Cris Sietinen is heir to the most powerful Dynasty on Tararia, but he couldn’t care less about business and politics. He was born with rare telekinetic gifts—abilities he would never be permitted to develop within the confines of his family’s estate, thanks to the decrees of the powerful Priesthood.
While the Tararian Selective Service (TSS) offers an official telekinesis training program, … program, joining the organization is only a distant dream. Determined to explore his potential on his own, Cris leaves Tararia and begins a new life on a cargo freighter. But, everything changes when Cris receives an unexpected training opportunity with the TSS—a chance to find a home with people like himself, free from the Priesthood and political objectives.
Except, some paths are designed, and Cris’ course was set.
Architects of Destiny is the first installment in the Cadicle series. A fast-paced space adventure with intrigue, coming-of-age and romance, this short novel is a prelude to the defining events in Tararia’s history in the ensuing years.
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So we’ve got:
• dynasties of Noble houses that rule the Galaxy by monopolizing each their own trade
• a centuries old secret breeding program intended to produce some sort of super-being, being organized by a priesthood that really seems more political than religious
There’s other small similarities, but that should be enough to show a link between this and Frank Hebert’s Dune series. But it’s a classic after all, so why wouldn’t people pay homage to it? I guess there’s nothing wrong with it, but in this case it doesn’t feel like it’s done well.
To be fair, it’s not a complete clone. The basic plot is (mostly) different from Hebert’s, and there are a lot of very original nuances too. The fact that Earth is kept in the dark about the empire smacks of conspiracy theory fodder (actually, there’s a prequel that does literally tie it to Roswell). The training academy feels closer to Ender’s Game or maybe a SciFi Harry Potter. But there’s the problem. Everything in the book feels borrowed from somewhere else, none of it seems original. This feels to me as if the story had been made up by the 14 year old who later became our current author, then gathered complexity as the author aged but still kept the same basic plot, and now it’s this huge series that means a lot more to the author than just a story because she’s carried it around with her for years now and it just had to get written. That may or may not be what actually happened, but truly the copycatting is over the top on this one.
Of course, if you’ve never read Dune or any of the other stories that fathered this one then maybe you could enjoy this series. The writing is good enough. There is a small problem that characters’ motivations don’t always seem sensible. But overall very readable and flows well.
In fact the writing is good enough that I expect the author’s next series will be good enough to recommend, but this one is a pass for me.
Anyway, the breakdown:
Characters – 3 star, just okay
Story/plot – 1 star, mostly borrowed
Writing – 4 star, mostly good
Setting/worldbuilding – 3.5 star, fair but could be better
Weighted average….. 3 stars overall
I did enjoy the book, but still can’t recommend it.
Architects of Destiny was a fun and exciting story for me to read. I really liked how well it was written and the style the author used when conveying the characters inner thoughts. At first glance the story seems like it will be a simple straight forward tale but soon you realize there is quite a bit of intrigue with conspiracies laced in the background that the man characters have no clue about. The best part is, even as the reader we only get snippets…just enough to know there is far more going on than we realize but not so much that it’s all spoiled ahead of time. It creates a wonderful plot for the book and the series as a whole and one thing I really enjoy is plot. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.