Synopsis:

A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future. Set across small towns and remote islands, where neon flickers against old buildings and oaks, this collection paints a unique view of a traditionally cyberpunk setting.

In 2089, a woman miscarries and seeks a way to find peace amidst overwhelming grief. Years later, a young man must find a way to pay rent outside of his job at the glassblowing studio. A pair of students, excited to go to college, install new hardware that promises to improve their cognitive functions. A private investigator searches for a missing child who has a reputation for embarking on risky adventures. Each tale is shaped by love, loss, and perseverance, weaving a vision of life outside of the megacities.

Review:

Digital Extremities is a delightful and interesting collection of stories from the future. Bassett gives us small snippets of people’s lives and how they go about navigating the world and maneuvering through dilemmas.

Stylistically, this book kept reminding me of World War Z. Each story was set in the same world, around the same time, featuring the same technology. This made it easy to carry over information and continue picturing a world where people modified themselves with enhancements and shiny chrome.

The stories typically focused on one person and ranged from a major dilemma to a slice of their life. I enjoyed familiarizing myself with each character and getting to know the world around them. The best part was probably what was unspoken. While characters faced decisions or hardships, I often found thought-provoking questions nagging at me about what else could go wrong with the current technology or what would happen if they had made a different decision. This did not make the stories feel lacking, just opened up my mind to more possibilities.

While Bassett does a wonderful job digging in with tension, he has mastered the slower, quieter moments: playful banter, reminiscing about times past, and ruminating over a hobby.

I listened to this one on audio, and I found the narrators to be excellent. No bias at all. With a wide cast of characters from all over the world, the accents were impeccable, and the differentiation was excellent.

Digital Extremities offers a glimpse into a world we may know someday, which brings excitement over technological advancements to assist in helping the elderly or finding a lost child. It also quietly lays out the ways in which this tech could fail us.

If you enjoy cyberpunk adventures, short sci-fi stories, and tales that say more with fewer words, this one is for you.

Synopsis

Light dims on humanity’s reign over the galaxy.

Charlus Vaughn, a teenage refugee, escapes deadly machine justice with her penitent mother.

Rescued by a data-pirate crew, she falls into the path of ancient arachnid machinations that propel her back towards her mysterious origins and the heart of her unknown heritage.

Review

I haven’t been able to read books in the last few months due to personal circumstances in my life. But there is nothing like a good DB Rook, book to hook you back into the world of reading, and damn did he not disappoint.

DB Rook is back and has bodly stepped into the world of Sci-fi, and it’s absolutely fantastic. Residuum is a novella from what looks to be a future series release A Darkening Dawn. And if the series is anything like this visceral dark short beauty, I can’t wait.

Residuum reminds me of a mash up between Gaurdians of the Galaxy and The Terminator, where the good guys versus robots programed to wipe out the human population across the galaxy. For the authors’ first time writing sci-fi, it shows that he is a master of his craftsmanship.

I love DB Rooks writing, with each book he releases, they go from strength to strength. His prose are wonderful to digest. His world-building and setting are brilliant. From start to finish, you are hooked and drawn into a dark tale that fills you with chills. Residuum is fast-paced, action-packed, and beautifully character driven.

What i loved about this story is that it’s really dark and that the author is able to mix in hilarious and humorous moments when things are looking very bleak for the characters. My favourite characters were Tapedeck and Shadwell, a robotic hero and an Insectoid limb ripper, and the other characters are just as lovable.

In this story, DB Rook throws you straight into a massacre. Our main protagonist, Charlus, and her mother, Merrian, are on the run after night of terror from the black bots sent into terminate the human population. Deposited on a strange planet, they are running blind into chaos and only have each other. With kept secrets and betrayal, will they survive from being hunted down. Only time will tell.

If you haven’t read or checked out DB Rooks books or Novellas. His Callus and Crow book from The Wayward World Chronicles is excellent, a fantasy dystopian dark tale full of goodness. I very highly recommend for all fantasy lovers…

Synopsis:

An outlaw lost at the edge of the galaxy and an honorable commander who will have to risk everything to save her, Parallax is a heart-pounding, slow burn space opera romance packed with action, adventure, banter, and found family.

