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.
This is exactly the kind of scifi I love. Great characters, great story, great everything. I'm already on the second book and hope the characters I love, Rake, Cavalon, Jack, Puck, will be fine in the end and that the genocidal fuckers get fucked. I would've not put the book down if life hadn't intervened. Just fun all around.
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.
In the first 125 pages, we find our heroes sitting on a border and thrill of thrills that their ammunition has spoiled. The thrills in this book rival that of "Waiting for Godot". My recommendation is to read something else.
Somewhat interesting world but characterization was hard to get into, and plot seemed far-fetched, even for sci-fi.
not scientifically, but even fictionally it's so unrealistic as to border with absurd — and yet so dynamic, lively and enjoyable?! reading this was like watching some of the best episodes of «star trek», in a way.
I really enjoyed this. Like the trope at the heart of "The Dirty Dozen", the trope of "Disobedient Rebels Tasked With Guarding The Edge Of The World" is one I enjoy, whether in Game of Thrones or here. Toss in a bit of "Misfits Band Together To Save The World" and it's a recipe that was probably guaranteed to be something I like.
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.
A hard science fiction book set in the far future and revolving around two main characters: Cavalon Mercer, a disgraced scion of royalty, and Adequin Rake, former Titan and commander of an outpost at the literal edge of the universe.
it was an interesting setting, although the reader is left to do a lot of work understanding the war that is frequently referred to but never clearly explained. Cavalon is a fairly endearing protagonist of the brilliant but rascally youth variety, although he is SO ridiculously knowledgable in coincidentally exactly the fields that are needed for the book’s plot that it’s a little hard to swallow. Rake is a little harder to get to know, and her romance is a little hard to believe also. Her main skill as a captain appears to be having good intuition, which is never an extremely satisfying plot device.
Overall an interesting read despite …
A hard science fiction book set in the far future and revolving around two main characters: Cavalon Mercer, a disgraced scion of royalty, and Adequin Rake, former Titan and commander of an outpost at the literal edge of the universe.
it was an interesting setting, although the reader is left to do a lot of work understanding the war that is frequently referred to but never clearly explained. Cavalon is a fairly endearing protagonist of the brilliant but rascally youth variety, although he is SO ridiculously knowledgable in coincidentally exactly the fields that are needed for the book’s plot that it’s a little hard to swallow. Rake is a little harder to get to know, and her romance is a little hard to believe also. Her main skill as a captain appears to be having good intuition, which is never an extremely satisfying plot device.
Overall an interesting read despite being heavy on the technical jargon at times. Will be interesting to see where this series goes next.
