Book Review: "Eyes of the Void" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
*Spoilers warning!*
4/5 stars
Eyes of the Void, the second book in Adrian Tchaikovsky's "The Final Architecture" series, manages to avoid many of the typical pitfalls of sequel books.
Readers are thrust immediately into the action of an ever-shifting galactic political landscape, rival factions at each other's throats when the larger threat of the Architects becomes as salient as it had during the first conflict. A conflict where humanity was almost wiped out, along with its alien allies.
Except this time, the Architects, moon-sized entities that use gravity to annihilate whole planets, have managed to circumvent the protection of Originator artifacts that spooked them in the last war. (The Originators are an elder race presumed to have left behind their artifacts when they disappeared, along with the Throughways, shortcuts through space that many species use to get to far away destinations quickly.)
You'd think humanity and its alien allies would seek a unified approach to this problem, especially since the scare-factor of the Originator artifacts has worn off. It appears that even the breakaway human religious colonies that joined the protection of the technologically-advanced Hegemony, who have sole dominion over most of the Originator artifacts and can transport them safely, are no longer safe.
Well, to make a long story short, there are powers behind the scenes that are seeing opportunity in the impending destruction and chaos. The more rich and powerful in the human colonies want to start a war with the Parthenon, another breakaway human faction, when tensions between the two parties are at their highest in quite a while. In the chaos, the chosen few humans would become nomadic and forever live on generational arc ships.
Yet, those nominally on the side of a unified front are seeking a new weapon against the Architects.
Among them is our beloved and frankly exhausted Int, Idris Telemmier, capable of interfacing with the Architects and seeing into "unspace," (places where, in theory, nothing made of ordinary matter should be able to exist). Along for the ride is his crew of the salvage ship The Vulture God, led by the new captain, my favorite ever-salty Olli.
When a research expedition on a Hegemony planet known as Arc Pallator goes horribly wrong, Idris is lost to his ship and crew, but lands in the hands of a handful of shady characters on a world named Criccieth's Hell. (Let me tell you, this place is aptly named. A planet, formerly more friendly to life, was stripped of its protective atmospheric layers, leaving it vulnerable to their star's harsh radiation.)
The only things that survive on the surface are these plants that use a process called "nuclear photosynthesis." I guess when life gives you radiactive lemons, you make radioactive lemonade? These are scary, scary things, capable of growing faster than plants should, and are literally trying to pry open this facility, waiting for the shields to fail. (I may or may not have nightmares about these plants.)
Anyways, these renegade scientists have a mysterious Machine of Originator origin that is still up-and-running that can see into unspace, the presumed home of the Architects (it is housed in a facility which is barely holding back the life-killing radiation and plants outside).
Their crew is led by a Naeromathi alien out for revenge against the Architects. (Get this, the alien's name is Ahab, the Architects being his white whale.) They need Idris's Int abilities to interface with unspace and find some critical clue that was missed in the disaster of the Arc Pallator expedition.
Spoiler alert, they do find the key to the universe they are looking for. Of course, I won't spoil what it is, but let's just say all hell breaks loose, and Idris and company is trapped in Criccieth's Hell with time running out to get away and share the game-changing knowledge Idris has gained.
Eyes of the Void is an engaging sequel that ups the ante for what appears to be a last stand of humanity and its alien allies in the next (and final) book. It is a trilogy after all, and the way things stand at the end of Eyes of the Void, it's going to be spectacular I'm sure.
Happy reading!
--BookOwl
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