Good fast paced sequel!

This book picked up right where the previous one left and progressed VERY quickly to a galactic scale! Good character development and storytelling as usual from the author. My only reason for a 4 star is because I was hoping the story would conclude in this book but yet another wait for the next in series :(

A good second book in the series. Really looking forward to book 3.

Characters: 4* - My only real complaint is that some of them felt a bit flat and predictable as far as their archtype.
Plot: 4.5* - Enjoyable and moved along.
Universe: 5*

Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for sending me a finished copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Salvation Lost begins immediately where Salvation left off. We start with a Neána falling for a trap set by the humans of Julos meant for the Olyix, and learning how humanity has been trying to combat the Olyix race throughout 10,000 years.

Much like the previous novel, the story is told from the past and the future. The past is during the time the Olyix began invading Earth and the future being the meta-humans waiting to raid and attack an enemy Olyix ship. Many of the familiar faces from book one reappeared in book two, along with a few new players. At first, the new faces which included Ollie and his crew the Legion felt a bit off to half in the narrative early in the novel. Still, once the Olyix began their invasion of Earth, the Legion gang provided an insightful look at the chaos having among the “normal” folks during the time of the Olyix invasion and cocooning.

While it was a fun read overall, the story suffered from second book syndrome, meaning that the pacing, dialogue and overall story was slow. Even with the snail-paced plot, the characters keep you invested enough to keep going. Especially the crew on the Morgan which are in the future-thread timeline of the novel. The character growth of Dellian and Yirella, in particular, kept wanting to keep reading during the slow bits of the novel.

The ending was brilliant, leaving you to desperately want the third and final book The Saints of Salvation in your hands. The last 60 or so pages of the novel have set the scene for the impending battle in character arcs and the war against the Olyix. I don’t want to spoil too much but I was not expecting the ship to be who it was. When it was revealed who the sentient ship was I was blown away (I love me some sentient ships)

This is was fun novel and I look forward to the final book! Unless Dellian is hurt, if something happens to him I will be devastated.

Life in the mid 23rd Century is the closest that humanity has got to a utopia, energy is pretty much free because of the quantum entangled portals and it has enabled mass transportation to almost anywhere. That comfortable life is about to come to an end as a threat of epic proportions has just been discovered. Feriton Kane’s investigative team has discovered that the supposedly benign Olyix race are heading to Earth.

They plan to harvest humanity, in order to carry us to their god at the end of the universe. It is the worst threat ever to face mankind and there is almost no time to fight back. As the Olyix ship appears it opens a portal and thousands of ship pour through with one aim in mind. Humanity could be wiped from the face of the universe; they have a choice; stay and fight, or flee out among the stars.

When I read the first in the series, Salvation, about this time last year, I thought it was a fast-paced and well-conceived sci-fi thriller. This builds on all the elements that he put in place in that first book but doesn’t have the relentless pace of the previous book. The plot is more subtle, with subplots that weave around the main thread and slowly are drawn in but the gravity of the ending. I did feel that it took a lot longer to get going than the first in the series, but then that hit the ground running.

His world-building of the habitats that humanity now live it and a futuristic London and other major cities that are preparing for the worst on Earth is really special. I also liked the space battles too, they just felt really plausible and are really well written. I thought that it concluded fairly well, but it suffers from a little of those middle book blues where a lot of the plot is unresolved and left open. That said, there is the third book coming that should resolve all these threads and I am really looking forward to it.

This is the second in the trilogy and it just keeps getting better