Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie (2024)

I have been very excited for Bonds of Brass since I learned that the author, Emily Skrutskie, was inspired by the highly teased but never fully realized Finn & Poe relationship from the most recent Star Wars trilogy. While there are definitely echoes of FinnPoe here, the world and characters Skrutskie has created feel fresh even while deploying many of the classic elements of the space opera genre, except now 100% more queer!.

(Cue voice of Stefon from SNL): This book has everything: Fighter pilot school! An evil intergalactic empire! Multiple almost-kisses! Angsty space boyfriends! Daring and reckless escapes! Gundam-style robot suits! A bold rebellion! A junky yet lovable spaceship with a whimsical name!

We start the book at the aforementioned fighter pilot school, where Ettian and Gal are students and roommates. Ettian is a child of the conquered Archon Empire and after a rough post-war childhood, he has decided it is in his best interest to accept the new Umber regime and advance as best as he can within it. Gal is his Umber-born happy-go-lucky roommate, best friend, and maybe-crush. During a WILD in-space assassination attempt, Ettian learns that Gal is actually the prince of the Umber empire and the two end up going on the run together, in the spaceship the Ruttin’ Hell, which Ettian describes as “the minivan of starships” that handles “like a brick taped to a cat.”

Sooooo the most important and in my opinion most enjoyable part of this book is the SPACE BOYFRIENDS aspect, so I’m going to get right to that. This book delivered on ALL my tortured will-they-or-won’t-they (but in space) tense, swoony, romantic expectations. Ettian and Gal start out as “best friends,” but I put best friends in scare quotes because it’s pretty clear from the outset that it will take the LOOSEST of nudges to turn best friends into *special friends* if you know what I mean, eyebrow waggle.

I mean, this is how we are introduced to Gal Veres in Ettian’s inner monologue:

But when Gal Veres turns around and sees me, it’s easy to forget all that. His smile glows, the breath he lets out fogging in the chilled air. He’s unfairly handsome, his skin a warm golden brown, his hair perpetually perfectly tousled, and his frame sturdily built from a lifetime in Umber abundance. How dare you, part of me groans. I need to be in my Viper already, comfortably settled in my gel-seat so I can forget how a single look from Gal sometimes feels like it might take my legs out from underneath me.

This resplendent interpersonal chemistry becomes complicated when Ettian learns that Gal is the prince of the evil space empire, and realizes that there are a LOT of obstacles to any kind of lasting romantic relationship (or even friendship) between them. He could only ever really be a liability for Gal in the long-term, and he does not want to get involved with him knowing one of them will inevitably have to end it. BUT of course all the feelings are still there. So there’s a lot of pining, and angsting, and rebuffed attempts to make a move on both sides before the inevitable boiling-over point.

The unresolved sexual tension between Ettian and Gal was so intense that in some scenes I felt like I was intruding on someone else’s business. It was delicious.

For example, when they first land the Ruttin’ Hell in the woods on the planet of Corinth after a harried escape, they goof around in the river:

I inhale water as my head goes under, then come up choking to find Gal bent over me. He’s breathless, his mop of unruly hair dripping into his eyes, down his nose, onto my collarbone.

I try to clear my throat, but it comes out as a weak noise, halfway to a whimper. I don’t know what to do with the way he looks at me. With the way he’s got one arm braced in the water over my shoulder. With his hand hovering over my chest.

Is anyone else sweaty?? I’m sweaty.

One thing I loved about this relationship was that even though there’s very intense chemistry, the foundation is clearly a ride-or-die friendship. The loyalty that the two have for each other throughout the book is palpable—which makes it all the more gut-wrenching when they have any kind of conflict. I was even more invested in the relationship throughout the book than I thought I would be going in.

Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the romance quite a lot. However, there are plenty of other reasons to recommend this book.

First, Ettian is a compelling main character. It’s hard not to feel sympathetic to the inner turmoil he feels. On one hand, he feels a lot of guilt for having metaphorically turned his back on his conquered homeland of Archon in order to assimilate and advance within the Umber empire (he’s the top student in his class at the military academy where he and Gal meet). He is excited by the prospect of a strong Archon resistance to the empire. On the other hand, he believes that Gal is genuinely a good person and will be a good ruler, which will be positive for the people of Archon, while more war will be bad. Conflicted is an understatement. Luckily, it never veered too far into navel-gazing; Ettian is the kind of character who acts even if he’s not completely sold on the validity of his course of action. This makes for interesting reading.

The pacing of this book is also strong, with a nice mix between breakneck action and slower, more emotional character beats. I found myself physically unable to put the book down once I was about halfway through.

While some of the un-putdownability was good plotting, some of it was also due to the introduction of a new major character, the Corinthian hellion Wen. Wen is the daughter of an urban mob boss who was betrayed and killed by one of her own men. When Wen is introduced, she’s on the run from that same man and will pretty much use anyone or anything to survive, including Ettian and Gal.

Wen brings a kind of chaotic energy to the proceedings that keeps everything lively. She blows up spaceships while she’s still inside, she fights with a razor-tipped umbrella, she ziplines down tram cables. After a rough start, Ettian and Wen bond pretty quickly because they recognize in each other a fellow hardened survivalist. The developing friendship between Wen and Ettian also provides a nice counterpoint to the increasing tension (of all kinds) between Ettian and Gal.

Of course, I must discuss the world-building, which was stellar (PUN INTENDED). I enjoyed the way Bonds of Brass incorporates key elements of space opera from many different mediums. While there are some nods to Star Wars (resistance vs. evil empire being a major one!), this book felt just as influenced by space-opera anime like the Gundam series, classic sci-fi books like the Ender’s Game series, and space-faring TV series like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. All this to say it’s fun and refreshing to see how the book puts fresh twists on genre standards like giant warships, mechsuits, and sassy hotshot pilots while still reading as being very aware and informed on the genre. (Can you tell I’m low-key a huge space opera nerd??? No?? Well I am, and as a self-appointed Space Opera Genre Authority, I approve of Bonds of Brass!)

Overall, I LOVED this book. However, there were two things that knocked it down from an A grade for me.

First, I really wish we had gotten some (or even just one!) POV chapters from Gal. He remained slightly opaque to me in a way that was frustrating, because he seems like the kind of character who has a LOT unseen going on under the polished surface. Even just a bit of a deeper window into the mystery would have taken my connection to the character and my investment in the relationship between Gal and Ettian to the next level (from “pretty dang invested” to “probably unhealthily invested”).

Second, I found some of the plot machinations in the final section of the book to be not totally believable from a character perspective. Gal and Ettian come up with a plan that involves a big double-cross. Without getting too too specific,

For me, it felt a little bit like the late-game plot was meant to get all the characters in place for a particular endpoint, instead of the characters’ motivations driving the plot forward. To be fair, that endpoint was pretty cool, and I think it sets up some cool dynamics and questions for book 2. But I was slightly frustrated that getting there felt somewhat inorganic since the book was otherwise so strong.

With those critiques made, I still recommend this book with few reservations. I think it has elements to satisfy a wide reading audience: a sizzling slow-burn romance between people with actual significant obstacles to their relationship, a sweeping and epic plot about the rise and fall of empires, gut-wrenching internal character conflict, and wacky space hijinks. I guess skip it if you don’t like space?? BUT WHO DOESN’T LIKE SPACE?!