The tenuous alliances of the United Tribal Axis have fractured, breaking humanity into warring factions. Hinata finds himself fighting a losing war against an opponent that doesn’t play by the rules. While Freyja focuses all of her efforts on uncovering the origin of the signal that she is convinced is the key to revealing the source of the chaos ripping their society apart. Upon returning from an outer rim mission, Freyja realizes that Skyla hasn’t received a single communication they’ve sent in months and must convince Hinata to abandon his post to mount a rescue mission in search of the missing captain. But there are forces at play larger than any of them realize.

Review:

With Umbra last year and now Parallax, which released just last month, Amber Toro has created a fascinating sci-fi universe with deep and layered protagonists who I will be following as long as she decides to keep writing books. 

I read the first book in the Sentient Stars series a couple of months back and then dove into Parallax once the summer hit. Both share a slow-burn romance quality that permeates throughout, but there is more than just love stories here. Toro has set up multiple sci-fi storylines that keep the plot moving forward along with compelling and blood-pounding action. 

When I saw the “Romance” angle was a selling feature and that there were three main point-of-view characters, I was initially worried it would be a love triangle. I’m happy to see that Toro didn’t go the easy route, instead crafting interesting backstories to set the three leads up with separate motivations and desires. 

Umbra set everything up with Freyja, Skyla, and Hinata sharing the spotlight. Throughout these books, Toro weaves their stories together — literally — with each of them as POV characters, bouncing from one to the other with each chapter. Even then, the narrative keeps pushing forward, almost willing the characters to stay involved in each other’s lives in the process. 

With just a few books under her belt, Toro is already establishing herself as a writer to pay attention to. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next in the Sentient Stars books and what mysteries our characters solve in their futuristic look at humanity. In fact, the title of the series gives us even more. Some of the vessels in Toro’s universe have advanced artificial intelligences, imprinting on a few of our characters basically at birth. So that means the ships themselves are their own characters with their own unique motivations, providing a little more sauce to the wonderfully plated meal put before us. 

Now, she does a lot right, but Parallax isn’t perfect. I dinged the final score just a little based on supporting characters and the greater storyline. Our main three characters are expertly crafted, but unfortunately that means that some of the side characters are left a little one-dimensional. The strength of our leads definitely covers it up, but a little more backstory on a few of them would be helpful, I think. Also, since the entirety of the book is from three characters’ perspective, we sometimes don’t see what’s happening in the rest of the universe until our characters get there. That isn’t always a bad thing, but with an expansive space empire, it seems a little smallish at times. 

But those are very small nitpicks. I had a great time with Parallax, especially seeing our characters separate at the end of Umbra and how that affects them and ultimately brings them back together in this sequel. Toro expertly leaves us wanting more at the end, and I will be waiting for book 3, whenever it shows up on my Kindle. 

Synopsis:

Digital Extremities –

A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future. Set across small towns and remote islands, where neon flickers against old buildings and oaks, this collection paints a unique view of a traditionally cyberpunk setting.

In 2089, a woman miscarries and seeks a way to find peace amidst overwhelming grief. Years later, a young man must find a way to pay rent outside of his job at the glassblowing studio. A pair of students, excited to go to college, install new hardware that promises to improve their cognitive functions. A private investigator searches for a missing child who has a reputation for embarking on risky adventures. Each tale is shaped by love, loss, and perseverance, weaving a vision of life outside of the megacities.

Animus Paradox –

There’s a thief on the loose. The Tigres excel at tipping the scales in their favor, be it through bribes, politics, or blood. They unofficially run Viterbo, Italy—and somebody stole from them.

Private investigators David and Mafalda De Campo have been hired to help find the thief. They’re in it for the money, but the Tigres just want to make a statement.

Meanwhile, the Heredes have returned: ruthless idealists and revolutionaries. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they keep getting in the way.

The De Campos will need to decide how far they’re willing to go for this job and the Tigres. Viterbo may soon become a battlefield, and one wrong move could set it aflame.

Review:

With both Digital Extremities and Animus Paradox, Adam Bassett has put out some fascinating and intriguing futuristic and mostly dystopian cyberpunk works. I found myself really enjoying both of them and was glad I read Digital Extremities before I started on Animus Paradox. 

Recently I was offered a few audiobook codes for Adam Bassett’s two works by the author himself. In exchange for an honest review, I took him up on it. In the process, I got to try out the Spotify audiobook player, so I’ll drop a few thoughts about that as well later on. 

