April Reading Wrap-up

I read some awesome books in April. Here they are.

Transcript

First, I read Wreaths of Empire by Andrew M. Sneddon. This was a military space-opera novel, with a touch of dystopia.

Humanity has been at war with the Gara’nesh for years, but they’re finally sitting down for peace talks. There’s just one problem. Somebody doesn’t want the peace to go ahead. This leads our hero, Jade, on a quest to uncover the truth, and prevent the war from escalating beyond repair.

The thing that sets this story apart from other military sci-fi is that the quest was not for victory, but peace. This was refreshing and a lot of fun.

I loved the protagonist, Jade. She is strong, intelligent and compassionate. She has some personal issues to overcome as the story progresses, but she is likable from day one.

I recommend this book to all lovers of space opera.

Next, I read the Heir War by Jill Williamson. This is an epic fantasy series, where each book has been broken into three novellas. The Heir War is the second episode within book 1, King’s Folly. I love episodic novellas, so this is a great way for me to consume the story, but if you prefer you can wait for each of the print novels to be released.

As with most epic fantasy, there’s a lot going on here, but I’m enjoying all of the various strands. In this second installment, we’re seeing a lot of those strands starting to come together. The central characters are the three sons of the current King, two of them, Wilek and Trevn are great blokes. I’m finding myself particularly drawn to Trevn as a character. Their middle brother is bad news. He’s being set up to be a major villain.

This book has political intrigue, adventure, romance, magic, prophecy, and an impending armageddon. What more could you want from an epic fantasy. Check it out.

The next two are tied together. I read Edge of Oblivion by Joshua A. Johnston, but before that, I checked out the Domes of Aerol. This is a short story set in the same universe, which you can get free by signing up to the author’s website. Domes of Aerol was a fun science fiction story which served as a good introduction to the world. We learn a little about the Aecrons, who are a very important alien species in the series, and we also learn a little about the mysterious Sarconian religeous order, which will also become very important.

So on to Edge of Oblivion.

The story opens with the arrival of Malum, a planet-sized object/entity of unknown origins that consumes planets and ships. It’s on course for an inhabited world, but it’s in no hurry. It will destroy all that lies in its path along the way. This creates huge stakes right off the bat. Malum reminded me of V’ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, or Unicron in the animated Transformers: The Movie. Really creepy.

Our hero is the captain of a minor confederacy starship. Rather than joining the battlefleet to fight a hopeless battle again Malum, he is sent in search of the fragments of an ancient alien parchment, belonging to a long-dead religious order. Seems the ink on the parchment is made from the same material as Malum’s hull.

This quest takes the crew to various exotic locations around the galaxy. On their travels, they find this religious order is not so dead as was thought.

This book kept me engaged and entertained all the way through. I’ve been on the search for a book that pushes the same buttons as Star Trek for me. Edge of Oblivion did this nicely. At the same time, it pushes all those Indiana Jones buttons. Wonderful blending of the sci-fi and adventure fiction genres.

The book comes to a big and satisfying conclusion, which still leaves scope for future stories, and plenty of remaining mystery to be uncovered. I’ll be reading the sequel the moment it comes out.

Behind all of this was a fascinating spiritual analogy. What C.S. Lewis did with fantasy in the Chronicles of Narnia, Joshua A. Johnston has done with science fiction. The result was really interesting.

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