Into Everywhere

Jackaroo #2

by Paul McAuley

The Jackaroo, those enigmatic aliens who claim to have come to help, gave humanity access to worlds littered with ruins and scraps of technology left by long-dead client races. But although people have found new uses for alien technology, that technology may have found its own uses for people.The dissolute scion of a powerful merchant family, and a woman living in seclusion with only her dog and her demons for company, have become infected by a copies of a powerful chunk of alien code. Driven to discover what it wants from them, they become caught up in a conflict between a policeman allied to the Jackaroo and the laminated brain of a scientific wizard, and a mystery that spans light years and centuries. Humanity is about to discover why the Jackaroo came to help us, and how that help is shaping the end of human history.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Aliens, Speculative Fiction

423 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2016

About the author

Since about 2000, book jackets have given his name as just Paul McAuley.

A biologist by training, UK science fiction author McAuley writes mostly hard science fiction, dealing with themes such as biotechnology, alternate history/alternate reality, and space travel.

McAuley has also used biotechnology and nanotechnology themes in near-future settings.

Since 2001, he has produced several SF-based techno-thrillers such as The Secret of Life, Whole Wide World, and White Devils.

Four Hundred Billion Stars, his first novel, won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988. Fairyland won the 1996 Arthur C. Clarke Award and the 1997 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best SF Novel.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely fascinating SF novel that does more for fans of SF in general than 200 of its ilk.

What do I mean?

It not only has a very cool Tomb Raider type story with a ton of alien ghosts (or ghosts in the machine) weird AI or virus type aliens, and 15 gifted worlds for humans to do as they please, but it also is a novel that is one huge, ongoing easter egg for FANS of SF.

By no means is this a hard-to-follow novel if you don't get all the references. It just means you'll be awash in wonderful and strange ideas, often in the background, but sometimes up in your face. Wormhole networks, ancient aliens, and inscrutable truly-alien aliens that have learned US so freakishly well that they fit right in without ever (or mostly never) show their true colors.

What kind of species would ever just GIVE AWAY fifteen star systems to us? The Jackaroo is as much a mystery as the alien ghosts or the Elder tech.

What we have here is a very interesting archeological (or rather less official) series of adventures that are far from being formulaic. Indeed, the characters are fascinatingly complex and in to0 deep. :)

You can read this as a standalone, but I would recommend reading Something Coming Through first. I'm very impressed with this SF, either way. The devil is in the details and I absolutely adored the worldbuilding.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very successful novel, as was its 2015 predecessor, “Something Coming Through”. This one is even better. More details about the strange Jackaroo universe; the first close look at the chatty !Cha aliens, more eidolon weirdness…. Loads of good stuff, including innumerable internal references to previous SF classics, a touch that will warm a long-time fan’s heart (mine anyway). Plus, exploding spaceships! Best SF novel of the year for me, I think.

The Jackaroo are among the most enigmatic of sfnal aliens, and the endless ruins and relics of Elder Culture civilizations hark back (at least) to Andre Norton’s Forerunners: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/... . The mysterious, poorly known Elder Culture wormhole transport network also has deep SF roots. Very cool stuff. Warms the cockles of my ever-teenage SF heart. [WTH is a cockle, anyway?]

While the novel is a standalone, you’ll get more out of it by first reading his 2008 novelette “City Of The Dead”, available as a $1 Kindle ebook: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... . It would serve even better to introduce the first Jackaroo novel, “Something Coming Through.”

Here’s a nice introduction to the Jackaroo universe:
http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/bl...

[Tudor Ciocarlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the alien contact novels are about human beings looking into a mirror and about how we deal with something different. Into Everywhere is about humans looking into the abyss, into something that is totally alien and truly unknowable. And painting the unknowable is not a easy feat to pull of. It was a really pleasure to read McAuleay's latest and a privilege for my mind to be engage by it.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific, fast paced continuation of the Jackaroo novel "Somethings Coming Through"

Note: Short Jackaroo series novella "Crimes and Glory" complete and online now at
http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine...

We find two new protagonists, with chapter-intereleaved stories 100 years apart. This confused me at first, as I had not realised the huge time displacement between the two.

Both stories come together in the last 1/4 of the book or so, a wonderfully complex plot which took some effort to keep straight as the time frames came together.

