Winter's Orbit Review

TWs: domestic violence, sexual abuse, torture

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell is a sci-fi space opera featuring two royals, Kiem and Jainan, who find themselves in an arranged marriage after Jainan's previous partner dies under murky circumstances. Most importantly, if you are queer, this is the stuff of dreams.

General Impressions

I went into this book both with the highest of expectations and knowing absolutely nothing about it other than it was about an arranged marriage between two men. I finished it with the utmost feeling of warmth and love and clamouring for more stories like this.

Winter's Orbit is at its heart a feel-good, slow-burn romance filled with all the tropes you love: arranged marriage, queer disasters, "there's only one bed", shipwreck in an isolated place, unrequited love, nerd/jock,...this feels like fanfiction and I mean that as the highest of compliments. It feels fresh, original, a labour of love. Yes, it is also a bit unpolished and amateurish at times, but keep in mind this is only a debut. By her fourth or fifth book, Everina Maxwell will be ruling the world.

World Building

Something that I liked from the onset was how original and beautiful the names of the characters and places were. I loved to learn about Iskatian culture and all the small instances where the other planets, particularly Thea clashed or differed and only wish to have gotten to see more of their cultures.

The world-building was good if paper-thin at times, particularly when the main couple went on separate quests and had to observe the world around them instead of the other. As a reader, I felt as if I was in a white room at times, with most places and clothes only described in the broadest strokes, with only enough context to understand why the characters were making a certain choice, which made it difficult to be completely immersed in the story. The technology was easy to visualize if a bit difficult to understand without having had the more technical side explained and although I liked the cast, I felt as if we were only being introduced to the absolutely necessary characters, everyone else rarely being even named and barely mentioned. There were mentions of religious sects, different definitions of parenthood and family units and a broader political landscape where Empires sprawling entire galaxies are at war that I wished to have read more about.

Something that I did like was how the author wrote about gender identity and presentation in the different planets and how that allowed for marriages to be arranged in all kinds of ways, according to people's orientations. There were also characters that were non-binary and mention of asexuality that I really liked to see.

Although the author didn't describe anyone as belonging to any particular ethnic group, the main protagonists are said to have brown skin so for me, this a love story between two brown boys and that made me really happy.

Characters

Kiem

Kiem was an absolutely delight that conquered me in the very first chapter, which I see as a testament to the author's talent in fleshing him out properly, seeing as that is exactly the way he comes across to the other characters.

I did like that through him, we addressed how there are different kinds of intelligence other than academic. Kiem is extremely charismatic, able to befriend anyone and having them eat out of his hand in the space of a conversation and on the rare occasions that fails, able to pinpoint their weaknesses and leverage them into getting what he wants. Despite those talents, Kiem is still regarded as the wild, careless teenager he once was. Instead of being frustrated by that or claiming to now be a different person, the author chooses instead to show him trying to make better choices every day, which I found much more realist and honest.

I wish, with him being a prince, the class disparity had been further discussed instead of only hinted at, but then again, there are not many characters that aren't either nobility or working at the palace, so we never do see the contrast between those people and the common Iskatian citizen.

Jainan

Jainan is a cinnamon roll of a person and the reason I like Kiem as much as I do is that he too knows no one in any world is worthy of his husband and treats him as the precious flower he is. We stan a prince like that in this house.

With Jainan being Thean, a smaller planet, we get to see how the Empire treats someone that is not a price and comes from a different culture. It's with Jainan that the author's writing and talent truly shine, every aspect of his behaviour and personality adding up.

Domestic Violence

Usually, when we think about domestic violence, we immediately picture the aggressor towering over the victim but that is only one kind of violence. It's a common stereotype that what marks an abusive relationship is a difference in physical strength when in reality, it's about power.

Aware of that misconception, the author made sure to often describe the two characters as similarly built, with the victim being physically more capable of violence but because of the way the world and the people around protected and catered to the aggressor, crimes went unpunished for years, reaffirming the aggressor's position that it was the other person's fault until they believed it.

Conclusion

On its entirety, I found this a wonderful book. I liked the general pacing of the story, loved the characters and ultimately wasn't too hung up on the world-building.

The only fault I can point out was that the last fifty pages would have benefited from a further round of edits so it didn't clash with the overall tone of the story while still giving our beloved characters their happy ending. All in all, though, this is an amazing debut with an unforgettable cast of characters and I can barely wait for the next one.

Thank you to Orbit Books UK and Little Brown Books for sending me a copy.

Rating: 4/5