Let’s start with his short story collection, Digital Extremities. 

In D.E., we’re treated to eight tales of the future where the distinctions between human and computer are blurred, if not eliminated completely. Short stories can be a great playground for authors — letting them play around with an interesting idea or two without committing to an entire novel. Bassett really got creative with these eight stories, and they have incredible range. I’ll highlight a few…

Alone / Together is the first story Bassett showcases and for good reason. It’s a gut punch, especially if you’ve ever loved someone so much you’d do anything for them. It’s a whole lot of melancholy wrapped up in a little over a half-hour of reading time. There was almost a Gift of the Magi quality to it, but with sadness and regret acting in place of love and sacrifice. 

The middle stories of the collection are absolutely worthy as well, ranging from sacrificing the past to move on with your future and the effect that integrating technology more into our lives and bodies will have. I also appreciated Bassett setting stories all over the world from America to Norway to Italy, where the last story is set — Fireworks Above the Badlands. 

When I was finished with Digital Extremities, I found myself really invested in the final story in the collection — and more so with the characters. And Bassett must’ve felt the same way, because the second book I’m reviewing — Animus Paradox — takes off immediately following the events in Fireworks Above the Badlands. 

The main character is David De Campo, who along with his wife Mafalda, run a private investigation firm in Italy over 100 years into the future. I found myself vibing with David in the first story as he works to track down a lost child, risking his life in the process. The way Bassett sets up the character as former U.S. Army with all the mods and implants they might need for battle, but with most of them disabled after he left the service, left me wanting more and Bassett sure delivered in Animus Paradox. This story is more of an Italian mob war that David and Mafalda find themselves drawn into with more than a few cyberpunk twists. 

I enjoyed A.P. and its continuation of the cyberpunk themes and tropes, but I struggle to vibe with the futuristic noir detective stories sometimes. But the characters are solid – A+. I think he could keep taking David and Mafalda to America and beyond in future cyberpunk books and I would be in. At the end of the day, I think I liked Digital Extremities a little more than Animus Paradox, but I would definitely recommend both. 

As for the audiobook experience, Adam Bassett got a couple of great narrators — Joe James and Aven Shore for D.E. and just Joe James for the A.P. production. Both have great voice and inflection, especially for the type of stories Bassett is telling. 

And for the Spotify experience? Well, it wasn’t perfect. I know they are trying to carve a little space for themselves in the audiobook space, but they still have a little room to grow. First, I like to bump up my listening speed, but Spotify doesn’t offer more than the tenths place — what I mean is you can listen at 1.2x speed and 1.3x speed, but you can’t listen at 1.25. There were also a few times where the player just stopped. Right in the middle of a chapter. Stopped. And in the end, I had to restart my app to get the audio to keep playing. Some audio glitch. Overall, it went fine, but there were a few small issues that Spotify needs to address. 

But, back to Adam Bassett’s first two works — check them out, especially if you like a few different looks at a future that looks a lot different than our present. 

Thank you to Adam Bassett for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Kye Verex is trapped.

Due to a fluke of genetics, the decisions of the galaxy’s elite, and a lack of finances, he’s stuck on his polluted and noxious home world indefinitely. And it’s slowly killing him.

Then his more fortunate sister returns one day, bringing the promise of salvation. Kelsey has always hoped to find the means to pull him out of his desperate cycle of survival, but it has taken years. Now, she has a plan, one that will cure his genetic condition and clear him for interstellar travel.

The catch?

He has to sign over his very existence – and a portion of his humanity – to Zylar Inc., the galaxy’s most prominent and notorious corporation, in exchange for the necessary treatment. Is his cure worth the cost?

Review:

Rating: /10

What are you willing to trade for a better life? That’s the central question in A.J. Calvin’s fantastic new novel, Wraith and the Revolution. The book presents a complex and highly detailed peek into the future, in which humanity thrives in a galaxy teeming with strange, fascinating life. Unfortunately, humanity barely regards its own living.

“Earth is a cesspit of toxic shit,” the main character Kye says early on, and his life there is sifting through an irradiated wasteland dominated by dangerous creatures. He suffers from a medical condition for which there is no cure, and puts a very low ceiling on his life. His life isn’t all bad, however. He scavenges alongside his close friend Pablo, and their deep, funny bond is the heart of the novel.