Lisa Dawes is much like Chloe in the first book. Charming, smart, driven, but also with code-writing and analysing skills, as well as a ghost eidolon in her head, nudging her on throughout the book.

Tony is a ship captain, a member of a somewhat-fallen Royal Family, and constantly the scapegoat for a scheming uncle head-of-house.

Both stories are fun, with McAuley's incredible world building on display here - pure genius. The Jackaroos and several !Chas float through, clouding every issue and being untrustworthy as in the previous book.

McAuley's pacing, prose, supporting characters, technical visions and world building are outstanding. I was driven to finish this book, again quite late at night.

I found the ending to be quite sad, with some loose ends, but with some good clarification of who and what the Jackaroos are and want.

5 stars, minus 1/2 star for some confusing chaotic writing in the last 1/4 of the book.

If you have read the all-round superb "Something Coming Through", then I strongly recommend you read (and enjoy!) "Into Everywhere"

Notes & Quotes -
62.0% "... cute. McAuley several times in several books uses variations of Taratino's "Are you okay? ... No, I'm very far from fucking okay." -- always makes me grin"

56.0% "... (note, "embiggened" used first in 1884, and more recently in The Simpsons) .... quote: "This time with your help, Ms Dawes, and the help of the eidolon in your head, so recently embiggened.’"

36.0% "... I have paused to read "City of the Dead" book/story, one of the other Jackaroo books, a prequel of sorts"

Jackaroo stories so far -

“Dust” (2006)
“Winning Peace” (2007)
“City Of The Dead” (2008)
“Adventure” (2008)
“Crimes And Glory” (2009)
“The Choice” (2011)
“Bruce Springsteen” (2012)
“The Man” (2012)
"Something Coming Through" (full novel, 2015)
"Into Everywhere" (full novel, 2016)
“Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was” (2016)

[Jorgon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new McAuley is always welcome, and more so when it is a McAuley working in the hard space opera mode. This is the second novel set in the Jackaroo universe (which, apparently, contains some short stories I have not had a chance to track down yet) and is a classic example of both the strengths and the flaws of the author. Strengths outnumber the flaws greatly, however!

The good: awesomely intelligent, packed with ideas to the density few have ever been capable of (Banks and Stross come to mind) and just plain fun about 90% of the time, with plenty of mysteries and sense-of-wonder.

The bad: an occasional bit of artless didacticism (even if I happen to agree with ideas presented therein), and curiously flat and even static action sequences. (McAuley is at his best when setting up galactic mysteries and describing future technologies and philosophical implications of scientific discoveries--he is not as good at standard shootouts).

But forget about the flaws: this is still fun, quality intelligent entertainment and deeper than almost anyone else working in the field, even if one only includes *good* science fiction. Recommended.

[Panagiotis Karatasios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I expected this book (sequel to Something's coming through) to be a good book but McAuley has greatly surpassed my expectations. This is the work of a writer who is at the high point of his carreer and right now he is the best science fiction writer in the UK and not only.
Usually the first contact stories put humanity in front of a mirror of itself but here McAuley puts humanity in front of the abyss.: in a universe really alien where humanity is just the later arrival and not a very important one. Will her fate will be the same (and still somewhat mysterious) with the fate of all previous species who were clients of the jacharoo? Right until the end of the book you can not guess exactly what happened before humans or what is the point off all this cosmic history in which humans are the latter arrival The last chapter was a kind of "slap in the face" twist which we should have guessed it but we couldn't!
A fast paced, billiantly written mystery/thriller which not only answers the fermi paradox and, most important. makes you think. Bravo to the author.

[Jamie Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into Everywhere (Paperback) by Paul McAuley

Follows Something Coming Through, but from a more distant timescale. You can, however, easily read this as a stand alone book. The action is fast paced, and the characters are driven. Sometimes they are driven by their own ambitions and sense of purpose, sometimes they are driven by other, more alien ghosts in the machine.
The author does a wonderful job of continuing the universe he started in the first book, and asks some cogent questions along the way. Many of those questions have to do with what would happen if we could go out there, and what would we do with the remains of some Elder Culture's relics.
As always, we carry our sins with us, but we also have some good guys and gals to help. In this book, our two unlikely heroes are Lisa and Tony, (No, not a couple) and the way then end up meeting is cleverly done indeed. Toss in a rogue AI, and a couple off very not transparent alien races, let stew and see what happens.

