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Andromedan Dark #2
Darkness Falling
From New York Times Bestselling Author Ian Douglas comes the next chapter in his grand space odyssey, Andromedan Dark, Darkness Falling
Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair has guided the Tellus Ad Astra to a part of the universe no human—and possibly no race known to Man—has ever seen. Far from the worlds they know, the colony ship is on its own, facing . . . something that seems to have no weakness. Something whose sole purpose seems to be devouring civilizations.
With both time and space as enemies, St. Clair must figure out a way to explore this new corner of space, maintain military order on a mission that was supposed to be civilian, and—somehow—bring the Tellus Ad Astra back to the Milky Way.
Combining the drama and action you’ve come to expect from military science fiction master Ian Douglas, this follow up to Altered Starscape is bound to capture your imagination.
Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair has guided the Tellus Ad Astra to a part of the universe no human—and possibly no race known to Man—has ever seen. Far from the worlds they know, the colony ship is on its own, facing . . . something that seems to have no weakness. Something whose sole purpose seems to be devouring civilizations.
With both time and space as enemies, St. Clair must figure out a way to explore this new corner of space, maintain military order on a mission that was supposed to be civilian, and—somehow—bring the Tellus Ad Astra back to the Milky Way.
Combining the drama and action you’ve come to expect from military science fiction master Ian Douglas, this follow up to Altered Starscape is bound to capture your imagination.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published November 28, 2017
About the author
Ian Douglas
89 books554 followersIan Douglas is a pseudonym used by William H. Keith Jr..
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 24, 2018
3.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Ian Douglas’s hard science military space opera adventure series, ANDROMEDAN DARK, picks up where the story left off in the first book, Altered Starscape. The colony spaceship Tellus Ad Astra has been hurled four billion years into the future, when our Milky Way galaxy is slowly colliding with the Andromeda galaxy, where a nearly irresistible force called the Dark Mind or the Andromedan Dark holds sway. The Andromedan Dark is intent on expanding its reach and assimilating all intelligent life forms with which it comes in contact ― voluntarily or involuntarily.
As Darkness Falling begins, the burning question for Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair, the captain of the Tellus Ad Astra, is: what has become of Earth and humanity over the past four billion years? The humans realize that it’s not likely that either Earth or humanity is around in any form that they would recognize, but they have a small hope that finding humanity’s descendants might lead them to the technology that will allow them to travel back to their own time.
The planet Ki, which has an immense inhabited ring around it that the Ad Astra Xenosophontology Department promptly names the “Ki Ring,” currently seems like the most likely bet for humanity’s birthplace. St. Clair investigates this question while:
1. fighting battles with the forces of the vastly powerful Andromedan Dark, an unimaginably intelligent collective mind with some horror-film tricks up its sleeve;
2. engaging in power struggles with the Cybercouncil, a restive council of civilian lords who think it’s past time for St. Clair to turn over the government of the Ad Astra to them;
3. doing some tricky negotiating with the Cooperative, an organization of galactic races that for some reason expects the humans to take the brunt of the war against the Andromedan Dark; and
4. dealing with the repercussions of officially giving his robot companion Lisa her freedom … something St. Clair tries not to regret when Lisa disappears amongst the million inhabitants of the Ad Astra to find herself.
St. Clair is a busy guy.
Darkness Falling, the second book in Douglas’s ANDROMEDAN DARK series, has the same issues as the first one. In particular, there’s an overload of esoteric physics concepts and theoretical models. Alderson disks and Dyson spheres are just the beginning; there’s quite an extended exploration of artificial intelligence and digitally uploading minds. Though these ideas can be fascinating, they typically require side explanations to the reader, which gets a little clunky and slows the plot. The characters by and large remain stereotypical, with the military folks as the noble heroes and the politicians as the villains. Darkness Falling is the type of book that uses “politician” as a dirty word.
