J. Kenton Pierce's A Kiss for Damocles

A Book Review

First the bad things happen. Then the worse things happen. Then the survivors have to figure out how to make the bad good again. Granted, that’s the theme of much of history, but it’s also the theme of much of J. Kenton Pierce’s A Kiss for Damocles (Tales from the Long Night, Book One). Our heroes are trying to scratch a better life out of the ruins of their planet, Hesperides, and they’re willing to do whatever they have to in order to survive. And they have the tools to do so, whether that be books full of knowledge, as shovel to build and dig with or a spring-bolter (That’s a gun for those of you who missed it) to deal with whatever threats are out there.

I like these people. They’ve got a little country to them, and they work hard. They would fit in well in any number of rural communities in the US, and they work hard. The language they use has kind of a Spaghettis Western feel to it, kind of like Firefly but more authentic because the characters in A Kiss for Damocles don’t swear in Chinese.

Our main character is one Shaifennen te’ Freydis-Daitte Roehe, also known as Shai, which is good because I am entirely too lazy to continuously type in a name that long. Seriously, just won’t do it. Shai works though, because it’s only four letters.

Anyway…

Shai is a hard-pushing go-getter, daughter of the local matriarch and the person who discovers the thing that really pushes the whole plot for the rest of the book. That’s spoilery enough I think. She’s pretty hardcore though. I love a strong female protagonist and Kenton-Pierce delivers here. Shai is a little scrapper. She knows how to use everything from her hands and feet to a knife to a couple of different types of guns effectively. She also has a bit of a temper. That’s cool though. So do I. Seriously, don’t mess with Shai.

That’s not to say that Shai can’t control her emotions. She has to do so on several occasions and she does fairly well at it. It’s just that Kenton-Pierce does a really good job of showing us all that she has to control her temper. I know this feeling. I’ve lived it. He translates it really well. And Shai keeps herself together when she needs to. It saves her life a couple of times, even if she shoots her mouth off when she shouldn’t.

It just dawned on me that the reason I like Shai so much may be that she’s basically the female version of me. But we’d get along great until we got into an argument and then God help us both.

Seriously, I can be that guy when I’m riled up. Ask anyone who knows me. Or better yet, don’t. Then you’ll still think I’m joking.

I guess the biggest difference between A Kiss for Damocles and most Spaghetti Westerns is the strong post-apocalyptic feeling that exudes from the book. The citizens of Hesperides Colony are the descendants of people who survived a war that appears to be galaxy spanning.

It may be quadrant, or spiral arm or some such. I don’t know if the exact size of the former polity wasn’t listed or if I just missed it. I don’t generally take notes unless I’m going to need to footnote something later and I haven’t done that kind of writing since 2012. Bottom line: Things go boom, lots of people die, nuclear winter ensues, and planets are just starting to thaw out.

A lot of technology has either been decayed or salvaged. It’s at the point where the economy is based primarily not on paper money, known as “scrip” the way it used to be, but on barter. Cargo, it’s called. People grow what they can, raise what animals they can, etc., but the main form of building things comes from scavenging what can be found among the ruins and using it to build new stuff. This works as a story element, but one wonders how long they can keep going on some previous generation’s junk. Although I guess that’s the point of wanting to get off the planet and believe me, they want to get off of the planet.

The problem is Damocles. Damocles is a giant space weapons array that hangs out in orbit destroying anything that has a large enough power signature to make it look dangerous. That makes getting of the planet problematic even if they had a working ship, which they don’t. The war appears to have destroyed just about all of them. Damocles also makes life hell by taking down necessary facilities if they show too much potential. I have a serious hate on for Damocles. That’s good though. A good villain adds to a story and, mindless though it may be, Damocles makes a good villain.

There are a lot of politics in A Kiss for Damocles and I liked that about it. Any time you get a large group of humans they are going to argue over who gets what and who is in charge, what things have to happen, and so on. That’s life in the big city. There is action and adventure and exploration and all kinds of other things, trade comes to mind as well, but really makes the book is the politics.

A Kiss for Damocles starts with a discovery but it’s the politics surrounding the story that make it work. There are also a couple of historical references. I could probably do a piece about this book on my other Stack. It’s that richly packed with good stuff. There is a lot going on here, but it works because Kenton-Pierce has done a superb job of world-building without info-dumping.

There is a lot to the Hesperides Colony. Everything from a functioning economy to a functioning alien ecosystem including alien animals, to the aforementioned political system to a fully realized alien species with its own cultural mores, traditions and rituals (the Imps. Probably my only complaint about A Kiss for Damocles is that we didn’t see more of them but no system is perfect, I suppose.) there is a multi-layered well developed world on display for all to see.

That’s not to say that all has been revealed. Even if A Kiss for Damocles didn’t have Tales from the Long Night, Book One as a subtitle, reading the end of it would make it very obvious that there is more to come. This is a good thing. I’m waiting (impatiently, but waiting nonetheless) for the next one. Hopefully it gets here soon.

Bottom Line: 5.0 out of 5 Grumper Tales

A Kiss for Damocles (Tales from the Long Night, Book One)
J. Kenton Pierce
Raconteur Press, 2025

A Kiss for Damocles (Tales from the Long Night, Book One) is available for purchase at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon, I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

A Kiss for Damocles (Tales from the Long Night, Book One)