[Peter Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book follows much the same structure as its predecessor, ‘Something Coming Through’, covering two different time periods/protagonists in alternating chapters until both viewpoints unsurprisingly come together towards the end of the book.

This sequel does the job that sorely needed to be done, which was to complete and deliver on the slightly lacklustre ending of the previous book and does this pretty well – but the job I think is now done. Please, please don’t make this a trilogy. More Jackaroo short stories perhaps but please let’s leave this tale as it is.

[Keith Stevenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paul McAuley is a British speculative fiction author, best known for his Arthur C Clarke award-winning science fiction novel Fairyland, which has just been re-released twenty years after its initial publication under the Gollancz ‘SF Masterworks’ imprint. His Quiet War series of books chart a Solar System-spanning war between Earth-born humans and the ‘differently evolved’ descendents of early settlers on the asteroids and moons of the outer planets. It’s a richly detailed work that combines big science with fantastic descriptions of desolate and surprising alien environments.

His latest ‘Jackaroo’ series begins a few years in our future when Earth, facing all the problems we can see today, is ‘rescued’ by the alien Jackaroo who gift humanity fifteen wormholes linked to fifteen habitable worlds. The Jackaroo say they want to help, but what are their motivations and what happened to the Elder Cultures – previous recipients of aid from the Jackaroo – who seem to all have died out?

In the first book, Something Coming Through, which I reviewed last July in the Newtown Review of Books [http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/20...], researcher Chloe helps a young boy infected by an alien ‘information virus’ – or eidolon – to travel to one of the gift worlds where he discovers Elder Culture spaceships that humanity can fly without the help of the Jackaroo.

If you’ve read my review, you’d know I had some reservations about the book and it ended with a lot of the questions it raised unanswered. Unfortunately Into Everywhere shares a few of the issues of its predecessor as well as some problems of its own, which means that I really didn’t enjoy it.

Into Everywhere has two story strands. The first is set some years after the first book, with Lisa, a retired Elder Culture artefact hunter, being drawn into an investigation mounted by Chloe’s nemesis, Adam Nevers who is now investigating a series of fatalities linked to an alien dig run by Lisa’s estranged husband Willie.
After Lisa is visited by Nevers and one of the Jackaroo’s avatars, she contacts Chloe to find out what is going on.

‘Was it Bob Smith?’ Chloe said.
‘Excuse me?’
‘That’s what the avatar Nevers was working with back then called itself.’
‘We weren’t introduced,’ Lisa said. ‘It was mostly tagging along as an observer.’
‘Nevers was carrying a kind of wire that generated a copy of that avatar,’ Chloe said. ‘It got into a fight with a Ghajar eidolon that called down the ships, and it lost. One of the !Cha once told me the Jackaroo made a thing of preventing us finding and using certain kinds of Elder Culture technology, because they know it will make it seem all the more desirable to us. Forbidden fruit, the apple in the Garden of Eden and so on. I don’t think Nevers understands that. That he may be helping the Jackaroo to manipulate us.’
‘You make him sound like some kind of fantatic,’ Lisa said.
‘He’s deadly serious about the dangers of Elder Culture technology. And he more or less lacks a sense of humour. Goes with his vanity, the way he presents himself.’

The second strand is set a hundred years further in the future in the rim worlds, settled by humans who utilised the alien spaceships discovered in book one.

Tony Okoye is the wayward son of one of the original founding families and he’s engaged in a piece of illicit research on alien artefacts to try to discover a cure for ‘sleepy sickness’, an alien plague that is infecting children in alarming numbers. His hope is that by finding the cure he will return the honour of his family to its former glory. When his research dig is attacked, he returns to his home in disgrace, where he is placed under house arrest.

Although Tony is described as a daring ‘freebooter’ he’s fairly passive as a character, straining against his familial bonds but still trapped by them until he’s offered a chance to escape and work for the shadowy Captain X. Lisa is also very passive. She wants to find out what happened to her husband but increasingly she is under the compulsion of an eidolon that infected her and Willie years ago to go on a journey. It’s a compulsion that is facilitated by Captain X’s enemies. The other problem with Lisa is that her story is basically the same as the story in book one: a person infected by an eidolon is compelled to go somewhere to discover something.

