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EVE #1
EVE: The Empyrean Age
The first novel based on the wildly popular role playing game EVE Online, The Empyrean Age brings this compelling science fiction environment to life. A clone with no name or past awakens to a cruel existence, hunted mercilessly for crimes he may never know; yet he stands close to the pinnacle of power in New Eden.A disgraced ambassador is confronted by a mysterious woman who knows everything about him, and of the sinister plot against his government; his actions will one day unleash the vengeful wrath of an entire civilization.And among the downtrodden masses of a corporation-owned world, a man named Tibus Heth is about to launch a revolution that will change the course of history. The confluence of these dark events will lead humanity towards a tragic destiny. The transcendence of man to the dream of immortality has bred a quest for power like none before it; empires spanning across thousands of stars will clash in the depths of space and on the worlds within. Those who stand before the tides of war, willingly or not, must face the fundamental choices that have been with man for tens of thousands of years, unchanged since the memory of Earth was lost.This is EVE, The Empyrean Age. A test of our convictions and the will to survive.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
670 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 19, 2008
125 people are currently reading
706 people want to read
About the author
Tony Gonzales
6 books25 followersUS author and games designer working for CCP Games in Reykjavik, Iceland, creators of the EVE Online (2003) multi-player Space Sim game. Having written two on-line novellas using the game's far-future galactic background, Gonzalez made his novel debut with EVE: The Empyrean Age (2008), vigorously deploying many stock sf devices (including Amnesia) in its depiction of the brewing and waging of Future War between the four major game factions. Set in an independent universe, The Tabit Genesis (2015) depicts, in a narrative shot through with action-oriented set pieces, a fight for survival by Homo sapiens on several colonized planets long after Earth itself has died.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
January 19, 2012
Game fiction is often not exactly at the top of the list of quality books, but this one sets new records in terms of horridness. Please note that I am an avid EVE player and love the game. The following was written for an EVE community site, so might take some knowledge about the game for granted, but it should be accessible to others just as well.
Writing Style
To get it out front: Based on writing style, the book was the worst book I have ever read, and I read quite a few, including other game fiction. It's one of the very few books I did not manage to finish. The only other book I have conscious memory about not being able to finish was a nice philosophy book called "Metaphysics Today". For me, the book was atrociously bad.
Having said that, I'll try to refrain from using too much "horrible", "abysmal", "terrible" and similar adjectives in the following.
Also, please keep in mind that I only read until page 127, where part II of the book starts. It's quite possible that the quality improves immensely after that. Having had that hope for about three fourths of the 127 pages, I gave up on the hope, though.
Character Charicatures
The characters are overstyled to underline the impression the reader should get about them.
Jamyl Sarum is described as a graceful woman, almost fragile, up to the point where she lifts her aide from the ground, holds her up, shakes her, and then throws her to the floor. A worthy Bud Spencer scene - for the Empress? And it is merely done to underline that she's an "important character," a protagonist. A few pages later, Tibus Heth does exactly the same. He's limping with one lame leg through the factory he just helped take over, he's tired, exhausted. Someone upsets him - he suddenly loses all the tiredness, the lame leg, everything, he lifts the guy up, shakes him in the air, and throws him to the floor. Sound familiar? Yes. He's a protagonist, he apparently needs to be superhuman strong.
On the other hand, characters you are supposed to dislike are similarly "explicit". Some corporation CEO is hiring Gallente prostitutes to "prove" to himself that he's "good", and he tries repeatedly to satisfy all three of them. That also includes one of the probably most awkward sex scenes I know of, where I have no idea why it was included in the detail it was - not enough to count as "porn" and restrict the book to a mature audience, but detailed enough to not need any fantasy for the event. Compare The Burning Life, where sex scenes also happen, but use "fade to black" to leave the details to the reader.
This goes on. You get a diplomat who behaves completly undiplomatically, a Karin Midular who behaves as if she never saw politics before, ... cardboard characters everyhwere with the only features being a few hints to underline what the reader is supposed to think of them.
Deus Ex Machina
One of my biggest issues with the story of the book is the permanent reliance on deus ex machina to solve most plot issues. There is at least one DEM event in almost every chapter I read - something happens, the resolution is difficult, out of nowhere and completely unmotivated, the grand savior appears and solves the issue.
This is best described by the first appearance of The Broker (the personified Deus Ex Machina - it does not confuse me that he's pretty much "the" character of the novel). I tremendously enjoyed the chapters in which Tibus Heth takes over the factory. Those are mostly well-written, logical, and tell a good story.
Tibus Heth rises up with his workers, take over the factory, and at the end, they finally achieve their dream: The factory is theirs! Yay! And then they realize that they don't know what to do next. Now they have what they wanted, but don't know what to do with it. They have the corporation police incoming, a large fleet outside ... they have a problem. They never planned this far. They didn't even believe they'd get this far. That is a great story. It's awesome. I loved it.
But I didn't count on TonyG. Out of nowhere, The Broker shows up, solves all the issues, makes Tibus the boss of the corporation and a few others. And to kick the reader in the teeth about having completely screwed up a really nice plot, he does a spiderman/terminator mix and completely needlessly jumps into molden steel with the seemingly only reason being a somewhat shortened travel time.
A scene I can only assume is there because "woah, that's COOL". No, it's not. It's ridiculous.
This then just goes on. A completely undiplomatic diplomat gets taken by some Mysterious Person that comes out of nowhere to the Elders who came out of nowhere (Elder ex Machina), the Empress who comes out of nowhere, etc. etc. etc.
Story Type
The other problem I have with the book is the story it tells. It's not an EVE story. I stopped reading the book as an EVE book after a few dozen pages, and read it as a sci fi book. To me, it's absolutely inappropriate to the EVE world.
Epic Heroes
The book tells an epic tale of universe-shattering magnitude about great heroes.
But what I like about EVE is that there are no epic heroes. I like the dark world where no one is in power, where no one is really in control - everyone is a victim of impersonal forces, has constraints and necessities they just can't circumvent, and even the people with the best intentions are driven to do cruel things, just by following the best intentions.
Even capsuleers, the immortals, the highest beings in the world, are just cogs in the machine, victims of impersonal powers greater than themselves.
Empyrean Age (and Theodicy) does the exact opposite of this kind of story. It's full of epic heroes who are better than anyone else, who are not subject to bad restrictions. Like The Broker who knows everything and can control everything.