Kye and Pablo are warm, hilarious, and utterly human in their breezy yet complicated relationship. Humanity often seems unrecognizable in the book, and literally morphs into something else as Kye accepts an offer to improve his lot in life. He gets a chance to upgrade figuratively and literally, to leave Earth behind and Pablo, too, but the cost is great. All he has to do is let an intergalactic megacorporation enhance his body and as his sister says, ‘become half-machine.’

You find yourself not wanting him to take what is obviously a bad deal, or leave behind Pablo, who is his soul mate in so many ways. The story could potentially benefit from a little more pressure on Kye to make this choice than it applies, especially with his sister’s manifest caginess about this seemingly great offer. But Kye’s journey is one we all face today. What is it to be human when our humanity is rapidly evolving? Are we our circumstances, or are we our potential? What’s human in us, if we’re more machines in body, or simply cogs in one?

The book asks huge questions while also providing lots of action and deep worldbuilding. The Botanaari are among the most fascinating, complex alien races I’ve read in recent science fiction. The book goes from the pits of a dying world to the florid heights of alien ones, traveling through abject poverty to the crux of cosmic power, and tells a thrilling story along the way.

Synopsis:

Xavier Oaks doesn’t particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad’s pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it’s only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only… one morning he wakes up and the house isn’t where it was before. It’s like it’s been lifted and placed… somewhere else.

When Xavier, his dad, and Nia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there’s no one else around…

Until, three years later, another family arrives.

Is there any escape? Is there a reason they are stuck where they are? Different people have different answers — and those different answers inexorably lead to tension, strife, and sacrifice.

Review:

Remember March 2020? I know you don’t want to, but bear with me for a bit. 

Seemingly overnight, the world changed. We went from an interconnected society, where we could go anywhere, do anything, see whoever we’d like, to…just not. 

It was weird. Disorienting. Out of nowhere we had no bearing…no foundation. Some of those we were in lockdown with were not those we would have liked to be stuck with for months at a time. Our entire way of life was upended and changed. What was real? What was the truth? If you left your house, how far could you go? Was it safe? 

In the last few years I’ve read a few books that referenced COVID-19 and the pandemic. Of all those books, Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel is the MOST Pandemic book. That’s not to say that it happens in the “Pandemic,” but virtually the entire plot of the book acts as a giant metaphor or allegory for events that transpired in the first couple months to years of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

The Young Adult book is told exclusively through the eyes of Xavier Oaks, a teenager who was along for forced family fun time at a cabin by the lake. The next morning, the lake is gone and in its place is a farm ready to be worked. The more that he and his family explore, they find themselves the only inhabitants in a dome — caged by some unknown entity. The book sets up the Oaks family in the first quarter, then brings in the conflict: after three years of being the only four people in the dome, a new family appears. 

This is where I can imagine that people are going to have WILDLY different takes on this book, because the Oaks are a family from Canada and are framed as the rational, responsible family that does what they are told in the Lock Down. The new family — the Jacksons — are from Tennessee — and are conspiracy-minded Americans who trust nothing. Because we spent the first part of the book with the Oaks, we know what they know, but to a family that is plopped down in the middle of an impenetrable dome and a family is already there, there are some reasonable doubts to be had. 

I’ve liked the Oppel books I’ve read before and this is an easy one to get into and follow the mysteries (not all are answered by the end, which I actually appreciate for a book like this) all the way until the end. The big question the Jackson family brings up is the identity of their captors — are they aliens like the Oaks think, or is it advanced technology harnessed by the government elites on Earth? The metaphors do get a little heavy-handed at times, but the science fiction of this book doesn’t relate to anything that the humans do or believe. I’ve met people who believe many of the things that Riley Jackson does and no matter how much you talk to them, they are obstinate and stuck in their own heads. I can understand some people thinking his character is too far out in the weeds, but for some people, it really is a scary reality. 

So, this book is definitely political and I imagine that Kenneth Oppel had some of these ideas bouncing around in his head in the early days of COVID-19 racing across the globe. He really captured the feelings of those early quarantines and the doubts and fears of institutional trust as well. 

So by the time we get to about two-thirds through Best of All Worlds, Oppel introduces some religious elements of the plagues of Egypt, but I almost couldn’t help but think of the Tower of Babel and the hubris of humanity and trying to reach the heights of God. The ending is satisfying for me, but like I said, not all your questions get answered by the last page. Xavier and his family still don’t understand every part of their imprisonment by the end, but I don’t know many people who understood every fact behind the Global Pandemic as well.  

