Starquest: Outlaw of the Outer Stars by John C. Wright, Tuscany Bay Books,
June 24th, 2025
In my review of Catburglar of the Constellations in July last year I promised to get to the next book “in a month or so”. This “so” became “over a year later” and I almost feel I owe an apology for being so late. The previous novel was published in May last year and since then six further novels have been published with the ninth, Space Princess of Arcadia earlier this year in July. So as of writing, I have still five to read after this which doesn’t include the three yet-to-be-published that will complete the saga. So if the series finishes with Book 12, I am now a third of the way through the series.
Given the time between reading the first three and Outlaw of the Outer Stars, I found I had to re-read my reviews to remind myself of what I said about them and catch up on some details I’d forgotten. I even flicked through the three previous books to remind myself of some more. Much as I anticipated by simply looking at the front cover, this novel mostly focuses on Athos Lone who has accidently become part of the crew of the pirate ship, The Devil’s Delight; the ship introduced in the first novel.
Realising that readers may have forgotten some details, Wright takes the time to remind them of the events in the closing chapters of Book 2 which leads into a thrilling knife fight that sees Athos become First Mate under Captain Yeho, an anthropomorphic frog. Athos has taken the moniker, Blackjack Rackstraw and a costume befitting his name which Wright goes into delightful detail describing:
Athos donned a satin blouse with a lac cravat, a blue coat with gold buttons, riding jodhpurs and a pair of knee-high, night-black space-boots, complete with micro-jets for maneuvering at the ankles, and touch-range adhesion fields coating the soles.
…
He donned his weapon belt and baldrick, set with jade chips, hung with scabbards for his shank and snickersnee, matched holster for his lance pistoles, and loops for spare energy charges.
…
A tricorn hat completed the ensemble.
The majority of the novel focuses on Lone but there is more backstory offered for space princess, Lyra, Mevrian “The Merry Catburglar” Lone, Captain Flint Ansteel and at least one other I won’t mention. The only one who is absent is Napoleon Lone but I’m sure he is due to reappear in the fifth book. So there is plenty more lore however “lightyears” is merely alliterated hyperbole for the title. All the books thus far have had no shortage of lore dumps — and I don’t at all mean this in a negative sense.
The main thrust of the novel has Athos trying to discover information about the pirate fleet, how it operates and how it connects with sinister happenings in the galaxy; including a mysterious planet thought destroyed and no longer charted on galactic maps. I did appreciate the focus on Athos as his last appearance was deliberately left on a cliffhanger and Wright has allowed plenty of time to make up the book-length wait for a resolution and this one ends with a suitably exciting and extended action sequence. All of this is present with a few breaks to remind readers of the wider narrative still in process.
John C. Wright had a recently had a very animated interview on YouTube with Southwell Media where he confirms all the fun he is having writing this series. And this is really what makes it so fun to read in the first place. I hope to be on to the sequel, Scourge of the Spaceways much sooner than I got to this. Thankfully, I will have some time in the coming months to do so.