Shades of Grey
Next, I love the EVE story because there is no clearcut good and evil. At best, you have only evil. But really, it's shades of grey. The Amarr clearly aren't "the nice guys", but neither are the Minmatar. Minmatar are tribals with quite cruel rituals and treatment of each other. A lot of slaves live a good life, but in the Republic, they often starve.
The Gallente, the shining beacons of democracy, are cruel bastards of public games and mob control. I loved the chronicle about the execution of a traitor, because that's just what I want Gallente to be: Not the good guys, but people who are differently bad.
There is no "right" in this universe, there are only different kinds of "wrong."
Not so in Empyrean Age (and Theodicy), even though he tries. The Amarr are really evil. Tibus Heth is the really good guy - he tries to somewhat make him a dictator, but at least in the first 127 pages, he's the paragon of the caring leader, rescuing his people out of bad situations, risking his life to save some irrelevant worker... (I hope this gets better later)
But this is typical for TonyG if you look at Theodicy. It's the only story in EVE that introduces "the dark jovians" who are behind everything. That's a boring plot. The big conspiracy behind every negative thing is boring to me.
Prime Fiction, Prime Schmiction
Like Theodicy, Empyrean Age runs havoc over existing prime fiction. The ideas about cloning in the book have been discussed in this forum already. There are a number of such occurances. CCP PF is by far not consistent and contradiction-free, but few people created so many contradictions as TonyG - all in the name of writing a "good story", failing at it, and all of them introduced completely needlessly.
Needless Plots
Like with the Deus ex Machina, TonyG has a tendency to pull completely exaggerated plots out of the sleeve for no reason whatsoever.
As a good example of needless stories, take the Elders and Jamyl.
The Republic has been diverting funds to build a fleet against the Empire. That's a great plotline. Whether it's Midular who has been doing this in secret and hiding it with her appeasement politics, or whether it had been Shakor who did it in secret using Midular as a puppet doesn't matter. You can build great plots of political intrigue, of coup d'etat, or half a dozen other possibilities just with this.
But that's not enough for TonyG. He has to bring up "the Elders", mystical beings who are somehow larger than life, totally forgotten, and suddenly coming back. No one believes that THE ELDERS! have returned, but everyone knows them (except for all the player Minmatar, who suddenly, during DT, "remember" them). There has been no mention of Elders before in PF, they were created just for this. And I don't see why.
Jamyl comes back from the dead. I actually liked this, as it picks up an old PF plot of the succession trials. But instead of making a really nice story about the Empire having a strong controversy on Jamyl having done clear heresy, she whips out Doomsday Ex Machina, safes the Empire from the otherwise unstoppable Elder fleet with a single shot, and everyone loves her all of a sudden.
There was no reason to invent the doomsday device there, either. To use the ancient terran superweapon, TonyG not only had to come up with the weapon in the first place and a reason as to why no one so far has found and used it, but also why no one will use it in the future - because this weapon clearly is infinitely more powerful than anything other nations have.
The story could have been told easily without any of this. The Minmatar could have created this fleet without any mystical Elders, and the Amarr could have fought them back without the need for a superweapon. So why does he have to come up with these? No reason other than "but it's a great story" - and no, it isn't.
The Burning Life
Some words on TBL, just to show the contrast here.
Contrary to EA, I enjoyed TBL a lot. But not because the writing style is tremendously good. The style is actually not that impressive for a book. The characters have some awesome ideas (<3 the psychic wreck of an agent because they send people to kill thousands every day), but they stick to the few good ideas - I sometimes miss the coherent whole. And the overall plot of the book is pretty bad. Also, roughly half through the book, you notice that the author was running out of time. The story sounds hastened, as if he needed to get done with it. The difference between the beginning and the last third is pretty strong.
All in all, it's quite obviously an attempt to show every other faction in the universe, and it does a good job at that, but it's not a good book as far as books go.
Still, I enjoyed it a lot. It has really nice ideas, and it excels at conveying the atmosphere I enjoy so much about the EVE.
Empyrean Age is a bad book, and it doesn't even convey the nice atmosphere I enjoy in EVE so much.
Writing Style
To get it out front: Based on writing style, the book was the worst book I have ever read, and I read quite a few, including other game fiction. It's one of the very few books I did not manage to finish. The only other book I have conscious memory about not being able to finish was a nice philosophy book called "Metaphysics Today". For me, the book was atrociously bad.
Having said that, I'll try to refrain from using too much "horrible", "abysmal", "terrible" and similar adjectives in the following.
Also, please keep in mind that I only read until page 127, where part II of the book starts. It's quite possible that the quality improves immensely after that. Having had that hope for about three fourths of the 127 pages, I gave up on the hope, though.
Character Charicatures
The characters are overstyled to underline the impression the reader should get about them.
Jamyl Sarum is described as a graceful woman, almost fragile, up to the point where she lifts her aide from the ground, holds her up, shakes her, and then throws her to the floor. A worthy Bud Spencer scene - for the Empress? And it is merely done to underline that she's an "important character," a protagonist. A few pages later, Tibus Heth does exactly the same. He's limping with one lame leg through the factory he just helped take over, he's tired, exhausted. Someone upsets him - he suddenly loses all the tiredness, the lame leg, everything, he lifts the guy up, shakes him in the air, and throws him to the floor. Sound familiar? Yes. He's a protagonist, he apparently needs to be superhuman strong.
On the other hand, characters you are supposed to dislike are similarly "explicit". Some corporation CEO is hiring Gallente prostitutes to "prove" to himself that he's "good", and he tries repeatedly to satisfy all three of them. That also includes one of the probably most awkward sex scenes I know of, where I have no idea why it was included in the detail it was - not enough to count as "porn" and restrict the book to a mature audience, but detailed enough to not need any fantasy for the event. Compare The Burning Life, where sex scenes also happen, but use "fade to black" to leave the details to the reader.
This goes on. You get a diplomat who behaves completly undiplomatically, a Karin Midular who behaves as if she never saw politics before, ... cardboard characters everyhwere with the only features being a few hints to underline what the reader is supposed to think of them.
Deus Ex Machina
One of my biggest issues with the story of the book is the permanent reliance on deus ex machina to solve most plot issues. There is at least one DEM event in almost every chapter I read - something happens, the resolution is difficult, out of nowhere and completely unmotivated, the grand savior appears and solves the issue.
This is best described by the first appearance of The Broker (the personified Deus Ex Machina - it does not confuse me that he's pretty much "the" character of the novel). I tremendously enjoyed the chapters in which Tibus Heth takes over the factory. Those are mostly well-written, logical, and tell a good story.
