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Simple stories, not ridiculous but almost. Humour quite absent or just not mine. One more to go. 3 stories purely for entertainment purposes, no need for thinking, though Bordage tried to add his classic themes on species, racism, religion.

Reading is slow, due to circumstances. Good story, yet quite dark and depressing. No dramatis personae (badly needed for clarification later on), acronyms not explained (or maybe just once early on). Important: don't interrupt your reading too often, stay focused, or you might get lost.

Reading is slow with this one. I do hope to finish it this year. ;-)

Started reading this back in October 2025, shortly after it came out. But circumstances were soon too unfavourable, so I picked up the book again, restarted it in December. Going smoother now. Wonderfully written, but what a throat-gripping tale. Not something to get happy from, but a clear reflection of the dark side (and resilience) of mankind in situations of social and ecological collapse. Food for present times.

Book 2: started good, even better than the 1st. Takes place 15 years later (you must have read the 1st volume), again focus on our students (now adults). Ismaël is a "Fréquence" (or head of one, like an emperor). Still, some uneven bits, gaps for the reader to fill in. Characters still indistinguishable, no proper personality (to me). Again, not consistent enough to "fully" enjoy the story. 240 pages to go for V2.

First book, Le Melkine, done. 3/5 maximum, only for the setting, ideas, the politics, and pretty accessible writing style. Characters not distinguished enough, serve only to further the story, a lot of background missing to have a proper image of them.

3 stories to go. Yay! Quite a good book so far, nice to be back on Célestopol, despite it being not so pleasant to actually live there. A bit more history and historical characters here, I have the impression, compared to the first "Célestopol" book. So far, so good, even if not every story is as strong as the other, as other readers wrote. But still about 165 pages to go, so let's wait before giving a verdict.

I should have finished this book a few weeks ago, but circumstances weren't favourable to read as much as desired. With 662 pages and a loooot of text, it's obviously taking some time. ;-) Still, I'm liking this quite a lot, even if some parts could have used some truncating.