I thoroughly enjoyed 'Aztec Eagle', the first in the trilogy of the same name by Catherine Wells. It did a lot in a short space and it did it through a number of unusual approaches. It's a future story that often feels like its contemporary. It's a story about an ongoing war on another planet but it doesn't leave ours until the final page. Its lead character is a poor Mexican boy with a disfigured mother and its first half unfolds on that side of the border. Above all, it's the coming-of-age story of Enrique Aguilar, who's the titular eagle, but our guide in many ways is Xopil; a companion spirit that he doesn't know he has, who plays absolutely no role in proceedings whatsoever.

Traditionally, the middle volumes of trilogies tend to suffer by comparison. The first book sets up the story and the third book brings it all home. The second book, if we're being cynical, only has to get us from one to the other. This middle volume does a heck of a lot more than that and I marvel at how effortlessly Wells goes about that. I'd still call this young adult science fiction, but it has a serious depth to it that starts early and grows throughout. If we thought we knew what to expect coming in, then we'll surely be surprised by where we end up. However, by the time we get there, it'll make complete sense even though there aren't any jarring moments of change. That's good writing.

If you're following along, Enrique leaves Earth on the final page of 'Aztec Eagle' and gets to Alpha in the first line of 'Crystal Desert'. He's there to join the resistance but he's hurled into the action before he can even set foot on the planet, as the Peacekeepers attack them on arrival. Hunter, or Major Robinson, is the one flying them in but he has Enrique use his psi powers to assist. So to the rebel fortress in an underground cave system, where he starts afresh as a young Earthman who's surrounded by Alfians who don't know him. He has a lot to do to even start belonging.

Fortunately, there are people who arrive on the same ship who know him from Earth. Miriam is in love with him, as she has been, but he still completely fails to notice. He's been sleeping with her cousin Lyla, though neither are exlusive, while nursing an abiding crush on rebel leader Karma, a lady who's married to his mentor, the major, with a six-year-old daughter called Charisse. He hits it off with Sula, but loses her when she sees him with Lyla and, oh, what a tangled web young love can be.

Of course, he's not there for girls. He's there so he can fly, though he isn't given the chance until he's earned the right. He gets his wings when Hunter takes him up over the Crystal Desert for his first flight but he spends a long while feeling ignored, stuck with a long study and work schedule that doesn't include any time in a cockpit. Eventually, though, he has the opportunity to have his very own plane, if only they can steal some from the Peacekeepers. That mission turns out to be a turning point for him, as his psi powers enable him to detect the traps left for them and that's an awfully big deal. Suddenly he's part of something bigger.

This isn't strictly coming-of-age, because that period arguably ended with the first book, but he's still a work-in-progress when he arrives on Alpha and he continues to grow and evolve throughout his time there. I could run you through the details of how he progresses, but you should read that for yourself. Wells is exquisitely good at evolving characters and, while Enrique is clearly the lead of this trilogy, she certainly doesn't reserve evolution for him. In fact, while though this clocks in at under two hundred and fifty pages, every one of the principals evolves.

We know both Miriam's secrets coming in, but those around her only know that she's in love with Enrique, even if he doesn't. The other eventually comes out, at an entirely appropriate moment, and the ramifications are well-handled. Blake continues to hate him but that relationship grows and changes without undue strain. Lyra may have the most shocking story arc and Hunter, rather surprisingly, the least developed but there's growth with them too. Karma continues to distrust him, appropriately so, but opens up with his growing contributions to the cause. However, what she thinks of him and what he thinks of her changes over time, not because their acts change but because the perceptions change about their respective parts in the big picture.

And that takes us to the depth in the story beyond the depth in the characters. We learned a lot about the situation on Alpha in 'Aztec Eagle' but at a serious distance. Hunter, then the Captain, was a Peacekeeper when Enrique first met him, fighting against the rebels on Alpha. By the time that book ended, he had defected to their side and was now fighting the Peacekeepers. The fact of what was happening there hadn't changed but his perception of it had and that flavoured the take on it that Enrique absorbed from him just as much as his crush on the rebel leader.

The fact of it doesn't change here. We colonised Alpha and sent people to terraform it. That took place over multiple generations and, by the time the colonists arrived to take advantage of their work, the terraformers had built a history and a culture. When they were effectively discarded in favour of colonists who had merely paid their way there, they felt unfairly treated and their cause was forged. Both the Peacekeepers and rebels are fighting for what they think is right. That's all in place before Enrique sets foot on Alpha, but he arrives having taken a side.

Over time, he learns more about the situation, both in the rebel camp underneath the desert of the title and in regular Alphan towns during a couple of undercover missions, and his take on the situation evolves, just as it had for his mentor. I won't spoil where it goes but I will say that it isn't a dramatic shift. He doesn't suddenly realise that good guys are bad guys or vice versa. Nobody is exposed as a fraud. This isn't a Saturday morning serial. Instead, he learns that what's going on is perhaps not quite as straightforward as he thinks it is and he starts to reevaluate his part in it. In many ways, there are no bad guys, just good guys with different agendas. I appreciated that.

And, most tellingly, because I knew absolutely from decades of experience reading science fiction what the first book meant the second would be, only to discover that I was largely wrong, I'm now wondering what the third will bring. Sure, those decades of experience reading science fiction tell me exactly what it will be once more but I'm wary of falling into the very same trap. Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me, right? So, while there's an obvious way to take the trilogy in the third book, I feel pretty safe in assuming that Wells isn't going to take it. She's going to build it cleverly but apparently effortlessly, just as she did this second book. And, if so, I'll be in for a treat next month with 'Eagle Unbound'. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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