Alexey Ivanov’s "Ruthless," a summary Automatic translate

"Ruthless" by Alexey Ivanov is a 2022 novel, the third book in the "Time of Dead Stars" series. It’s a space combat fantasy where the course of a war depends less on frontline reports than on negotiations, clan alliances, arms trade, boarding operations, and the personal will of the house rulers.

The beginning of the war

The novel opens with a scene on the planet Nevea, where Private Recruit John Balion, along with other territorial defense fighters, digs trenches and awaits attack. The scene itself immediately sets the general tone: war has reached the very edges of human space and become an everyday occurrence. After this, the action shifts to the Gemina system, to House Phobos, where Baron Mark Ortiz de Phobos oversees the launch of the heavy cruisers Agamemnon and Menelaus, realizing that his own shipyard and his own heavy fleet give his house a completely different gravitas.

Mark lives in a constant state of reckoning. He hosts Fairy Soko of the Abraj al-Bait trading house, conducts business with Admiral Dyson, and analyzes fleet reorganization plans, all the while monitoring news from other systems where old conflicts are already erupting into open and increasingly brutal warfare. Behind the outward businesslike demeanor, the most important thing is immediately apparent: Mark has no intention of limiting himself to defending his own home.

Almost every decision he makes is tied to strengthening the Phobos family. He expands the military, changes internal governance, burdens Chancellor Nikolai Severov with heavy workloads, and strives to control the chaos growing with the war. House Phobos is rapidly ascending, and this rise worries its allies as much as its enemies.

Mark’s plans

At the same time, Mark relies on Gee and her crew from the ship "Merry Wolf." In one of the novel’s most brutal plotlines, Gee leads a boarding party of former slaves to a secret base in the PIK-9087 system, storms the storage and internal sections, repulses the defenders, and recovers trophies that prove too valuable to be considered ordinary spoils of war. This success strengthens Mark in several ways — militarily, financially, and politically.

Against this backdrop, the game among the noble houses continues. Mark observes ceremonies, mourning rituals, and feigned grief, sees the hypocrisy of his neighbors, and understands that almost every public display of affection here serves as a cover for calculation. Even funerals and dynastic rites in the novel function as part of a larger struggle for influence.

When Mark ventures into new systems aboard the breakthrough leader, the Octavian Augustus, the military line takes center stage. He fends off dangerous attacks, clashes with mercenaries, unravels traces of conspiracies, and after one battle, he ruefully admits that his leniency resulted in unnecessary risks and losses, even though a complete catastrophe was averted. For him, this is further confirmation of a simple idea: in this state of affairs, compassion is almost always repaid in blood.

Interrogating prisoners and gathering information push Mark to new approaches. He ponders Aella, examines her connections, searches for weaknesses in others’ schemes, and at some point transfers his usual cold tactics to the realm of marriage politics. After awkward attempts to formulate a confession and choose a gift, he achieves an engagement with Aella of House Orca, though the wedding itself is postponed due to mourning. He seeks this union not for a romantic idyll, but for a secure place in the system of inter-house relations.

War and deals

The engagement doesn’t soften Mark. Returning from the Ignis system, he almost immediately switches to other goals, receives a seal of approval from an influential ally, and continues to think about war, trophies, and new levers of influence. In the novel, his personal life exists alongside politics, but never overshadows it.

Danger looms large, and very close. During the events on the Octavian Augustus, Marcus is stabbed, barely able to stand, trying to staunch the bleeding, and literally experiencing firsthand how little his title means in his position when his enemy has managed to close in. This episode doesn’t break him, but rather makes him even more alert and resilient.

Alongside Mark’s storyline, the novel also explores other players. Count Dugan de Garat, rejuvenated and once again eagerly enjoying physical life, views war as a time of opportunity, seizing others’ spoils and seeking to profit from the turmoil while others are preoccupied with direct conflict. Through him, it becomes especially clear that interstellar conflict feeds not only armies — it also feeds ambition, greed, and old family grudges.

By the middle of the novel, Mark has entered into even more shady dealings. In a neutral system, he secretly meets with Baron Marid de Echet, whose hatred for House Misen makes him a convenient participant in a dangerous scheme. The chapter titled "Planet Killer" reveals the extent to which the struggle between the houses has reached: weapons of such destructive power are being introduced that it’s no longer a matter of a local victory, but rather the possibility of almost completely wiping out the enemy.

The Grand Bazaar

A new plot twist unfolds in the Kaitos system, at the Great Bazaar, where Mark arrives with Gnaeus. Before a council of counts, they discuss ship repairs, future supplies, spoils, and the status of House Veloth, while Gnaeus reveals himself as a rich and carefree aristocrat who spends money easily and irritates Markus with even the smallest details. Behind this almost mundane pause, the impending coup is already lurking.

At a council of the counts, the beylerbey of the Akshihir sector, Mustafa Çelebi, launches an armed takeover. Boarders in heavy suits burst into the hall, the guards are overwhelmed, some present immediately realize resistance is futile, and the counts are faced with a stark choice: join their new master or be taken captive. Only a portion of the nobility defects to Mustafa’s side, immediately demonstrating the precariousness of his victory.

Mark outwardly submits, because open combat at that moment would have meant swift death. He finds himself under surveillance along with Gnaeus, observing the wounded, his terrified council neighbors, the new security system, and quickly comes to the conclusion that a simple escape will solve nothing. If he leaves alone, Mustafa Çelebi will easily turn his full fury against Gemina and the House of Phobos.

It is here that Mark’s mentality becomes especially clear. He begins to look not for a loophole for himself, but for a way to force a crisis on the enemy so great that they will lose the ability to pursue individual fugitives. Through Fairy Soko, who has been playing his own complex game at the invaders’ court, Mark learns about the mood on the station, secret passages, access to the trading house’s ships, and the slaves on the lower levels. He then formulates a plan based on panic, the covert movement of people, and a simultaneous attack on order in the bazaar.

The finale

The final chapters unfold like a long buildup to the explosion. Fairy carefully aids the fugitives, transports people, and leads the counts and his staff to the shuttles and ships of Abraj al-Bait, while Mark calculates the station’s layout and searches for points where a massive influx of people will render the guards useless. The plot is based on the hero’s old thought: sometimes the most powerful blow is not a cannon, but a well-orchestrated panic.

When a riot erupts on the lower levels and a frenzied crowd rushes toward the shuttles, order in the Grand Bazaar collapses almost instantly. Guards fire stun guns and live ammunition, people fall, others follow them, trying to reach the ships at any cost, and the entire station becomes a scene of general crush, terror, and disintegration of authority. Amidst this chaos, Mark and Gnay manage to reach the Fairy and board as the ramp slowly closes under gunfire.

The escape succeeds, but the price is high. Back on the ship, it becomes clear that Gnaeus is wounded, and outside the hold, dozens of dead remain, the station’s order is shattered, and the authorities, who formally won but in reality inherited a disfigured space full of fugitives and hidden opponents, are left with no sense of pure triumph — one center of power has survived, another has drowned in its own cruelty, and many outsiders are paying the price.

The epilogue reveals the consequences. Mustafa Çelebi furiously interrogates the head of security, learning that many hostages have died or disappeared, that Abraj al-Bait’s ships have evacuated deep into the sector, and that tracking the fugitives is now nearly impossible. Beside him, Count Dugan de Garat realizes that the rebellion is only too smooth on the surface and decides to feign loyalty to the new caliph for now while simultaneously building his own empire on the ruins of the old order. It is with this sense of unfinished war, mounting betrayal, and cold calculation that the novel ends.