Ever since the last of the xenocidal alien Viators were killed, humans - the last sentient species to survive their
relentless onslaught - have been looking over their shoulders, just in case a handful survived in the vast emptiness
of space. To that end, they set up the Sentinels, a series of stations and ships along the very edge of the universe,
the Divide between existence and nonexistence. It is from here that many believe the aliens originally came, and here
they might (theoretically) return.
It is also here, at the literal edge of nowhere, that the System Collective Legion dumps its misfits, malcontents, and
other embarrassments, on centuries-old ships with barely enough supplies to survive, let alone endure an attack that
is probably never going to come.
Cavalon Mercer, heir to the royal family's ruthless eugenics-based title and industries, never much cared for his
grandfather's extreme plans for humanity's future, and let his discontent be known in a manner so outrageous that he's
been disowned and banished to a Sentinel ship, the Argus, to die and be forgotten, not necessarily in that
order. His cocky attitude and inability to keep his mouth shut when it keeps digging him in deeper holes isn't going to
do him many favors here, but it's not like he has anything to look forward to anyway. Then he meets the
Argus's captain, Adequin Rake, a former war hero still clinging to the notion that the legion to which she
dedicated her life - and which has rewarded her with this humiliation of a posting - is still worth her loyalty.
What was supposed to be a mind-numbing exile suddenly becomes all too eventful, as shortly after Cavalon's arrival, the
crew of the Argus find themselves facing internal frictions, the return of old enemies, the fallout of ages of
political corruption, and the literal impending collapse of the universe itself. If they survive, they'll find
everything they thought they knew turned upside down.
Review
I've been hearing plenty of good things about this space adventure story, so when it became available via Libby I
figured I'd give it a try. It happily lives up to its expectations, delivering an adrenaline-filled space opera. The
ragtag crew of misfits facing corrupt or nonexistent leadership, forced to bond as they face a common enemy and become
what may be humanity's last hope of survival... yes, plenty of familiar tropes are at play, here, but Dewes uses them
well, and there's a reason one sees them so often: because they tend to work. The world and history are sketched out in
just enough detail to support the story and create the cast of characters with their many flaws and scars, centered
largely around the devastating, millennia-old threat of the Viators who nearly wiped out humanity yet whose technology
still forms the backbone of civilization, for all that there's much about it and them that people have never truly
understood. There's also the all-too-human threats of politics undermining not only the Sentinels but possibly the
future of the System Collective... and, of course, that little bit about the potential end of literally everything -
an end which, being right at the edge of literally everything, Sentinel ships will be the first to face. But is anyone
even listening to them anymore when they call for help, or are they, as more than one person tries to tell Rake, more
politically convenient dead than alive? Not that Rake is a rigidly by-the-books sort of leader herself; her loyalty to
the Legion may be personal, but she'll defy any order if it means saving her crew, and for them she breaks every rule
in the book (and even bends a few rules of physics, which happens with surprising frequency when one's at the dividing
line between the universe and whatever lies beyond it). Cavalon, meanwhile, finally discovers a kernel of self-worth
under layers of self-loathing and -destruction, and a reason to shape himself up... just as the proverbial waste
product strikes the equally proverbial rotary device, and he's forced to step up in ways he never imagined when he
first set in motion the little act of rebellion that landed him in the Sentinels to begin with. Things start moving,
if not quite from the first page, then not too long afterwards, and keep moving right up to the end, which resolves one
immediate crisis and marks a major turning point for Rake, Cavalon, and the other Argus survivors. I'm looking
forward to finding out what happens in the next installment; hopefully Libby and the local library system come through
sooner rather than later.
The Sentinels were supposed to be humanity's protectors, posted at the very edge of the universe beyond the galactic
rim as guardians against the alien Viator threat. In truth, they were a dumping ground for the System Collective
Legion's criminals and misfits and political embarrassments... and now, they're supposed to be dead, abandoned by the
government that sent them there, to be replaced with mindless hybrid clones.
They don't know about the ship full of survivors.
Led by former war hero Adequin Rake and disowned royal heir Cavalon Mercer, the Sentinels have abandoned their loyalty
to the Legion that left them for dead when the Divide - the barrier between the end of the universe and the nothing
beyond - began to collapse. Rake now sees the Legion and the System Collective for what they truly are, a corrupted force
that's at least as dangerous to humanity's future as the long-vanquished Viators (who are not as extinct as the public
has been led to believe, and also not at all what they appeared to be). Part of her oath was defending the human race
from all threats, and right now the biggest threat is coming from within. Before she and her mismatched command crew can
deal with that threat, though, they still have plenty of obstacles to overcome, as the Sentinels are still stranded and
literally starving at the edge of nowhere.
