The Madness of Kings

Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle, Book 2

By: Gene Doucette

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Paul Boehmer

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to The Middle Kingdom!

In the nine Middle Kingdoms it is believed that the royal families are the direct decedents of the gods of Dib: Honus, Javilon, Ho Nita, and Pal. The gifts of the gods are not passed to every member of the royal families, however, and none of these “unblessed” children can ever become king or queen and, due to the displeasure of the gods, they cannot have children of their own.

Unlike the rest of the planet, the middle kingdoms have adhered more closely to the early teachings of the House in both their beliefs and their feudal way of life. In fact, the Septal Houses’ High Hats throughout the rest of Dib have always formally denounced the beliefs and practices of the Houses in the Middle Kingdom.

Back in Velon, after being tasked with the infamous Linus murder case and House vault robbery, Detective Makk Stidgeon is back, and this time he has county attorney Pillick Quibb asking him questions.

Meanwhile in Totus, Battine Alconnot, an unblessed descendent of Ho, Lady Delphina, and her sister Queen Porra find themselves tied up in the mystery....

The Outcast Cycle takes listeners across - and above - the planet Dib. Nestled in the individual stories is the gradual discovery that the House has a big secret...and the Outcast may be more literal than anyone realized.

©2020 Gene Doucette (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc.

Still unclear where this is going

Like the first book I have no clue where this series is headed. It pretty much lives on the strength of Ducette's writing, which is not anywhere near his Immortal series or the first book of the spaceship next door but still pretty good. The parts involving the medieval part of this world were particularly entertaining. Still, I wish there were some sense of direction emerging from it all. At one point speculating about what the Outcast might be or pondering the significance of the series title Tandem Star without much to go with gets old. Admittedly there were some hints dropped in this installment but I hope in the next book it picks up a bit of speed toward an end point.

A great 2nd installment

For a while at the beginning I thought I might have missed a book in the series, the approach Gene took on the second book kept me engaged right to the end.

Looking forward to book 3!

The female narrator adds cliche affect, tiresome

It’s slow going and uninteresting, mostly because if the overdone narration. The story drags and if I fall asleep listening, I don’t bother trying to find where I left off.

Mostly medieval fantasy, not hard SF

The first 75% of this book is w-o-r-d-y medieval fantasy, and has nothing to do with the first book in the series, nor any other of the author’s titles I’ve read. I’m glad I didn’t abandon it (which I really wanted to because this is nothing I am interested in) because it ultimately got into SF topics, and only fleetingly linked to the the first book. I will move on to book 3 of the outcast cycle, if only out of morbid curiosity about why the author felt all this pre-technological, religious mythology was necessary to his vision. But, frankly, I think 76% of this book could have been eliminated and made the first chapters of book 3.