Published: April 2022
Pages: 414
Summary
The galaxy has been plunged into chaos, left reeling from the trap Alvera Renata triggered around the ancient alien waystations.
As the leaders of the allied systems desperately try to prepare for what might be coming, Ridley and Kojan go on the hunt in search of answers. But the one person who might hold the key—the rogue starship captain who started it all—is missing in action, and her old friends aren’t the only ones looking for her…
My thoughts
They were a memory once forgotten. For millennia, they waited. Now, they are coming.
This book is a continuation of this epic story across the galaxy. We have the same characters and it was really great to have their POVs again. The more we read of our characters the more we get to understand what drives them, what they’re looking for, what they’re battling. There’s definitely some characters I preferred more than others, possibly because of the way they resonated with me.
“You’ve told me plenty of times who you really are. Maybe it’s time I finally listen.”
The main thing with this story is that we get answers behind the larger mystery at play, and I ate it up! I loved this approach to the issues. I wasn’t sure where it was going but I’m so glad it went down this path. It feels as though the author has put a lot of thought into her story and not just her overall direction but in the finer details. It’s all coming together and it makes complete sense (as funny as it is to say that about a drama in space..) but its important that we can see how they’ve got to this point to understand the risks at play.
All at once, she sees how it happened. She understands how immortal, how infinite, an empire built from memories might become. How the fleeting measure of a single life might become as insignificant as a grain of sand. How an age in the life of a galaxy might pass in the echo of a heartbeat.
I loved watching the connections between our characters unfold. We’ve got different species putting their differences aside and finding a family in one another. We’ve got others try to mend bridges but with great difficulty. We’ve got weak alliances and very political dynamics at play. It’s so interesting and there’s plenty to keep us thinking about.
It’s such a complex story with characters that are incredibly deep. The author goes beneath the surface and really connects us with her cast, even ones I didn’t agree with I completely understood them.
Filled with action!
There is far more action in this book bringing us scenes which cut me up. Scrimgeour is brilliant at making me feel so many different emotions. The story and action does not relent and I had to pause just to catch up with how quickly things progressed. That’s my only slight negative of this book is that it is so fast paced it felt a bit jarring at times, but I quickly caught myself up.
A sob broke loose from somewhere inside him. It wasn’t pain—pain would have been too easy. He could live with pain. Instead, his body shook with an excruciating emptiness, a loss that numbed him to his core.
Would I recommend?
Absolutely, everything I loved in book one but with so much more. As I write this I’m already half way through book three. I strongly recommend if you love political plot lines with mystery, deep characters and a war spanning planets.