Tibus Heth rises up with his workers, take over the factory, and at the end, they finally achieve their dream: The factory is theirs! Yay! And then they realize that they don't know what to do next. Now they have what they wanted, but don't know what to do with it. They have the corporation police incoming, a large fleet outside ... they have a problem. They never planned this far. They didn't even believe they'd get this far. That is a great story. It's awesome. I loved it.
But I didn't count on TonyG. Out of nowhere, The Broker shows up, solves all the issues, makes Tibus the boss of the corporation and a few others. And to kick the reader in the teeth about having completely screwed up a really nice plot, he does a spiderman/terminator mix and completely needlessly jumps into molden steel with the seemingly only reason being a somewhat shortened travel time.
A scene I can only assume is there because "woah, that's COOL". No, it's not. It's ridiculous.
This then just goes on. A completely undiplomatic diplomat gets taken by some Mysterious Person that comes out of nowhere to the Elders who came out of nowhere (Elder ex Machina), the Empress who comes out of nowhere, etc. etc. etc.
Story Type
The other problem I have with the book is the story it tells. It's not an EVE story. I stopped reading the book as an EVE book after a few dozen pages, and read it as a sci fi book. To me, it's absolutely inappropriate to the EVE world.
Epic Heroes
The book tells an epic tale of universe-shattering magnitude about great heroes.
But what I like about EVE is that there are no epic heroes. I like the dark world where no one is in power, where no one is really in control - everyone is a victim of impersonal forces, has constraints and necessities they just can't circumvent, and even the people with the best intentions are driven to do cruel things, just by following the best intentions.
Even capsuleers, the immortals, the highest beings in the world, are just cogs in the machine, victims of impersonal powers greater than themselves.
Empyrean Age (and Theodicy) does the exact opposite of this kind of story. It's full of epic heroes who are better than anyone else, who are not subject to bad restrictions. Like The Broker who knows everything and can control everything.
Shades of Grey
Next, I love the EVE story because there is no clearcut good and evil. At best, you have only evil. But really, it's shades of grey. The Amarr clearly aren't "the nice guys", but neither are the Minmatar. Minmatar are tribals with quite cruel rituals and treatment of each other. A lot of slaves live a good life, but in the Republic, they often starve.
The Gallente, the shining beacons of democracy, are cruel bastards of public games and mob control. I loved the chronicle about the execution of a traitor, because that's just what I want Gallente to be: Not the good guys, but people who are differently bad.
There is no "right" in this universe, there are only different kinds of "wrong."
Not so in Empyrean Age (and Theodicy), even though he tries. The Amarr are really evil. Tibus Heth is the really good guy - he tries to somewhat make him a dictator, but at least in the first 127 pages, he's the paragon of the caring leader, rescuing his people out of bad situations, risking his life to save some irrelevant worker... (I hope this gets better later)
But this is typical for TonyG if you look at Theodicy. It's the only story in EVE that introduces "the dark jovians" who are behind everything. That's a boring plot. The big conspiracy behind every negative thing is boring to me.
Prime Fiction, Prime Schmiction
Like Theodicy, Empyrean Age runs havoc over existing prime fiction. The ideas about cloning in the book have been discussed in this forum already. There are a number of such occurances. CCP PF is by far not consistent and contradiction-free, but few people created so many contradictions as TonyG - all in the name of writing a "good story", failing at it, and all of them introduced completely needlessly.
Needless Plots
Like with the Deus ex Machina, TonyG has a tendency to pull completely exaggerated plots out of the sleeve for no reason whatsoever.
As a good example of needless stories, take the Elders and Jamyl.
The Republic has been diverting funds to build a fleet against the Empire. That's a great plotline. Whether it's Midular who has been doing this in secret and hiding it with her appeasement politics, or whether it had been Shakor who did it in secret using Midular as a puppet doesn't matter. You can build great plots of political intrigue, of coup d'etat, or half a dozen other possibilities just with this.
But that's not enough for TonyG. He has to bring up "the Elders", mystical beings who are somehow larger than life, totally forgotten, and suddenly coming back. No one believes that THE ELDERS! have returned, but everyone knows them (except for all the player Minmatar, who suddenly, during DT, "remember" them). There has been no mention of Elders before in PF, they were created just for this. And I don't see why.
Jamyl comes back from the dead. I actually liked this, as it picks up an old PF plot of the succession trials. But instead of making a really nice story about the Empire having a strong controversy on Jamyl having done clear heresy, she whips out Doomsday Ex Machina, safes the Empire from the otherwise unstoppable Elder fleet with a single shot, and everyone loves her all of a sudden.
There was no reason to invent the doomsday device there, either. To use the ancient terran superweapon, TonyG not only had to come up with the weapon in the first place and a reason as to why no one so far has found and used it, but also why no one will use it in the future - because this weapon clearly is infinitely more powerful than anything other nations have.
The story could have been told easily without any of this. The Minmatar could have created this fleet without any mystical Elders, and the Amarr could have fought them back without the need for a superweapon. So why does he have to come up with these? No reason other than "but it's a great story" - and no, it isn't.
The Burning Life
Some words on TBL, just to show the contrast here.
Contrary to EA, I enjoyed TBL a lot. But not because the writing style is tremendously good. The style is actually not that impressive for a book. The characters have some awesome ideas (<3 the psychic wreck of an agent because they send people to kill thousands every day), but they stick to the few good ideas - I sometimes miss the coherent whole. And the overall plot of the book is pretty bad. Also, roughly half through the book, you notice that the author was running out of time. The story sounds hastened, as if he needed to get done with it. The difference between the beginning and the last third is pretty strong.
All in all, it's quite obviously an attempt to show every other faction in the universe, and it does a good job at that, but it's not a good book as far as books go.
Still, I enjoyed it a lot. It has really nice ideas, and it excels at conveying the atmosphere I enjoy so much about the EVE.
Empyrean Age is a bad book, and it doesn't even convey the nice atmosphere I enjoy in EVE so much.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 29, 2012
Tony Gonzales continues the story of EVE. The portal that transported humanity to another galaxy and then closed to strand them there.
At once a political thriller as much as a space opera this is the story of the ongoing power struggle between the various tribes of humanity. Co existance is fragile between them and although everyone is in their place everyone is not happy.
