3 STARS

CW: murder, mention of prostitution, mention of rape, mention of terrorism, hate speech, Islamophobia, drugs, cancer, death (including of loved ones), gore, violence, pregnancy, abortion

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a story about the eponymous Secret Order of the Scepter & Gavel and about our narrator and protagonist Herbert who lives on Mars and works as a janitor due to the events that transpired during his college years. We get to know about both timelines intermittently and the book is a mix of murder mystery, sci-fi and political novel.

I'm not bothered by the fact that the sci-fi elements were more of a backdrop to the story, I enjoyed them nonetheless. The world building of having a university dedicated to educating future colonists of Mars was actually very intriguing and I kept reading because I wanted to know how everything was connected. One issue I had with the murder mystery plot (which really only applies to the present timeline but I'm counting the plot of joining and falling with Scepter & Gavel in the past timeline as well) was that after some time, it just wasn't intriguing enough anymore.

Maybe in the end this boils down to the problem I had with Herbert as a character and narrator. I did not care for him much and found his style of narrating the story a little exhausting and repetitive after a while. Many of the things that could have been mysterious and tense were rendered uninteresting because Herbert keeps clumsily hinting at how things will go or simply telling the reader about what will happen to another character in the future. I think if that had been a little toned down, the reading experience could have been more fun.

Nevertheless, I was interested until the end, waiting for the grand finale that is alluded to in pretty much every chapter in one way, shape or form and blew over very quickly in my opinion.
I thought the parallels to recent / current political developments were very thinly veiled and I didn't love it but I certainly wasn't bothered by that.

Overall, this was a fun story to read and experience. The essential idea is engaging and some aspects of the execution were lacking in my opinion but not so much that I struggled to keep on reading. Quite the opposite, the writing & narrating style (despite my dislike for the character) was actually very easy to read.

Finally, some words on the resolution of the murder mystery: I thought it was a little disappointing and predictable but okay.

Enjoyable plot and characters, but a bit too political for me. I thought this was a sci-fi mystery on Mars. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

First off, let me start by saying the story is enjoyable and interesting. I would happily recommend this book to others to read. However, where it lost stars for me, is that it cannot decide whether or not it is a sci-fi novel or a political novel. It seems to be trying too hard to make a not so subtle commentary of the current political landscape that sometimes the actual story seems to fall by the wayside. Setting a story in the future but then making characters not-so-veiled versions of current politicians just stops the ability of the reader to suspend disbelief. I would have just enjoyed it being a murder story set on Mars in the future.

I found The Secret Order of the Scepter & Gavel was a more sly take at modern politics and the absurdity of the US's current situation, with all the challenges demonstrating the complete chaos within a party.
The murder blended in, overshadowed by the shenanigans surrounding a life on Mars and the Blue Planet.
Overall an enjoyable read
An independent review for NetGalley / Nicholas Ponticello