Neither Tony or Lisa are in control of their fates. In Lisa’s case her goals and desires are subservient to the eidolon and Tony seems to discard his espoused goals to suit the plot. After the initial chapters he isn’t actively trying to find the cure for sleepy sickness and the entire sub-plot with his family is discarded as easily as the new lover he also leaves behind. He’s firmly under the thumb of Captain X and – later – his own eidolon compulsion. Also Tony and Lisa are probably the two characters in the story that know least about what is going on and they have nothing of value to bargain with in order to find that information out. Instead they have to be told what’s happening when the time is right, and one of the final scenes in the book has them basically watching from the sidelines as the story’s real movers and shakers have an argument.

It’s also true that not a lot seems to happen, or not a lot that is particularly engaging. Whenever the Jackaroo turn up they spout the same unhelpfully enigmatic epithets, which become grating after a while. Much of the action has to do with travel through a variety of wormholes towards a ‘destination’, but as we have no access to the reason for the journey or the forces at play on the way there it feels drawn out.

There are some flashes of interest along the way, for example when Tony escapes into a series of tunnels cared for by a strange underground society, but these highlights are few and far between. Lisa’s home planet has – as with the gift worlds in book one – been McDonaldised, so it’s not a good source of wonder either and her encounter with a bikie gang echoes the kind of stereotypic treatment the detective story in book one contained.

And now men were standing up, big and muscled in leather and denim. Shaved heads, beards, tats. Wolfman Dave. Little Mike. Mouse. And Sonny Singer, unfolding from the shelf of stone where he’d been sitting, strutting over to Lisa as she swung off Bear’s bike.
Sonny addressed Bear first, punching him hard on the shoulder, asking him if he remembered what he’d been told.
‘Come on,’ Bear said uneasily. ‘When I phoned you said I should bring her in.’
‘I also said you shouldn’t have let yourself get compromised.’
‘This is Willie’s old lady, dude. I don’t see how she compromises anything.’
Sonny ignored that. A black and white doo-rag was knotted around his shaded skull; his eyes were masked in mirrorshades. ‘I trusted you to do the right thing, Bear.’

But the thing I found most unforgivable in Into Everywhere was the lack of answers. There’s a contract entered into between writer and reader at the beginning of any book. The author introduces questions or mysteries to the reader to draw them into the story and keep them reading. The reader trusts the author will provide entertaining answers to those questions after they have invested a sufficient amount of effort in reading the narrative. But after a combined 700 pages across two books, we are no clearer at the end about who the Jackaroo are, what their game plan is and what happened to the extinct Elder Cultures they ‘helped’ previously. It’s deeply disappointing.

There will be a third volume, but I’m no longer sufficiently invested in the story to look forward to its release.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

McAuley, Paul. Into Everywhere. Jackaroo No. 2. Gollancz, 2016.
Into Everywhere is a not-so-close sequel to Paul McAuley’s 2015 Something Is Coming Through. In the near future, the Jackaroo, aliens who appear in humanoid avatars, give humanity access to a stargate that connects us to a few colonizable worlds that we can reach with our current space technology. The worlds are littered with bits of ancient technology left by alien races that have either evolved beyond space flight or died out. Some of this technology contains codes that can leave ghosts in your head. We find a trove of derelict starships that give us access to other stargates. One protagonist is Tony, a xenologist exploring stromatolites that may contain an alien code that will cure a mental illness caused by other alien codes. Another protagonist is Lisa, a woman who has been infected with a ghost code. They are observed by Jackaroo avatars and another alien who collects the life stories that will excite the females of its species. McAuley’s writing has the technological inventiveness I associate with William Gibson. He also likes to give defamiliarizing names to familiar technologies—robots are hands, AIs are bridles, and near-light-speed spacecraft are timeships. There are several subplots and lots of narrative twists, but the effort pays off. A strong 4 stars.