Somewhat surprisingly, though, I ended up enjoying Darkness Falling distinctly more than Altered Starscape. It’s highly imaginative, and it ends strongly, with some unexpected revelations and developments that engaged me and pulled me into the story. I’d recommend this series to readers who enjoy hard science fiction and aren’t dissuaded by limited characterization or a conservative, pro-military mindset.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. Thank you!
Ian Douglas’s hard science military space opera adventure series, ANDROMEDAN DARK, picks up where the story left off in the first book, Altered Starscape. The colony spaceship Tellus Ad Astra has been hurled four billion years into the future, when our Milky Way galaxy is slowly colliding with the Andromeda galaxy, where a nearly irresistible force called the Dark Mind or the Andromedan Dark holds sway. The Andromedan Dark is intent on expanding its reach and assimilating all intelligent life forms with which it comes in contact ― voluntarily or involuntarily.
As Darkness Falling begins, the burning question for Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair, the captain of the Tellus Ad Astra, is: what has become of Earth and humanity over the past four billion years? The humans realize that it’s not likely that either Earth or humanity is around in any form that they would recognize, but they have a small hope that finding humanity’s descendants might lead them to the technology that will allow them to travel back to their own time.
The planet Ki, which has an immense inhabited ring around it that the Ad Astra Xenosophontology Department promptly names the “Ki Ring,” currently seems like the most likely bet for humanity’s birthplace. St. Clair investigates this question while:
1. fighting battles with the forces of the vastly powerful Andromedan Dark, an unimaginably intelligent collective mind with some horror-film tricks up its sleeve;
2. engaging in power struggles with the Cybercouncil, a restive council of civilian lords who think it’s past time for St. Clair to turn over the government of the Ad Astra to them;
3. doing some tricky negotiating with the Cooperative, an organization of galactic races that for some reason expects the humans to take the brunt of the war against the Andromedan Dark; and
4. dealing with the repercussions of officially giving his robot companion Lisa her freedom … something St. Clair tries not to regret when Lisa disappears amongst the million inhabitants of the Ad Astra to find herself.
St. Clair is a busy guy.
Darkness Falling, the second book in Douglas’s ANDROMEDAN DARK series, has the same issues as the first one. In particular, there’s an overload of esoteric physics concepts and theoretical models. Alderson disks and Dyson spheres are just the beginning; there’s quite an extended exploration of artificial intelligence and digitally uploading minds. Though these ideas can be fascinating, they typically require side explanations to the reader, which gets a little clunky and slows the plot. The characters by and large remain stereotypical, with the military folks as the noble heroes and the politicians as the villains. Darkness Falling is the type of book that uses “politician” as a dirty word.
Somewhat surprisingly, though, I ended up enjoying Darkness Falling distinctly more than Altered Starscape. It’s highly imaginative, and it ends strongly, with some unexpected revelations and developments that engaged me and pulled me into the story. I’d recommend this series to readers who enjoy hard science fiction and aren’t dissuaded by limited characterization or a conservative, pro-military mindset.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for review. Thank you!
February 7, 2018
Another great military science fiction adventure set 4 billion years in the future. Humanity is at a total loss as to how to deal with the entities they find in that distant future as they also struggle with how they got there.
As the story unfolds the why's and how's are exposed and they are not nice !
Another rousing adventure from Ian Douglas. Highly Recommended series and author
As the story unfolds the why's and how's are exposed and they are not nice !
Another rousing adventure from Ian Douglas. Highly Recommended series and author
February 5, 2022
Imaginative and unique
Ian's worldbuilding is orders of magnitude past what I've seen in print or video. What an incredible imagination, and basing it on science only makes it better. The only downside is the repetition of facts. I admit to scanning quite a bit when he goes into explainer mode.
Ian's worldbuilding is orders of magnitude past what I've seen in print or video. What an incredible imagination, and basing it on science only makes it better. The only downside is the repetition of facts. I admit to scanning quite a bit when he goes into explainer mode.
February 18, 2019
This is an entertaining space opera that can be deep as well as fun. Recommended for sci fi fans.
