Fearless (The Fractal Series book 1) by Allen Stroud (book review).
‘Fearless’ by Allen Stroud is the first novel in ‘The Fractal Series’ trilogy. This is a near-future space opera when the human race has colonised planets, moons, and asteroids as far out as Jupiter.
The Khidr, one of seven vessels patrolling the trade lanes between the Moon, Mars, Ceres, and Europa, is a rescue spacecraft to help spaceships that get into trouble. On their run from Mars to Ceres, they get an automated distress signal from the freighter, Hercules, which is three days out from Mars. Naturally, Khidr responds to the distress signal as part of their duty. However, there is something unusual about Hercules: its manifest has a load of blanks, meaning there is a legitimate reason why it has not been made public. Captain Ellisa Shann sends messages asking for the full unredacted list from Earth, just in case it becomes a problem during the rescue.
A crewmember’s locked harness fails during the course alteration to Hercules, causing Drake to crash into the wall during acceleration. The problem is the harness is designed to not fail, so it was probably sabotaged. A shipboard investigation starts with senior pilot Major Angel Le Garre appointed to lead it.
The manifest list for Hercules arrives, revealing ‘crate after crate’ of live organic material, toxic compounds, and detected radioactive material. Scratched notes cover the copied sheet, as if a dispute has occurred over its contents. This is the very opposite of normal.
Two incidents happening at the same time cannot be a coincidence. Shann, who was born without legs and endured her mother’s harsh love to learn self-reliance, has developed a strong determination and stubbornness. She will need those qualities to see her through what comes afterwards, especially when it turns out that the order to release Drake’s harness during acceleration came from her captain’s account. She definitely did not enter that and other commands.
Ensign April Johansson is the second viewpoint character in ‘Fearless.’. She specialises in engineering, but she has some medical experience. As Khidr closes in on Hercules, she searches their localised transmissions to try to find out what happened to the stricken spaceship. She catches a few words of a conversation, which could be from someone doing a spacewalk. Determined to do better, she works on removing the background noise in the transmission. Her motivation is straightforward: she seeks Shann’s positive endorsement to secure a promotion. Then she has an idea about how to widen her search. A Khidr explosion interrupts her quest to solve the mystery, but she persists.
The final viewpoint character is Technician Jake Sellis, who gets caught up in capturing a suspect on board the Khidr. He knows the person the officers arrested is innocent but has no proof. He has to let it go. It leaves him feeling something is horribly wrong. That feeling is justified when he finds himself being blackmailed about his secret past gambling addiction to do things on board ships he would rather not do.
All three are just beginning to understand what is happening in space and how to survive in the harsh environment. Although the first book in the trilogy leaves some significant unresolved issues for the subsequent novels, it provides a satisfying conclusion to some of the action and story arcs.
‘Fearless’ is packed with action and dilemma. One intriguing insight from the novel is that being in space helps the action. As Johansson notes, it’s the binary of war—alliances and enemies. Out here in space, there’s even less room for a grey area in between. Could this be why space opera as a science fiction subgenre is popular?
This is not the only thought-provoking point brought out in ‘Fearless.’. Others include that even those with physical disabilities can achieve wonderful things in the right circumstances, and finding out your true desires makes decisions much easier.
Allen Stroud shows how the space environment has both obvious and subtle effects on humans. It suggests issues humans must address to colonise the Solar System and reach space.
This novel is full of standard near-future space opera themes, gadgets, and ideas. There is very little innovation on the bigger scale, which a reader hungry for new ideas will find disappointing.
‘Fearless’ is what I call a multi-level novel; a fun action-adventure read or a thought-provoking catalyst. Either or both are enjoyable.
Rosie Oliver
February 2025
(pub: Flame Tree Press, 2020. 361 page paperback. Price: £9.95. ISBN: 978-1-78758-541-6. check out website: www.flametreepress.com