When man and machine are one and the same, death is no longer an inevitability. But in the darkest reaches of space, neither is life.Diplomat. Rebel. Fugitive.Nika Tescarav has lived many lives, though she no longer remembers most of them. Chased by agents of a regime that will do anything to protect the secrets of the Rasu Protocol, Nika flees to the stars with her once and future lover on a … her once and future lover on a mission to expose those secrets. A race across alien worlds both exotic and deadly leads them to the bastion of the enemy, but its discovery brings a terrible revelation: sometimes the truth is indeed worse than the lies spun to conceal it.
With Nika and Dashiel on the run, NOIR steps up to defend against a virulent pathogen unleashed upon innocent civilians. When a desperate government moves to crush the resistance once and for all, unlikely alliances are forged between former adversaries and all paths converge in an explosive showdown that will change the future of the Asterion Dominion forever.
ASTERION NOIR
700,000 years ago, the Asterions fled persecution for their pro-synthetic beliefs. In the safe harbor of a distant galaxy, they have evolved into a true biosynthetic race and built a thriving society upon the pillars of personal autonomy, mutual respect and boundless innovation.
Now that society is fracturing at the seams. Beneath lies built upon lies, the shocking truth as to why threatens the future of not merely the Asterions, but all life in the universe.
Cyberpunk and space opera collide in a thrilling new trilogy from the author of the epic Aurora Rhapsody space opera saga. Enter a world of technological wonders, exotic alien life, enthralling characters, captivating worlds—and a terrifying evil lurking in the void that will shatter it all.
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Anyone paying any attention to my reviews knows I think Jennsen’s storyline is brilliant. Her characters are awesome, and her writing style is smooth, easy to read and still tells a story for grown ups.
After starting G. S. Jennsen’s new cyberpunk series with the release of Exin Ex Machina this past summer, I was immediately hooked, so it’s no surprise that this book became one of my most anticipated reads of 2018. As much as I loved Jennsen’s previous Aurora Rhapsody books, there’s just something about the characters in the Asterion Noir series that grabbed me from the very beginning, and coming back to their story and their world in this book was everything I could have hoped it would be. It’s honestly a little hard for me to figure out how to write this review because I basically spent a little more than 48 hours flying through the pages as fast as I could between all of my other life obligations. It’s all a bit of a blur now and I definitely need to go back and reread the book from the beginning sometime soon so I can take my time and really enjoy it, but man, what a freaking ride! I can say one thing for sure: I loved every second of it.
Of A Darker Void explores the questions raised in Exin Ex Machina to unravel a sinister mystery and reveal answers that force every character in the book to make some pretty drastic decisions. While the stakes were already high in the first book, we didn’t really understand why that was, which meant we (and the characters themselves) didn’t realize just how bad things really were until now. And maybe we still don’t. There are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered, and I’m already looking forward to the information the characters will uncover in the next book.
Nika and Dashiel take center stage here yet again, which was great because I love them both. Especially Nika. She’s easily my favorite. It was an emotional journey watching them both navigate the complexities of their relationship and, in Nika’s case, her very identity. However, I also really appreciated the way the secondary characters were fleshed out and took on a life of their own in this book. They were good characters in the first book, too, but here it seemed like we really got to know some of them better and understand their relationships with each other, as well as the things that motivated them and how far each of them were willing to go to do what they thought was right. I tend to be a little hesitant about books with more than 3-4 point of view characters, but Jennsen balances her cast wonderfully, and I felt a lot more invested in some of the secondary characters’ personal journeys than I expected to.
This series has quickly become one of my favorites, and Jennsen continues to be a phenomenal storyteller. I have no more words to really express how much I love this story, so all I’ll add is this: If you enjoy cyberpunk sci-fi and you aren’t already reading this series, you need to start, like yesterday.
Great next step to the first series story. Very well developed characters. Wonderfully written.