Imagine if the house politics of Game of Thrones met the mech-fights and female rage of Iron Widow. Imagine if the Knights of the Round Table happened to be on a space station, orbiting a terraforming-resistant planet. These are the exact genre-defying vibes that make up Heavenbreaker. This is a story of revenge, and how far people are willing to go to get it.
This book follows Synali, the illegitimate daughter of one of the Dukes of this space station. And on page one, she murders him. I don't feel bad giving this spoiler, because it is also in the book blurb - and it gives the vibes to expect from this novel immediately. However, she finds out her father wasn't acting alone, and other members of her family were involved with the murder of her mother and the attempted murder of Synali. As a result, she's given an offer she can't refuse: be a pawn for a self-exiled noble, ride in the Supernova Cup, and for every match she wins another member of her family involved in her mother's murder would die. And if she wins? Then House Hauteclare will be dissolved and forgotten from history. What I truly loved about this plotline is it creates such a valuable character study into what revenge does to a person, as well as the exploration of the dark sides of government. And we see this through every single one of the points of view explored in the book. While it primarily follows Synali, we also see Rain, an assassin who was manipulated his entire life, Rax, whose family doomed him to an early death with decisions they made for him as a child, and Mirelle, the niece of the murdered Duke who becomes more and more revenge-driven as more members of her family are killed. I found each of their points of view valuable to the story, even if at times you had to wonder where they would intersect: with the answer being one I can't wait to see in the sequel.
The one thing about this book that kept me from giving it five stars was the romance and love triangle - though it feels wrong to even call it that. All of the romance felt underdeveloped, like the editor had pushed to include it because "romantasy is currently in" but didn't work with the author on how to develop it properly. As Synali and Mirelle are both from House Hauteclare, it's clear there is supposed to be tension as they are "competing" for the attention of Rax. However, Synali doesn't want anything to do with him for most of the book, to the point she refuses to even look at him, and then suddenly they're kissing. Meanwhile, Mirelle and Rax had a fling months before the events of the novel, but her family doesn't approve of him because he is too low-ranking - only to suddenly turn around and broker an engagement between them. I think if Wolf had taken romance off the table and had Synali and Rax be forbidden friends instead of a forbidden romance it would have been more emotionally compelling - instead of having them pushed together because of current trends.
However, this is not to say Sara Wolf is not an amazing author, because the Steeds in this book are fascinating. Part giant mech fighter, part spaceship, and part mysterious monster, the mystery of what the Steeds are drives the plot of this book. Synali's questions, as she goes into this with no information, mirror the reader's own - and allows her to serve as a vessel for us to get the information we need about the Steeds without ever needing to result in info-dumping. There are so many questions I still have about the Steeds, especially with how the book ended, and I am excited to find out what it is about them the government has been keeping a secret.
Overall, I loved how this book fused together science fiction and fantasy into something wholly unique. The worldbuilding is beautiful, and the themes were timely and presented in an entirely new way. But I also cannot wait to see what happens next in Hellrunner, and I hope we get an announcement of when the sequel will be out soon.
Heavenbreaker is available through Entangled Publishing