[Damien G · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant follow up to the previous book of the series. A science fiction book which challenges you and makes you think. It is cleverly written, and has links to the previous novel. The cleverness of the novel is in it's characterisation. Tony and Lisa are damaged people, finding themselves in a situation not of their making. Guided and directed by outsiders they will eventually meet up. What I like are the clever references to Earth, and how brands(Starbucks) made it out to the new planets. Lisa's alcoholism, and that Alcoholics anonymous exists off world is a nice touch. It is a well written book and one that I fully recommend

[Chocomeiske · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a complex hardcore Sci-Fi story with lots of intrigue and twists and even though I must admit to being intimidated at first by the terminology and concepts which went over my head, I stuck with it and really enjoyed it after all.
I really like the way two storylines converge in the end while at first seeming totally unconnected. The different factions all think they know what the aliens want but they are all wrong.
This is a well-thought out, intelligent space-opera and I loved the world and the far-out ideas even if I don't understand all of them.
Overall, a really good read and definitley one for the hardcore Sci-Fi fans.

[db · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard about this author snd book on the Coode Street Podcast, a podcast that talks about sci fi.

The story puts forward very interesting science and tech concepts. The human characters carry the story with humor and humanity, and the other non humsn characters grow into fantastical beings that kept me thinking after I put the book down.

Imaginative, clever, entertaining

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked both books and the second kept me guessing right to the last pages. Even without revealing the true nature of the Jackeroo it was still a most satisfying novel and I look forward to the next novel, whatever that will be.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, sequel to Something Coming Through, written in the same style as this first where two different stories collide in some style at the end. It answers the questions about the Jackaroo and it was not what I expected but it does pave the way for more in the series.

Ray Smillie

[John Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful sequel to "Something Coming Through" is one of the best SF books I've read in a long time.

[H. C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever world building.

A pleasure to read. Good story telling and ideas a-plenty. Recommended for lovers of the Iain Banks universe and such.

[Evan Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

picked it up mostly bc the tagline on the front cover “the future of humanity is haunted. by alien ghosts.” was so absurd that I had to read it

overall it was more or less enjoyable. It had some interesting alien concepts, but the book as a whole was held back by okay at best writing

[Abi Starr · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times really hard work and confusing, but I still wanted to carry on. Kind of disappointing ending though after all that effort 🤣

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this after reading and liking Something Coming Through. ( My review of Something Coming Through.)

While this series is not as good as his The Quiet War series, its better than most of the serial space-operas out there.

McAuley is a very proficient author. All prose is top-notch.

In this story, like in Something Coming Through, he uses a split POV, essentially Tony and Lisa. Also like in the previous story, I thought the female character to be much better wrought then the male. I particularly liked the twist introduced in Chapter 26 (and settled in Chapter 28) that clarified a critical part of the relationship between the characters. Unfortunately, I have a really jaundiced view of this author's use of the double POV. Frankly, I wanted to read all the Lisa chapters (the odd numbered ones) first. Then, maybe go back to read some of the even-numbered ones.

Frankly, I liked this second book in the series better than the first. I suspect that's because I'm now more familiar with the Jackaroo universe.

However, a problem I have with the original story is still there. That is, the future is unevenly distributed within the story. The great influx of alien technology, has changed, or should have changed human society a lot more than it has in the story.

For example, on an alien planet characters are still using cell phones with sim chips connecting to cell towers. That's a 1980's telecom architecture we're all to familiar with. Contrast this with the same characters using Q-phones to instantaneously communicate across the galaxy. Also driving internal combustion engine powered Harley Davidson motorcycles across an unpaved, future, alien desert landscape is unlikely-- especially if you've ever tried to ride a Harley off road.

Another point that catches me as odd, is that at least 200 years separate Tony and Lisa's story. That is about the time between the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and the present day. Think about the technological change that occurred during that interval. In the story, a new frontier has been opened. Additional alien technology has been discovered. It appears that except for the elites, the bulk of human society on the non-UN worlds have technologically regressed. That's an unlikely model. How do the elites find workers to maintain their tech infrastructure, when the population appears to be low-tech, burgher-like, townsfolk?

I heaved a sigh of series relief on the reveal about the Jackaroo through the !Cha. I also thought the post-human, ending was telegraphed too far ahead. Finally, I was a tad disappointed at the perfunctory description of the space battle. Good space operas should have good space battles..

In general, in a book with a primary plot line involving the unfolding consequences of contact with alien technology the author continues to have a failure of imagination shortly after leaving the starting star gate. However, I liked this story. I liked it better than the previous in the series, and I am looking forward to reading the next in the series.