Fighting amongst the various civilizations is led by immortals, a crazed trillionaire, a resurrected goddess, the founders who represent the original seven tribes and a down on his luck terrorist who attains vast power quickly.
To those not happy with their lot in life all the factors of unhappiness are about to collide led by their respective representative.
Mixed in with the political machinations is a religious over tone and zealotry.
This is a rousing adventure painted on a large canvas with bigger than life evil and goodness.
Recommended
At once a political thriller as much as a space opera this is the story of the ongoing power struggle between the various tribes of humanity. Co existance is fragile between them and although everyone is in their place everyone is not happy.
Fighting amongst the various civilizations is led by immortals, a crazed trillionaire, a resurrected goddess, the founders who represent the original seven tribes and a down on his luck terrorist who attains vast power quickly.
To those not happy with their lot in life all the factors of unhappiness are about to collide led by their respective representative.
Mixed in with the political machinations is a religious over tone and zealotry.
This is a rousing adventure painted on a large canvas with bigger than life evil and goodness.
Recommended
November 23, 2009
This book is the ultimate space-opera. Gonzales succeeded in not only weaving an impossible-to-put-down tale spawned from the EVE universe, but also providing us with unforgettable, painfully human characters. Unimaginable calamities and hardships befall them seemingly at every turn, but the book never seems contrived, and Gonzales is a master at making these characters come to life. Despite the non-stop action, I kept reading because I truly cared about what happened to these people. Be prepared: the ending is emotional and this isn't a feel-good book. As for structure, it can be compared to a Clancy novel in the way that it spawns multiple, seemingly unrelated plots and somehow ties them all together in the end. Gonzales has what it takes and more. Highly recommended!
January 13, 2010
I've been playing Eve Online for a while now. When you log in there is generally fiction regarding the goings on of the universe intermixed with news of player created events. That and some of the character creation background info is as much attention as I payed to the mythology of the game.
This book is written by the guy who helped create that mythology. It was very neat reading about ships, places, and even some characters I've encountered while playing. It was also nice to get a bigger picture of the mythology of the game. Was a good fast read as well.
This book is written by the guy who helped create that mythology. It was very neat reading about ships, places, and even some characters I've encountered while playing. It was also nice to get a bigger picture of the mythology of the game. Was a good fast read as well.
September 1, 2023
I’m afraid I am DNFing this at about 100 pages in. It’s not a bad book but it’s just not gripping me and making me want to read more. I think if I had played the game it might be a better read as the author doesn’t get you to care that much about anything.
You get hit early on with a few pages worth of info dumps explaining governments, races, politics and a bit of general background to the world but it’s just not done well and it’s, well…info dumpy. The author hasn’t got me invested in anything or anyone at this point and then bam, I get shat on by all these words and I’m asking the book why should I care about this backstory?
I also found the difference between each race not very distinct or memorable, again partly due to the info dumps lacking any excitement. Also the characters weren’t very memorable from chapter to chapter either.
But it’s not a bad book so far. There’s interesting politics happening and each location/POV has something good going on. The factory worker rebellion and the space looter crew were both interesting setups. But it’s just not drawing me in and making me want to pick up the book and steam through. I don’t want to waste my time and I’ve got so many other things I’d rather read.
You get hit early on with a few pages worth of info dumps explaining governments, races, politics and a bit of general background to the world but it’s just not done well and it’s, well…info dumpy. The author hasn’t got me invested in anything or anyone at this point and then bam, I get shat on by all these words and I’m asking the book why should I care about this backstory?
I also found the difference between each race not very distinct or memorable, again partly due to the info dumps lacking any excitement. Also the characters weren’t very memorable from chapter to chapter either.
But it’s not a bad book so far. There’s interesting politics happening and each location/POV has something good going on. The factory worker rebellion and the space looter crew were both interesting setups. But it’s just not drawing me in and making me want to pick up the book and steam through. I don’t want to waste my time and I’ve got so many other things I’d rather read.
August 9, 2024
The story starts out incredibly strong with some of the most memorable science fiction I have ever read. The first quarter of this book is incredibly difficult to drop the book and for this reason alone it is worth the time. One thing is clear though, is the story is often put in second place behind the plot by the end of the novel. I understand the author and CCP games have a specific agenda with this book which is to set up the majority of setting for the MMO Eve Online. Even so, I think the story would have benefitted from a more small scale and personal approach to the characters and setting in the latter parts of the book. The setups at the end weren't as satisfactory because by the end we had lost the majority of our main characters in favor of lesser known characters and their arcs. Still a fantastic Sci-fi with jaw-dropping world building. 7/10
December 15, 2014
You can read the full review over at my blog:
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...
I’ve long wanted to play EVE Online, a game that many friends over the years have recommended to me on various levels, but I’ve never been able to get around to it. The expansive scope of the game, the concept, the visuals, the mechanics, everything is very intriguing and compelling, and any time I come across something to do with EVE Online, I get a hankering to play the game. But sadly, no time for a game requiring as much investment in time and effort as EVE. That’s actually one of the reasons I stopped playing World of WarCraft a few years back, to my continuing regret since I still have a great amount of nostalgia for that game, which I try to get around by reading the books that are published, which is where EVE: The Empyrean Age comes in.
From a bit of googling I did a while back, EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales is a tie-in to the EVE Online expansion The Empyrean Age. In it, the writer covers the rise of the Caldari Providence Directorate, the return of the Minmitari Elders, the return of Jamyl Sarum to the Amarr Empire, the fall of CONCORD (in a way), and several other things besides. Since I know very little of the world of EVE Online, I was initially wrong-footed by the novel, but as the pages went by, I discovered a riveting tale of interstellar politics and wars and economics that really drew me in and instilled in me a fascination for all sorts of EVE lore, making it one of the best novels I’ve read this year, even though it wasn’t published in 2014.
One of the basic concepts behind the narrative of EVE: The Empyrean Age is that of the empyreans, or capsuleers. These are people who have chosen immortality through cloning and genetic engineering, so that they live on long past the moment of their death. In the world of EVE, many of the highest-ranking officials, whether in the various governments or the militaries or private individuals, have gone for this technology, which allows them to wake up inside their CRU chambers a few moments after their death, with all their memories and personalities intact in their body. As a character remarks in the final pages of the novel, the current age is that of the empyreans, for they shall hold sway over all of New Eden.
