Scan barcode
pjonsson's review
4.0
Progeny of Vale is the second instalment in The Circuit book series. It follows directly from the first book in the series, Executor Rising. It should be noted that the version of the book that I am reviewing is a eARC copy provided by the author so I am going to be very vague about the actual story to avoid spoilers. I do have to say though, that this was probably the most well-written and complete eARC that I have read. I have read many, supposedly finished, books that have been much less impressive than this eARC. Actually it did not give the impression of being an eARC at all but rather a finished product.
The main characters, Vale, Sage, Rayne, the bad guys and, of course, the android ADIM is back in this continuing saga that plays itself out in the dystopian future generally named The Circuit. Vale continues his quest to bring down the Tribune aided by his fanatically faithful android and while doing so he is about to cause a war between the remaining factions of humanity.
As with the previous book this is not a book primarily about action in terms of space battles and such like but focuses more on plots, intrigues, political machinations and, of course, the characters. Having said that the book is not devoid of combat action and as the war looms closer the action parts increase.
Much of the appeal of this book is in the interesting dystopian future that that author has created as well as in the characters and their destinies. Even though this book is a little bit outside of my normal military space opera kind of reading it was a very enjoyable read thanks to the setting and the characters which do develop quite a bit as the story develops.
I wrote in my review of the first book that I felt the reader was thrown straight into this universe without much in terms of explanation as to how humanity ended up in this state. In this book the author sprinkles around a few more explanations to this as well as parts of the past for Vale and Sage which allows you to connect the dots a bit better. Having said that what actually happened, especially to the “Ancients”, are still somewhat shrouded in mystery.
At the end of the book the scene is set for a quite interesting next book. I am indeed looking forward to read it.
I was graciously given this eARC by the author in exchange for an honest opinion and suggestions for improvements. As far as the story goes I cannot say that I find much that needs improvement. The writing is good, the story is interesting and so are the characters. It was a year and a half since I read the first book and, since the story is not exactly the usual simple run of the mill kind of story it was a bit difficult to remember all the details as to what happened in the previous book so one suggestion would be to have one or two pages of recap at the start of the book.
Bottom line is that it was a quite enjoyable read and if you liked the first book you will like this one and if you have not read the first book I personally think it is worthwhile reading. It is not the longest books around but what is there is well done.
The main characters, Vale, Sage, Rayne, the bad guys and, of course, the android ADIM is back in this continuing saga that plays itself out in the dystopian future generally named The Circuit. Vale continues his quest to bring down the Tribune aided by his fanatically faithful android and while doing so he is about to cause a war between the remaining factions of humanity.
As with the previous book this is not a book primarily about action in terms of space battles and such like but focuses more on plots, intrigues, political machinations and, of course, the characters. Having said that the book is not devoid of combat action and as the war looms closer the action parts increase.
Much of the appeal of this book is in the interesting dystopian future that that author has created as well as in the characters and their destinies. Even though this book is a little bit outside of my normal military space opera kind of reading it was a very enjoyable read thanks to the setting and the characters which do develop quite a bit as the story develops.
I wrote in my review of the first book that I felt the reader was thrown straight into this universe without much in terms of explanation as to how humanity ended up in this state. In this book the author sprinkles around a few more explanations to this as well as parts of the past for Vale and Sage which allows you to connect the dots a bit better. Having said that what actually happened, especially to the “Ancients”, are still somewhat shrouded in mystery.
At the end of the book the scene is set for a quite interesting next book. I am indeed looking forward to read it.
I was graciously given this eARC by the author in exchange for an honest opinion and suggestions for improvements. As far as the story goes I cannot say that I find much that needs improvement. The writing is good, the story is interesting and so are the characters. It was a year and a half since I read the first book and, since the story is not exactly the usual simple run of the mill kind of story it was a bit difficult to remember all the details as to what happened in the previous book so one suggestion would be to have one or two pages of recap at the start of the book.
Bottom line is that it was a quite enjoyable read and if you liked the first book you will like this one and if you have not read the first book I personally think it is worthwhile reading. It is not the longest books around but what is there is well done.
ladilira's review
4.0
Over the holidays, I ventured back into the world of The Kepler Circuit, a group of colonies inhabited by humans scattered throughout space. To my delight, all my favorite characters returned to continue their individual journeys. ADIM, the unstoppable, evolving android, lit up the book with his whirling red eyes and human like understanding. Sage, the assassin who lurks in the shadows, saw a change in her perception of the world. Talon, broken and exhausted, looks for a purpose in a world where all its beauty is destroyed. And lastly, Cassius Vale, a villain or maybe not, returns to continue his war rampaging schemes for better or worse.