Review
The story picks up not long after where the first one ended, with Rake, Mercer, and their allies struggling to
leverage what little resources and knowledge they've gained toward their greater goals of justice, vengeance, and
(first and foremost) getting back to galactic civilization without their former colleagues gunning them down the moment
they return. Also like the first book, the action is close to nonstop, with complications fouling up even the simplest
of plans. It sometimes comes close to exhausting, and once in a while it toes close to the edge of plausibility (even
given the inherent handwaving in space opera action adventures), but it makes for solid entertainment. As a
counterbalance to all the external action, Rake and Cavalon have both accumulated significant mental and emotional scars
in their lives and during their previous adventures, scars that cast shadows over their thoughts and decisions going
forward and add extra weight to the firefights and danger they're constantly facing. The two outwardly mismatched duo
come to rely on each other as anchors against the perpetual dark undertows threatening to pull them under, a bond that's
deeply emotional yet blessedly nonromantic; theirs are the bonds of shared trauma and combat, of understanding where the
other one's been and when they're sliding. Around them are the usual collection of side characters, some returning and
some new, with fresh faces and sacrifices. Along the way, they unearth more pieces of the greater puzzle that continually
upend everything they thought they knew, from the political landscape to family secrets to even the basic physics of the
universe. Also like the first volume, it ends less at a definitive conclusion than at a temporary resting point along the
greater arc, a pivot point marking a new direction and resolve going forward. I'll be keeping an eye out (or an ear, as
this was another audiobook via the local library and the Libby app) for the next installment, which may not drop until
next year. Dang it...
Once, Adequin Rake thought the greatest threat to humanity was the collapse of the known universe beyond the
frontier of the Divide. Now, a greater threat might lie within the Core worlds, embodied in the megalomaniacal
monarch Augustus Mercer. His increasingly fanatical attempts to purge humanity of the alien mutagen unleashed
generations ago by the (mostly) vanished Viators have led to the creation of a bioweapon that will kill anyone
bearing any trace of genetic contamination - a death toll that could eliminate over half the population,
followed by equally monstrous projects to rebuild the species to Mercer's own vision of purity. With the exiled
Sentinels and her trusted crew and allies, including Mercer's estranged grandson/failed clone Cavalon, the
smuggler Corsairs, and the secret Viator tech in her upgraded atlas navigation system, Rake races to get ahead
of Mercer's plot and engineer a cure for the mutagen... and, hopefully, rescue crewmate Jackin from their
enemy's clutches before it's too late for his sanity, or his life.
Review
I enjoyed the previous two installments of the Divide trilogy, but for some reason I didn't quite
engage with this final(?) volume. Maybe it's just been too long since I read the others. Or maybe it was a vague
sense that, for all the sometimes-breakneck action and plot twists and betrayals and revelations, it sometimes
felt like it was trying too hard to pack in emotional gut-punches and surprises.
It picks up with little lag time, with Rake, Cavalon, and the captive Jackin all up to their necks (and over
their heads) in the general chaos of both protecting the galaxy from the oncoming collapse of the known universe
and keeping humans from finishing what the Viators started and exterminating themselves, this time under the
increasingly powerful grip of Augustus Mercer and his eugenics-driven vision for the future... all while further
burdened by emotional and physical scars from previous battles and failures and lives that went to Hell long
before the current problems and secrets were dropped on their shoulders. That's an awful lot of plates to keep
spinning, and more than once I felt attention whiplash as the story moved from one plate to another, from one
frying pan to another fire. The many threads and threats from the previous installments are given little to no
recap for the reader coming into things after a break, and it took me some time to settle back into something
like a groove... and even then, I often felt like I was a few steps behind the plot as it raced ahead. Maybe
that's why a few twists and events felt like they arrived out of nowhere to either complicate problems or offer
a solution (and/or deliver fresh psychological wounds to further complicate character interactions). It builds
up to a suitably explosive finale, one with some hooks left dangling for continuations (I'm reasonably certain
this is just intended to be a trilogy, but it wouldn't be the first time a "trilogy" generated more volumes)
but which wraps up most of the main issues and sets surviving characters on new trajectories, having grown and
changed significantly since the reader first met them.
While there was a fair bit to enjoy and the story could never be said to lag, I just kept feeling that, for
all the racing I did to keep up and re-immerse in the series and keep up with the many characters and plot
threads whipping past, I never quite caught up as the story kept sprinting ahead of me, leading to a slight
dip in the rating.
