Light of Impossible Stars

The Embers of War Series, Book 3

By: Gareth L. Powell

Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Amy Landon, Joe Hempel, Natasha Soudek, Soneela Nankani, Andrew Eiden, Emily Lawrence, various narrators

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Award-winning author Gareth L. Powell delivers an explosive conclusion to his epic Embers of War trilogy.

Low on fuel and hunted by the Fleet of Knives, the sentient warship Trouble Dog follows a series of clues that lead her to the Intrusion - an area of space where reality itself becomes unstable. But with human civilization crumbling, what difference can one battered old ship have against an invincible armada?

Meanwhile, Cordelia Pa and her step-brother eke out their existence salvaging artifacts from an alien city. But when Cordelia starts hearing the city’s song in her head, strange things start happening around her. What extraordinary affinity does she have for this abandoned technology, and how can it possibly help the Trouble Dog?

©2020 by Gareth L. Powell (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

All good, but feel cheated.

A nice continuance, but I feel cheated, that suddenly it turned into a super hero story with the intro if Cordelia. would have been better to stay on theme, instead of the intro if this long winded "Cheat the story" character. hope the next one is better.

Fantastic Conclusion to an Epic Adventure!

A gripping space opera with engaging characters you won't want to bid goodbye. The audio cast is one of the best I've ever heard. Highly recommended.

well done

The book and series is exciting, well written, well performed, and keeps you guessing with a lot of unexpected twists and turns.

lost momentum

overall the series have been enjoyable, but the last book kind of ebbed out. I felt the introduction and focus on the person who needed a sex change in the middle of an apocalyptic event took me far away from the plot and the story. It felt so unnatural and forced to put that in there.

I concur

I agree with a lot of the reviews they spent two novels building characters and relationships just to introduce some superpowered person in the last one to solve everyone's problems. still not a bad listen now

So great

I really enjoyed this final story of the trilogy. It was great that they kept the same readers for all three books so it was easy to recognize the characters.

I really wanted love it.

Completely lacks continuity with the previous 2 books. While its a fun story overall, the lack of such continuity between each book, takes away the flow of the story. Add in the authors need to insert irrelevant drama, as well as likable characters only to kill them off asap instead of the useless ones, the author drops the ball. Furthermore, background that should be expanded on are carelessly tossed aside in exchange for additional drama focused on cementing the authors personal social and political views.

The good parts of the story are the POV's from the engineer Nod, Lucy, and the Trouble Dog. Unfortunately, all 3 were treated as part of the scenery, or tools, instead of the sentient beings they were. Which in my opinion invalidated all the authors personal social and political opinions that were inserted.

Loved the characters, but not some plot choices

Once again I want to state how much I love some of the characters in this trilogy, especially Trouble Dog, but not some of the choices of the author in the overall story. There was no need for the new super powered character that was introduced and she detracted more than added to the overall story. There was no need for the plates to run away. The Nod solution was more than adequate to end Ona's idiocy and I would have liked to have seen it celebrated a little more as the unexpected hero of the story.

Great story mostly great narration

Almost as good as the first book; however, the addition of Cordelia Pa nearly ruins the work. It has its failings, but all in all: a great space opera that is wonderful fun. Loved it.

Great series

Held off rating till I finished the series, now I have and I have thoughts.

1: wow, random out of no where transsexual storyline for no story related reason. From a really poorly developed new character with no storyline reasoning. Just random... like stuck on as a “look at me! LGBTQ for life guys! Buy my book cuz it’s LGBTQ friendly!” Sigh, whatever, good attempt at something... just not sure what. I’ve been the Ring barer for my aunt’s wedding to my aunt, my lil sis is bi, and super not going to count the friends I have that are LGBTQ out there so this is all from someone who doesn’t think it odd or anti-God or whatever other nonsense.

2: This is a dang good storyline, solid up’s and down’s throughout. Mostly well developed characters and plot.

3: really dig the cast giving different people voices. I love single narrator books and tend to shy away from cast of narrators but, this one worked really well.

4: if you dig space opera’s, you’ll dig this one... just roll your eyes with me reference #1 and enjoy the rest of the books.

Rushed

It feels as if the author got carried away in book 2 then realised he had only three books to tell the story in and introduced and rushed a character who should have been introduced sooner.

So disappointing.

Disappointing

The first two books weren’t bad. I enjoyed the characters Trouble Dog and Nod but I was disappointed with this final book of the series. Introducing new significant characters, one with superhero powers to save the day was really poor. The book irritated me the longer it went on.

Interesting story

It’s an interesting story but it felt like the author got bored by book 3 and rushed an ending by bringing in a character that should have been involved from the beginning plus the trouble dog and here crew were just there as bystanders.
Have to admit the continuity errors through the series like a historian becoming a physicist and the marine rescued by the captain knowing the doctor on the other side of a war longer just irritated me

Brilliant conclusion to a universe spinning saga

I love Gareth's writing, the way every book focuses on the characters, their humanity (well, maybe not so much 'humanity' for Trouble Dog), his world building at such scale. It translated well into Audiobook format which was perfect for the commute.

It's a shame it had to end, but looking forward to what Gareth starts next.

EXCELLENT CONCLUSION TO TRILOGY

BRILLIANT FINISH TO THIS SERIES,NARRATOR KEEPS YOU RIVETED TO THE END,IF YOU LISTENED TO THE FIRST TWO THIS IS NOT TO BE MISSED.