"Fearless" by Alexei Alexandrov, summary

"Fearless" is a novel by Alexei Alexandrov from the "Time of Dead Stars" series, published in 2022. Its plot revolves around a man already presumed dead: Mark Ortiz de Phobos returns to the space of the Noble Houses as a living corpse, and this immediately transforms his personal fate into a major political game.

The outbreak of war

In the prologue, the leader of the Brave Boys, Suman Grant, gathers the commanders of mercenary and pirate companies to end their previous disunity and direct their combined forces to seize the Tartarus-2 sector. He convinces them that the old order is crumbling, the Core Worlds are putting pressure on both corporations and mercenaries, meaning the old way of life in the Neutral Systems is ending. Instead of random raids, Suman proposes true conquest — not plunder, but the capture of entire systems with the hope of becoming the new barons and counts.

Against this backdrop, Mark Ortiz de Phobos returns to the Ignis system after fleeing Kaitos, where a slave rebellion and the chaos of the Great Caliphate led to his official death. He flies aboard the corvette Baby and tries to remain unnoticed, as he is accompanied by evacuated forces and assets associated with the Abraj al-Bait trading house and the Soko family. It’s clear from the outset that his previous death is convenient for many, and gives Mark himself a rare chance to conceal part of his plans.

Mark’s Return

Upon his arrival, Mark meets with Aella and decides that Gnaeus Sert de Veloth’s funeral must be held secretly, lest anyone discover the forgery of the bodies and discover the true survivors of the Caitos disaster. His return triggers a series of difficult conversations with allies and noble houses, as everyone tries to profit from de Phobos’s uncertain position. Almost immediately, Mark senses a new trap being set up around him, and behind the outward politeness, a fierce bargaining for power is already underway.

He then moves to Gemina and takes charge of the internal affairs of his domain. Mark delegates the day-to-day management to Severov, but he himself focuses on the most important task: building a future system of power, in which the individual forces of the Noble Houses are intended to eventually coalesce into a unified military force. His thoughts are focused not on peaceful coexistence, but on upward mobility, and this upward mobility is, from the very beginning, associated with risk, violence, and a willingness to suppress resistance.

Politics and Deception

The book simultaneously shifts the action to Mustafa Çelebi and other players associated with the disintegrating Great Caliphate. These narratives reveal that the domain of the Noble Houses is caught between several forces at once: internal rivals, mercenary fleets, fragments of the Caliphate, and those who seek to turn local holdings into a staging ground for a major war. No one acts openly here, and almost any alliance proves temporary.

Mark responds to this environment the way he knows best: with reconnaissance, pressure, covert negotiations, and precise calculation. He speaks with baronesses, relatives of allies and enemies, assessing who can be temporarily reassured, who should be intimidated, and who should be drawn into his orbit through promises, profit, or a shared fear of external invasion. The book contains many scenes where military force remains silent, but the outcome of future battles is already being decided behind closed doors and over system maps.

The theme of false roles also plays a significant role. Mark acts as a ruler, a schemer, a military man, and an information broker, and these masks constantly prevent others from understanding his true limits. This buys him time, and time here is almost equivalent to a fleet: while the opponents argue, he has time to consolidate control, redistribute forces, and prepare the ground for a counterattack.

Growing conflict

As the action unfolds, war transforms from a threat into a fact. In systems like RXZ-9781, full-scale combat clashes are underway, with fleets, landing forces, trophies, troop movements, and the question of who will get the captured ships and territories. Even victories in these episodes bring no peace, as every trophy immediately becomes a source of new dispute, and every concession gives rise to another grievance.

Mark is constantly forced to maintain several fronts at once. He must fend off external adversaries, monitor the mood within his own domains, keep his allies from panicking, and prevent his rivals from imposing their own rules on him. This is where the book’s core emerges: in almost every new chapter, a successful move leads to a new crisis, and de Phobos lives in a constant state of response to threats.

Later, a larger mobilization comes to the fore. Mark gathers under his banner those still willing to fight on his side, and strives to transform the personal connections between houses into a real military network. At this point, it becomes especially clear that he is no longer thinking in terms of a single barony, but rather in terms of an entire sector, where the old local order can either be led or become its victim.

Fights near the final

In the final chapters, the action centers on the SCK-4530 and Elioz systems, where preparation, deception, and lengthy calculations escalate into direct combat. Here, forces that previously operated piecemeal clash, now attempting to decide the outcome of the campaign with a swift and brutal strike. Mark leads the men into battle, relying on the actions of individual alphas, maintaining the line under the pressure of the enemy’s numerical superiority, and striving to turn a localized success into a strategic turning point.

The final battle scenes reveal the cost of this war very starkly. Victory here is always charred by losses, and any saved line can prove to be only a respite before a new ring of enemies. Even when de Phobos repels the attack and prevents the enemy from quickly breaking through his defenses, it becomes clear that the overall picture has become more dangerous than before: the red markers of hostile domains almost encircle his space.

The book’s final chord builds on a dramatic expansion of scale. Mark is left alone with a map of the sector, seeing that before him is no longer a private conflict or a dispute between a few houses, but an impending major war for the redistribution of power. His response is crystal clear: if his enemies want war, he will give it to them and attempt to conquer the sector himself, even if it means burning it to the ground.

The entire book leads to this very point. The story of the secret return of a man believed dead gradually evolves into a chronicle of the consolidation of power, a fierce political struggle, and the transition from defense to open conquest. "Fearless" ends not with reassurance, but with renewed tension, as Mark’s personal will aligns with the scale of a future interstellar war.