[Book Review] The Bound Worlds (The Devoured Worlds 3) — Megan E. O’Keefe
Heart broken? More like heart cracked!
The conclusion to The Devoured Worlds trilogy, The Bound Worlds ties up the story of Liege Tarquin Mercator and Executor Naira Sharp as they battle against the alien outbreak within their neural implants, for the future of the human race.
Right off the bat, I must admit that I was left unsatisfied with the direction taken by the final installment of The Devoured Worlds trilogy, especially since I thought that the first book, The Blighted Stars explored novel concepts and provided reasonably fresh takes on standard sci-fi tropes. It is a novel that felt familiar yet provided enough to keep you glued to the series. The sequel, The Fractured Dark succeeded where most middle books fail: the world was expanded, new elements were added to deepen the lore, and the stakes were significantly increased. With a cracker cliffhanger, I was deeply looking forward to where the O’Keefe would take us with the finale, and was thrilled to receive a review copy of The Bound Worlds.
Which makes my disappointment that much more severe.
Fundamentally, The Bound Worlds is not a bad book by any means, nor is it a wholly disappointing conclusion to the series. My major grouse with this series ender was that it felt like O’Keefe reduced the scope of the narrative and narrowed down several aspects, perhaps to present a more cohesive and complete conclusion to the major plotline.
One of the aspects I thoroughly enjoyed about The Fractured Dark was the broader universe impacts that were being built up towards the climax of the book. The stakes heightened considerably as the virophage canus continued to dig deeper into the material relkalite, used for all the post-human implants (called pathways) in the story. The pre-sentience that canus portrayed as it manipulated infected hosts towards its malignant spread across the imperium of human-occupied space was something that was expertly crafted. There is always something particularly delicious about a non-human malevolent antagonist that cannot be reasoned with, unlike human enemies.
All of that build-up was slashed down to an almost wall-hanging background quality, bringing forth Jonsun back as the primary antagonist, putting the narrative back in bog-standard Human Vs. Human territory, which ended up being quite lackluster.
The major focus of The Bound Worlds is the internal (and external struggle) of Naira Sharp as she navigates being “cracked” and that effect on her romantic progress with the now-leader of the Mercator faction, Tarquin. One of the areas where Megan O’Keefe excelled, particularly with the first two books of this series was in keeping the readers anchored in the personal element of an otherwise expansive sci-fi story. Told through the POVs of Tarquin and Naira, the story always felt grounded in something more tangible, even with increasing stakes. However, with the climax of the entire series looming over us in The Bound Worlds, the increased emphasis on the interpersonal (and romantic struggle) between Tarquin and Naira ate up far too much space in the overall narrative and stole much of the nervous excitement of a story ramping up to a crescendo.
In addition, a few more elements were added to the story (spoilers redacted) which felt more like a deux-ex-machina moment (quite literally in some cases) and signaled that the author struggled with tying all the plot threads set up over the series in a meaningful way. In addition, the character arc of the finalizer Fletcher Demarco from menacing hench-villain to antihero, to straight-up protagonist did not feel earned at all and went further to cheapen the stakes. Furthermore, Aceleus Mercator (Tarquin’s father) proved to be a much more capable and vehement antagonist, making Jonsun feel like a sub-boss that should have been dealt with as a side-plot rather than towards the end of the series. At no point, even in Act 3 of the book, did I ever feel satisfactorily anxious about the tension created by the weakened plotlines. Bah!
The downgrade of the non-human threat and heightened emphasis on the personal character conflict reached a climax that felt cheapened by the reduced stakes. All of these elements robbed The Bound Worlds of an ending that felt rewarding and earned. Moreso, it reduced my memory of the previous books as well, marring my overall impression of The Devoured Worlds series.
