The Beauty of Destruction

Age of Scorpio Trilogy #3

by Gavin G. Smith

In the far future, after the Loss of Earth, war has begun and an unknowable alien race has awakened, intent on the destruction of everything.

Here and now, the end of the world has come. And the only way our species will survive is if two augmented humans can fight their way through apocalypse to a faint glimmer of hope.

Long ago, the seeds of that apocalypse were resisted by the warrior tribes of Britain, with devastating consequences for them and their lands.

And all three of these times will meet on another world . . .

Genres: Science Fiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 21, 2016

About the author

Gavin Smith was born in Dundee in the same year that Iron Butterfly recorded Inna-Gadda-da-Vida. He has also lived in Camberley, Hayling Island, Portsmouth, Hull, Leamington Spa and is currently living a near feral existence in Leicester (if you see him in the streets he will write science fiction for sweeties). Anyone who has been to any of these places will understand why his fiction is like it is.

He has a degree in writing for film and a Masters in medieval history. Veteran is his first novel but he is patiently waiting for one of the 2.5 scripts that have been optioned to be turned into films.

He likes to travel and dive when he can afford it and in his free time he enjoys getting the s**t kicked out of him whilst practicing Silat. He is hoping that his books do well so he can buy a motorbike.

Reviews

[Scotoma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first two books of the trilogy in 2016, started the last in 2017 and then stalled somewhere at the halfway mark as it felt like this was going nowhere. It’s an ambitious narrative split into three parts that happen in the far past in a somewhat fantastic rendition of mythological history, in the present that goes from somewhat normal to post-apocalyptic, and the far future with lots of large-scale violence and against the backdrop of extremely advanced technology.

And all of these three threads kept going from the first to the last book and kept me wondering how it tied together and why Smith had chosen to tell the story this way. At the end of the second book, it was clearer how these narratives were connected, but it was still open if they led to a place where it would all be tied together.

With the third book over, I’m not quite convinced it all worked. It’s easy to lose sight of who is who and what exactly is going on, not because of an inherent complexity that makes it hard to understand, but because of the massive quantity of things that happen, such that you easily forget details that you need to remember to get the whole picture.

It’s a trilogy where the texture of the world-building and the overall journey is more important than where it all leads to. Sure, the third book offers some explanations of why everything started and it has sort of an ending that tries to tie together the three strands. It sort of works. I probably would have to re-read the last chapters to really get a better understanding just if what I think happened actually did, and to be honest after spending so much time on it, I don’t really feel like doing it.

There’s a final confrontation that manages to upstage earlier already impressive fights, but I wasn’t actually sure whether the conflict was really solved in the end, or not at all. Whether it was another defeat, a delayed victory or time loop that would resolve the whole conflict in another iteration. Smith is highly adept at staging action in such a way that even with lots of things going on you never lose sight of who is fighting who and what happens, but sadly that doesn’t apply to the bigger plot.

I’m not entirely sure whether that’s intentional or not, whether Smith wanted to keep the ending somewhat opaque, or whether he thought he was completely clear, and it just wasn’t.

If somebody asked me if the trilogy was worth reading, I would probably say it depends. If you’re the kind of reader that expects a mind-blowing payoff at the end of such a long and complicated narrative, you likely end up disappointed. If you expect thoughtful sci-fi speculation, this is not it.

This is smart, well-written modern pulp that plays with a lot of the posthuman toybox, but it’s not about subtle forecasting and social speculation. By no means stupid and Smith’s fiction often uses extreme violence to critique it at the same time, but it’s easy to oversee in all the gunplay.

That said, if you like action that includes posthuman tech that allows people to take and dish out damage on a scale almost unimaginable, then this might be for you. It’s a self-indulgent, somewhat inventive, crazy romp that may be going on longer than it should, but it has its moments.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why is this listed as Veteran 3? It has nothing to do with either Veteran or War in Heaven.

[david james · Rating 1 out of 5]

First book I've abandoned for a long time, probably 15 years.

Billed as a sequel to the Veteran series, it felt like I'd missed a book in the series it was so remotely (if at all) connected to the first two in the 'series'.

I managed to get about 150 pages in and it was still a struggle to follow, none of the characters were faintly likeable (as seems to be the norm with this author), and there seemed to be no connection at all with the other books, save for a vary vague connection with alien materials/artifacts (which occur in nearly all SF books anyway).

I actually did what I have never done before and skipped through the rest of the book, just reading the odd page every chapter and reading the last couple of chapters to see if there was a great insightful, world shattering conclusion to explain all the events. There wasn't.
Still, I saved myself having to trudge through another 450 pages or so (the book was 593 odd pages long) to find this out. I can kind of see what the author was doing with the whole 'beauty of destruction' thing, but the ending doesn't justify the complexity of the book - I feel as if the middle 350 pages could have been deleted and you would have hardly have missed anything.

This is probably my last book of Mr Smith. After 3 novels I've not really found much to enjoy in his books.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Age of Scorpio is a lengthy, but compelling trilogy. The storyline is spread across three narratives, set in the Ancient Past, Now, and the distant future. Eventually it becomes clear that all three stories are linked, and they come together in this, the final installment.
Well worth a read.

[Shane Kiely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong end to a series, the nature of which I can't really elaborate to anyone that hasn't read the preceding titles but I'll say it involves branching timelines. The timelines do resolve quite well in the end, though there are some conclusions in terms of how characters turn out that are strongly implied throughout the series so far but never fully explicitly revealed. Probably the only aspect of these books that isn't explicit....these books are quite gloriously violent with a healthy undercurrent of body horror and the tradition continues with a flourish here (not one for Nana's book club, depending on said nana & her circle of friends). The boundary between sci fi and fantasy that marked one of the timelines starts to blur here. My favourite arc from the first title, which I found a bit underwhelming in the second book returns to form this time round, despite the fact that it's plot has already essentially reached its conclusion. The arc is still really compelling despite being fairly removed from the series overall plot thread. I'm a big fan of this writer and look forward to seeing what he comes up with next time round (though this particular title is a terrible place to start, there isn't much in the way of pandering to new readers, go back and read book 1 & 2 first).

[Chris Gillies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as the pace increased and the various strings were drawn together for a final thrilling climax! Except there are so many odd names, especially in the pre-history thread, that I lost track of who was good, bad, ugly and pregnant! There were times when I had to go back a page or two to find out what I'd just missed (and didn't find it) because storylines just jumped forward/back/sideways which led me to start losing interest in the book towards the end. The final denouement felt a little too drawn out and I'll be honest, after 3 books I wasn't entirely sure what they were trying to achieve.

[Blodeuedd Finland]

My bad, it did not work reading this when I had not read the previous ones

[Jeremy Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good end to a bizarre series. The characters wrap up about as well as can be expected.

[Margaret Haigh]

I abandoned this book as it didn’t engage me.