The Last Watch is the debut novel from J.S. Dewes. It’s a sci-fi billed as “The Expanse meets Game of Thrones” – a fast-paced adventure where “a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.”

At the literal edge of the universe, known as the Divide, stands the Argus. It’s commanded by Adequin Rake, a near-legendary soldier, and crewed by Sentinels. These are soldiers who have been sent to the edge of space as punishment – ruffians and misfits, court-martialled and exiled.

The prime function of the Argus is to monitor the Divide, looking out for the return of the Viators, an alien race who nearly wiped-out humanity over the course of a thousand-year war. The Viators are the least of problems for the Sentinels however, for the Divide is collapsing, causing time ripples at first, then eating up anything in its path.

As a quick summary, The Last Watch is definitely a fast-paced adventure. It moves along at quite a clip from the start, although it does take a while before the actual direction of the story is unveiled. I found it an enjoyable enough read, but there were a few problems that held it back from being a stand out book.

Plot

First of all to the plot, and those back cover comparisons. The first thing I really picked up from The Last Watch was a strong Battlestar Galactica vibe. The Argus is a museum of a ship, with limited capabilities, gutted of anything useful and left with a commander who by her own admission is not a ship’s captain.

The Viators are long-gone, disappeared into who-knows-where, but humanity is at the edge of space watching for their return. In her acknowledgements at the back of the book, the author mentions being introduced to BSG, so I like to think of this as an homage to the great TV series.

The Sentinels are reminiscent of the Night’s Watch from A Song of Ice and Fire, miscreants sent to the Wall (the Divide) to keep the long watch. Other than the mention of a few kings, this is the only Game of Thrones reference I picked up, so not really a comparison worthy of a back cover tagline.

So it’s more “the ASOIAF Night’s Watch in Battlestar Galactica’s initial setting”, which is fine, as it’s just a setting – the plot itself is its own story. As an overall story, I was expecting a galactic dustup between the Sentinels and Viators, or the Drudgers who derive from the Viators – the aliens returning to finish the job and wipe out humanity, with only the Sentinels standing in their way.

The aliens made only a minimal appearance however, although there was a lot of reference – much of the technology in use originated with the Viators. Instead, the focus of the story, and the risk of humanity being wiped out, is from the collapsing Divide. Rake and her crew must first escape the encroaching border, then find a way to stop it from wiping out everything before it.

Characters

We follow two main characters on the Argus, the freshly-arrived Cavalon Mercer and the afore-mentioned commander, Excubitor Adequin Rake. Cavalon is an exiled prince, and unlike everyone else on the Argus, he isn’t military. He’s never fired a gun and has no combat experience beyond a little brawling in bars.

He’s exiled to the Argus as punishment for thwarting his grandfather’s plans for a cloning facility that would give the older man far too much power. Despite being new to the ship and military, Cavalon quickly becomes attached to Rake, and by this proximity is thrown into the deep end of the story, facing down multiple life-or-death scenarios.

I didn’t like Cavalon as a character. He’s specifically written as an asshole (as described in the book’s blurb) and although this is well enough done, it’s isn’t something that appeals to me. My main issue with Cavalon is the way that he alternates several times between inept and utterly brilliant, as it’s just too much of a stretch for me.

Rake is better, but again there are some parts to her that just didn’t click with me. The main one relating to the relationship she quickly develops with Cavalon. Rake is the commanding officer of the ship, and although she was promoted 4 rungs up the ladder to the position, she has been Excubitor for a number of years.

I find it strange then, that such an officer would let anyone under her command, much less a literal newbie, talk or act in front of her the way Cavalon does. Here though, Rake is more often portrayed as rolling her eyes or raising a hint of a smile at these interactions. Normally I would expect to see her tear Cavalon a new one, but she seems more intent on rewarding him than any punishment.

Some of the side characters were much more interesting for me, and I’d have been fine seeing a bit more of the likes of Puck and Jackin. Mesa started out quite interesting, but she too quickly paled into insignificance alongside Cavalon, despite the suggestion of her brilliance.

