Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit is a debut novel with an interesting history. A version of this novel was first published online, where I encountered (and enjoyed) it as “The Course of Honour” on Archive Of Our Own (in the Original Works category). Winter’s Orbit as published by Tor Books is different in some respects from “The Course of Honour”, most obviously in the more detailed attention paid to worldbuilding and the wider scope accorded the political situation, but the core narrative arc – the developing relationship between the protagonists – remains familiar. The Empire of Iskat rules over several planets. The greatest local power, it secures its treaties through marriage into the imperial family. Those treaties have more than local importance, because they are part of its agreement with the Resolution – a galaxy-spanning federation of powers that keeps other, larger, and more predatory empires from invading.