A Princess of the Aerie

Jak Jinnaka #2

by John Barnes

When Jak gets word that his ex-girlfriend, Princess Shyf of Greenworld, is in danger, Jak and his panth buddy Dujuv join the Royal Palace Guard and race across the solar system to save her. But they quickly discover that they're the ones who need to be rescued--from Shyf, who has decided that she likes absolute power. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

John Barnes (born 1957) is an American science fiction author, whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social context. Social criticism is woven throughout his plots. The four novels in his Thousand Cultures series pose serious questions about the effects of globalization on isolated societies. Barnes holds a doctorate in theatre and for several years taught in Colorado, where he still lives.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bar...

Reviews

[Viking Jam · Rating 4 out of 5]

2003

SciFi

Review: The second in the Jak J. series. This is an oldie but a goodie. Fairly YA but what is not these days in the genre? Entertaining primarily due to the constant movement. This story line never sits still, and Jak is constantly wandering through space with his pants down. This is an adventure based space series that throws our heros about with bawdy outcomes. Embrace the drivel.

Cover art needs a redux.

3.7/5

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are just so weird.

The first book is about Jak Jinnaka being a Heinlein hero, except he is only a Heinlein hero because his uncle and various other people have set up an adventure for him and he is going through the motions of it, thinking he's making choices and facing danger when actually he's following someone else's script -- and all right, the danger is actually real, but all the agency he prides himself on having in a very stereotypically masculine teenage-adventure-protagonist way turns out at the end to not have been there at all, he's doing what the adults wanted him to do for their own reasons.

So Barnes is clearly interested in subverting a lot of the narrative expectations of that sort of Heinlein juvenile style of novel, and he goes a lot further into it in this one -- now the princess demonstrates just what aristocrats really are, which is sociopathically entitled monsters who see everyone around them as toys for their amusement. It's interestingly done; I remember when this book first came out some people I knew were *really upset* that Shyf was actually a monster, they felt betrayed, but reading it in 2021 I loved it, because Barnes is taking some really huge swings at the aristocracy worship that permeated space opera for decades (and maybe still does) and the blows really land. Shyf is a horrible person and does horrible things to Jak and truly can't wrap her mind around the idea that these things are horrible, and the reader is set up for it because Jak's uncle Sib has some speeches early on about how marvelous and fantastic aristocrats are, how terrible and stupid Republicans are, how -- I just realised it -- how life in a genre other than space opera (emphasis on the opera) wouldn't really be worth living.

All of that is really, really interesting; I love what Barnes is trying to do to the genre here, but unfortunately (much like the first book) it is still wrapped up in a lot of really boring technological descriptions -- less than the first one, I am more and more convinced that he was laying a careful trail before hitting his readers with the evils of imperialism and toxic masculinity and the idea that basic human decency starts looking a lot like socialism because corporate oligarchies don't do any better than aristocrats do, but it is still some slogging through genre tropes to read, plus it is kind of depressing since part of the point is that the protagonists never actually grow and change. Duv gets it, he ends up committed to helping the people living on Mercury, but he's the sidekick, as he points out. Jak and Shyf and Sib are the protagonists, and they're all terrible people because if they weren't terrible people they couldn't be protagonists, not in this genre.

[Kogiopsis · Rating 2 out of 5]

First things first: strong trigger warning for rape in this book.

I am of... mixed feelings. I picked this up at a library book sale because I remembered reading the first book, but by the time I got around to reading it this year I could barely remember its predecessor. I have, therefore, no idea how it compares or how many of its qualities are factors in both books.

I can discuss this one on its own, though. The question is: where to start?

I guess the best way to classify this book would be as a veiled satire. It's brash, sexual, violent, and widely different in cultural norms, language, and structure than most science fiction's projection of our species' future. The thing is, though, that Barnes uses those differences to make sharp points about societal structures we are familiar with. I don't think some of the extremes he took it to were necessary (related to the above TW: using Shyf's sexual exploits and disregard for consent to highlight the corruption of absolute power and lack of concern for other people's lives and agency) but I was pleasantly surprised to see a book that started out as a wacky college drama turn out to be about unionization and workers' rights in a hypercapitalist society.

Barnes also does a surprisingly good job at writing genuine, unfettered affection in the friendships between male characters - and complicated friendships, to boot. Jak and Dujuv have a surprisingly close, intricate, and sometimes strained relationship, and it's portrayed with a lot of heart and sensitivity despite the light brush-off tone of the book.

I don't think I could say that I recommend this series to others, but I'm interested enough that I may track down the third book someday.

[Leons1701 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid but not spectacular outing from Barnes. The Jak Jinnaka series is a bit below his normal output, not too far, but enough to feel just a bit off. At his best, Barnes can be amazing, but he doesn't reach those heights here. So, being as this is a Jinnaka book, there's plenty of unexplained slang, though it generally makes sense in context and sometimes makes so much sense you can figure out where it came from. This one is a bit uglier than the first in the sense of nasty people doing nasty things (and some of them are the ones you thought you were supposed to root for) for reasons ranging from reasonable to nasty. Not quite the fun read the Duke of Uranium was.

[Nicholas George · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty average space opera, muddied by too many characters and the cutesy "future-speak" everyone speaks. I didn't read the first installment of this series but doubt that it would have made this one any clearer or more enjoyable to me.

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Barnes always has a little more going on than one expects. This series is framed as space adventure pulp, but ends up being a social satire with a biting edge.

[Milele · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Barnes has an engaging series and worth reading, although this particular book ends suddenly and oddly. I hope that's a good lead-in for the next book.

[Cera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember liking this but nothing more. Should probably reread at some point -- I do love Barnes.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bubble gum but I liked it.

[Jeff Youngstrom]

my review