I would recommend Best of All Worlds, especially to a YA reader, but I also totally would understand why this book would not be for you (I know people who are still triggered by certain aspects of the past 5 years for sure). I teach junior high and we are already getting to the point with some of these kids where they don’t remember much about those early days of the Pandemic, so this book might be a great entry point to talking about it with a younger, middle grade crowd. 

Synopsis

While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone―or something―is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?

Review

“Ta da! This smells like victory, my friend. Humans will definitely spend coin to taste this.”

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan.audio for an arc of the book and @thirdplacebooks for a physical arc. 

The second disclaimer is that – any book that makes me cry is 5 stars and this one definitely did and earned its 5 I sincerely hope Tor follows the route they took with Martha Wells, and Becky Chambers and commissions more books following these characters from Annalee Newitz. The characters are too cute and warm to just leave at one installment. Also the audiobook narrator Em Grosland was excellent.

Nowadays cozy sff is introducing new subgenres unto itself- we have everything from low stakes cozy fantasy to cozy romance to cozy spooky to cozy mystery to even cozy grief. This is simultaneously all of that and not any one of that individually. Ideally, I want my cozy reads to have low stakes and a focus on food or have food play a major part, have a lot of different character interactions, and make the reader feel safe and peaceful. This book has all of that and also adds kindness, community, and a lot of character growth.    

Right from the first chapter, I was sold on the characters. For a novella, the amount of depth, realism to the setting, and the balance with which the backstories of each character was covered was perfect. I enjoyed each character’s arc. The robots trying to make jokes was so heartful and endearing. The description of noodles also instantly made me hungry. 

There also was careful critique and commentary centered around the immigrant experience and other social issues. The way it was layered in is masterful. It was never overbearing and the whole tone of the book continued to retain its cozy flavor throughout. And a surprisingly good amount of philosophy is mixed in too. It is impossible to not be moved by Staybehind’s journey in this story.  

In conclusion, I loved this novella and everyone should pick it up when it comes out. It is less than 200 pages and only 4 hours on audio. It’s a bunch of adorable robots starting a hand pulled noodle shop – how can you not?  Do it. I’m extremely serious.You will get this and be greatly rewarded. And soon Tor and Newitz will announce a sequel and I will be greatly rewarded too.

Synopsis:

Light dims on humanity’s reign over the galaxy.

Charlus Vaughn, a teenage refugee, escapes deadly machine justice with her penitent mother.

Rescued by a data-pirate crew, she falls into the path of ancient arachnid machinations that propel her back towards her mysterious origins and the heart of her unknown heritage.

Review:

DB Rook carries an air of chaotic calm within all his books. An author who is able to conjure from the written word great depth and vivid imagery with prose that has a dark eloquence. So, it was no surprise to find this book carries the same ambience into the scifi action genre. Here Rook leads us into a tale of genocide, humanity being wiped from existence by our once robotic slaves who have become both judge and executioner. We initially follow Charlus and her mother through these killing fields, on the run and desperate to escape. We gain hints of the Black Bots origins, that there is far more behind the destruction they bring than it first appears, to which they both have a deep connection.

 It is then that Rook flips the narrative. Having been immersed in Charlus’s fate, the reader is set deliberately off-balance by the arrival of a spaceship filled with data-pirates whose tangle of relationships and attitudes add a distinct layer of depth to the characterisation that runs through the rest of the novella. Saved by this weird collection of thieves, a grieving Charlus and the crew hurtle blindly into events that shape the future of humanity.

Part warning, part rollicking adventure, Residuum is a slice of dark action science fiction I urge you to try. Superb.

Synopsis 

Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. They travelled into space on arkships and found a new home.

When the first arkship arrived, it signalled for the others to follow. Those from that first ship evolved into Celestials, establishing themselves as rulers over mankind’s new home. 

Now, as new arkships arrive, people must choose whether to submit to the rule of the Celestials, or fight for freedom.

Finn hasn’t arrived on an arkship. He was born under the rule of the Celestials, and is a dreamer who yearns for the freedom to travel space for himself one day. When another arkship from Earth — previously thought lost — arrives unexpectedly, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and journey into the vast unknowns of distant space. 