Initially, I was confused by a lot of things that are happening, since we are kind of dropped in the middle of it all as a capsuleer named Falek Grange, a high-ranking noble of the Amarr Empire, is systematically murdered about a military vessel, alongwith all the different copies of his… clones elsewhere in New Eden. This sets in motion some really big events, as we begin to see how the web of politics all across New Eden begins to fracture. Falek Grange’s death is the first of these cracks as, on the other side of the known space, labour riots on a Caldari manufacturing world lead to massive changes in the government of the Caldari Republic and as in another corner the Minmitari Republic itself begins to fracture.
Suffice to say that Tony Gonzales has one hell of a task here, to cover all the different power-players of New Eden, whether individuals or institutions alike, and he does an admirable job in the end, stringing it all together towards an awesome and exciting conclusion that really has you on the edge of your seat. His pacing can be pretty brutal at times, but that is just as well since it reflects the events happening in New Eden, each of which segues into the other in a long chain of events that mark a major shift in the status quo of the known space.
http://sonsofcorax.wordpress.com/2014...
I’ve long wanted to play EVE Online, a game that many friends over the years have recommended to me on various levels, but I’ve never been able to get around to it. The expansive scope of the game, the concept, the visuals, the mechanics, everything is very intriguing and compelling, and any time I come across something to do with EVE Online, I get a hankering to play the game. But sadly, no time for a game requiring as much investment in time and effort as EVE. That’s actually one of the reasons I stopped playing World of WarCraft a few years back, to my continuing regret since I still have a great amount of nostalgia for that game, which I try to get around by reading the books that are published, which is where EVE: The Empyrean Age comes in.
From a bit of googling I did a while back, EVE: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales is a tie-in to the EVE Online expansion The Empyrean Age. In it, the writer covers the rise of the Caldari Providence Directorate, the return of the Minmitari Elders, the return of Jamyl Sarum to the Amarr Empire, the fall of CONCORD (in a way), and several other things besides. Since I know very little of the world of EVE Online, I was initially wrong-footed by the novel, but as the pages went by, I discovered a riveting tale of interstellar politics and wars and economics that really drew me in and instilled in me a fascination for all sorts of EVE lore, making it one of the best novels I’ve read this year, even though it wasn’t published in 2014.
One of the basic concepts behind the narrative of EVE: The Empyrean Age is that of the empyreans, or capsuleers. These are people who have chosen immortality through cloning and genetic engineering, so that they live on long past the moment of their death. In the world of EVE, many of the highest-ranking officials, whether in the various governments or the militaries or private individuals, have gone for this technology, which allows them to wake up inside their CRU chambers a few moments after their death, with all their memories and personalities intact in their body. As a character remarks in the final pages of the novel, the current age is that of the empyreans, for they shall hold sway over all of New Eden.
Initially, I was confused by a lot of things that are happening, since we are kind of dropped in the middle of it all as a capsuleer named Falek Grange, a high-ranking noble of the Amarr Empire, is systematically murdered about a military vessel, alongwith all the different copies of his… clones elsewhere in New Eden. This sets in motion some really big events, as we begin to see how the web of politics all across New Eden begins to fracture. Falek Grange’s death is the first of these cracks as, on the other side of the known space, labour riots on a Caldari manufacturing world lead to massive changes in the government of the Caldari Republic and as in another corner the Minmitari Republic itself begins to fracture.
Suffice to say that Tony Gonzales has one hell of a task here, to cover all the different power-players of New Eden, whether individuals or institutions alike, and he does an admirable job in the end, stringing it all together towards an awesome and exciting conclusion that really has you on the edge of your seat. His pacing can be pretty brutal at times, but that is just as well since it reflects the events happening in New Eden, each of which segues into the other in a long chain of events that mark a major shift in the status quo of the known space.
February 12, 2009
First off - if you're reading this to get a better idea of the EVE universe (which is based on an MMORPG), then this book is not a bad start. I'd suggest that you get familiar with the basic backstory of EVE first (wormhole, the collapse of the EVE gate, etc.), before fully diving in.
As for the book itself - very well written. Clean, sharp, and precise (in my opinion). While it didn't get into all of the "meatiness" of EVE that I would prefer, that's a sharp bias I have because I play the actual game, and don't we all want to see things that we can personally identify with?
I give it four stars instead of five because while the plot, character, and elements were all good, there were certain parts that felt underserved. The Gallente side of the story is one such example. There also wasn't enough, in my opinion, enough exploration of some of the major movers in the EVE universe, such as the Empress Jamyl, or Tibus Heth. While I enjoyed seeing Otro Gariushi in action again, I feel he was the most developed character there but again, that's a bias because I play the game and I've read all the EVE Chronicles on the website.
Another issue that they didn't go into, which I wish they had and they had a great opportunity to do so, were the issues around which some of the major EVE conflicts revolve around: racial discrimination, slavery, prejudice, the ethics of being a capsuleer, the trials of being a ruler... so many issues that could have been looked at in more depth.
While I appreciate that this book is supposed to be science fiction, it is set in a realm that has so much more to offer. To see what I mean, check out some of the Chronicles on the website - some of them are simply amazing reads, and they have almost nothing to do with the science-fiction nature of the setting. I just hope that the next book, written by CCP Abraxas (an employee of the company that makes/runs the game), can delve more into such issues.
The greatest science fiction is really writing about solid issues wrapped in a veneer of science, technology, and conflict (Heinlein, Herbert, Dick, et al.).
As for the book itself - very well written. Clean, sharp, and precise (in my opinion). While it didn't get into all of the "meatiness" of EVE that I would prefer, that's a sharp bias I have because I play the actual game, and don't we all want to see things that we can personally identify with?
I give it four stars instead of five because while the plot, character, and elements were all good, there were certain parts that felt underserved. The Gallente side of the story is one such example. There also wasn't enough, in my opinion, enough exploration of some of the major movers in the EVE universe, such as the Empress Jamyl, or Tibus Heth. While I enjoyed seeing Otro Gariushi in action again, I feel he was the most developed character there but again, that's a bias because I play the game and I've read all the EVE Chronicles on the website.
Another issue that they didn't go into, which I wish they had and they had a great opportunity to do so, were the issues around which some of the major EVE conflicts revolve around: racial discrimination, slavery, prejudice, the ethics of being a capsuleer, the trials of being a ruler... so many issues that could have been looked at in more depth.
While I appreciate that this book is supposed to be science fiction, it is set in a realm that has so much more to offer. To see what I mean, check out some of the Chronicles on the website - some of them are simply amazing reads, and they have almost nothing to do with the science-fiction nature of the setting. I just hope that the next book, written by CCP Abraxas (an employee of the company that makes/runs the game), can delve more into such issues.