Worldbuilding

The setting for The Last Watch is mostly standard far-future sci-fi, and is far-flung enough to have no mention of our solar system that I can recall. We see a variety of ships and stations, and a host of new technology, including acium-fuelled warp cores, nifty little biotools and Apollo Gates.

The most prevalent of the new tech is probably the set of imprints that all Sentinels have. I’d have liked a bit more explanation of these, but they are left to the reader to figure out based on appearance and function.

There are two types of imprints: one, the general kind, can be used to keep the troops in line – a bit like a shock-collar. The second is rarer, and only Titans (like Rake) or royals (like Cavalon) will have these. This second type of imprint increases strength, as well as providing other benefits as discovered further into the book.

Summary

I found The Last Watch took a while to get going, at least so far as the over-arching plot goes. Even then I was still expecting a big alien threat until I was too far into the book for this to appear and still be handled in a satisfying enough manner. The pacing was fast, even though there wasn’t a huge amount of action – the majority of the quick-moving scenes were tense, time-sensitive moments rather than action in the form of battle, for instance. This was generally well done and gets you rooting for the characters to come out the other end in one piece.

The dialogue was generally pretty good, and some of the camaraderie that developed as the story progressed was well handled and good to see. The end of the book does set up a continued storyline, so hopefully this will bode well and the series can develop past some of the flaws of this opening offering.

Have I found a new favorite series? Yes. Yes, I think I have. The Last Watch was such a wild ride. I loved everything from this band of misfits trying to save the world to the imprint technology and diving into why each person ended up on The Argus.

I thought the pacing was well done plus great character and world development. Cavalon is absolutely a new favorite character and I really enjoyed his growth over the course of the book.

If you are a fan of high action, disasters, unlikely heroes, survival stories and just overall space chaos - READ THIS BOOK! I cannot wait to read the next book and pretty much anything Dewes publishes next!

If you are any sort of fan of Adult Sci-Fi, Space Opera, Survival stories, this book will be perfect to venture into.

We follow an outcast of characters deployed to the outskirts of the universe who soon find their world turned upside down when the mysterious, all-consuming ‘Divide‘ begins to change.

The author revealed just enough to keep me going up until I was almost dying on the edge of my seat! I just had to know what all was hidden with these characters and what exactly was going to happen to them.

And for those who like just a splash of romance, you’ll find that here as well.

What I Liked:

different character backgrounds
character growth – loved Cavalon
full of rebels/criminals
high-stakes
fast-paced
20% through – I was hooked!!
ends with a BANG!

What I Didn’t Like:

fluffy dialogue – could’ve been removed
confusing beginning – plot picked up around 20%
uses common sci-fi themes
heavy sci-fi/technical terminology

Overall, I give this one a high 4 out of 5 stars. It had everything I was looking for in a sci-fi adventure from the vast emptiness of space to weird alien-like lifeforms. I will definitely be picking up the sequel when it releases later this summer!

The Last Watch opens an SF series set on the edge of the universe, the Divide, where the dregs of the military have been dispatched to keep watch as Sentinels. As the epic opens, they discover that the universe is collapsing, that they are alone and abandoned, but also they are the only ones who might possibly stop it.

As time ripples escalate and the Edge shrinks faster, Excubitor Adequin Rake must find a way to save as many Sentinels as possible - with the help of exiled prince and genius Cavalon Mercer. This thrilling interstellar action continues in The Exiled Fleet.