November 11, 2018
I have to admit I was a little disappointed in this one. I thought the first book in the series, Altered Starscape, set up a hugely promising, incredibly scaled space opera — colliding galaxies, alien civilizations, dark matter civilizations, . . . All of those things are still here, and the story is entertaining. I just think there’s more to the premise than has been mined. At least so far.
The story picks up with the Tellus Ad Astra (the colony ship Tellus still mated to the military tug Ad Astra) thrown billions of years into the future, when our Milky Way Galaxy is colliding with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy. Grayson St. Clair is in charge of the Ad Astra, and while in a military situation, also in charge of the combined Tellus ad Astra, in a stressed relationship with its civilian leadership council. The civilian leader, Günter Adler, has been rendered insane by an interaction with the dark matter intelligence intruding from Andromeda.
St. Clair leads the Tellus Ad Astra through an encounter with an alliance of advanced civilizations, organized around what could be the descendants of Earth. That alliance is in conflict with the Andromedan Dark as well, and in fact comes to the defense of the Tellus ad Astra.
But the alliance, the “Cooperative”, also seeks the help of the Tellus Ad Astra leadership. Despite the unimaginable technical, and even military, superiority of the Cooperative, there is something they critically need that St. Clair and the humans aboard the Tellus Ad Astra can contribute.
The battle between the Andromedan Dark and the combination of the Cooperation and the Ad Astra is the dominant part of the story. And the course of the battle, in which friction develops the Cooperative and St. Clair, serves to develop some of the core themes of the book.
The huge scale and the imaginative aspects of the story’s setting are great. This is space opera at its grandest.
The characters, though, left me a little flat. St. Clair is the protagonist of the story, standing out well above all the other characters. The civilian leadership of the Tellus is composed of one-dimensional, conniving self-seekers. There’s very little to their characters beyond an amoral drive for power.
St. Clair has depth — conflicts and different impulses to sort out — but he’s alone among the leadong characters.
Interestingly, the one character besides St. Clair who has depth is his robot companion, Lisa. St. Clair has granted Lisa freedom to live an autonomous robotic life, no longer what amounts to a sex slave. She’s unprepared for the freedom St. Clair has given her, and she goes out in search of the reflective space and independent experiences that will help her begin to determine who she is and wants to be.
That theme of self-determination runs through much of the book. Lisa’s need for self-discovery is mirrored by the whole of Tellus Ad Astra. This is a population that no longer has a mission — the universe in which it had one, and in which it had a place in a larger human world, is gone. It needs new self-determination.
And it needs to invent that self-determination in the context of a hierarchy of alien civilizations where they don’t appear to be top dog.
There’s a lot going on here, and I do like the series. The one weakness, I think, is how thin the characters, other than St. Clair and Lisa, are. St. Clair is Buck Rogers, transported to the future and trying to save the galaxy from the forces of evil (or at least the apparent forces of evil). Lisa carries much of the background theme of self-determination and also brings it to the forefront of St. Clair’s thoughts and actions. It’s fun, and the setting gives it all a wondrous feel.
It may be that what I’m missing is ambiguity. The author (“Ian Douglas” is a pen-name) has a point he wants to make about freedom and self-determination. I think he may target his characters toward that point a bit too heavy-handedly. When authors want to make a point, sometimes I think their characters (ironically, given the theme here) lack the ambiguity and even autonomy that comes with depth and multi-dimensionality.
The story picks up with the Tellus Ad Astra (the colony ship Tellus still mated to the military tug Ad Astra) thrown billions of years into the future, when our Milky Way Galaxy is colliding with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy. Grayson St. Clair is in charge of the Ad Astra, and while in a military situation, also in charge of the combined Tellus ad Astra, in a stressed relationship with its civilian leadership council. The civilian leader, Günter Adler, has been rendered insane by an interaction with the dark matter intelligence intruding from Andromeda.