The greatest science fiction is really writing about solid issues wrapped in a veneer of science, technology, and conflict (Heinlein, Herbert, Dick, et al.).
March 25, 2010
I liked the book a lot, I also play the game EVE Online MMORPG, the world/setting which the stories takes place in. I also think one needs to read up a bit on the world and its canon to really understand the whole story properly. Playing the actual game makes it a bit more easy as well.
While I enjoyed the book a lot, there were moments when the writing wasn't really up to par and bits that seemed somehow unrelated. Unrelated things made more sense later on, when the events in the book connected with events in the game (this was well AFTER the book was released, during and after the "Empyrean Age" expansion of the game).
The big achievement here, for me, was tying the book and the game canon together, so that they coincided with the big events within the world. You saw the news and read of the cataclysmic events within the game world, then realized you had read what happened behind the scenes in the book. Adding several layers of depth into the world and giving the stories in the book new meanings.
Some free online reading, related to the world and canon of New Eden/EVE Online:
- Backstory: EVE - Exodus
- EVE Chronicles
- Short Stories
One should also see the website Navi/Menu on the left, EVE ONLINE -> BACKSTORY -> "Races" and "Organizations" for even more information.
While I enjoyed the book a lot, there were moments when the writing wasn't really up to par and bits that seemed somehow unrelated. Unrelated things made more sense later on, when the events in the book connected with events in the game (this was well AFTER the book was released, during and after the "Empyrean Age" expansion of the game).
The big achievement here, for me, was tying the book and the game canon together, so that they coincided with the big events within the world. You saw the news and read of the cataclysmic events within the game world, then realized you had read what happened behind the scenes in the book. Adding several layers of depth into the world and giving the stories in the book new meanings.
Some free online reading, related to the world and canon of New Eden/EVE Online:
- Backstory: EVE - Exodus
- EVE Chronicles
- Short Stories
One should also see the website Navi/Menu on the left, EVE ONLINE -> BACKSTORY -> "Races" and "Organizations" for even more information.
June 12, 2011
Most important thing to get it out of the way as soon as possible: this is a book based on a MMO game, Eve Online.
Having said that, I must also mention that it's not half bad, unlike some other, um, book-like products out there in the market :) Yes, it helps a lot to know the basic facts about Eve Online, Yes, the wording is sometimes coarse and hard on the eyes. Despite that, I think the novel captures nicely the day-to-day events of Eve universum - wars are made, plots are being schemed, unexpected happens with surprising punctuality :D I enjoyed that book - gave me a lot of new information on how things work behind the scenes in Eve. And as a book on its own, it's not horrible either. The plotline is kind of cut at the end (no definitive resolution) but I believe it's deliberate - after all, it's seldom in world full of politics that things end up for good.
Having said that, I must also mention that it's not half bad, unlike some other, um, book-like products out there in the market :) Yes, it helps a lot to know the basic facts about Eve Online, Yes, the wording is sometimes coarse and hard on the eyes. Despite that, I think the novel captures nicely the day-to-day events of Eve universum - wars are made, plots are being schemed, unexpected happens with surprising punctuality :D I enjoyed that book - gave me a lot of new information on how things work behind the scenes in Eve. And as a book on its own, it's not horrible either. The plotline is kind of cut at the end (no definitive resolution) but I believe it's deliberate - after all, it's seldom in world full of politics that things end up for good.
October 20, 2009
Being sufficiently out of the loop, I had never heard of EVE Online, an apparently popular online game. So I'm not sure how the novel--by the company's director of intellectual property--relates to the game. On its own merits, it's a well-realized world with nicely complex politics. The characters were distinctively drawn, although sometimes their backstories were pretty sketchy and occasionally their actions felt entirely subservient to plot, rather than character. Overall, a ripping space opera yarn.
February 4, 2011
I really enjoyed reading this book and playing the game. Tony Gonzales does a great job of drawing you into the EVE Online world and making you feel like you are adventuring just as you imagined when you were in the game blasting pirates and trading goods. He captures the corporation and race struggle brilliantly. Five stars.
December 10, 2010
Well written. Well crafted world. Interesting. Good politics and characters. But something about it turned me off. It was almost on edgy in your face book just to be that way. Violent to be violent. Harsh to show harshness. Not anything that advanced the plot. Not sure if I will continue with the series.
October 7, 2014
A tough one to get through. Way too much political intricacy confusion. I have no knowledge of the game "Eve", and didn't know it even existed until reading a review after completing this book. Had I known this was an attempt to relate to a game world I would never have begun the disappointing journey of getting to the end.
September 18, 2020
Eve-Online Canon.
If you play Eve-Online then you'll like this book. It fills in a lot of the story lines between the news articles and the chronicles. Explains the rise of Tibus Heth, Empress Jamyl Sarum, the Minmatar Tribes and the cause of the current state of war in New Eden.
If you play Eve-Online then you'll like this book. It fills in a lot of the story lines between the news articles and the chronicles. Explains the rise of Tibus Heth, Empress Jamyl Sarum, the Minmatar Tribes and the cause of the current state of war in New Eden.
July 8, 2010
I couldn't bring myself to finish this book or even skip to the end to see what happened.
February 27, 2011
Great book, entertaining, and I am not saying this only because it is on the same universe of this PC game that I play.
Very well done story, great conspiracy, great fight scenes
Very well done story, great conspiracy, great fight scenes
June 8, 2016
If you would ask me what I like most about EvE Online, I would say its seafaring aspects. Even though it might deal with spaceships, at its heart it is a game that has far more in common with The Old Man and the Sea than it does with Star Wars. EvE is all about the lone captain and his craft, out to score a big fish in a very large, very dangerous stellar ocean. Unfortunately, Tony Gonzales’ EVE: The Empyrean Age ultimately fails to capture that essence for more than a brief moment.
The book starts out promising enough by introducing the reader to the crew of Retford, your classic hardscrabble salvager, crewed by a bunch of outcasts and misfits desperate to make some ISK to keep the ship running for one more day. This, to me, is the essence of EvE Online. The book keeps this narrative thread for the first few chapters, inviting the reader to tag along as Retford makes a big discovery while salvaging a wreck and then has to hightail it to hide out in some of the less reputable parts of New Eden, including the requisite smoke-filled space station tavern. All good. All suitably EvE Online.
