Review: Energy Wars by Lionel Lazarus

Intergalactic power struggles and a universe driven by the hunt for precious fuel, Lionel Lazarus dazzles readers with Energy Wars, the second and third parts of his Energy Exchange series.

Immensely powerful and ageless, but still able to be surprised, The Eight is returning to his home galaxy onboard the Hela, but finds that an unthinkable coup has occurred. His beloved companion, the supreme leader of the Overlords, is gone, and now The Sixth threatens the historic peace the Overlords had worked to achieve.

Having learned from past battles, The Eight knows to rely on brains, rather than brawn, to ensure the safety of the Intergalactic Energy Exchange – the reliable access point for the blue that the ten Overlords need to survive. The Eight is also learning more about the resilience and value of humans as he trains Niamh to manipulate blue energy, granting her insight and access to impossible powers. The crew of the Hela will need all the help they can get as The Sixth moves to become The One of his epoch, putting his long-awaited plan in motion – genetically manipulating the perfect biological weapon to raise an unstoppable army.

The hard-working human colonists on the secret New World are harvesting blue and carving out a fresh place in the universe for themselves, but there are enemies who would be eager to destroy all that they’ve built. Not only that, but Robert and Tom are surviving on this alien world with dwindling resources, and the frustrating irony of having access to the most powerful energy source in the universe, but not being able to use it. These storylines twist and tangle across the universe in a character-driven slice of sci-fi fantasy that is both highly original and addictive.

The thematic threads of the novel are unexpectedly relatable, despite the technology being light years ahead of our own. The book explores the insidious nature of greed and the risks people are willing to take for freedom, health, and stability. The concept of having a cure for a deadly disease, but being unable to deliver it for political reasons is reminiscent of recent global health crises in the real world. The name of the book itself reflects the conflicts already raging over fossil fuels and green energy, although in the Energy Wars universe, the struggle is about a far more advanced energy source. Basically, this book extrapolates Earth’s current existential crises to an intergalactic scale, and the results are engrossing, but ominous.

Lazarus has a subtle and clever way with language, though there are occasional slips into informality. Some of that may come from colloquial phrasing of New Zealand or UK English, but there are definitely clunky lines that should be cleaned up by a skilled editor. As common as this critique may be, the author also sometimes relies on telling readers things, rather than showing them through descriptive prose. While this can speed up the exposition process, it sometimes takes away from the sense of authentic and immersive storytelling.

On the whole, however, Energy Wars is a wildly inventive work of sci-fi, boasting elements of future tech, political intrigue, alien philosophy, and humanity’s potential fate among the stars.