Book Review: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction, Romance
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tor Books (February 2, 2021)
Length: 432 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Well, this wasn’t awesome, but it was still pretty good! If you are looking for a fun and engaging sci-fi read that goes down easy, like a big bucket of buttery popcorn, then Winter’s Orbit might just fit the bill. That said, managing expectations is sort of critical with this one, as is being aware of its origins on Archive of Our Own, the open-source fanfiction website. For while you can take the book out of AO3, you can’t always take the AO3 out of the book, and this is a story where its fanfic roots are plain to see.
The main focus of Winter’s Orbit is on two princes, Kiem and Jainan, who must enter into an arranged political marriage in order to quell the hostilities rising within a beleaguered galactic empire. As the novel opens, an important peace treaty called the Resolution is in jeopardy when Prince Taam of Iskat suddenly dies, prompting swift action by the emperor to mend the broken alliance with the planet Thea, home of Taam’s widower Jainan. As a last resort, Taam’s flighty and disreputable playboy cousin Kiem is called upon to wed Jainan, so that the allegiance of the Theans is ensured and amiable relations between their two sides can continue.
Thrown together by duty and circumstance, our two protagonists try to make the best of the situation, understanding the importance of their roles in maintaining peace. However, as new evidence comes to light suggesting that Prince Taam’s death was no accident, and that Jainan himself might have been involved, the alliance between Iskat and Thea becomes threatened once again, leading the empire down a path of war. With the fate of worlds hanging in the balance, Kiem and Jainan must come to terms with their feelings for each other and learn to trust one another despite their differences, for only then can they begin working towards solving a murder and eventually uncover the greater mystery at hand.
So, let’s just get the negatives out of the way first. I’m going to preface this by saying there’s legitimately good fanfiction out there, speaking as someone who has enjoyed reading her fair share of them over the years. That’s also how I know there’s a bunch of silly tropes—tropes that might be perfectly fine if you’re bored and looking for a bit of escapism with some of your favorite characters based in some of your favorite worlds, but are admittedly not so ideal when you’re picking up a novel with the expectation for more pretext. My main issue was that, even from the very start, every major plot point in Winter’s Orbit has already been telegraphed, and so for the entirety of its four hundred plus pages, I chafed with sensation that we were simply going with the motions and witnessing theater. As a result, the intrigue and action elements were lackluster, mostly because I already knew everything that was going to happen, not to mention the romance itself was pretty shallow, permeated with manufactured conflict.
That said, I enjoyed the two central characters, for all that they were your standard cardboard cutouts playing predictable roles. Kiem reminds me of a big, adorable puppy, always bounding around getting into trouble because he’s a clueless, awkward, and larger-than-life goofball, and yet his heart of gold and his capacity to love is just so strong, you can’t help but find him endearing. Playing on the “opposites attract” theme, Jainan is far on the other side of the spectrum—quiet, introspective, and more prone to take a step back in any situation to analyze before acting. Again, it all just feels so put-on and fabricated as an excuse to inject unnecessary drama or create conditions rife for misunderstanding and miscommunication, though to be fair, I know plenty of other traditionally published romances that also utilize these very same tropes, for the very fact that they are entertaining, cute, and comfortably familiar.
Incidentally, those are also the words I would use to describe Winter’s Orbit. It’s science fiction lite, but while world-building may be on the sparser side, the story itself super easy to get into, and the good news is you won’t need multiple spreadsheets and character charts to follow along with the political machinations and intrigue. I also liked how the romance featured prominently but wasn’t overbearing or too distracting from the overall plot. Will this be the most original or inspiring novel you read this year? Probably not. But it certainly comes packaged with all the ingredients of mass appeal, which means readers looking for a fun, casual sci-fi read with a good balance of story elements will find plenty of enjoyment.
The BiblioSanctum 
Well maybe one day but it’s a bit too bad that it wasn’t more
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Could have been more original!