Unfortunately, Gonzales seems to lose interest in this story and instead switches gears and starts unfurling a tale of high level space opera politics, one involving a four way grudge match between EvE Online’s four principle races. While I do recognize the necessity of introducing an EvE-ignorant reader to New Eden’s political backstory, and while it is true that the political power-plays underway in New Eden are relevant to the story of Retford, I didn’t – and still don’t – see the need to devote the majority of the book to it. And that is what Gonzales ultimately does: he allots almost all of his energy detailing a very complex, yet very contrived, tale of four empires on the verge of all out war. Unfortunately, for me anyway, this loses the essence of EvE, especially when most of the book seems to take place not on the ships that will need to fight this war – which might have proved interesting – but planetside, where high level political and economic meetings, and covert ops / racial rabble-rousing steal a good part of the spotlight. I find this ironic since EvE Online’s players cannot interact with planets except in the most abstract way.
Speaking of the four empires, I found Gonzales’ portrayal of them to be surprisingly black and white. The Gallente and Minmatar are your typical good guys wearing big white hats, while the Amarr and Caldari possess everything but the big black mustache and cannonball bomb with burning fuse. The Amarr, of course, are your proto-typical religious fanatics – well, sort of, as it seems only the mindless masses are true believers, while the powers that be secretly scoff at their faith and worship at the altar of Science! (with a big S and an exclamation point), gluttony, sexual perversion, and political power, of course (did Karl Marx write this?). The Caldari, on the other hand, are your proto-typical capitalists run amok, working their people to death while living the high life in opulent corporate offices (again, did Karl Marx write this?). If these two races – both of which I prefer to play in the game, so color me biased – needed to be the bad guys, couldn’t Gonzales have come up with something more original than this silly and cliched Hollywood portrayal? Quite frankly, I would expect something more from a guy with a BA in Political Science.
The dialogue also left something to be desired. I appreciate the fact that Gonzales set out to write a dark and suitably serious novel for such a dark and serious game, but unfortunately he chose to do it in the Hollywood way of throwing in a bunch of needless profanity and sex. While the sex was relatively infrequent, the profanity was profuse…and annoying. I mean, I expect sailors to swear like sailors…but prime ministers and presidents? Really? And I’m not talking about some sort of hoity-toity swearing either (is there such a thing?), but school yard profanity. It just seemed silly and out of place for the most part.
Then there is the shouting – oh, the shouting! It’s no wonder New Eden is such a violent place when everyone is hollering at each other for reasons that are never quite clear. In fact, it sort of reminded me of the race from Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Remember the one that liked to write bad screenplays where the main characters would just glare at each other for minutes at a time? Same thing goin' on here, but a lot louder. Like the swearing, it all becomes silly and tedious after a while.
While all of this is annoying, for me the biggest disappointment of the book is how Gonzales never really digs into the core concept of what is means to be a capsuleer, which, of course, is the player’s sole role in EvE Online. While Gonzales does provide a sketchy backstory of how they came to be, and does a decent job of bringing these “immortals” elite status to light by conveying the sense of fear and awe people exhibit when meeting one, he never answers some basic questions that have been puzzling me since day one. For example, how does one becomes a capsuleer? Do you have to be rich? Politically connected? Brilliant? Have a high metachlorian count? What is the training like? Are there any obligations to the state? Not only are these questions never really explored, in some ways the book muddies the water even more because I always assumed that if you could pilot a starship, you were a capsuleer. Nope. At least in these pages, there are plenty of pilots who are not capsuleers. So…what’s the distinction? We never find out, which is a travesty.
This is not to say the book is all bad. The best part of the book is the last hundred pages or so where the various factions all come to blows. Gonzales does a good job of bringing the war to life from multiple viewpoints, however, once again, most of the action seems to be focused on planetary assaults and not on the detailed fleet maneuverings you would expect (maybe this book was written as a tease for DUST 514?). But, again, there is some annoyance here too as the war is over before it really begins, leaving a lot of unanswered questions in its wake, the biggest of which is: why did Gonzales devote so little time to the best part of the story?!?
Overall, EVE: The Empyrean Age is a decent book. Sure, I have my gripes with it, but as game tie-ins go, it was tolerable. However, if I were to summarize all my gripes into a single observation, it would be this: after finishing the book (actually, while reading the last few pages, particularly after Gonzales described a really cool orbital bombardment), I ran off and booted up a game. What game was that? It wasn’t EvE Online. It was Sins of a Solar Empire.
What more needs to be said?
The book starts out promising enough by introducing the reader to the crew of Retford, your classic hardscrabble salvager, crewed by a bunch of outcasts and misfits desperate to make some ISK to keep the ship running for one more day. This, to me, is the essence of EvE Online. The book keeps this narrative thread for the first few chapters, inviting the reader to tag along as Retford makes a big discovery while salvaging a wreck and then has to hightail it to hide out in some of the less reputable parts of New Eden, including the requisite smoke-filled space station tavern. All good. All suitably EvE Online.
Unfortunately, Gonzales seems to lose interest in this story and instead switches gears and starts unfurling a tale of high level space opera politics, one involving a four way grudge match between EvE Online’s four principle races. While I do recognize the necessity of introducing an EvE-ignorant reader to New Eden’s political backstory, and while it is true that the political power-plays underway in New Eden are relevant to the story of Retford, I didn’t – and still don’t – see the need to devote the majority of the book to it. And that is what Gonzales ultimately does: he allots almost all of his energy detailing a very complex, yet very contrived, tale of four empires on the verge of all out war. Unfortunately, for me anyway, this loses the essence of EvE, especially when most of the book seems to take place not on the ships that will need to fight this war – which might have proved interesting – but planetside, where high level political and economic meetings, and covert ops / racial rabble-rousing steal a good part of the spotlight. I find this ironic since EvE Online’s players cannot interact with planets except in the most abstract way.
Speaking of the four empires, I found Gonzales’ portrayal of them to be surprisingly black and white. The Gallente and Minmatar are your typical good guys wearing big white hats, while the Amarr and Caldari possess everything but the big black mustache and cannonball bomb with burning fuse. The Amarr, of course, are your proto-typical religious fanatics – well, sort of, as it seems only the mindless masses are true believers, while the powers that be secretly scoff at their faith and worship at the altar of Science! (with a big S and an exclamation point), gluttony, sexual perversion, and political power, of course (did Karl Marx write this?). The Caldari, on the other hand, are your proto-typical capitalists run amok, working their people to death while living the high life in opulent corporate offices (again, did Karl Marx write this?). If these two races – both of which I prefer to play in the game, so color me biased – needed to be the bad guys, couldn’t Gonzales have come up with something more original than this silly and cliched Hollywood portrayal? Quite frankly, I would expect something more from a guy with a BA in Political Science.