St. Clair leads the Tellus Ad Astra through an encounter with an alliance of advanced civilizations, organized around what could be the descendants of Earth. That alliance is in conflict with the Andromedan Dark as well, and in fact comes to the defense of the Tellus ad Astra.
But the alliance, the “Cooperative”, also seeks the help of the Tellus Ad Astra leadership. Despite the unimaginable technical, and even military, superiority of the Cooperative, there is something they critically need that St. Clair and the humans aboard the Tellus Ad Astra can contribute.
The battle between the Andromedan Dark and the combination of the Cooperation and the Ad Astra is the dominant part of the story. And the course of the battle, in which friction develops the Cooperative and St. Clair, serves to develop some of the core themes of the book.
The huge scale and the imaginative aspects of the story’s setting are great. This is space opera at its grandest.
The characters, though, left me a little flat. St. Clair is the protagonist of the story, standing out well above all the other characters. The civilian leadership of the Tellus is composed of one-dimensional, conniving self-seekers. There’s very little to their characters beyond an amoral drive for power.
St. Clair has depth — conflicts and different impulses to sort out — but he’s alone among the leadong characters.
Interestingly, the one character besides St. Clair who has depth is his robot companion, Lisa. St. Clair has granted Lisa freedom to live an autonomous robotic life, no longer what amounts to a sex slave. She’s unprepared for the freedom St. Clair has given her, and she goes out in search of the reflective space and independent experiences that will help her begin to determine who she is and wants to be.
That theme of self-determination runs through much of the book. Lisa’s need for self-discovery is mirrored by the whole of Tellus Ad Astra. This is a population that no longer has a mission — the universe in which it had one, and in which it had a place in a larger human world, is gone. It needs new self-determination.
And it needs to invent that self-determination in the context of a hierarchy of alien civilizations where they don’t appear to be top dog.
There’s a lot going on here, and I do like the series. The one weakness, I think, is how thin the characters, other than St. Clair and Lisa, are. St. Clair is Buck Rogers, transported to the future and trying to save the galaxy from the forces of evil (or at least the apparent forces of evil). Lisa carries much of the background theme of self-determination and also brings it to the forefront of St. Clair’s thoughts and actions. It’s fun, and the setting gives it all a wondrous feel.
It may be that what I’m missing is ambiguity. The author (“Ian Douglas” is a pen-name) has a point he wants to make about freedom and self-determination. I think he may target his characters toward that point a bit too heavy-handedly. When authors want to make a point, sometimes I think their characters (ironically, given the theme here) lack the ambiguity and even autonomy that comes with depth and multi-dimensionality.
November 8, 2017
Darkness Falling, Andromedan Dark: Book Two by Ian Douglas
Altered Starscape is book one of this series. Prior to it the last book I read from Ian Douglas was Star Corpsman: Bloodstar back in 2012. It was good, not great but good. Altered Starscape was the first in a new series and it was excellent as was this one. It has obviously been impacted by other good Sci-Fi but how do you divorce you mind from your reading experiences. Earth has met aliens and is going to their capital. Their arrival is fraught with peril and they find themselves far from where they had anticipated. That was book one and book two the aliens get even more alien. The plot gets thicker.
St.Clair is the military commander of the humans and Adler is the political leader. Douglas illustrates a less than complimentary attitude regarding politicos and realistically with today’s political climate, how could he otherwise proceed. The political machinations don’t stop even when the entire ship compliment is threatened. It is a good example of self serving politicos. Lisa, St.Clair’s emancipated self aware robot, adds a side bar of equal rights thinking to the book which is once again, thought provoking. As much as we would like to think that Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics actually might exist, Douglas thinks otherwise and even more so in book two.
In spite of the advanced technology of the current crew of aliens, humans offer a new and powerful prospective to civilizations that may have become far beyond hidebound.
Once again, I found the author provide some interesting concepts to contemplate. Gasp!, he actually encourages you to think!
I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it.