“Spread your legs and bend over.”
When a book opens with that line, you know you’re in for a special kind of book.
The blurb for this book says, “The Expanse meets Game of Thrones.” And let me tell you, no. It is not. I can’t really speak for the Expanse, not having read a single page of it, but as for the GoT comparison – nah. The only way in which it compares is the fact that the main characters here have sort of a similar duty to the Night Watch in GoT. That’s it, after that, this is a beast of a completely different colour.
(I wrote down a comment at around 30% that this book gives me “strong BSG vibes, and I stand by that. That would be a more appropriate comparison than the GoT one, but that’s just my humble opinion.)
J.S.Dewes created a world that is full of political intrigue, but which is not in yo’ face, look at me how smart I am to make this plot within a plot within an intrigue within a plot. It’s a world very similar to our own in that the politicians push papers and armies and re-tailor borders and laws to suit their needs, but the foot soldiers are the ones who have to deal with the realities of all those decisions.
The main characters stationed on the Argus, are a cross section of this world’s society in a way that doesn’t feel forced to conform with the current PC standards like in some other works (I’m looking at you Another Life!). Each member has their place and a reason to be there. They have their own worries and strengths and weaknesses.
The crew is led by Adequin Rake, the kickass general who was forced/chose to take this post after a mission she was sent on in the past. She is awesome, and strong, and rational, and not in the least self-sacrificing or mentally damaged by years of killing she’s had to do. No, no way, she is not. Or at least that would be it if this book was written by a lesser author. Which means that here we see her struggle, and persevere, and fight, and give up. She does all the things we would imagine a normal person would do when facing such events as Rake does. We see her try to keep the morale up, we see her try to save everyone, we see her struggle to trust people around her, and we see her open up to the possibility that people around her might value her for her military prowess and her humanity.
Then we get the newcomer (the one being strip searched in the first scene) – Cavalon. At first you’re just struck by how shallow he is, how annoying at times and self-centred. But then, as the book goes on, you dig deeper into his character, and it’s a maze and a gold mine at the same time. He reminded me a lot of Graham Greene’s character in The Power and the Glory – a reluctant hero. Someone we all could identify with (even though we’re not nearly as smart as he is). We learn about his past and how it has shaped his present. We see how he was raised and what scars that has left on him. We see him struggle with believing his own worth separate from his family. All this in a book that is less than 500 pages and where he is not the only main character. HEllsYEah!
We also get a whole range of support characters, from annoyed engineers to posterboy soldiers, from idiotic racists to Mesa and Em who are just amazing… And all these characters change, evolve throughout the book. None of them are left unchanged by the events that take place here. And I loved that.
Now, speaking of the events of the book, let’s get to that. The crew of this spaceship (that can’t really move) are stationed at the edge of the universe in a way. They are on the border between the universe and the Divide. Their job is to monitor the Divide and make sure the Viators (humanity’s enemy) don’t return. At the start of the book, something strange starts happening to the Divide and Rake and her crew have the front-line seats to the oncoming apocalypse. They try calling for help, but soon realize they are left on their own.
I won’t talk more about the action because I think you should experience it for yourself. I also feel that the blurb for this book reveals TOO much of the plot of the book. What you need to know it that this book is packed with action and good dialogue. I loved every page of it. The last third of the book is unputdownable.
Oh, I almost forgot – the science of the Imprints! Wooooooooow. The alien technology used in a way to enhance humans is represented so well here! I loved the scenes where the Imprints can be seen in action. Just the right amount of science and magic (although we know it’s not magic, but just sufficiently advanced science….). Love, love, love.
In the end, what I loved most about this book is that, even though it has an ending, and you could, in theory stop here, you won’t want to stop here. You are left with questions and I for one want answers! (which means I’ve ordered a physical copy of this book and am pre-ordering the sequel.)
Who is Rake really!? What the hell is the emperor’s plan? Who are Viators really? What the hell happened to Cav’s grandma? What about Cav and Em?
And last but not least – with all of these big SF things and political intrigue, and pew-pew of space fights, there are such adorable and heartwarming moments here. Which all comes back to the writing – these characters were allowed to remain human throughout the book. Hats off, JSD, hats off.

The banter:
"How can you be at once highly intelligent and utterly idiotic?"
"I know, right? You'd think that all the selective breeding would have created a nice, clean crop of Mercers by now."
***
"I'm choosing to be optimistic."
"Physics doesn't really give a shit about your existential disposition, Rake!"

Cavalon is the latest addition to the military spaceship the Argus. The posting is at the literal edge of the galaxy, tasked with watching the Void beyond the edge and alert command if any Viator aliens emerge to attack humanity again. Cavalon is quick to pick up that the ship is full of the troublemakers the military doesn’t want to deal with, but that doesn’t explain why Adequin Rake, decorated war hero, is sitting in the captain’s chair. But those questions seem insignificant when the Argus realizes that a wave of destruction is heading towards them, and no rescue will arrive quickly enough to save them.

