"Enthralling Space Opera"
The Archon, an artificial intelligence created by the Sol
system, bred the Exarch to rule over the humans in the Arc
systems. The Archon does not want the Geodesica, a
hyperspatical network, to allow anyone entering the various
entrances to the ancient maze and when people try it, whole
systems of colonized planets including Bedlam and Sublime
are destroyed. The humans or Naturals as they are called in
the year 2438 want their independence from Sol, the Archon
and the Sol system. Melilah, a Natural, a fragment of Exarch Isaac Deangelis
and cell pilot Eogran Palmer journey in Geodesica where
they see wondrous sites, dead zones and exits that lead far
from where they want to be. They find no weapons to use
against the Archon and wonder how they will get out.
Meanwhile, in real space, the disenchanted Exarchs
including another fragment of Deangelis, Palmer Horsfall
inhabited by another rebel Exarch unite the system to rebel
against the Archon. Ironically, another fragment of
Deangelis, along with the help of Sol and the Archon fight
the rebels until he is instructed to sue for peace with a
people who neither trust him or his allies or the Archon's
promises. Sean Williams and Shane Dix create a future that is so
technologically advanced that readers feel that they are
visiting a foreign country with a culture so alien that
other humans would have no place there. The authors are
great world builders, their prose lush, visual and so
descriptive that the audience can actually picture it,
especially Geodesica. There are many surprise twists so
that the audience never becomes bored as they peruse this
enthralling space opera. Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 12, 2006
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 24, 2007
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The year is 2388. Humanity has spread to the stars, but the far-flung Arc Systems chafe under the tight control of the Exarchs, post-human AIs whose domination of Faster-Than Light technology gives them unsurpassed power. Then the discovery of a vast hyperspatial labyrinth known as the Geodesica changes everything.
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