Body of work of Ian Douglas
Web site: www.whkeith.com
Altered Starscape is book one of this series. Prior to it the last book I read from Ian Douglas was Star Corpsman: Bloodstar back in 2012. It was good, not great but good. Altered Starscape was the first in a new series and it was excellent as was this one. It has obviously been impacted by other good Sci-Fi but how do you divorce you mind from your reading experiences. Earth has met aliens and is going to their capital. Their arrival is fraught with peril and they find themselves far from where they had anticipated. That was book one and book two the aliens get even more alien. The plot gets thicker.
St.Clair is the military commander of the humans and Adler is the political leader. Douglas illustrates a less than complimentary attitude regarding politicos and realistically with today’s political climate, how could he otherwise proceed. The political machinations don’t stop even when the entire ship compliment is threatened. It is a good example of self serving politicos. Lisa, St.Clair’s emancipated self aware robot, adds a side bar of equal rights thinking to the book which is once again, thought provoking. As much as we would like to think that Asimov’s 3 laws of robotics actually might exist, Douglas thinks otherwise and even more so in book two.
In spite of the advanced technology of the current crew of aliens, humans offer a new and powerful prospective to civilizations that may have become far beyond hidebound.
Once again, I found the author provide some interesting concepts to contemplate. Gasp!, he actually encourages you to think!
I really enjoyed the book and I recommend it.
Body of work of Ian Douglas
Web site: www.whkeith.com
December 4, 2020
Le vaisseau terrien, Tellus Ad Astra, avec 1 million de personnes à bord, a été précipité, via le trou noir du centre de la galaxie, à 4 milliards d'années plus tard. La Voie Lactée et Andromède sont maintenant en pleine collision. Les civilisations de la voix lactée sont extrêmement avancées, mais plusieurs sont disparues ou en dormance (leurs personnalités transférées dans des simulations virtuelles sur des ordinateurs surpuissants), et sont menacées par un ennemi implacable, une intelligence artificielle toute puissante, provenant d'Andromède. Et ils comptent sur les humains pour les soutenir dans leur lutte. Mais, comme la plupart des extraterrestres ont des vies extrêmement longues, en plus de civilisations extrêmement avancées, ils ont tendance à considérer les humains comme de la chair à canon. Les humains, seuls, ont besoin d'alliés, mais pas à n'importe quel prix.
De multiples civilisations avancées pouvant utiliser presque complètement l'énergie de plusieurs étoiles, des intelligences artificielles inimaginables, des formes de vie supra dimensionnelles, des milliards de vaisseaux spatiaux, dont certains plus gros que Jupiter (ce qui écrase de loin l'étoile noire de Star Wars). Une incroyable imagination supportée par des idées scientifiques plausibles.
J'ai beaucoup aimé, avec, en plus, l'action qui manquait au premier tome. Ian Douglas ( pseudo de William H. Keith jr.) est tout un auteur, avec une expérience de l'armée et des idées scientifiques à la fine pointe; dommage qu'il ne soit pas traduit.
De multiples civilisations avancées pouvant utiliser presque complètement l'énergie de plusieurs étoiles, des intelligences artificielles inimaginables, des formes de vie supra dimensionnelles, des milliards de vaisseaux spatiaux, dont certains plus gros que Jupiter (ce qui écrase de loin l'étoile noire de Star Wars). Une incroyable imagination supportée par des idées scientifiques plausibles.
J'ai beaucoup aimé, avec, en plus, l'action qui manquait au premier tome. Ian Douglas ( pseudo de William H. Keith jr.) est tout un auteur, avec une expérience de l'armée et des idées scientifiques à la fine pointe; dommage qu'il ne soit pas traduit.
February 1, 2019
This one kinda just puttered out for me. What do I mean by that? Well, with the first book, there was a great deal of character development as the crew of the Ad Astra had to grapple with the reality that they'd been catapulted 4 billion years into a future where the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies were colliding. You got to see what the characters were well and truly made of as they navigated the challenges before them.