The dialogue also left something to be desired. I appreciate the fact that Gonzales set out to write a dark and suitably serious novel for such a dark and serious game, but unfortunately he chose to do it in the Hollywood way of throwing in a bunch of needless profanity and sex. While the sex was relatively infrequent, the profanity was profuse…and annoying. I mean, I expect sailors to swear like sailors…but prime ministers and presidents? Really? And I’m not talking about some sort of hoity-toity swearing either (is there such a thing?), but school yard profanity. It just seemed silly and out of place for the most part.
Then there is the shouting – oh, the shouting! It’s no wonder New Eden is such a violent place when everyone is hollering at each other for reasons that are never quite clear. In fact, it sort of reminded me of the race from Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Remember the one that liked to write bad screenplays where the main characters would just glare at each other for minutes at a time? Same thing goin' on here, but a lot louder. Like the swearing, it all becomes silly and tedious after a while.
While all of this is annoying, for me the biggest disappointment of the book is how Gonzales never really digs into the core concept of what is means to be a capsuleer, which, of course, is the player’s sole role in EvE Online. While Gonzales does provide a sketchy backstory of how they came to be, and does a decent job of bringing these “immortals” elite status to light by conveying the sense of fear and awe people exhibit when meeting one, he never answers some basic questions that have been puzzling me since day one. For example, how does one becomes a capsuleer? Do you have to be rich? Politically connected? Brilliant? Have a high metachlorian count? What is the training like? Are there any obligations to the state? Not only are these questions never really explored, in some ways the book muddies the water even more because I always assumed that if you could pilot a starship, you were a capsuleer. Nope. At least in these pages, there are plenty of pilots who are not capsuleers. So…what’s the distinction? We never find out, which is a travesty.
This is not to say the book is all bad. The best part of the book is the last hundred pages or so where the various factions all come to blows. Gonzales does a good job of bringing the war to life from multiple viewpoints, however, once again, most of the action seems to be focused on planetary assaults and not on the detailed fleet maneuverings you would expect (maybe this book was written as a tease for DUST 514?). But, again, there is some annoyance here too as the war is over before it really begins, leaving a lot of unanswered questions in its wake, the biggest of which is: why did Gonzales devote so little time to the best part of the story?!?
Overall, EVE: The Empyrean Age is a decent book. Sure, I have my gripes with it, but as game tie-ins go, it was tolerable. However, if I were to summarize all my gripes into a single observation, it would be this: after finishing the book (actually, while reading the last few pages, particularly after Gonzales described a really cool orbital bombardment), I ran off and booted up a game. What game was that? It wasn’t EvE Online. It was Sins of a Solar Empire.
What more needs to be said?
January 9, 2020
As a science fiction epic, this is good. As an addition to the EVE canon, this is... well, actually I don't know what this is. I read about EVE on Wikipedia but I've never played it and never been interested in doing so. I guess that leaves me with the sci-fi then.
The writer hold this book together pretty well. I mean, there's a lot to the universe that this game comes from, and it seems to me that all if it's is represented here. At times it is complicated, but it's comprehensible (apart from the ending).
Read this if you either like EVE or if you like a good, long space-war-yarn. Avoid it if you like romantic comedies.
The writer hold this book together pretty well. I mean, there's a lot to the universe that this game comes from, and it seems to me that all if it's is represented here. At times it is complicated, but it's comprehensible (apart from the ending).
Read this if you either like EVE or if you like a good, long space-war-yarn. Avoid it if you like romantic comedies.
January 20, 2024
I thought the first third or so of this book was ok, but it picked up a lot as it went and I was really enjoying it by the end. The author did a great job expanding on Eve's universe in a way that was believable and human. As the whole game is viewed from the eyes of capsuleers, it's always interesting seeing stories surrounding the "regular" people in New Eden, and just how dark a lot of that universe is. On that note I liked how the author didn't shy away from being graphic at times but also didn't overdo it.
August 29, 2018
This book would make a lot more sense with an appendix outlining each race and how the characters lined up. Never heard of the game before, just thought it sounded like an interesting sci-fi book. But the sheer number of characters and the various names of each race made it a confusing read. Even so, not entirely bad.
April 6, 2019
Not bad writing, but the story took quite a long time to get it all together so that it could spend the last 20% doing all the action. There are a lot of players here, and it's a bit hard to keep them all straight. In the end though, not interesting enough to keep me hooked for any others in the series.
August 19, 2019
Sometimes gruesome, a little disturbing, and loaded with technical specifications. I really enjoyed the world building, but it was challenging to keep track of all the characters and locations. I'm vacillating between a rating of 3 or 4 because I thought the writing was very good, but I struggled with the technical descriptions. So, 3.5 stars, I guess?
September 8, 2020
Four stars if you are a player or fan of EVE:Online. Otherwise.... you’re going to be lost in whirlwinds of missing context.
As it was written over a decade ago, it is almost historical but provides a rich look into some of the fabric that provides the basis for the alternate universe the game brings to life.
As it was written over a decade ago, it is almost historical but provides a rich look into some of the fabric that provides the basis for the alternate universe the game brings to life.
December 17, 2017
a little too complicated...fewer, well developed characters and storytelling would have been better. And a sexually violent scene was unnecessary to the plot and seemed to be there just for its own sake.
April 5, 2021
A great read. Adrenalin fuelled start with a bit of a dip in the middle as the different strands seem to float with no clear direction and then finally converge resulting in an awesome and action packed conclusion of galactic magnitude. A captivating writing style and a definite thumbs up from me
December 23, 2023
Try as I might, I just could not get into this book. I found myself getting lost in who was doing what. Some kind of person/creature is manipulating politics among planets and populations, to get access to a drug that will correct DNA in its clones. It causes wars. It was all very confusing to me.
September 10, 2017
Lots of races with lots of politics and a wide open ending.
July 20, 2018
I will get back to the review of this book later, I am at the moment filtering things through...
August 2, 2018
Eve lore
If you have experienced Eve online then you will appreciate the lore written into these novels. It deserves a read.
If you have experienced Eve online then you will appreciate the lore written into these novels. It deserves a read.
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