Book Review – The Heights of Perdition by C. S. Johnson

I’m into my third year of reading works by C. S. Johnson and I realized I’ve only done short stories from her and wanted to dig into a regular book as I’ve enjoyed her work quite a bit. The first book was a YA sci-fi dystopian book that built off Ursula K. Le Guin’s book and another was a very cute slight fantasy romance. So for this year’s work I thought, why not combine them and read the first book in The Divine Space Pirates book which is a sci-fi dystopian romance book? Let me not bury the lead, I liked the book quite a lot and when I got to the end I messaged the author on Twitter and stated, “How dare you? I’m glad I have the other books in the series!”

A post-apocalyptic Earth has humanity underground and the former US is ruled by a communist regime (and other than the underground part it’s hard to see what’s futuristic about it). Aeris St. Cloud is from this world where all life is controlled and militaristic. Her father is a high-ranking military commander and distant from her. She has an independent streak in her (revealed further to be influenced by her mother). Whereas many authors would probably write the character as cold and militaristic for her heart to be unthawed, Johnson endears readers to Aeris as being kind, slightly rebellious, and not completely sure of herself or her place in the world.

She is captured on accident by the “space pirate” Exton Shepherd who captures one of the few remaining living trees on the surface and snatchers Aeris up in it. The biblical symbolism isn’t lost here. Shepherd is driven by both revenge of his father’s death at the hands of General St. Cloud (Aeris hides her identity when captured) but also is driven to help those not under the heel of the government, both on his ship and hidden caches elsewhere, to survive. Aeris and Exton’s romance has the enjoyable trope of the enemies-to-lovers that unfolds well. Exton’s sister adds a lot to the story and builds up the character of Aeris even more to the reader and the romance follows along with the other elements of the story so even us nerds who enjoy some romance in our sci-fi don’t have to choose one over the other.

The romance is tasteful and not explicit. While in the realm of possibility, I would have actually liked to seen the love story drawn out more as it seems Exton’s sister tends to push him into falling in love with the enemy a bit more quickly. Also, giving access to the entire ship pretty freely to the enemy was something I tended to find a little bit more on the unbelievable side. And like a big nerd, I was actually hoping for more political discussion, especially between the clash of the only system Aeris knew vs. Exton’s rebellion against it. What is enjoyable is the discussion of Christianity being involved in the rebellion with it being part of an almost monk-like sect on board. While I wouldn’t place this book into a Christian-fiction section entirely, it’s clear the Christian influence and worldview is at play here and it being part of the rebellion is welcomed and realistic.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I believe it to be something that shows that indiepub does well – writing enjoyable stories that the author wants to tell without needing the story to be in niche category of “only for women” or “romance Fabio in space”.

Will I continue the series? Well, C. S. Johnson has FORCED me to with her ending! And that is because she has written characters and relationships well enough in a world that’s interesting enough with a plot that was fun enough that made me enjoyably angry with the author. Thank you, Mrs. Johnson.