Darkness Falling doesn't really offer that same sense of character development, which worked so well in Altered Starscape. Sure, there are some dynamic characters here and there, but most of my time listening to this story was spent listening to a story about largely the same things: St. Clairvoyance always sticks to his guns, hardly ever screws up, gets in a fight every now and then, and comments about how ugly and alien aliens are by human standards. About 2/3 of the way through, everything started blurring together and getting more than a bit stale, so I dropped it.
Who knows? Maybe I'll give this one another chance some day, but for now, I'm afraid I'm done with the Andromedan Dark.
Darkness Falling doesn't really offer that same sense of character development, which worked so well in Altered Starscape. Sure, there are some dynamic characters here and there, but most of my time listening to this story was spent listening to a story about largely the same things: St. Clairvoyance always sticks to his guns, hardly ever screws up, gets in a fight every now and then, and comments about how ugly and alien aliens are by human standards. About 2/3 of the way through, everything started blurring together and getting more than a bit stale, so I dropped it.
Who knows? Maybe I'll give this one another chance some day, but for now, I'm afraid I'm done with the Andromedan Dark.
January 5, 2018
This is the second book in the Andromedan Dark series by Ian Douglas a.k.a. William H. Keith Jr. In this one Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair and the colony ship Tellus Ad Astra are still marooned millions of years in the future and are still embattled with the force known as the Andromedan Dark. They try to find the location of Earth even though they know it will probably be changed beyond recognition. They find instead a planet which may or may not be Earth with a vast artificial ring inhabited by 1000's of highly advanced races known as the Cooperative. The Tellus Ad Astra's civilian government makes an agreement with the Cooperative to fight the Andromedan Dark on their behalf. It is up to Lord Commander Grayson St. Clair and his crew to win the battles but he soon finds things between the Cooperative and the Andromedan Dark are not what they seem. This book is a great read in a far future universe with a heavy Military Science fiction story line.
February 11, 2018
Too heavy on the suspension disbelief, maybe? The original premise of the first book, that a population of human get stranded in a black hole horizon and emerges a couple hundred million years in the future was ok, but the execution in this second volume lacks something. Even without the usual canard of humans being the best fighting species (and Marines, of course, even better), the advanced tech is far too advanced to make you believe they have the slightest chance of doing good. So when they snatch some form of victory from the jaws of defeat, it's like a game of Civ6 where a War Chariot troop destroys Advanced Tanks. Never going to happen.
So, meh. I'll give it 3 because I usually like Ian Douglas mil-fi, but it's borderline 2.
So, meh. I'll give it 3 because I usually like Ian Douglas mil-fi, but it's borderline 2.
January 11, 2018
I borrowed this book from my local library. I am glad that I did as this was ok. Not a bad Space Opera just very political with not enough action in between the political wrangling. Not sure if I am going to read the next book or not. I still dislike the "sexual norms" as portrayed in these books. It might work for some, and some might see it as the cure to jealousy and other ills of romance, but humans are as we are - there is no removing jealousy.
October 31, 2018
Pure sci. fi. and enjoyable because of that. Yes, there are a couple of false notes, particularly in the second book, but nothing that can't slip into the metaphysical enough to make you wonder. A million Earthers are hijacked four billion years into the future. The author rises to the scope of that with some unique concepts and scenarios. The denouement seems a little questionable but I still enjoyed the ride.
December 4, 2017
War planetoid - give me ramming speed. Enough said.
The last 10% of this book races ahead with answers and twists. Some of them were pretty well foreshadowed while others were a "wait, what?" moment. A fun read and still rolling along with descriptions of multi-dimensional physics the likes of which sting a little at times.
Good stuff.
The last 10% of this book races ahead with answers and twists. Some of them were pretty well foreshadowed while others were a "wait, what?" moment. A fun read and still rolling along with descriptions of multi-dimensional physics the likes of which sting a little at times.
Good stuff.
