Amazing when is the next one?

Loved this installment. Possibly my favorite all time space opera. Great narration. As ever. Love the characters and story development.
Well done Joel.

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This is one of my favourite SF series

This is one of my favourite SF series - I can't wait for the next one. The universe of the series is elaborate and fascinating with many alien species and AIs. Whenever there is a conflict between humans and friendly AIs I usually find myself rooting for the AIs - this is how well developed the AI characters are. All the characters are very well developed. The narration by John Lee Is excellent as usual.

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An improvement

Better than the previous book, but still has dull story lines that it could do without and add more meat to the bones of the more central stories and characters.

Still, the main two stories are interesting enough, albeit without any real twist or turns. Voice acting - great, as always. Solid overall.

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Best book of the series so far

Really great series. Gets better with every book. Keeps you guessing and the narration is top notch. If you like the culture and P F Hamilton stuff this series is one to listen too. Never read the books but don’t feel I need to now as they have come to life in these audiobooks

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You have to listen to it

A great book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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As good as earlier volumes

With this latest instalment, I feel Joel Shepherd has again managed to find new forms of adventure and humour to add to his fantastic sci-fi saga. It’s not perfect but it’s head and shoulders above most of the contemporary alternatives I’ve read. And puts him alongside Ann Lecke for me as a standout author of new-universe storytelling. Can’t wait for the next one!! But I do live in terror of him killing off one of the central characters he has built up...please don’t!

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Great series continues on track

Not much to say. Another installment that does not disappoint, in a series that has become one of the best sci-fi worlds I've experienced. Charachters continue to develop in interesting directions and the canon of the universe keeps on expanding, and the plot of the overrall story thickens. Impatient for the next one.

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another great installment

Loved every second of it, the multiple stories was a welcome surprise. Can't wait for the next one.

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A strong new book.

No spoilers.

Negatives:
A bit of a slow start as it uses a fair bit of time to establish what this book is about.

Always a bit heavy to get your bearings in the start, with placing all the names, races, factions and their associations with these books.

Some might find the jumping between so many characters, and their stories a bit annoying. Can seem a bit "overcrowded" as such.

There is something that happens in the book that is such a typical cliché, and I really was hoping for something different in this series...

There are ...issues between humans and Drysines that never really gets addressed.

Positives:
It's a direct continuation of the previous book.

New exiting environments

Get to know Major Thakur a bit more in-depth.

Top notch voice acting.


Glad I read it, looking forward to the next.

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Not the finest book in the series, but not the weakest

If you’re reading this looking for a stand alone review, I can’t recommend this book to you - it’s neither a good entry point to the series or good read on it’s own - ironically, for a long time reader it spends too much time referencing past books, but for a new reader it doesn’t spend enough.

That said, the titular Qalea Drop is a stunning locale for a science fiction romp, a city so old that it is a maze of canyons and repulser air traffic with buildings clinging to the side - not of natural rock, but of over 8000 years, seven entire historical ages, of collapsed rubble.

So as you can imagine, the hoverbike chases are a bit good.

However, the entire arc beyond spiral space has been too stretched out and is now getting too bitty - each of the stories told would be an excellent story in its own right, but the evacuation of Rando belonged in the previous book, as did the fall and redemption arc as the characters struggle with necessity over morals.

This book does provide a redemption arc of sorts for the main characters, and continues the age old sci-fi trope - Home is the regiment, across the sea of stars.

(Or ship, in this case)

That’s pleasant and heartwarming - and if the book had been about the two things the series has excelled at so far - archeology under fire to discover lost secrets and space combat, with a sideline into genuinely unique and fascinating alien races (we all like the Chroma a bit too much, crazy not-cow people) then it would have been excellent, but we barely get to see a proper fight with the Phoenix in it - instead it’s all Styx, Styx, Styx - and I _love_ the AI races… I like the setup with them done here. But… the old battle of trust is four frickin’ books old, and at this rate of publication I’ll be elderly before they finish some of the relationships.

Finally, the ending felt as forced as Rando Splicer - and Chroma Venture. We’ve been out here for three books that could have been two - Chroma + Rando and Qaela Drop, with the same detail on both. It almost feels as if the author is meandering a little - which is also where some of his other series just stop, so I am a little concerned.

All that said, I enjoyed it even though it was frustrating and bitty, and each of the storylines has been compelling enough - but not compelling enough I couldn’t put it down. So my criticism may be unfair - Rando Splicer was split two ways, three if you include the side plots in spiral space - and yet the meat of that book I remember the best is the one bit you could do away with, Phoenix goes on a road trip. I mean, there are so many iconic scenes in that section. The same is true of ‘Trace becomes a Biker Chick’ in Qalea Drop - it really does include iconic images that remind me of the Fifth Element, and for the elderly gamers out there, the old computer game set in the canyons of Titan after the planet is abandoned, Hardwar. Rando continues an excellent military romp, but that section feels dragged out - three whole character viewpoints on the evacuation, one or two on Qalea, that balance feels wrong. But it wasn’t bad, either, as Vietnam war remakes go.

I suspect the next book will be a bit more focused on the original format, but I have lingering worries about the tone set by this book as it continues to push ‘the ends justify the means’ and ‘species harmony is pointless’ memes a little too heavily - with limited counterbalance, and it already feels as if Trace is an irredeemable murderer - that we’re supposed to forgive her war crimes because of a struggle with PTSD and total mental collapse is a poor show, as is the continuing backstabbing by everyone of everyone else, with not one person actually getting put in a hole in the ground because of it. I didn’t take this book series to be about anti-heroes, and it would be painful to put it down - doubly painful as those are several days of my life I won’t get back, and I hate incomplete series. I can only hope the author shifts back towards his original tone, war is hell is a fine theme, but when you’re supposed to empathise with outright war criminals who show no signs of changing their mind or coming to new determinations…

… well, at least _one_ long teased plot ends and sets up a new one.

No, I’m not going to tell you what. You’ll have to read almost the whole thing. But when I say it _should_ have been the last line of the book, I mean that in two ways - it would have been five times as good as the real last line, and it links directly back to my feeling in this review - Qalea Drop is a miss-name, but it’s the best bit.

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