A prequel story in the Jackaroo universe was recently released: Something Happened Here, But We’re Not Quite Sure What It Was. I'll be interested in reading that too.

[Ken Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sequel to last year's 'Something Coming Through' continues the the story of humans seeking the answers to the motivations of their 'helpers', the enigmatic and inscrutable Jackaroo. The futuristic Gold rush continues, scrabbling through the mysterious leavings of the 'Elder Cultures', sometimes finding riches, and sometimes madness or death. Lurking in the background are busineswoman Ada Morange and policeman Adam Nevers who have irreconcilable differences about the wisdom of using alien technology. And then there are the !Cha, who are only interested in the story...

Lisa Dawes and her partner Willie had eke out a living on Jackaroo Gift World First Foot, prospecting for exploitable alien artifacts. At least they did until the 'Bad Trip', which left both of them shattered, and carrying an alien ghosts in their heads. Eight years later, they have gone their separate ways when Lisa's ghost wakes. Something has happened to Willie. And it is not something good. In her quest to find out what has happened to Willie, Lisa begins a quest in which she loses everything...

A century in the future, Tony Okoye captains the Abalunam's Pride, seeking the alien secrets, hidden in stromatolite fossils on a slime planet, which, if decoded, might restore his family's fortune and reputation. When a heavily armed raider enters the system through the local wormhole mirror he must flee with what little his party has recovered, hoping that it will be enough. But he is betrayed and loses everything...

This sequel can be read well enough as a standalone. There is sufficient backstory recapitulation provided to make a pre-read of 'Something Coming Through' unnecessary. I think it is a stronger book than its prequel, with tension and mystery held throughout, and with a plausible and satisfying resolution. McAuley creates a deliciously eerie atmosphere, particularly with his worldscape descriptives, be it the strip mall encumbered deserts of First Foot, or the melancholy dankness of the eternally rainy streets of Tanrog, the only city of waterworld Veles. And he has learned the lesson of the Heechee, that the chase is most often more satisfying than the unveiling.

This one is on my Hugo longlist for 2017.

[Bee Wyeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, fully immersive experience. I love the way you can fall into his narrative and it just takes you away through time and space. Great, gritty characters and a fascinating set up. In every book you learn a little more but it opens up many more questions. I hope there is a lot more to come in this series.

[Bryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meanders and meanders, but even by the end this book never really gets to the point. A lot of potential, but disappointing execution.

[Richard Whale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this was a really well written book. I enjoyed the way the story takes you through time and space. Well developed and plausible characters. Look forward to more in the series.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sequel to Paul McAuley's excellent Something Coming Through holds a lot of promise. Like its predecessor it is set in a near future where we are travelling to multiple worlds through gateways after first contact with two alien species. On these frontier planets, humans uncover alien artefacts from now disappeared races - some result in great medical and scientific breakthroughs... others modify the brains of those who activate them, mostly in a negative fashion.

Another similarity with the first book is the alternation of two initially very different timelines which come together as you get through the story, in this case linked particularly by an individual who appears initially in very different ways. One thread, which I enjoyed more, features Lisa, a former tomb raider seeking alien artefacts who has become a loner living with her enhanced dog before her ex-husband drags her into a complex situation. The other features a rather Dune-like noble house, where a young man's attempts to rebel against family strictures becomes a fight for survival as dark forces attack.

So far, so good - and I very much enjoyed it to begin with. But by the time I got half way through I was beginning to feel that I had been reading it for months. The action is drawn out and seems to take ages to get anywhere. It simply lacked the narrative drive of the first book. The ideas are still great though.

Things do pick up past the mid-way point and I enjoyed it again at the end, where I found the first book hard to put down, this one I had to force myself to come back to. If you read and enjoy Something Coming Through, it's well worth getting Into Everywhere as well - but it didn't live up to my (very high) expectations.

[Michael Whiteman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the sequel to Something Coming Through, which promised much with its inscrutable aliens gifting humanity high technology but not doing much to help them understand it, but boiled down into a woman on the run thriller with interesting background dressing.

Again, we have two strands, following Lisa - a coder and ex-prospector trying to find out why her separated husband died mysteriously - and Tony - a junior member of a disgraced noble family freebooting through space and searching for some treasure that can restore his and their reputation - as they deal with their personal issues which gradually entwine and become part of the larger situation.

