It would be a good idea to read my
review of ‘Hidden Empire’, the first book in this series,
before starting this, it will save me repeating myself. Find
it here.
It's now five years later. The hydrogues - the
aliens living at the cores of gas giants - have forbidden
the mining of ekti, thus effectively bringing to a near standstill
interstellar travel for humans and Ildirans (a near standstill
because there are reserves and the Roamers continue to risk
their lives to harvest the vital element from gas giants).
King Peter, another in the long line of manufactured
and controlled monarchs, although he has his own ideas about
how the Hanseatic League should be run and is working towards
them - has succeeded King Frederick, who was killed by the
hydrogues.
At the end of book one, the Colicos' discovered
the inter-dimensional transportals ,a method of travelling
from planet to planet instantaneously. This information is
brought back to the Hanseatic League, giving them the means
to re-colonise the worlds discovered by the Klikiss (Wonderful.
More humans spreading their pestilence across the stars, just
what the galaxy needs...) - which now means that ekti is far
less vital to the human race.
Enter two new protagonists, the faeros and the
wentals. Well, three actually, if you count the verdani, although
since we've met them before - in the form of the sentient
worldforest on Theroc - I'm not sure they could be called
exactly new.
So now we have four elemental races on the scene
- the hydrogues (gas), wentals (water), verdani (earth) and
faeros (fire) - who were involved in a vast conflict between
themselves millennia ago, a war which the hydrogues won. The
wentals were blasted into atoms and scattered across the spiral
arm, while the verdani survived in a massively diminished,
hidden colony on Theroc: both species are now willing to fight
the hydrogues for their own survival (which incidentally places
then on the side of the humans and Ildirans).
The faeros survived the original war but cannot
be trusted not to changes sides arbitrarily. I can't help
but wonder if the author is going to introduce the fifth element
(spirit, not Leeloo) in the next book or whether he'll stick
to the traditional interpretation of spirit as the essence
of the human race. I hope not.
Then, of course, there are the Klikiss robots,
who it transpires, were instrumental in the destruction of
their creators and who have their own hidden agenda...
Most of my comments on the first book stand
for the second. It's a little less dull and a little faster
paced which however unfortunately leaves even less time for
the characters to become fully developed. It doesn't help
that I simply don't find any of them particularly likeable.
While the idea of vast elemental entities isn't exactly new,
it's handled well even if I'm sceptical about the possibilities
of such easy communication between them and humanity.
I think what depresses me most is the author's
portrayal of the human race. No lessons have been learned
from history, there's been little change despite everything
that's happened in the past three hundred and thirty-odd years.
The human race is still as short-sighted, selfish, arrogant
and greedy as it is today. Not exactly surprising, I admit,
but it would have been nice to have found some hope for the
species in a series of this size and complexity.
Joules Taylor
http://www.wordwrights.co.uk