What I loved most about the story is the evolution of the characters. They keep growing and changing, which ultimately is what makes the story so appealing. Where will their roads lead them? I can't say, which is exactly what I should be feeling. Unpredictable and character engrossing, with nerd-gasm space battles that will delight the inner space-geek in all of us. A truly enjoyable read that I was eager to continue until the end.
What I needed more of was a recap. It has been over a year since I read the first book in the series, and I won't lie and pretend I wasn't having a hard time remembering everything important that happened in the last book. About halfway through, there was a mini-refresher to a few aspects of the first book that started to jog my memory, but overall I felt there needed to be more woven into the beginning chapters. This was my only disappointment that likely would have added to the quality of my reading experience.
Regardless, still an excellent read and I look forward to the next installment. If you are sad you already saw Star Wars twenty times already and can't afford the twenty first? Then take a look at this story, I believe it will provide a good Science Fiction fix for the story addict in us all.
https://cellardoorbooks.wordpress.com
What I loved most about the story is the evolution of the characters. They keep growing and changing, which ultimately is what makes the story so appealing. Where will their roads lead them? I can't say, which is exactly what I should be feeling. Unpredictable and character engrossing, with nerd-gasm space battles that will delight the inner space-geek in all of us. A truly enjoyable read that I was eager to continue until the end.
What I needed more of was a recap. It has been over a year since I read the first book in the series, and I won't lie and pretend I wasn't having a hard time remembering everything important that happened in the last book. About halfway through, there was a mini-refresher to a few aspects of the first book that started to jog my memory, but overall I felt there needed to be more woven into the beginning chapters. This was my only disappointment that likely would have added to the quality of my reading experience.
Regardless, still an excellent read and I look forward to the next installment. If you are sad you already saw Star Wars twenty times already and can't afford the twenty first? Then take a look at this story, I believe it will provide a good Science Fiction fix for the story addict in us all.
https://cellardoorbooks.wordpress.com
chymerra's review
4.0
This book starts right where book 1 (Executor Rising) leaves off.
Sage awakens about Cassius Vale’s ship, The White Hand, after reliving the worst memory she has….the death Caleb Vale, Cassius’s only son. She has no clue where she is, though, and leaves sick bay to explore and find out exactly where she is and who she is with. She finds out, soon enough where she was, who she was with and what Cassius did to her. She is sedated, I am going to assume by Cassius and brought back to the medical bay.
Cassius reveals that he was, at one point, an Executor (which definitely explained things from the 1st book) and he had his implant removed, for the same reasons he removed Sage’s….to free himself from the Tribunal. The implant helped suppress any bad memories but it also allowed the Tribunals to look through the eyes of the person. Which, if you think about it, is really creepy.
Meanwhile, ADIM is getting to know the little girl he saved from Kalliope and intends to give the girl to Cassius as a gift to ease his sadness over losing Caleb (big awww moment there…believe it or not). Her name is Elisha and guess what, she’s Talon’s daughter. ADIM and Elisha form a sort of friendship (if you can call it that) while traveling to meet up with Cassius.
Talon escaped the Amerigo with a Keeper, Tarsis and is floating in space. Tarsis has an advanced case of the Blue Death and, for most of the time, sleeps. They are not expecting to be rescued when a miracle happens….they are picked up by a shipful of Vergent merchants. Their relief is short-lived because right after they are picked up, a Tribunal ship hails the Vergent ship and demands that they allow them aboard to for a routine check of the ship. Which they say no to and they make a beeline towards Kalliope on Talon’s suggestion.
Meanwhile, Sage is still reeling from Cassius’s revelations. She decides to attack him when he comes to visit her one day in the medical bay and make a run for it. Only thing, she doesn’t get far at all. She is subdued (for lack of a better words) by ADIM and taken to the hangar to be put on a ship home. She is given a sedative, so she won’t be able to tell the Tribunal where she was. But, before she is gone, Cassius makes a series of confessions to her. What the confessions are….read the book. When she awakens, she realizes that Elisha is aboard the ship with her. When she gets in contact with the Tribunal, they have her go right to Cassius’s old compound. There, Elisha is taken from her and she is immediately stripped of her weapons and taken for questioning. Which meant that she got the crap beaten out of her in order for her to talk.