THE LAST WATCH reminds me of a big popcorn space disaster movie, and I mean that with all the love in my heart. You have your crew of rejects. You have the new team member with an attitude problem who might just be a decent person at heart. You have your ship on the fringes of the galaxy, with no support system or rescue in sight. And you have an over-the-top bombastic solution to the problem at hand.

THE LAST WATCH starts with a great premise: The Argus is a dumping ground for problem children. They get all the second hand equipment because the idea that an attack is going to come from the literal edge of the galaxy is a joke. Nobody cares what they do, as long as they stay out of trouble. Which means when the literal edge of the galaxy starts crumbling, the Argus has nobody to turn to for help.

Which means this book immediately invokes one of my favorite tropes: How do we solve problems using the limited resources of what we actually have on this ship? It worked for me in VELOCITY WEAPON, THE MARTIAN, and APOLLO 13, and it certainly works for me here. The crew has to get creative and I love it.

The pacing of THE LAST WATCH is excellent, and again reminds me of that space disaster movie. Things can go sideways in an instant, and the tension of watching characters race down a corridor to get to safety or trying to time a particularly tricky flight maneuver they have ONE shot to get right invokes the same fun adrenaline rush. Sure, there are a few tropes in here you’ll probably see coming, but it’s such a great ride it doesn’t really matter.

The characters for the most part are well-written and people you want to root for. Adequin is in over her head as the combat soldier who was promoted purely for political reasons, and she’s grappling with whether or not she’s actually fit to lead in a crisis. Cavalon is the cocky new arrival at the ship, who I occasionally found a little too conveniently good at the exact thing the crew needed in the moment. He’s not at all perfect, barely able to shoot a gun and lacking other basic space skills, but wouldn’t you know it, he has three doctorates in very helpful fields of science. And I do wish a few details about side characters had been introduced earlier in the story, rather than in the last handful of pages, but these are small notes in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable romp.

THE LAST WATCH also does a nice job of setting up the stakes of the trilogy going forward. While it’s a fully self-contained adventure, it constantly threads in the bigger world picture of what’s going on in “the Core,” the center of the galaxy. While the Core is not “on screen” in this book, it looks to be a part of the story going forward, and I very much look forward to seeing more of this universe.

If you are looking for a page-turning survival adventure in space, THE LAST WATCH is for you. Light on politics and high on action, THE LAST WATCH focuses on the moment-to-moment action while still setting the stage for bigger events to come. And it leaves you with an ending that’ll have you fist-pumping and eagerly awaiting the second installment.

At the edge of the universe sits an unmoving ship full of military screw-ups who are all that stands between humanity and an alien enemy who disappeared decades ago.
.
Usually not much happens out at the Divide, but today Commander Adequin Rake has a problem. Today, she and her Sentinels begin to experience the universe collapsing, and when you're on a ship that no longer flies, that turns out to be a big problem.

I'm a huge fan of anything where it's a bunch of misfits who have to save the world. Hell, half the blockbusters from Hollywood are founded on this. The Last Watch is no exception. Fun characters, well drawn from each other, and enough sprinkles of their backgrounds to make you care.

I enjoyed this thoroughly though there were a few things that tripped my brain a bit. I don't love when a single character seems to be able to solve all the problems all the time, and my head kept giving me a visual of Rocksteady from TMNT for the hybrid aliens they end up fighting, even though that's not how they're described, so that kept taking me out of the story. But that's a "me" problem and not the fault of the author or book.

This just came out yesterday so if you're looking for a new space opera/SciFi series to read, add this to your library holds list.

This is an incredible story, and if I hadn't received an ARC, I might have quit on page one. Do me a favor and even if you have the same reaction, give it a chance!

See -- the story starts with a cavity search, which the protagonist defiantly shittalks about by joking about it as a form of intimacy (ie, sexual assault) and I was immediately like, oh no, this is gonna be an edgy story. I'm not here for edgy grit, honestly, or shock humor, or things like that, and in other circumstances I'd probably put it aside for something else. But that's actually NOT this story at all, and honestly I'm not sure why that was where the author chose to start and set the tone, because that tone *never returned again* in the story.

