J. Kathleen Cheney (EOP Press)
In this worth sequel to Oathbreaker and Original, Dalyan and Amal deal with more infiltrators from Cince. Foremost of those is Aulis an older man who is a version of the same original man as Dalyan. They’re both flesh-and-blood copies made from the computer-generated backups of a centuries-dead engineer. Unlike Dalyan, who knows (and despises) Aulis from his days of captivity in Cince, Aulis’ memories are complete, so Aulis probably knows how to reopen Salonen Fortress. But he’s been working for the enemy that wants to seize that Fortress for decades. Worse, Aulis has a hidden agenda driven by his progenitor’s inherited memories only hinted at in Dalyan’s nightmares.
Amal has to decide if Aulis is telling the truth about anything, and if that truth is good for her people and her world. The truth and the decision it affects means much to the Oathbreakers at the other Fortresses, and has implications that can only be approved by the king himself. So in Original, to the king they went, and in the opening of Overseer we see the decision made and the consequences play out. Many Originals have been not only made but experimented on, and some are seeking places of power in all the fortresses and in the king’s court himself, sowing discord and shaping the world to Fortress Cince’s ends. They’re all altered to look like other men. How Lady Horn’s people stop Cince involves all of Amal’s age-mates in a daring plan that the king and the other Oathbreakers are required to know about, and approve. And they may not approve. Of those who think they know, assassins aimed at Daylan make it clear they’re not buying it.
Once the hidden agenda Aulis holds is uncovered, Lady Horn can give him what he wants, but should she? It means bringing a person back into the world that should never have been born.
Buy the series. You won’t be sorry.
