What do you think?
Rate this book
The Waisters #2
The Fall of Sirius
Waisters never forget an enemy...
When the vast armada of Waister starships had swept through human space, destroying entire star systems as they came, Malyene Andreivne alone possessed the initiative to save a desperate few in cryostasis. But that was 2,000 years ago...
Now she has been awakened from her epic slumber, and everything she once knew has long since turned to dust. What's more, the strange beings who wrenched her back from timelessness are the descendants of a union once considered unthinkable - half human, half Waister. And as Malye struggles to understand the unlikely inhabitants of her new world, they all face a crisis that none of them may survive - for the dreaded Waister ships are returning...
Set millennia later, in the same universe as the highly accliamed Aggressor Six.
When the vast armada of Waister starships had swept through human space, destroying entire star systems as they came, Malyene Andreivne alone possessed the initiative to save a desperate few in cryostasis. But that was 2,000 years ago...
Now she has been awakened from her epic slumber, and everything she once knew has long since turned to dust. What's more, the strange beings who wrenched her back from timelessness are the descendants of a union once considered unthinkable - half human, half Waister. And as Malye struggles to understand the unlikely inhabitants of her new world, they all face a crisis that none of them may survive - for the dreaded Waister ships are returning...
Set millennia later, in the same universe as the highly accliamed Aggressor Six.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Wil McCarthy
57 books87 followersScience fiction author and Chief Technology Officer for Galileo Shipyards
Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family
Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 3, 2025
11/09/2019 4.6⭐
One of McCarthy's early novels but still marked with his trademark originality and with a unique race of truly alien aliens. Superior hard science fiction with many ideas, the action sequences are also well handled. This is both prequel and a sequel to McCarthy's Aggressor Six; it takes place both before and after the events of the first book (which is also a very good read and sets up the universe in which our story unfolds). The two stories are stand alone and can comfortably be read out of order, if so desired.
Strong female protagonists: human; alien; and human/alien help make this a cut well above the usual space opera.
A group of Human survivors of the Waister invasion of Sirius, a thousand years past, unwillingly becomes the go-between for the unexpectedly returning Waisters and the Gateans, a Human/Waister hybrid civilization that has re-settled the wreckage of the Sirius colony. Havoc ensues. There are hints of Heinlein and Clarke here, bit it's mostly all McCarthy.
I also like it that there are still French fries in 5000AD. Of course there are.
Highly recommended.
2023 re-read
McCarthy's Waister series, of which this is the second book, is some of the most imaginative and scientifically accurate military SF I've read. Mostly it's just a good tale, well told.
One of McCarthy's early novels but still marked with his trademark originality and with a unique race of truly alien aliens. Superior hard science fiction with many ideas, the action sequences are also well handled. This is both prequel and a sequel to McCarthy's Aggressor Six; it takes place both before and after the events of the first book (which is also a very good read and sets up the universe in which our story unfolds). The two stories are stand alone and can comfortably be read out of order, if so desired.
Strong female protagonists: human; alien; and human/alien help make this a cut well above the usual space opera.
A group of Human survivors of the Waister invasion of Sirius, a thousand years past, unwillingly becomes the go-between for the unexpectedly returning Waisters and the Gateans, a Human/Waister hybrid civilization that has re-settled the wreckage of the Sirius colony. Havoc ensues. There are hints of Heinlein and Clarke here, bit it's mostly all McCarthy.
I also like it that there are still French fries in 5000AD. Of course there are.
Highly recommended.
2023 re-read
McCarthy's Waister series, of which this is the second book, is some of the most imaginative and scientifically accurate military SF I've read. Mostly it's just a good tale, well told.
August 10, 2021
My old booklog lists this one as A/A+ and for reread sometime. I found a used copy and did just that. It's a fine book, the second of two, about powerful, incomprehensible aliens who killed billions of humans two millenia ago, then left after Sol system surrendered, as related in McCarthy's "Aggressor Six" (1994), his debut novel and a good one. Here are the author's notes on the two books: http://www.wilmccarthy.com/waister.htm (no serious spoilers).
"The Fall of Sirius" opens with the revival of Police Colonel Malyene Andreivne from cryostasis -- but you can read this in the publishers introduction above.
Back already? OK, the old Sirius colonies, depopulated and largely destroyed in the Waister attacks, have been partially reoccupied by an artificial human subspecies who have modeled themselves on the Waisters, to prepare for the event, should it occur, of the Waisters' return. They are a very odd and fractious group. One subgroup, who amount to archaeologists, revive the Old Human survivors to see if they can help when an incoming Waister fleet is spotted....
It's interesting novel, and I'm pleased to have reread it. It took me a little while to get up to speed -- you may want to read "Aggressor Six" first -- but once it got rolling, I was happy. Strong 4 stars, and not at all a standard "Aliens Attack!" adventure. More thoughtful, and I recommend it, especially if you've liked others of Wil McCarthy's books. Both books are available as ebooks.
There's a hook at the end for a sequel about a mysterious "Blue Star Plague" elsewhere in the galaxy. McCarthy wrote an outline for the sequel (which didn't fly): http://www.wilmccarthy.com/gasprop.htm Too bad. It sounds intriguing.
"The Fall of Sirius" opens with the revival of Police Colonel Malyene Andreivne from cryostasis -- but you can read this in the publishers introduction above.
Back already? OK, the old Sirius colonies, depopulated and largely destroyed in the Waister attacks, have been partially reoccupied by an artificial human subspecies who have modeled themselves on the Waisters, to prepare for the event, should it occur, of the Waisters' return. They are a very odd and fractious group. One subgroup, who amount to archaeologists, revive the Old Human survivors to see if they can help when an incoming Waister fleet is spotted....
It's interesting novel, and I'm pleased to have reread it. It took me a little while to get up to speed -- you may want to read "Aggressor Six" first -- but once it got rolling, I was happy. Strong 4 stars, and not at all a standard "Aliens Attack!" adventure. More thoughtful, and I recommend it, especially if you've liked others of Wil McCarthy's books. Both books are available as ebooks.
There's a hook at the end for a sequel about a mysterious "Blue Star Plague" elsewhere in the galaxy. McCarthy wrote an outline for the sequel (which didn't fly): http://www.wilmccarthy.com/gasprop.htm Too bad. It sounds intriguing.
November 20, 2019
A fun challenge to be both in a different time and dealing with morality for both past and present actions.
August 5, 2023
I bought a whole bunch of sci-fi books on the Dutch eBay years ago and this was part of it.
Luckily the story was better than the cover or its name. Didn’t know it was a sequel so it’s perfectly readable without reading the first. Story is well told, main character is… colorful and so are her children. But the 3 stars is because of the logic from the aliens. I can imagine there would be differences but any advanced enough entity would not act in the way they do. Maybe a bit, but this was too much ;)
Luckily the story was better than the cover or its name. Didn’t know it was a sequel so it’s perfectly readable without reading the first. Story is well told, main character is… colorful and so are her children. But the 3 stars is because of the logic from the aliens. I can imagine there would be differences but any advanced enough entity would not act in the way they do. Maybe a bit, but this was too much ;)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews