Payback is a concept that all may feel that we want when we have been wronged. The betrayal of love; a work issue or your favourite TV show being cancelled can all instigate in us a desire for revenge. It can fester, corrupt and make you care only about your own feelings above all others. Ion space and with great technology that revenge can be more spectacular and the stakes higher. In Thomas Wrightson’s entertaining SF revenger novel Starborn Vendetta we follow one woman’s climb from an abyss to the quest for the throne of her lost empire.

Prisoner 74 has been sent to the remote prison world of the d’If she is to be lost, never realised and forgotten about. No one cares for her fate. But Prisoner 74 is not your ordinary criminal she is Mercedes a dethroned heir to new Dubai and all its riches. She refuses to give up a quest for escape that comes in the form of a passing diplomat. Mercedes and a loyal prison guard who finds himself unable to refuse aiding her are soon back on New Dubai, in disguise and preparing a game of revenge against the three powerful men who took her power. Mercedes will stop at nothing to win it all back.

This is an enjoyable SF take on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas and Wrightson has found a balance in telling a period piece of fiction within an SF universe. From the initial beginning we see a vast space empires full of powers, politics and good old human greed. The circumstances that led to Mercedes fall are the same that will allow her to escape and pull revenge. Wrightson has ably designed several set pieces from a vast and cruel prison world to New Dubai where power and style go hand in hand with ruthlessness and everyone for themselves.

Into this is the enigmatic Mercedes. Initially Wrightson teases us as she doesn’t have a name and rarely says much. This is a compelling character who rarely gives much away. I’d had liked to have seen a little bit more why she compels loyalty so quickly but she indeed charismatic and as the story progresses, we can see someone who will do whatever it takes to get revenge and she also enjoys what she can do. She puts innocents in danger; she will lie and deceive anyone, and she is deadly when she needs to be. There is a House of Cards feeling to her rarely do we feel like we have been in her head for long, but her unpredictability makes you want to see what happened next.

Wrightson has adopted a style similar top the period adventure romances it is imagining and that often works with space opera which with its powerful empires and powerful figures aligned with the dregs of society who kill for the right price. Nothing feels safe, nobody feels like they can be trusted, and we get a fine assembly of escapes, fights and dangerous traps. This is ahigh speed adventure tale which delivers exactly what it sets out to do with oomph.

Starborn vendetta leaves room for further stories in this universe and Wrightson does make the worlds vast enough for more tales. For fans of classic-style SF adventures and good old fashioned revenge dramas I think this can be definitely recommended!