Right, no use feelin’ sorry fer meself. Time to get back on that there horse. I should give my deepest thanks for all of you gentle good folk out there who have offered up petitions on our behalf. Our Lord has seen fit to answer us with a new position that will put the casa del Sauvage on much firmer fiscal footing, which is as if a great stone had been lifted from my shoulders. Deo Gratias. I would nonetheless humbly ask for your continued petitions on our behalf, at least until I am able to happily report that the final offer letter is signed in ink.
Guns! Why do I still see those contacts in my sky? They offend me, remove them if you please!
Cap’n! Jump signatures at planetary military minimum, warbook and human analysis concur, signatures best match for tally count three, zero-three, Aidol-class drone carriers.
Sparks, what’s the word on wrapping up this little refuel stop?
Captain… orders from the flag, we are to engage the new contacts in a holding action while the civilian fleet makes for a jump point best time…
Right, what is the life of one ship against the fleet? Helm! Make your course right down their throats, pull out all the stops boys, if this be our hour, let us make it such an hour as will be remembered.
He was drawing closer...The flow of Teth had carried him to myriad worlds left diminished by his presence. Now his search had compelled him to take ship with scofflaws. And he was drawing closer.
The Sublime Brotherhood of Steersmen holds the Middle Stratum in its iron grip. Jaren Peregrine, last of the Gen, raids across fringe space with Nakvin—her captain’s best pilot and only friend, apprentice steersman Deim, and mercenary Teg Cross.
Hunted by the ruthless Master Malachi, Jaren and his crew join a conspiracy to break the Guild’s monopoly with an experimental ship. But when its maiden voyage goes awry, the Exodus flies farther off course than its crew could have imagined.
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If anything, the add copy above completely and utterly undersells the mystery and romance of this text. Like another work by Master Niemeier that I have read (and have yet to pen a review on), the story starts slowly, introducing one character and concept at a time. And like that story with the giant robots and orbital shenanigans, while at the start one, or at least this reader, was left feeling somewhat uncertain and confused at the beginning of the tale, what is this all about, why should I care about this? By the end of the tale I was firmly entranced and firmly under the spell of the drama.
Unlike that other story, this one is firmly metaphysical. How can I possibly describe it? Half-elvenMalcom Reynolds leads his motley crue on accidental tour of Dante’s Inferno after a heist gone wrong, in a ship that is carved from the bones of the World Serpent. Yeah, it’s kinda like that. But escaping the Inferno is only half the battle, once free of hell, our motley crue must take on the Spacing Guild for control of man’s political destiny and Middle-Earth itself, while also fighting a three way battle with Demogorgon and Lilith and a conspiracy of Necromancer-Nihilists who wish to unmake creation and replace it with a cosmos of cold un-life, all for control of the ancient charm of making.
There’s a lot references with the serial numbers filed off, many bones buried to hide the dog, and I find that it the resulting stew is well cooked and seasoned, the flavours combine to a rich umami that slowly overtakes the reader with heady sweeping vistas of image and potential. Am I gilding the lily? Perhaps. But what can I say, I liked it. I had to read it twice and ruminate on the text to really understand it, but I liked it. On the surface it is two-fisted pulp action, whenever the action threatens to let up, suddenly, ninjas!
But underneath the breakneck plotting lies a dark and brooding atmosphere, that compares favourably with the likes of FromSoft or Kentaru Miura. But this story actually has a comprehensible beginning, middle, and ending, unlike so many open ended forms of story telling these days. I will admit that the vocabulary took some getting used to, but a glossary is provided to ease you into it. That said, I am a sucker for alchemical correspondences and here we have classical elements and aether and prana and great works galore. As for me, I look forward to finding out what happens next!
Yes, dear readers, it’s good. Try it, you’ll like it!
10/10
Hail and Read!
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Dante Alighieri
Paradiso, Canto XV
…And in your ancient Baptistery at once Christian and Cacciaguida I became. Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo;
From Val di Pado came to me my wife, And from that place thy surname was derived. I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad,
And he begirt me of his chivalry, So much I pleased him with my noble deeds. I followed in his train against that law's
Iniquity, whose people doth usurp Your just possession, through your Pastor's fault. There by that execrable race was I
![Nethereal (Soul Cycle Book 1) by [Brian Niemeier, Marcelo Orsi Blanco, L. Jagi Lamplighter]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fba4e7196-14ee-45cd-82b3-55ca8476e62e_329x500.jpeg "Nethereal (Soul Cycle Book 1) by [Brian Niemeier, Marcelo Orsi Blanco, L. Jagi Lamplighter]")