Dan

I mean, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this, but all the way through it invited comparison with Tom Holt's The Walled Orchard (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1125846.The_Walled_Orchard?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_14). The subject matter (classical Athenian drama and the fallout from Athens' invasion of Syracuse) and the tone (broadly comic but not afraid to delve into the horrors of war and man's cruelty to man) are nigh on identical, and so, much as I liked it, the ghost of Holt* haunted my reading of this.

Also, to put on my classical pedant's hat for a moment, there is one absolute clunker in here early on, when a character refers to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex - rex of course being a Latin word that no Greek** would have used in the 5th century BCE. A contemporary would be much more likely to have called it Oedipus Tyrannos. Or even just Oedipus, as there are suggestions that the Tyrannos part of the title was a retrospective addition once Sophocles had written Oedipus At Colonus, which happened after the events of this book, but that is a pedantry too far even for me.

*he's not dead, as far as I am aware

**yeah, I know

I was a big fan of The Mountain In The Sea, and rated it as one of the most interesting debuts to come along in a while. This one also deals with non-human intelligence, but one closer to today’s headlines. Yes, it’s an AI novel. But what’s most interesting here is the form. It’s told from many different viewpoints, all of whom of have different levels of access to what’s really going on, and it ends up reading like a classic twisty espionage story. More than anything, I was put in mind of Dave Hutchinson’s fantastic Fractured Europe books. And like those, be prepared to be left scratching your head at the end, as you piece together what was really going on. A reread will, I think, throw lots of new perspectives on the novel, but even after a single read through it’s clear Ray Nayler is a hugely promising talent.

Nicely written but way too pleased with itself

These books are a fantasy companion to Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, in that they relatively lowkey (although the stakes do get raised in this one) and the villains are largely kept offstage in favour of spending time with likeable characters who are -shock - nice to each other. These characters are mostly all wounded one way or another and the books have a melancholy air, but they don’t dwell on this darkness. Instead they focus on the importance of consolation and the bonds of friendship (even if Thara is terrible at recognising these latter). Ultimately they speak to what we can be instead of what we so often are, which is needed more than ever these days.

Revenger was one of my favourite Alastair Reynolds books, and I'm glad it is extending to a series. This follows very much in the same vein, although it does dial back a bit on the horror elements, and the POV character has switched to Adrana, the other Ness sister. What is still there is the sense of swashbuckling adventure in an old ancient galaxy, full of secrets and dangers. The universe building is great, and this could end up rivalling the Revelation Space series as my favourite of Reynolds' fictional worlds.

The book does suffer a bit from middle volume syndrome - the mystery of the quoins revealed at the end of the last book is slightly expanded on, but no more than that, and the most exciting thing in the final third of this one is the set up for where the next book is (I presume) going. But to be fair, it's an awesome idea that pushes all of my buttons. Roll on volume three, I want it NOW!

(and maybe while you're waiting you could ponder on exactly who the Shadow Captain is? I can think of at least three options....)