January 21, 2018
Better than Book One.
This is typical Douglas' story. Very American, but has some universal (again, it is rather Western universalism) flavours. Characters are nicely put, storytelling is good, what else do you need?
This is typical Douglas' story. Very American, but has some universal (again, it is rather Western universalism) flavours. Characters are nicely put, storytelling is good, what else do you need?
January 29, 2018
This second novel in Douglas' Andromeda Dark series is an easy read. I didn't find it as satisfying as the Andromeda Dark novel which provided more science and less space opera than this book; however, this novel does provide topics like AI limitation and consciousness that are worth considering.
February 19, 2018
Wow!
As a kid the whole of space drama happen in the solar system. Terror from Mars! Today it spans the universe. This is a great story and I enjoyed it very much. Science seems sound and I would love to read some of the reference material. May have to reread book one !
As a kid the whole of space drama happen in the solar system. Terror from Mars! Today it spans the universe. This is a great story and I enjoyed it very much. Science seems sound and I would love to read some of the reference material. May have to reread book one !
June 10, 2018
Recent Reads: Darkness Falling. Ian Douglas' Andromedan Dark space opera continues. More megastructures, more conflicts between galactic scale cultures. A series that's not afraid to think BIG. And then a little BIGGER. Smart milSF in action.
November 27, 2018
A book with vast and mind boggling concepts ! It had some good space battles but was heavily focused on the political side of things ! The ending was kind of rushed and alot of conclusions and new fact thrown in at the last moment from left field !
December 23, 2018
Faltered in the middle but ended strong
Good use of future tech concepts, reasonably good editing, although sometimes a bit too expository. The narrative seemed to stall for quite a while in the middle but had a satisfying conclusion and a number of threads were neatly tied up
Good use of future tech concepts, reasonably good editing, although sometimes a bit too expository. The narrative seemed to stall for quite a while in the middle but had a satisfying conclusion and a number of threads were neatly tied up
December 7, 2018
Lots of techno stuff. I hope there are others besides the first two.
January 9, 2018
The book dragged without doing much. It falls sort of Ian Douglas's normal work. Maybe it is too much of relying on his worn down tropes?
January 3, 2018
Good read
Me thinks Mr Douglas be a trumpian?
Little too political in a few places, not much, just a bit. Looking forward to next installment.
Me thinks Mr Douglas be a trumpian?
Little too political in a few places, not much, just a bit. Looking forward to next installment.
March 2, 2018
Quick read, interesting concepts brought up by an emancipated robot and some quirky ideas regarding space-time. A satisfying read.
July 28, 2018
The two book series is a great read
Just right for relaxing on holiday. Would have liked an extension to understand what happened with the politics at the end.
Just right for relaxing on holiday. Would have liked an extension to understand what happened with the politics at the end.
December 2, 2019
Great read
Fast paced story with great characters, lots of action and lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed both well written books.
Fast paced story with great characters, lots of action and lots of twists and turns. I enjoyed both well written books.
February 29, 2020
An okay ending
May 1, 2020
Great book, trouble putting it down good.
Better than the first book. Nice unexpected wrap up. Lots of things to think about. I would say even a bit bold.
Better than the first book. Nice unexpected wrap up. Lots of things to think about. I would say even a bit bold.
January 2, 2021
Ian Douglas
Ian Douglas is an excellent author but I disagree about what it would look like, when going FTL. A good read.
Ian Douglas is an excellent author but I disagree about what it would look like, when going FTL. A good read.
August 24, 2022
2.5 stars? Sci fi
liked the overall story, but I got bogged down, and lost interest, in some of the military-navy-Marine specifications and armour and ships.
Interesting alien species.
liked the overall story, but I got bogged down, and lost interest, in some of the military-navy-Marine specifications and armour and ships.
Interesting alien species.
March 17, 2023
Loved the first book but this book spent too much time reintroducing everything. Good battle scenes, politics, ethics on AI freedom. Overall an excellent series.
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