Just Finished Reading: The Orphaned Worlds by Michael Cobley (FP: 2010)

Before the lost human colony on the planet Darien was rediscovered the uncovering of ancient ruins were a mere curiosity. No longer. Now they are the focus of increasingly disparate and desperate forces. On one side are the human settlers and their local Uvovo allies. Ranged against them is the Sendruka, rulers of a vast Interstellar empire and apparent saviours of Earth in its recent conflict with an Achorga hive. Determined to fight with little hope of success the humans and Uvovo dig in and await the first Sendruka attack. They don’t have long to wait. Meanwhile another force determined to take the planet for their own arrives in orbit. In the ensuing chaos an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to plan its own campaign to take and hold the ancient ruins while it awaits for reinforcements to arrive. As the fighting intensifies across the alien landscape a small party delve deep into layers of reality looking for allies in the coming war. These allies have almost god-like powers and helped defeat the ancient enemy known as the dreamless ones eons ago in a war that almost destroyed all life in the Galaxy. If the enemy return in any numbers it is doubtful if the ancient defenders can defeat them this time. If they can’t the very future of the Galaxy and every life in it rests on the abilities of the humans and their apparently primitive Uvovo allies to find a way to defeat them on their own.

I did have some misgivings about this book as I opened the first page. Although I had generally enjoyed the previous volume in this space-opera trilogy I couldn’t help finding it all rather derivative and often a little embarrassing in places. This book was however thankfully much better. The characters, one of the stronger points in the first book, remained as strongly written and as individual as ever. What had improved quite a bit was the tightness of the plotting (despite a few wanderings here and there which I suspect will mean something in book 3) the dramatic elements (and not only in the well constructive battles) and the levels of inventive detail. In fact there were pretty much improvements at every level. So despite being a wrist-aching 606 pages I managed to polish it off in around a week. There are still bits from time to time that seem a tad derivative but it’s difficult these days to write anything wholly original. If you looks hard enough you can see elements of Star Wars, The Matrix, Dune, Terminator and a host of other movies and books. But such things are part of the culture we live in, or swim in, and can hardly be ditched without leaving nothing but empty pages. I did think more than once that I was a bit harsh with the first book but that was probably caused by an unfair comparison to the Culture series by Iain Banks – unfair indeed! Despite the odd raised eye-brow and the odd laugh at the author’s audacity I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this book. I am already looking forward to reading the last in the trilogy. Recommended.