“The Gilgamesh Path” by Michael Drakich

The Gilgamesh Path

Michael Drakich 
Traanu Enterprises (2024)
ISBN:  978-1778254185
Reviewed by Karen Gellender for Reader Views (06/2024)

Calain de Longee of the Galactic Core Amalgamation (GCA) is the son of Adam Spenceworth, the famous man who invented the Guardians: super-intelligent robots that changed the face of intergalactic warfare. Calain would prefer to stay free of his father’s shadow if possible, so when he is appointed ambassador to Earth, he’s not optimistic. However, once a microorganism that might be the secret to eternal youth is discovered, it’s a race against time to beat the Hakardi Empire to the prize.

Complicating things is the fact that Calain finds himself continually butting heads with Warkis, the Hakardi ambassador to the GCA. The volatile, green-skinned alien princess, who comes from an empire where all males are small and subservient to females, has a lot to learn about human gender politics, and is not inclined toward cooperation with Calain—at least, not until the pair discover that other forces from within the Hakardi Empire have their own dangerous agenda…

With “The Gilgamesh Path” Michael Drakich has created a fully realized sci-fi world; more importantly, he does so without overburdening the reader with detail. There’s a kind of verisimilitude to the world that allows events to feel grounded even when we don’t have much background. For example, the Guardians—the extremely powerful robots created by Calain’s father—do not appear often, but when they do, we know how they’re going to approach the situation. Even though it’s meant to be millions of years in the future, the world feels familiar. Part of that is admittedly due to the similarity to huge franchises like Star Trek, but this world has its own idiosyncrasies, too.

That said, very little time is spent exploring the human culture of Calain’s empire. We learn that matter replicators exist (convenient for making full meals out of pieces of wood) and medical technology can now heal almost any wound, but the humans that populate the ships and space stations aren’t portrayed as being that different from modern-day humans. Where Drakich does spend a lot of time is fleshing out the Hakardi Empire, a female-dominated society where honor is paramount and women fight with knives to establish dominance. At the risk of pointing to a too-convenient example, the Hakardi feel a lot like a female-dominated version of the Klingons from Star Trek: a proud warrior race.

Also notable about the Hakardi is that they are sexually voracious, and this is where the book starts to run into some trouble. Hakardi women need to have sex very frequently, and their culture is loaded with sexual rituals. There is definitely an audience for this kind of content, but for some readers, the constant references to sexual acts may be annoying or distasteful. Curiously, most of the actual intercourse happens off the page, so the book stays a step removed from erotica territory. This leaves “The Gilgamesh Path” in a precarious position: salacious enough that it may drive away readers who are easily offended or simply dislike sexual content, yet lacking in the emotional payoff of actual sex scenes.

If you can get past all the sex, Warkis is a compelling character. A princess who has been made a mere ambassador as a way of diminishing her status, Warkis has her eye on the throne. The Eternal Queen of the Hakardi Empire—”Eternal” being the operative word—is not about to let anyone usurp her, though Warkis is hardly the type to give up easily. However, just to make things even more difficult, there are other Hakardi princesses in the mix, who present their own challenges. How badly does Warkis want to be queen, and what will she do to ascend the throne? Furthermore, what is she willing to do to Calain if she decides that he’s an obstacle? Watching to see what Warkis will do next keeps the narrative tripping along with gusto, and the chapters from Warkis’ perspective are the most gripping parts. Even more importantly, the development of the relationship between Warkis and Calain is smartly written and deeply satisfying.

The larger plot about searching for the secret to eternal youth is fast-paced and interesting, however, there’s a weird wrinkle to it. In this universe, humans (and human-like entities like the Hakardi) have functionally achieved immortality already. Medbays can heal almost any injury, and people can be restored to youth if they spend enough time in a Medbay. The catch is that becoming younger can take a long time, up to millions of years for people who do it multiple times, so the process is less than ideal. Still, it takes a little bit away from the drama of finding the proverbial fountain of youth when we’re dealing with a world that has already come pretty close to solving the middling little problem of death.

On the whole, “The Gilgamesh Path” by Michael Drakich is a solid tale in the soft sci-fi/space opera genre. It’s a bit too fanciful to qualify as hard sci-fi, but people looking for a heavily science-based tale might be irritated by the constant sexual references. For a generous reader willing to indulge the book its more risqué elements, or for a reader who prefers this style, there’s a lot to enjoy here.