Status Updates From Aurora Entflammt (The Auror...

...that while not the most in-depth in the world (certainly not up there with The Expanse for instance), does demonstrate a relatively good grasp of space tactics, or at least, conveys the feel of it. I've decried the action in the book up to this, but here, there's more narrative weight to it. So, nice job there.

If I had to rank this book as of how I was feeling about it at this point in time, it would be a 4/5. I know, I'm as surprised as you are, given how lukewarm I was on its predecessor. Still, over the last 80 or so pages, the writing's developed an 'edge' to it, whether it being Tyler's interrogation, Zila's flashbacks, Scar's reflections on her father and the initial war with the syldrathi, or the ship-to-ship combat

Älskar hur rolig den är!

While this is still looking at a 3/5, this is so far better than its predecessor. While there's plenty of shooty shooty bang bang (and the tropes are just as tropey as ever), for whatever reason, I'm not bothered as much by them. Maybe the first book 'inoculated' me to it? Maybe. Still, Scarlett's reflections on her father and the war do lend some gravitas to things.

So how does everyone else function? The GIA for instance - are they just less effective because they need to use cryo for the twenty-somethings and later? Is the Aurora Legion "that good" because of prodigy teens? If so, why aren't other organizations in the galaxy recruiting teens and young adults? Clearly the Cabal isn't. Also, how nice that apparently every species ages the same way. I know, nitpicks, but still...

Short read, can't say much except nitpick. I can't recall if this was specified in the first novel, but apparently FoldSpace starts taking a toll on you post-age 25, hence why the Aurora Legion skews young. From a Doylist sense, I get why - this is YA, it focuses on late teens/early twenties, has to justify why such people are given fancy spacecraft. From a Watsonian sense however...