Song of Edmon: Fracture World, Book 1

The influence of classic science fiction abounds here, much to detriment of Burch’s underwhelming debut. In the future, humans have colonized several planets. One of them, Tao, is a tribal planet, on which the primitive Daysiders are dominated by the noble houses of the technologically advanced Nightsiders, and members of both groups use the battle tournament called the Combat to advance within society. Edmon’s father, Edric, is a Nightsider warrior who has won the Combat, and the assorted children he’s sired in his travels—including the official heir, Edgaard, and the intelligent Lavinia—are to be trained with the heirs to the other houses, taught how to fight and function in society. Edmon’s training brings him close to Phaestion, the genetically modified heir of another house, whose love for Edmon seems neither earned nor interesting. Burch throws a lot of random elements into the mix—a de rigueur scene of bullying, some genetically modified sea creatures with human traits—and it’s all bogged down by clunky exposition dumps, flimsy worldbuilding (including “space gypsies,” also called “spypsies”), and a lead character with little to make him interesting as either a person or a protagonist. (Sept.)