Artifice

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Drag me through the ALEX THE GREAT "ONE MORE TIME"

As good as could be on level but not as good as I thought it would be ... and the set up for the next in the series looks like another rainy day bla bla bla
Either end this "Alex is God" thing or take it up to the a deserving NEXT level. HELL let Alex transcend into a SADE state for eternal Emperorship or something PLEASE!

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.