Cassius and ADIM have their own agenda. After seeing off Sage, ADIM detects life aboard the Solar-Ark Amerigo, goes in and discovers carbon copies of it. Cassius reassures it that those are only copies and that ADIM is the only one with something called “Dynamic Intelligence”. Basically, he is the only one that is self-aware and can make decisions on his own. Which might or might not be a bad thing.
I won’t go into the book after this. I will say that there is a death, a fake death,a couple of revelations and the beginnings of a war.
Sage is becoming my favorite character in this series. In the first book, she seemed like an emotionless robot (not knowing that the implant suppressed her emotions). Once Cassius removed the implant, though, she started to flush out and by the end of Progeny of Vale, her character was awesome.
Talon is tied for my 2nd favorite character. Even though he is dying, he is willing to not go down without a fight. And when he realizes that Kalliope is destroyed and Elisha is dead (which is known not to be true), he goes into berserker mode.
Believe it or not, Cassius is my other favorite character. He has his own agenda and isn’t afraid to pit opposing factions against each other in order to wipe out the Tribunal. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do in the next book.
The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about cliffhangers. But with this series of books, they actually work. I think that it is because I am actually reading them back to back…..lol.
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
Sage awakens about Cassius Vale’s ship, The White Hand, after reliving the worst memory she has….the death Caleb Vale, Cassius’s only son. She has no clue where she is, though, and leaves sick bay to explore and find out exactly where she is and who she is with. She finds out, soon enough where she was, who she was with and what Cassius did to her. She is sedated, I am going to assume by Cassius and brought back to the medical bay.
Cassius reveals that he was, at one point, an Executor (which definitely explained things from the 1st book) and he had his implant removed, for the same reasons he removed Sage’s….to free himself from the Tribunal. The implant helped suppress any bad memories but it also allowed the Tribunals to look through the eyes of the person. Which, if you think about it, is really creepy.
Meanwhile, ADIM is getting to know the little girl he saved from Kalliope and intends to give the girl to Cassius as a gift to ease his sadness over losing Caleb (big awww moment there…believe it or not). Her name is Elisha and guess what, she’s Talon’s daughter. ADIM and Elisha form a sort of friendship (if you can call it that) while traveling to meet up with Cassius.
Talon escaped the Amerigo with a Keeper, Tarsis and is floating in space. Tarsis has an advanced case of the Blue Death and, for most of the time, sleeps. They are not expecting to be rescued when a miracle happens….they are picked up by a shipful of Vergent merchants. Their relief is short-lived because right after they are picked up, a Tribunal ship hails the Vergent ship and demands that they allow them aboard to for a routine check of the ship. Which they say no to and they make a beeline towards Kalliope on Talon’s suggestion.
Meanwhile, Sage is still reeling from Cassius’s revelations. She decides to attack him when he comes to visit her one day in the medical bay and make a run for it. Only thing, she doesn’t get far at all. She is subdued (for lack of a better words) by ADIM and taken to the hangar to be put on a ship home. She is given a sedative, so she won’t be able to tell the Tribunal where she was. But, before she is gone, Cassius makes a series of confessions to her. What the confessions are….read the book. When she awakens, she realizes that Elisha is aboard the ship with her. When she gets in contact with the Tribunal, they have her go right to Cassius’s old compound. There, Elisha is taken from her and she is immediately stripped of her weapons and taken for questioning. Which meant that she got the crap beaten out of her in order for her to talk.
Cassius and ADIM have their own agenda. After seeing off Sage, ADIM detects life aboard the Solar-Ark Amerigo, goes in and discovers carbon copies of it. Cassius reassures it that those are only copies and that ADIM is the only one with something called “Dynamic Intelligence”. Basically, he is the only one that is self-aware and can make decisions on his own. Which might or might not be a bad thing.
I won’t go into the book after this. I will say that there is a death, a fake death,a couple of revelations and the beginnings of a war.
Sage is becoming my favorite character in this series. In the first book, she seemed like an emotionless robot (not knowing that the implant suppressed her emotions). Once Cassius removed the implant, though, she started to flush out and by the end of Progeny of Vale, her character was awesome.
Talon is tied for my 2nd favorite character. Even though he is dying, he is willing to not go down without a fight. And when he realizes that Kalliope is destroyed and Elisha is dead (which is known not to be true), he goes into berserker mode.
Believe it or not, Cassius is my other favorite character. He has his own agenda and isn’t afraid to pit opposing factions against each other in order to wipe out the Tribunal. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do in the next book.
The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about cliffhangers. But with this series of books, they actually work. I think that it is because I am actually reading them back to back…..lol.
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
More...