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Obsidian
Seed picks up ten years after Leahy's Tigra. The Tigra race has climbed
from their five thousand year darkness, the populous of the planet Ararat is
starting form allegiance for the betterment of all the colonies, and former Captain
Jeena Garza has been made Regent of the Babylonian people. In fact, to some,
she is more: their goddess, with all that implies. She has a very hard time
convincing them they are wrong. But like any good soldier, she keeps trying.
Yet
there is something more to Jeena, though she will not admit it. And soon she
will have no choice but to acknowledge those differences. After over a century
of war, the Union and the Coalition have come to the peace table; the
treaty they walk away with awards Ararat to the Coalition. The people of Ararat
do not beg to differ. They don't beg for anything; but they certainly will fight
for their freedom. The threads of Jeena's past start drawing together: Daniel
of the Afridi people; Samson of the Tigra; JC McCullough, smuggler and former
owner of the ship she used to escape from Mizar 3; and Levant Conn, the "brother" she didn't know existed.
Together they and their forces take the fight to the Coalition in grime,
determined battle and strategic ingenuity. Any more would be telling and this
is one book you want to experience first hand.
Overall,
Obsidian Seed continues in the well-written vein of the first book. For
the most part. Two problems I had with this book were the print quality and
attention to detail. While the type was of a decent size something was off in
the ink density that left the type broken and difficult to read (a printer
issue, but still relevant). The second problem was minor inconsistencies in
secondary facts from book one to book two, such as the number of people dying
in a particular battle or how many strong the opposing force had been; nothing
that created a conflict in the overall plot of the series. The variances
probably would not even be noticeable to one reading the book with a typical
gap between one and two, but obvious and a bit of an annoyance to me as I read
them back to back. Even given the above, I did enjoy the book very much and actually
felt more compelled to go on to the end than I did with the first one. If there
is anything I would have wanted that I didn't find, it would be a bit more
explanation of some of the differences that come to light in Jeena during
certain key scenes in the book.
I
would recommend this as a casual read with a score of 8 out of 10. The military
aspects of the novel were well-maintained and expanded upon from the previous
book, the strategy showed originality, and the characterization was compelling.
"Bob"
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FTC 16 CFR Part 255 Discloser:
Solicited by the author, with no compensation beyond a review copy of the book.
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