Heretic

[theradicalchild]

Heretic by Craig Martelle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first installment of the Zenophobia series by Craig Martelle and Brad R. Torgerson opens with the mention that two extraterrestrial races, Tigroids and Ursoids, the former being tiger-like and the latter being bear-like, have been conducting underground war despite open relations on the surface. Sankar, a Tigroid, battles an Ursoid fighter in space, then returns to his parents, the High Priest Zeon, and his wife, Actiosa. Zeon declares his son to be a Heretic, to be freely hunted, after which Sankar travels the Ursoid planet of Medvedgrad. His companions include the Ursoid Akoni, whose brother Koni runs a junkyard where Sankar seeks repairs for his fighter, the Four-Claw.

However, Sankar learns that he and his companions must steal the parts for repair. Thus, he, fellow Tigroid Junak, Akoni, the gorilla-like Goroid Gwarzo, and the wolflike Bayane embark on a mission to do so. They also steal lab animals, using some such as cattle for food, while trying to outfly the authorities that would otherwise arraign them. Other characters include Maglor, an enigmatic businessman who crosses paths with Sankar and company. Akoni also revisits his brother and goes tomb-raiding with the others, stealing a mummy that they analyze aboard the Bilkinmore, the mothership of the Four-Claw.

Overall, while I usually like stories starring anthropomorphic characters, Heretic somehow disappointed me, with the difficulty at times of keeping track of the races to which the characters belong, and Sankar’s branding as the eponymous heretic seeming not to play a significant role throughout the events. Some of the action is good, and I could visualize many of the various settings, although the ending feels abrupt. Furthermore, whichever planets are home to which species depends on the reader’s knowledge of animal names in other languages (for instance, Medvedgrad, an Ursoid planet), but I will still read onward.

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