Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera
Publication date: August 3, 2021
Narrator: Sopie Aldred
Playtime 18hrs 41m
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Book Description (from GoodReads): The war is over. Its heroes are forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . .
Idris has neither aged nor slept since they remade him in the war. And one of humanity's heroes now scrapes by on a freelance salvage vessel, to avoid the attention of greater powers.
After earth was destroyed, mankind created a fighting elite to save their species, enhanced humans such as Idris. In the silence of space they could communicate, mind-to-mind, with the enemy. Then their alien aggressors, the Architects, simply disappeared—and Idris and his kind became obsolete.
Now, fifty years later, Idris and his crew have discovered something strange abandoned in space. It's clearly the work of the Architects—but are they returning? And if so, why? Hunted by gangsters, cults and governments, Idris and his crew race across the galaxy hunting for answers. For they now possess something of incalculable value, that many would kill to obtain.
Review:
A very interesting battle.
After 50 years of war that humans barely made it out of, the new world still is fighting the same political issues. Worse still they still defend the right to practice slavery using lame excuses that those who are modified have a duty- they are not considered human enough.
Division on made-up moral or "naturalist" standards plays a big role in the social construct. And it's very hard to get over that.
This is a very addictive read. It caught me since the Prologue "In the seventy-eighth year of the war, an Architect came to Berlenhof."
Adrian is a genius, to fully inmerse us in this world he gives us details but it still feels like a jigsaw puzzle that needs to be assembled in order to create a stronger sense of atmosphere and tone.
The unfightable and unknowable Architects are remodeling life as they encounter it, and no one has been able to establish contact. This pivotal moment in time will play a major role for both Solace, a soldier in the Heaven's Sword Sorority, and Idris Telemmier, a Colonial and part of the newest 'weapon' deployed against the Architects. Solace and her team are the engineered warriors women who have been the Colonies' shield since the fall of Earth. The hate against the engineered women is something I can't understand but you can accept it as part of their social mentality. Perfect example of how what's right and wrong does not need to make sense, its about what is socially acceptable on the majority of the people that sets the rule.
The characters are fighting their own monsters- be it discrimination, or post-traumatic stress from the past war among a few other personal demons. It makes perfect sense, and its well written. We have great thought-provoking moments.
We have a found family setting, the personal growth, I was deeply moved by the characters and their circumstances- definitely have good fighting and [political intrigues. The negative points are only the attempts at romance. I will not give too many details to avoid spoilers. But the attempts felt meh, too forced, and didn't rub with me.
But overall I really liked it. I will continue the series as soon as possible.
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