Published by Baen on December 2, 2014
Six thousand years ago, aliens kidnapped some humans, plunked them down on a planet called Raylicon, and left them to fend for themselves. We learn about Raylicon history in the kind of information dump you would expect to see scrolling across the screen at the beginning of a Star Wars movie. I assume much of this is developed in the novels that form The Saga of the Skolian Empire, none of which I have read. Fans of this universe might like Undercity more than I did.
Book I of Undercity sets an ordinary PI action story in a matriarchal society. Bhaajan, formerly a major in the Pharaoh's Army of the Skolian Imperialate and now a PI, returns to her homeworld of Raylicon where she has been hired by the House of Majda to find a missing prince. He is presumed to have run away but has no experience living outside the palace and, per tradition, has rarely been seen by a woman outside the House of Majda.
"Bhaaj" is picked for the job because of her training, discretion, and augmented strength and speed, but also because she grew up in the undercity below the City of Cries. The plot involves murder and betrayal and shootouts with the addition of flirtation and romantic undertones and swoony reactions to dreamy men that do not quite fit within the tone of the story Catherine Asaro is trying tell. The "if you love him, set him free" theme is also a little cheesy.
The end of Book I (originally written as a stand-alone) segues into Book II. Bhaaj stays on Raylicon not to advance her sexual opportunities with dreamy men but because she is hired to help the military stop smugglers who are stealing Skolian technology and selling it to slave traders. Bhaaj is charged with tracking down the traitors by using her undercity contacts. Telepaths make an appearance (they access a half-explained version of hyperspace called "the Kyle, a universe where physics as we knew it had no meaning") setting up a plot thread that develops more fully in Book III. Bhaaj no longer has the opportunity to get swoony with the prince but she does get it on with a rogue from the undercity who she knew in the old days.
The plot requires Bhaaj to assemble a little army of undercity children and to give them a silly name (the Dust Knights of Cries). Much of what happens after that is predictable but, with the addition of a stirring soundtrack, it might make a successful movie.
Asaro explains that the undercity is under the city and that it exists on different levels, but doesn't paint a detailed picture of it. That's disappointing. The politics of the world could have been brought into sharper focus. Character development, particularly of secondary characters, could have been stronger. The undercity dialect could have been more imaginative; to my ear, the undercity inhabitants sound like Canadians, yah.
Bhaaj gives the Dust Knights a moral code worthy of the Boy Scouts. That might make Undercity a good choice for juveniles. It also has a strong message about taking pride in who you are even if you grew up filthy. Undercity lacks the depth of strong adult sf but some of the story is entertaining. I mightrecommend it for younger readers and, as I said, fans of the Skolian Empire series might appreciate this new addition. I did not find sufficient merit to recommend it to other sf fans.
NOT RECOMMENDED