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The Osiris Project #3
Tamaruq
Fleeing from her family and the elitist oppression of the Osiris government, Adelaide Rechnov has become the thing she once feared, a revolutionary.
But with the discovery of a radio signal comes the stark realization that there is life outside their small island existence. Adelaide’s worries are about to become much bigger.
Meanwhile, as rumour spreads on the mainland, many head to the lost city of Osiris with their own devious objectives. But in a world where war is king and only the most powerful survive, there can only be one victor…
The thrilling, epic finale to The Osiris Project
But with the discovery of a radio signal comes the stark realization that there is life outside their small island existence. Adelaide’s worries are about to become much bigger.
Meanwhile, as rumour spreads on the mainland, many head to the lost city of Osiris with their own devious objectives. But in a world where war is king and only the most powerful survive, there can only be one victor…
The thrilling, epic finale to The Osiris Project
- GenresScience FictionDystopia
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2015
1 person is currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
E.J. Swift
26 books99 followersE. J. Swift is the author of The Osiris Project trilogy, a speculative fiction series set in a world radically altered by climate change, comprising Osiris, Cataveiro and Tamaruq. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies from Salt Publishing, NewCon Press and Jurassic London, including The Best British Fantasy (Salt Publishing, 2013 and 2014).
Swift was shortlisted for a 2013 BSFA Award in the Short Fiction category for her story “Saga’s Children” (The Lowest Heaven, Jurassic) and was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for “The Spiders of Stockholm” (Irregularity, Jurassic).
Swift was shortlisted for a 2013 BSFA Award in the Short Fiction category for her story “Saga’s Children” (The Lowest Heaven, Jurassic) and was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for “The Spiders of Stockholm” (Irregularity, Jurassic).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 9, 2020
I was very curious as to how this third book in Swifts trilogy would tie Book 1 and 2 together. She did an excellent job in doing so, crossing the paths of her characters in unexpected ways to work together in uncovering both the secrets and purpose of the lost city of Osiris.
My favorite parts of the book were, obviously, in Osiris with Adelaide. I really enjoyed her development, especially because she’d been dangling on a cliffhanger since the end of book one! I appreciated her being more in the book.
I also appreciated the beautiful pros Swift used throughout the series. Her writing is edgy, fast paced, bold, and impeccable. She has full faith in her readers in the way she writes.
Tamaruq ends a trilogy that I thought would tell a completely different story than what it does. There were at times where I felt like it was a completely separate story line than from book 1, that Osiris had nothing to do with Tamaruq. However, Swift made the impossible happen and rounded things out with an ending that I was not expecting.
I will miss the world of Osiris and the original Adelaide and Vikram that called it home.
My favorite parts of the book were, obviously, in Osiris with Adelaide. I really enjoyed her development, especially because she’d been dangling on a cliffhanger since the end of book one! I appreciated her being more in the book.
I also appreciated the beautiful pros Swift used throughout the series. Her writing is edgy, fast paced, bold, and impeccable. She has full faith in her readers in the way she writes.
Tamaruq ends a trilogy that I thought would tell a completely different story than what it does. There were at times where I felt like it was a completely separate story line than from book 1, that Osiris had nothing to do with Tamaruq. However, Swift made the impossible happen and rounded things out with an ending that I was not expecting.
I will miss the world of Osiris and the original Adelaide and Vikram that called it home.
July 3, 2020
A fantastic finale to the trilogy, if a little rushed in parts. One of my all-time favourite dystopias.
August 2, 2022
A fitting, but cold and cruel, Romeo and Juliet ending.
May 31, 2015
Whatever happened? Both Osiris and Cataveiro were so beautifully… no, artfully written. From the claustrophobic western quarter of Orisis to the sweeping planes of the Atacama and the sweltering ghettos of Cataveiro, E.J.’s masterly penmanship wove a rich and engaging tapestry as we followed first Adelaide and Victor then Ramona and Taeo through their post apocalyptic futures. In Tamaruq these main and the various sub plot threads come together as befits the final volume of a trilogy.
However, much like the aforementioned apocalypse, the four horsemen have trampled all over Tamaruq. Proof-read, if at all, by a predictive text robot with less grasp on simple grammatical rules than the average teenage boy, this third instalment is riddled with narrative arresting bloopers and even wrong words (e.g. honing instead of homing, patrons instead of patrols, sat instead of sitting). I’m tempted to quote some examples… yeah, I will:
“The holoma bisects into two halves...” . Yep, that’s what bisects means.
“… they disappear amongst the denser foliage of the forestry.” The what? (not the only occurrence of ‘forestry’.)
“She hears Dien sigh, a soft expulsion of breath.” Oh, so that’s what a sigh is.
“… It’s your civic service.” Surely it’s your civic duty.
“… there’s people in there still, there’s people trapped…”. Hmm…
“… Her breath is shallow and every gulp of air is like swallowing soup.”. Shallow breathing isn’t gulped and what’s so difficult about swallowing soup (unless it’s really hot)?
“… , and…” All over the place. Grrr.
