o this is book two of the Alien Chronicles, a short series Lucasfilms authorized (or whatever, I don’t know the arrangement) for a scifi story that could have been sometime in the StarWars universe but not directly in it. So what’s that mean – if you have a circular area that represents StarWars (with Jedis and Tie Fighters and Banthas) then this series is somewhere (or somewhen) outside it? Okay, we’ll go with that.

So in the first section, reviewed HERE, we had feline Ampiris banished from the court and her mistress’s side (her mistress being the queen-in-waiting-for-dad-to-die). Right now, the Vis empire is crumpling, they are relying on slave labor to keep thing running (and those same slaves are actually sabotaging the machinery and jump-gates). But that’s not Ampris’s concern – she’s been bought up to be a gladiatorial fighter and fight she does – in and out of the ring. Also, her little thieving canine friend from the first book shows up as part of her facility (what are the odds?) and actually her servant (getting longer). So she fights to survive while trying to make contact with disgruntled arena workers (and possibly the networks behind them). So that’s her.

While I liked this installment (maybe not as good as the first) it didn’t go into the details of her life too much. For instance, we are told second-hand that she is making these contacts but it’s only by-the-by – that detail would have been interesting to cover (you should do it like Mistborn, which shows, in detail, exactly how tough a revolution can be). And so she’s scheming and fighting, years pass, and the her mistress – and now the queen – is taking up where her late father let off, namely running the empire into the ground.

So I guess we’ll see how things go. I just finished the whole bit where she is sold off as a medical experiment (very grim, indeed) and has now escaped (into the snow, carrying her babies) so I’ll have to find out where this leads in the third and final book.

I’ve got to say, it might be a while, what with Mistborn and Destroyermen to compete with it.

>>>MY BOOKS FOR SALE HERE<<<