Review

‘Exodus’ is an epic introduction to a huge universe, skilfully keeping you grounded while expanding its scope to ever-increasingly colossal levels. It’s a space opera that enhances Hamilton’s reputation as a titan of the genre, and serves as a masterclass in how to make sci-fi BIG! 

Before the story begins, the book’s opening sections thoroughly catalogue all the main characters and provide a timeline of events of what happened after Earth was abandoned. It’s a LOT and I worried I might struggle to take it all in, but as soon as the narrative got going, I found myself pulled straight into the Exodus worlds. In fact, the main thing that might dissuade you from picking up the book is its sheer breadth. It’s a chonker. And in terms of audio (FYI I listened to the audiobook), it comes in at a whopping 33 hours. But as soon as you make a start, the novel hooks you immediately and keeps you listening/reading. So don’t be put off by its size. After all, they say bigger is better, and sci-fi doesn’t come any bigger than this.

Across a mega 928 pages, the story unfolds through the perspectives of several main characters living in various parts of society. Their stories cleverly interlink to reveal a bigger picture — but I’ll get to that more in a little bit. First, let me give you a flavour of what it feels like to inhabit the worlds of this universe. To do that, context matters. So here’s some context that sets everything up. 

The story is set in a future where mankind has taken to space in arkships to find more habitable planets. Some ships succeed in finding habitable worlds and send out a ‘green world beacon’ to the rest of the fleet. But, thanks to time dilation, the new arkships arrive to find society in a much more advanced state than what they’d expected. 

When the last arkship gets to the Centauri cluster, new human arrivals take in the lay of the land. As a reader, you share their shocked reaction at what they discover — that those who arrived on the first arkship have evolved into ‘celestial beings’, and have enslaved other humans as well as genetically engineered races. The various branches of Celestials each have their own special abilities, depending on the way each set of scientists focused their work. 

Tobias is the leader of the newly arrived arkship ‘Diligent’, and he begins to shift the status quo for humans — who are not allowed to own property. He feels an undercurrent of dissatisfaction among them, despite everyone having somewhere to live, work to do, and food on the table. Who really wants to spend all their time farming just to send it off-planet so the Celestials can eat it?

Finn is our link to the Uranic race. He’s had a privileged upbringing and enjoys a high status within his world, yet wants to throw it all away to fly across the stars and seek his own path as a traveller. Finn helps Tobias and those of the ‘Diligent’ navigate the complicated order of things, stopping them from breaking the rules before they’ve even got started. Ellie is Tobias’ granddaughter, and theres a love interest between Finn and Ellie that runs constantly through the book — it anchors Finn’s character development. It’s always entertaining to spend time with Finn as he’s such a loveable rogue. 

The narrative of Terrance Wilson-Fletcher, a member of the police on Santa Rosa (where Finn is from) gives you an insight into the political undercurrents that are going on amongst the different branches of the Celestials. He does undercover work and gets called to meet with a security chief, where he experiences for himself what life is like on a celestial planet — really out of this world. The Celestials’ technology makes getting away with anything pretty impossible, yet there’s a time delay between what happens on other planets and the Celestials finding out about it. Every plan they make (based on information they get from informants) feeds into a bigger purpose. 

While each section of the narrative is interesting to read on its own and you get pretty invested in finding out what happens, slowly, slowly you begin to realise the bigger plot that lies underneath it all. When multiple strands finally come together, it comes over as very clever and enhances the enjoyability of the book no end. It’s so much fun to see the web being woven in front of your eyes. 

When the book ended, I felt keen to know when the next one will be ready! I was really excited to discover Peter F Hamilton was asked to write the book to promote a new video game set in the same universe. I have to say, having read the book, I’m eager to see what the game is like! 

In terms of the audiobook performance, John Lee had a very commanding voice that is easy to listen to, and he made the 33 hours fly by. Once I’d finished listening to it, I had a few days of feeling like I was forgetting to do something. I can’t talk about the book without hearing his voice in my head! 

Overall, ‘Exodus’ is an engine of invention and speculation that reaches as high as it aims. It’s both complex and immersive, and makes for an ideal escape from our boring old Earth, leaving you with plenty to chew over. I can’t wait to see where it takes us next. 

Ebook, Hardback, and Audiobook are available now.

Paperback to be released on June 19th, 2025

Synopsis:

From the Arthur C. Clarke award winner, Adrian Tchaikovsky, comes the third instalment of the DOGS OF WAR science fiction series, a future where genetically engineered “Bioforms” have inherited not the Earth, but the Solar System.

The end of the world has been and gone.

There was no one great natural disaster, no all-consuming world war, no catastrophic pandemic. Rather scores of storms, droughts and floods; dozens of vicious, selfish regional conflicts that only destroyed what could no longer be rebuilt. No single finishing stroke for Earth’s great global human society, but you can still bleed to death from a thousand cuts.

The Red Planet fared better. Where Earth fell apart, Mars pulled together. Engineered men and beasts, aided by Bees, an outlawed distributed intelligence, survived through co-operation, because there was simply no alternative.

Fast forward to the present day. A signal – “For the sake of what once was. We beg you. Help.” – reaches Mars.

How could they not help? A consortium of Martian work crews gather the resources for a triumphal return to the blue-green world of their ancestors.

And now here they are – three hundred million kilometres from home.

And it has all already gone horribly wrong.

Review:

I hate bees, but man do I love Bees. 

For the third installment in his Dogs of War series, Adrian Tchaikovsky focuses on the distributed intelligence known as Bees, which is about time for me. In a lot of ways, Bees was perhaps the most interesting part of the original work in the series.

The first book, Dogs of War, was released in 2017 and featured the main storyline with Rex, a dog bioform who is the leader of a motley crew of animal bioforms — himself, Honey (a bear bioform), Dragon (a reptile), and Bees (literally just bees). The first novel was set near-future and explored what it means to be human and if the consciousness’ of bioforms entitles them to the same rights as “mankind.” 

In 2021, Tchaikovsky released Bear Head, featuring Honey. The Mars setting for a lot of it gives it a bit of a Total Recall vibe and the story features a lot into media personalities and free will. Honey plays a key part in the book, but is by no means the main character. Bees plays a key role as well…on Mars as one of the early colonizers and also back on Earth as they have split their intelligence. 

I liked, but didn’t really love the first two books. Rex is and forever will be a Good Boy, and I really like Honey the Bear, but in both books it was just hard for me to put myself in their shoes (maybe cuz dogs and bears don’t wear shoes?) but in the end, it actually was easier at times to empathize with the bioforms (the animals) than with the humans (especially Thompson from Bear Head). There is a lot to like and I’m glad I read them, but I just didn’t resonate with those books. Not like I did with Bee Speaker. 

No one can accuse Adrian Tchaikovsky of not being imaginative. Each book in this series is so wildly different from the others in terms of tone and setting and he makes even the hardest of sci-fi concepts so digestible. It would have been so easy for him to set this book on Mars after the events of Bear Head and invent some reason why Bees has to be the hero of the day. 

Instead, in Bee Speaker we return to Earth…a planet which has lost control of itself and its technology. All that happened in the days of Rex, Honey, Dragon, and Bees is the Old time. The people of Earth have devolved into a neo-feudalistic society of sorts. Bees is revered as a type of God among some — an invisible deity capable of great works, but before their time. Other people form up in abandoned bunkers, quasi-manors with a medieval hierarchy at play. And lastly, the remnants of the Old time, the Dog Factory where bioforms are still produced and some of the last vestiges of technology is still utilized. 

Dropped into the middle of all of that are four Martians, returning to Earth after getting a signal from the Earth Bees. Of course, it’s a Tchaikovsky book and things do not go swimmingly for our intrepid adventurers on their return to their ancestral planet. 

One of the things I loved about this book was two opposing views of what the future may bring. On Earth, disinformation and politics killed society as they knew it and the little technology humans had in Bee Speaker was often beyond their comprehension. Mars, on the other hand, almost collapsed from some of the same factors in Bear Head, but was saved by Bees and Honey and went on to be more of a communal civilization where everyone worked together and pushed technology onward and forward. Those two sides of the knife’s edge were on full display throughout this Bee Speaker. In the end, just like in Bear Head, the subject of the book — Bees — isn’t our main character, but instead acts as more of the MacGuffin towards the final quarter of the novel. 

In the end, it may be a fairly simple novel in its story, but Bee Speaker is a great addition to the Dogs of War series, introducing some memorable characters and pushing the bounds of what it actually means to be “human.” 

Thank you to Head of Zeus for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.