There is also a brilliant one along the lines of someone ‘struggling with what they are struggling with’ but I didn’t note the page number and I couldn’t find it again.
Suffice to say that faced with such cruel abuse of the English language coupled with deepening disappointment at every turn of the page, I gave up about half way through. It is fairly rare for me to fail to finish a book but I read for pleasure and there was precious little to be found in Tamaruq. The story itself and the gradual convergence of the multiple narrative threads is well conceived, just shockingly executed.
However, much like the aforementioned apocalypse, the four horsemen have trampled all over Tamaruq. Proof-read, if at all, by a predictive text robot with less grasp on simple grammatical rules than the average teenage boy, this third instalment is riddled with narrative arresting bloopers and even wrong words (e.g. honing instead of homing, patrons instead of patrols, sat instead of sitting). I’m tempted to quote some examples… yeah, I will:
“The holoma bisects into two halves...” . Yep, that’s what bisects means.
“… they disappear amongst the denser foliage of the forestry.” The what? (not the only occurrence of ‘forestry’.)
“She hears Dien sigh, a soft expulsion of breath.” Oh, so that’s what a sigh is.
“… It’s your civic service.” Surely it’s your civic duty.
“… there’s people in there still, there’s people trapped…”. Hmm…
“… Her breath is shallow and every gulp of air is like swallowing soup.”. Shallow breathing isn’t gulped and what’s so difficult about swallowing soup (unless it’s really hot)?
“… , and…” All over the place. Grrr.
There is also a brilliant one along the lines of someone ‘struggling with what they are struggling with’ but I didn’t note the page number and I couldn’t find it again.
Suffice to say that faced with such cruel abuse of the English language coupled with deepening disappointment at every turn of the page, I gave up about half way through. It is fairly rare for me to fail to finish a book but I read for pleasure and there was precious little to be found in Tamaruq. The story itself and the gradual convergence of the multiple narrative threads is well conceived, just shockingly executed.
September 10, 2015
Tamaruq is the last book in Swift’s Osiris Project trilogy and it picked up the rather abruptly terminated threads from the second book and drew them to a satisfying conclusion. In a post global warming world, war is brewing between the Antarcticans and the Boreals (far northern hemisphere) with the sea city of Osiris sandwiched in the middle.
The story maintains a good page turning pace with a plot that delivers sufficient surprises whilst remaining plausible throughout. The characters are all well developed and believably motivated and I was able to empathise with and care about them. This last was a definite improvement on the previous book where the same characters were distinctly unappealing. My other main complaint with the previous book was the ending and here this book also improves upon the second. There really wasn’t a natural break between the second and third books and, apart from how long it would then have been, I think they would have been better as a single book. Either that or a better break between them needed to have been constructed. Read all three together and that wouldn’t be such an issue.
The trilogy taken as a whole is really very good, especially as a Swift’s debut, and overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s sad that it doesn’t seem to have generated a very large readership. I will be interested to see what she comes up with next.
The story maintains a good page turning pace with a plot that delivers sufficient surprises whilst remaining plausible throughout. The characters are all well developed and believably motivated and I was able to empathise with and care about them. This last was a definite improvement on the previous book where the same characters were distinctly unappealing. My other main complaint with the previous book was the ending and here this book also improves upon the second. There really wasn’t a natural break between the second and third books and, apart from how long it would then have been, I think they would have been better as a single book. Either that or a better break between them needed to have been constructed. Read all three together and that wouldn’t be such an issue.
The trilogy taken as a whole is really very good, especially as a Swift’s debut, and overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s sad that it doesn’t seem to have generated a very large readership. I will be interested to see what she comes up with next.
March 5, 2015
This is an incredibly good book. Not finished it yet, but it kept me up far too late last night. Swift's storytelling just gets better and better, I'm completely gripped!
Edited to add: Now finished, I am really, really impressed with this series. It just got better and better. Swift's writing is excellent, her woven storylines are complex, but make tie up really well. The characters are interesting and multifaceted.
The story finishes back where it all started. The world has rediscovered Osiris which ends up going from isolated survivor to flashpoint for conflict.
The two original protagonists, Vikram and Adelaide both have their parts to play in the end game.
I highly recommend this series, and I can't wait to see what Swift has coming up next. Hopefully something set in the same future Earth.
Edited to add: Now finished, I am really, really impressed with this series. It just got better and better. Swift's writing is excellent, her woven storylines are complex, but make tie up really well. The characters are interesting and multifaceted.
The story finishes back where it all started. The world has rediscovered Osiris which ends up going from isolated survivor to flashpoint for conflict.
The two original protagonists, Vikram and Adelaide both have their parts to play in the end game.
I highly recommend this series, and I can't wait to see what Swift has coming up next. Hopefully something set in the same future Earth.
May 28, 2015
That rare thing, a trilogy that gets better as it goes along. This third volume opens up the world of Osiris even further, but finishes in the only place it could. One of the discoveries of the year for me.
October 28, 2016
Although the basic premise, climate change doesn't work, the story is excellent and very well written.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews