Rob

I really wanted to like this book. It has a great premise, very cool magic system and an interesting world. But the main character is extremely unlikeable, and makes idiotic decision after idiotic decision. The other characters seemed like shallow caricatures and the dialogue is a bit stiff. A shame, as the premise of the book is very promising. The author's other series - The Sacred Throne is much better, perhaps a reflection of Cole's growth as a writer.

This book was an excellent read for me. It has a good mix of mystery, hard SF/space opera, amazing tech, astronomy, with a dash of horror mixed in with the addition of a very scary plague. It took me a while to get into the book, as it starts off slowly with a few different story-lines that eventually merge into one at the end. But once momentum gets going, it moves fast.

The first story-line involves Dan Sylveste, who is an archaeologist excavating ruins on a planet. The ruins were left by a mysterious alien race called the Amarantin. Another story-line centers around Ultras (humans that modify themselves with cybernetic upgrades to “improve” themselves). These Ultras are tracking down Sylveste because they think that Sylveste has the knowledge to help their captain, who is stricken with the Melding Plague, which attacks both human and cybernetic components. The last story-line is about an assassin who has been hired to assassinate Sylveste. These story-lines converge into one and it ultimately revolves around the mysterious Amarantin race and what happened to them.

Highly recommended for fans of hard SF/space opera.