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Hahaha fanfic, my ass 🤣
Never touched that beast, consider me biased! I’m lucky to not having read the ARC – imagine me pushing it slowly through the shredder („Reißwolf“, that’s why😁). Even my daughter – a fanfic lover – didn’t like this too much.
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Haha I think fanfic gets a bad rap, though I’m not saying the negativity is undeserved. Most of it is intolerably bad, but once in a while you do come across good stuff. This was written well, though the fact that it was so terribly derivative really hurt it, imo
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Sounds like finding a needle in the hay. No, I even have problems with self-published works, see my review for Sword of Kaigen which won that Selfpub Award and has been praised to heaven. I might be a snob but an editor might have saved it for me.
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Ah, it won the SPFBO last year? Well, I may check it out once/if it gets picked up by a traditional publisher, because then maybe it’ll get some good editing. Just read your review, sounds like it needed it.
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😁
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As a consumer of fan-fiction in my past (mostly Farscape) I’m very aware of the pitfalls of the medium, so I guess that going into this story with this in mind I might be able to enjoy it for the sheer entertainment value it promises to offer. That it could garner a 3 &1/2 stars despite this, is very encouraging 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
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Haha, so you know what I mean! And I agree, 3.5 is fantastically good for a book like this. Don’t expect too much, but it was honestly enjoyable.
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I’m completely out of the loop when it comes to fan fiction, so I guess I read this from a different perspective. I definitely wanted more from the world building though😁
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Yeah if you aren’t used to fanfiction, this would come across very differently, I’m sure. But yes, more world building would have been nice!
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I’ve never really followed fanfiction and had no idea of this ones origins, so that was interesting to learn. Most times I don’t pay much attention to how a book came about, but sometimes it really is an interesting story, or just shows how many different ways there are to reach the endpoint of a published book.
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I honestly love hearing happy stories of self published or in this case fanfic works that get picked up by traditional publishers. I mean, that does say a lot!
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I had no idea this was a fanfic until one of my friends told me because they were reading it and they said they actually read it when it was still up as fanfic and liked it better then! I was surprised because I thought it was fine LOL. It’s so interesting to see the different reactions to this one, especially if someone went into it knowing about it being published online previously. Anyway, glad you still enjoyed some things about this one, I know I had a good time with it. 🙂
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Haha! I wish I was able to still compare between the original fanfic work and the published version. It would be very enlightening, I would think!
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Hmmm I’ve heard quite the spread of opinions on this one. Ultimately, I think I’ll probaaably… I dunno. Didn’t have any idea it was fanfic though. That’s… interesting.
So did it ever have any interesting or unexpected twists, or was it pretty much just scripted from the start?
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I personally felt it was pretty scripted, all major developments were not surprising, and the revelations weren’t really revelations because the characters were deliberately written to be clueless (but readers were able to figure it out right away!)
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Great review, Mogsy. 🙂 I am not much of a science fiction fan, so I guess this could have worked for me since it’s light on the jargon, but I don’t enjoy books that inject too many tropes. Thanks for sharing.
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It’s perfect if you’re looking for light Sci fi, but yeah if you’re looking for a more exciting and surprising read, probably skip 🙂
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Lol… While much of the romantic thread was reasonably predictable, I enjoyed both characters and was able to bond with them and felt invested in their growing relationship. You’re right it was easy to read – but I didn’t feel I was going through the motions. That’s probably because fanfic isn’t my thing, and I don’t read very much romance, either:)). Excellent review, Mogsy!
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Yes I certainly won’t deny this was a light fun read! Sometimes it’s nice to kick back with something less challenging like this and relax!
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Absolutely:))
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Sounds more up my alley, I can take lite scifi
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I’ve seen all the glowing reviews for this one but it never really appealed to me – I think, if I’m being honest, I saw a comparison to Ann Leckie and that author didn’t quite work out for me so I decided to avoid this. Plus, me and space opera – not a marriage made in heaven and very hit or miss.
Lynn 😀
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