paperback, 464 pages
Published April 19, 2021 by Tor Books.
The Divide.
It’s the edge of the universe.
Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.
The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.
At the Divide, Adequin Rake, commanding the Argus, has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted.
They're humanity's only chance.
There are a few interesting elements in this classic premise of "a bunch of different people are stuck at the edge of the universe and must save it", and while the worldbuilding and powers at play aren't bad at all, there's just something missing. It isn't badly written either (although writers need to ban the words groaning/grunting forever), but again, it isn't very special. Not sure I'll dig in the second volume.
Nothing really memorable, but a good page turner nonetheless. The “military” themes are subverted quite a bit, so we avoid the worst types of copaganda that are normally present in military science fiction.
One character is woefully out of place in his new environment but knows how to do everything, he carries the plot ; one is the grizzled veteran plagued with doubt about her capacity to carry her duty ; then there’s the crew of “specialist” misfits without much depth… thankfully the pacing of the action is good, and the setting and main concepts are interesting. I wonder how the rest of series will go on, but I’m not on the edge of my seat waiting for it.
This book is a fun mix between The Expanse and Game of Thrones (think Ring Builders + the Night's Watch) with a little Star Trek thrown in for good measure. The characters are two-dimensional but entertaining. I wasn't expecting a lot from the series because it sounded like it was really derivative, but it comes together in a way that is highly entertaining and wound up being a page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.
Two drawbacks in the story that really jumped out at me are that I had guessed the plot by about 65% of my way through the story and that Cavalon Mercer is too handy a character, by which I mean that he always knows exactly what needs to be known to make a situation work. It comes off as a little too perfect. But again, if you go into the story with the …
This book is a fun mix between The Expanse and Game of Thrones (think Ring Builders + the Night's Watch) with a little Star Trek thrown in for good measure. The characters are two-dimensional but entertaining. I wasn't expecting a lot from the series because it sounded like it was really derivative, but it comes together in a way that is highly entertaining and wound up being a page-turner that I had a hard time putting down.
Two drawbacks in the story that really jumped out at me are that I had guessed the plot by about 65% of my way through the story and that Cavalon Mercer is too handy a character, by which I mean that he always knows exactly what needs to be known to make a situation work. It comes off as a little too perfect. But again, if you go into the story with the right expectations, you can still really enjoy it.
