The Last Watch
The Divide series, Book 1
J. S. Dewes
Tor
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Ever since the last of the xenocidal alien Viators were killed, humans - the last sentient species to survive their relentless onslaught - have been looking over their shoulders, just in case a handful survived in the vast emptiness of space. To that end, they set up the Sentinels, a series of stations and ships along the very edge of the universe, the Divide between existence and nonexistence. It is from here that many believe the aliens originally came, and here they might (theoretically) return.
It is also here, at the literal edge of nowhere, that the System Collective Legion dumps its misfits, malcontents, and other embarrassments, on centuries-old ships with barely enough supplies to survive, let alone endure an attack that is probably never going to come.
Cavalon Mercer, heir to the royal family's ruthless eugenics-based title and industries, never much cared for his grandfather's extreme plans for humanity's future, and let his discontent be known in a manner so outrageous extreme that he's been disowned and banished to a Sentinel ship, the Argus, to die and be forgotten, not necessarily in that order. His cocky attitude and inability to keep his mouth shut when it keeps digging him in deeper holes isn't going to do him many favors here, but it's not like he has anything to look forward to anyway. Then he meets the Argus's captain, Adequin Rake, a former war hero still clinging to the notion that the legion to which she dedicated her life - and which has rewarded her with this humiliation of a posting - is still worth her loyalty.
What was supposed to be a mind-numbing exile suddenly becomes all too eventful, as shortly after Cavalon's arrival, the crew of the Argus find themselves facing internal frictions, the return of old enemies, the fallout of ages of political corruption, and the literal impending collapse of the universe itself. If they survive, they'll find everything they thought they knew turned upside down.
REVIEW: I've been hearing plenty of good things about this space adventure story, so when it became available via Libby I figured I'd give it a try. It happily lives up to its expectations, delivering an adrenaline-filled space opera. The ragtag crew of misfits facing corrupt or nonexistent leadership, forced to bond as they face a common enemy and become what may be humanity's last hope of survival... yes, plenty of familiar tropes are at play, here, but Dewes uses them well, and there's a reason one sees them so often: because they tend to work. The world and history are sketched out in just enough detail to support the story and create the cast of characters with their many flaws and scars, centered largely around the devastating, millennia-old threat of the Viators who nearly wiped out humanity yet whose technology still forms the backbone of civilization, for all that there's much about it and them that people have never truly understood. There's also the all-too-human threats of politics undermining not only the Sentinels but possibly the future of the System Collective... and, of course, that little bit about the potential end of literally everything - and end which, being right at the edge of literally everything, Sentinel ships will be the first to face. But is anyone even listening to them anymore when they call for help, or are they, as more than one person tries to tell Rake, more politically convenient dead than alive? Not that Rake is a rigidly by-the-books sort of leader herself; her loyalty to the Legion may be personal, but she'll defy any order if it means saving her crew, and for them she breaks every rule in the book (and even bends a few rules of physics, which happens with surprising frequency when one's at the dividing line between the universe and whatever lies beyond it). Cavalon, meanwhile, finally discovers a kernel of self-worth under layers of self-loathing and -destruction, and a reason to shape himself up... just as the proverbial waste product strikes the equally proverbial rotary device, and he's forced to step up in ways he never imagined when he first set in motion the little act of rebellion that landed him in the Sentinels to begin with. Things start moving, if not quite from the first page, then not too long afterwards, and keep moving right up to the end, which resolves one immediate crisis and marks a major turning point for Rake, Cavalon, and the other Argus survivors. I'm looking forward to finding out what happens in the next installment; hopefully Libby and the local library system come through sooner rather than later.
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