McAuley's writing is lightheartedly ironic, full of pithy responses and SF/pop culture references as usual, and the space pirates and tomb raiders adventure setting makes the whole thing more fun and engaging than the previous volume.

It did take a while to get going, as the first third of the book seemed to be constant betrayals, kidnappings and catastrophes, but once Lisa and Tony began to become more positive actors things started to run along nicely.

There are no grand reveals given about what the Jackaroo and the !Cha wanted or their intentions towards humanity; instead the mirror is turned back towards us, as Tony and Lisa must account for their own decisions instead of the crutch of following the alien code eidolons in their heads.

That ultimate point, that we should not fixate on magical solutions but rather the effects of our own choices and actions, is very much a worthwhile one, even if it means missing out on some potential fun with vastly powerful aliens.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really shouldn’t have bothered with this second book. But I didn’t have anything else to read at the moment and I was, unfortunately, curious.
This was far more complex than the first book, which gave the author plenty of opportunity to NOT explain things. Once again, the reader has no idea why any of these people believe the things that motivate all their actions. None. Worse still, is the fact that the two characters are set 100 years apart from each other and the reader hasn’t the slightest idea that this is the case. Which makes for some seriously puzzling questions and confusion. Once this was clear, I had to review everything that had gone before to form a logical overview of events. Now, I don’t mind a book that makes you work for it, but this was unnecessary and it simply felt sloppy. Sure, it shocked me, but with resentment not wonder and glee.
I liked that Tony was gay, but he was also an impulsive idiot. I liked that Lisa was an recovered alcoholic but she wasn’t very interesting or very firmly drawn as a personality. Nevers simply embodied all the control-freak bureaucratic psychotics that currently run the earth, and as such was a caricature. And yet....throughout the whole book, you were never sure if he was actually on the side of badness. It was weird.
Frankly, Tony’s excitable and friendly little spaceship was the best part of this book.
This is obviously a perfectly good book for people who devour “space opera”, but my interests and my demand for excellence in writing left me quite dismissive of this series.
Upon reading my reviews of the other McAuley books I’ve read, I’m concluding definitively this author to be off my list.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been gifted fifteen worlds and the limited means of getting there by the enigmatic alien Jackaroo, as of the end of the previous book, humanity had stumbled across a fleet of ships left behind by a long-vanished race. In fact, the remains of long-vanished races are everywhere, that's pretty much the main theme of the book. The ruins of ancient civilsations and their technologies are scattered across space and a network of wormholes that allow humans to travel and dig up trouble and make other trouble of their own. A lot of the technologies aren't dead, but they are alien and incomprehensible and unpredictable and can literally get into people's heads with all sorts of interesting consequences.

In the past Lisa and her husband were infected by an alien eidolon which has lain dormant ever since, until one day it returns, bringing unwelcome attention from the Geek Police, who control outbreaks of alien technology, and sending her off on a dangerous and life-altering journey in search for answers and her missing husband.

In the future, a young freebooter, son of a powerful and wealthy, but slightly disgraced family, is chased from a planet with potentially lucrative findings by claim-jumpers, only to find himself enmeshed in betrayals and intrigues from within his family and without.

The stories move along at a fast pace, between the dusty archaeological sites of a frontier world to the more baroque settings across multiple wormhole worlds as plans and vendettas and deeply ancient hidden secrets all come to fruition.

[Liam Proven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely splendid stuff from McAuley.

I find it a little hard to put my finger on why I loved this, but I devoured it in a couple of weeks. Fast given my high distraction levels these days.

It is a page-turning blend of mysterious elder alien races, strange worlds, future human civilisations, enigmatic aliens including an alleged tripod tank of shrimp which have a group intelligence, and whose name is the author's Twitter handle (@unlikely_worlds).

The people feel very real. There are embittered older folk, middle-aged types desperately seeking stimulation or validation, old flames, passionate young things. There's a pleasantly undramatic, sympathetic gay relationship. There are plausible representations of future descendants of human cultures who for once aren't white Westerners or clichéd Orientals or any of the usual suspects. There's an abundance of mysterious alien tech which really is mysterious.

And the ending, while telegraphed in some of its elements, contains some very unexpected revelations that changed my perception of both this books and the earlier volume.

McAuley is at the height of his powers right now, and possibly the best of his generation. Don't miss out on this.