Jan Baciski has released his newest novel, this time delving into the realm of interstellar fiction – as is the trend for the top writers nowadays. Not content with making “The Far Reaches but different in this one aspect”, nor in introducing his setting with yet another anthology, Baciski’s novel, The Eternal War For Planet Crix, is as unique as it gets for elven fiction.

TEWFPC follows three main characters each from a different faction. The T’Rell, Elkani, and Jabowask, and they’re clearly meant to emulate the D’Sev, elves, and sayran (Jabowask is an extremely old and outdated term for sayran). These three factions rule vast, interstellar empires, and they’re all fighting over the planet Crix.

Another point of contrast with Baciski’s work vs those of his peers is that we really don’t know much about the setting. There are three empires committing vast amounts of resources to this planet, but that’s it. The story focuses entirely on the three main characters and never leaves their perspectives. We only know what they know, and while they’re among the elite of their empires, they’re still just foot soldiers without a grand view of the background details like politics or logistics.

The book only ever describes the war as negative, and it’s clear that even if an army does actually win control over the planet, the other two would just send reinforcements and start the war anew. So the goals of the militaries don’t really matter. The characters are expendable, like the bullets they fire, and they will die on one battlefield or another. So each individual soldier must find something worth fighting for, otherwise they might as well lay down and die.

A good ending for a character is if they can find meaning to their life before they’re shot to death.