Artifice

The Silver Ships Series, Book 12

By: S. H. Jucha

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

The great spheres and probes of Artifice, humankind's enemy, haunt every inhabited world near and far. The Omnians' long and arduous search for Artifice has ended. They've located Artifice's lair in the Talus system.

The sentient digital entity rules a vast swath of worlds, known as the federacy, through ruthless intimidation. Its insidious programs are embedded in every races' digital systems - warships, shuttles, stations, domes, comm platforms, and power plants. One misstep by a race could see its citizens exterminated in vast numbers. The survivors, if there were any, would be thrown back to the days before spaceflight.

Artifice has had millennia to secure its base. Powerful battleship fleets guard the system's periphery and the approaches above and below the entity's planet, Toral. Probes surround the system and warn of unauthorized encroachment, and Artifice has control of the planet's army of bots.

The Omnian expeditionary fleet, led by Alex Racine, desperately needs allies in order to defeat or circumvent Artifice's defensive measures. The Omnians are curious about the fleet of black-hulled battleships, which bear a resemblance to Artifice's probes and guard the Talus system. The SADEs, the Omnians' digital friends, believe that the sentients aboard the black fleet and Artifice share a common history.

Whether or not the Omnians can gather allies, they don't intend to abandon their goal and return to Omnia. They mean to capture or destroy the entity, Artifice, or die trying.

©2018 S. H. Jucha (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Engrossing

This is book twelve in the Silver Ships Series. I have enjoyed every book so far. At the end of the last book, Alex Racine and the Omnium Expeditionary Fleet had discovered Artifice. I have noted each time Alex discovers the enemy he has converted them to his cause because they are victims of a superior force. Will the trend continue or is Artifice the master race? I continue to be amazed at Jucha’ s imagination. The book is full of battles and almost unsolvable problems. My favorites are still the SADES, particularly Julian. I cannot wait for the next book to come out.

The book is fifteen hours and twenty-eight minutes. Grover Gardner has done an excellent job narrating the series. Gardner is an award-winning audiobook narrator. He was the Audiofile Magazine’s Best Voice of the Century Award.

Read them, but deal with real strife in the future

I have read all 12 books so far in this series, and although I really love the characters, and the 12 book weave to the main conflict has been well crafted, I find myself left wanting because even at the end of this book, I still don’t feel like Alex has dealt with any real strife. The answers always appear right in front of him and he rarely, if ever, makes any mistakes. My other issue is the compliments. We get it, his team does good work. I don’t need another long drawn out compliment session of how smart Julian is, or how Rene is so perfect. As the omnian society treasures equality so much, the compliments almost exalt them above others to a God like level. Anyway, obviously I like these books, you can’t say you don’t if you’ve gotten this far :) I would like to see some more humanity out of some of the characters in the future. Great work S. H. Jucha.

Thought Provoking

Another great story by Jucha! I personally love how the story line flows together. Love

the weakest entry yet

this book has flair but some little details ruin my enjoyment.

continuity errors have begun.
the battle for new terra is referenced frequently even tho the new terran system was not attacked in either possible context of the book. alex homeworld wasnt attacked and the system they found the derelict new terra ship in wasnt attacked either.. the author has conflated the latter system with the no name system they fought the fighter fleet in and followed ships home from to find the new terra.

once the new guys get technology it instantly becomes useless.

the travelers have beam weapons that are some how short ranged weapons in space

the grav drives the omnian ships use is supposed to let these ships cruise at 92% the speed of light. and yet they have trouble catching fighters and escaping chemical rocket missiles.

and this has been bothering me for a few books now.. but the author has no mind for physics.... somehow a small fusion plant has an explosive radius of 16 to 20 million kilometers? from the point of explosion that means destruction with a volume of at minimum 1.72×1022 kilometers that's a huge fuckin space people. a number with 10 less zeroes in it can fit 7k+ jupiters worth of surface area within.

basically space battles are contrived Ill thought out eye rollers in this book as suddenly backwards primitives using chemical missiles are some how a match for ungodly maneuvering ships with beam weapons that have the power to burn though even when at short range and at a wide focus ... but somehow need to focus to a point and then are suddenly useless beyond that point.

basically jucha needed a science or physics advisor. my disbelief has officially run out of suspension with this novel. in the very next book you will see a conversation that states they cant fire the beam weapon in atmosphere as the heat reflecting off whatever is around them will rebound into the shell and melt it instantly... which is a horseshit hand wave... to a contrived problem.. these ppl constantly land ships that can effortlessly remain floating a cm off the ground with no constraints... yet they land and cause problems just to be problems...

also last one in the next novel they tell you that the traveller has too much water in it.... and that's why it cant fly... cuz there is too much weight inside it...

these ships are any gravity driven... meaning they dont give a fuck about weight in that manner.... weight is the acceleration of gravity on mass. if your engine doesnt give a fuck about gravity.... the acceleration that gravity has on your mass doesnt matter cuz your engine works by doing whatever it wants with that value. now the more correct thing to say is that all this extra mass is limiting our maneuverability and acceleration but nope the water is heavy so our UFO that hauls more weight of denser material than water cant fly yo.

General Order 7

They repeatedly violate Starfleet General Order 7, which is, of course, the last death penalty on the books. And so, it is a good thing that the UFP has no jurisdiction over the Omnians. 😜

Worst book of the series

Once again Alex proves he has no follow through and would make peace with a mass murderer if he said he was sorry. Claims digital entities are the same but lets them get away with anything if they claim it's just the programming. Are they equal or not, base them on equal judgement then. Get some guys to END the threat not just make friends with genocidal beings. If I was part of Alex fleet and my friends died to end Artifice I'd refuse to follow Alec after what he did, and I'd kill the mass murders myself and disobey him

fuck audible. worst interface ever.

Fuck you and your shitty interface. garbage. quites for no reason. fuck you. you are shit. is that 15 words you fuck face?

Meh! Not Bad but Not Good! Lower end mediocre

This series starts out very poorly. The author thinks he has a poetic soul but his words come out as ridiculously blasé. He uses the word “Repost” in EVERY OTHER CHARACTER CONVERSATIONS!! It is ANNOYING! He has extremely low standards when expanding

This one is ‘meh’

Really drawn out it parts. Like the author didn’t know how to wrap it up. Surprising because all the other books are great.

Great

I think this is the best in the series thus far. Great straight through to the last page.

You have to listen to it

A great book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️