favorite. It was good to finally meet the villain, Abdiel, along with some other slimier characters. I almost have a new favorite though: Bear Olefsky. There was enough action to carry the story along, but I think I'm going to wait to read the rest of the series at a later date.

[Christine Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deeper glimpse into the universe that Margaret Weis created with the Star of the Guardian series, Dion's character is growing and becoming more rounded as we are brought closer to understanding the motivations of Derek Sagan. The background that is introduced in this novel is captivating and keeps the reader turning the pages to find out more. Abdiel is a shockingly gruesome character, whom we also get to understand more. A wonderfully written science fiction creation. I would recommend this one.

[RogueHireling · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a two and half.
I dont know what happened, but in this book everyone turned unlikable. Which always makes it harder for me to make it through. Everyone was whiny and making bad decision after bad decision. Ugh!
Plus I completely lost track of who I was supposed to be rooting for. I couldn't figure out who the "good" guys were anymore.
But I did make it through the book and liked the ending and am looking forward to the next. Just dont think I will be reading this one again.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's what I said about "The Lost King" (Star of the Guardians,#1)

True space opera with bits of religion, the force, Roman Legions, and Blood Swords that are like light sabres, mixed with a very dark Camelot feel. This is a miss-mash that you wouldn't think works but some how does, entirely do to the character development done by the author.

The same applies to "King's Test" (Star of the Guardians, #2) but with ZOMBIES!!!!!!!

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book was a great introduction to the main characters. This book however, is where the real entertainment begins, never quite knowing who the real enemies are and how the story is going to play out. And almost, but not quite ending on a cliff hanger.

A HUGE thank you to my Husband, Chris for introducing me to this series...really is a great series for Sci-Fi fans :D

[Jessica Mathes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book in the series. I love the writing. I love the characters and their struggles. I really love Tusk and XJ.

I think the theory of the space rotation bomb is so interesting!

Definitely recommend!

[Steve]

Star of the Guardians