So, let's talk about Catalyst Gate. It’s the conclusion of Megan O’Keefe’s absolutely cracking Protectorate space opera series. I’ve had a great time in the universe of the Protectorate, with its twists and turns, deep secrets and complex characterisation. And this book, this book raises the already very high bar.
If you’re one for worldbuilding, you’ve come to the right place. O’Keefe expands her intricate, intriguing space, filled with mysteries and old atrocities. What was once a universe defined by the gates one uses to get from place to place the lines of travel, is blown open, in terms of both geography and history. The space we see here is something new, unexplored, in both the physical and temporal case.And each piece of the universe is part of the puzzle, each interlocking part helping to reveal a greater whole, while revelling in its own details of wonder and terror. O’Keefe gives us a humanity which has reached out to the stars. But a humanity whose old wounds and old grudges are part of what defines them. And that’s true too, of the force we see moving against them. Rainier, the creature-that-was-an-AI, is also a fish swimming in a sea of missing gods. Because this is a universe which was not always ours. And even those parts that were, the world we came from, the cradle of us all, hides its own secrets. This is a universe filled with deep secrets, deep magic, wonder, and hidden blades. It’s a universe which has space for something other than us in it, and one where the fire of humanity can both gutter and inspire. I won’t spoil it (and that’s going to be a theme of this review), but there’s revelations about the setting which turn everything up to now on its head (again), and make you rethink everything you’ve read. And it’s still a vivid, beautiful, bloody, unknowable universe.
The people share a depth and emotion with the world. They have a resonance, a humanity which you can feel in your bones. And Rainier, the not-exactly-AI, is something else. A broken horror in borrowed clothes, straining against a leash. Both the people and the Other are whole, and real. Not always nice, no not at all. Not always charming, no, not at all. But filled with passionate intensity and love and comfort, and revenge and horror and everything that makes us feel that we’re something other than vehicles for our impulses. These characters, two books in, you can feel their moods. You can understand what you think their goals to be. You can try to understand the rest, to see the cloaked motives of masked truths. But, to be a bit less poetic about it, you’ll do it because the people on the page will grab hold of you, take you by the hand and make you care about them - from the wounded, vicious AI to the troubled survivor of a planetary slum, and from there to the family of fathers and siblings, deep in their affection and unflinching in their duty. They’re people. And because they’re people, you’ll care about them. Live with them, die with them, cry and laugh and love and live alongside them, as this chapter of their life, as this series, draws to a close. And they’re characters that capture the intimacy and beauty of humanity, as well as our stupidity and cruelty, and the alien and the unknowable that shifts outside our experience is drawn onto the page with skill and wonder in equal measure.
I don’t want to be this vague, I don’t, but this book. This book is willing to turn on a dime and smash your expectations, of people, places and events. I dare not plumb the depths in case I give something away. Because the plot is a thing of joy. A precision work of narrative. It works. It compels your attention, it refuses to let you stop reading. Each word in a sentence in a page in a chapter carries meaning and truth and moments where you just want to express your surprise, loudly. I, personally, used expletives. You’re probably reading this coming off the revelations from the first two books in the series. I can promise you that they are easily overshadowed by things here. And on a narrative level, the story is compelling, intriguing and perfectly paced; a page turner which will keep you reading long, long into the night. And, if you’re wondering: yes. The ending is a wonder. It’s cathartic and smart and warm and, well, exactly what the series needed. This book is the series ending we deserve, the ending we needed, and it’s brilliant. Go pick it up, right now.
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