Instead I got an incredibly exciting, high stake (both in terms of the world and in terms of character impact) story that never let up but fully pulled together a found family as it went. It was fun, it was terrifying, it was exciting the whole way through. I loved all the characters, and was incredibly impressed at how the stakes continued to grow larger and larger without it ever becoming absurd. It's a beautiful story about hope and determination and grit and finding the people who will believe in you for who you are.

It's an absolutely fantastic read. I cannot wait for book two.

The Last Watch by J. S. Dewes is an exciting, well-written, fast-paced fantasy that pulls you in from the beginning and holds your attention until the very end. The characters are vivid with intriguing backstories that make the story flow at a smooth, steady pace.

The Last Watch, by J.S. Dewes, manages the impressive feat of being, and not being, a military science fiction story at the same time. It has all the trappings of a military science fiction: age-old alien threat to humanity, the grizzled old general who kicks ass, a new recruit who is complete garbage but shows potential, and more terminology and army buzz words than you can shake a rifle at. But, it’s actually about a group of soldiers doing their best to man a lifeboat and retreat from an oncoming calamity. Against that backdrop, the military aspect feels like window dressing. This makes the book feel very refreshing and the exact kind of hot take that I look for in one of our Dark Horse debuts.

The book follows two POV characters: Rake, the grizzled kick-ass general (called a Titan in this instance), and Cavalon, an exiled prince who has been thrown into involuntary military service as a fresh recruit. Both of them are members of the Sentinels, a group of universe gatekeepers made up of banished criminals whose job is to sit at the edge of the known universe and watch for attacks from hostile alien species. The book starts with Cavalon showing up on the Argus, the giant defunct capital ship that Rake commands. They go through the usual new recruit tropes (insubordination, creative punishment, moments of distinguishing valor, and slowly building respect on both sides). However, the wrench thrown into the formula comes when the universe starts to rapidly contract and begins eating all of existence. Now this crew of criminals on a busted ancient ship must find a way to save themselves before reality around them ceases to be.

The meat of The Last Watch sits upon a tripod of foci: Rake’s backstory, Cavalon’s character growth, and the mad sprint for survival from the shrinking edge of the universe. Rake is a decorated war hero who has been banished to the edge of the universe to babysit a bunch of criminals. Obviously, she has done something spectacularly awful to end up in this situation, and Dewes parcels out the juicy details at a glacial pace (in a tantalizing good way) over the course of the book. Some of her story beats are a little too trope-y for my taste, but she generally is a great character with a fascinating past that I was on board with.

Up next we have Cavalon, who was a mixed bag. He’s a spoiled brat, and a rake (which is ironic, given the other character’s name), which works nicely as clashing personality points to make him interesting. He is also desperate for Rake’s approval, which was an interesting character growth hook that I liked a lot more than I expected. But, I found that a lot of his sections felt extremely contrived and it often sucked me right out of the story. First, we have the fact that we have a derelict spaceship that suddenly needs to outrun the edge of the universe – so it’s so lucky that Cavalon, with his 3 spaceship repair degrees, arrived the same day. Then we have the fact that he is obsessed with “cutting the shit” – a request Rake makes of him early in the story. She essentially wants him to stop creating problems and just be a productive member of the team, but Cavalon makes being unproblematic his entire personality. There was a particularly unpleasant series of events where Cavalon gets tortured to the point he almost dies by another squadmate, and he doesn’t report it because he doesn’t want to be difficult?!?! WHAT? It just goes a little too far to be believable, and I wish his entire deal had been reined in a bit.

Finally, we have the mad dash for survival – and this is actually where the book shines the most. The escape from the boundary of space is exciting, and the various set pieces that the crew jumps around in their escape keep the book moving at a great pace with a lot of memorable scenes. The one problem I ran into a few times was struggling badly with understanding Dewes’ descriptions of actions. Despite rereading some scenes 5+ times, I just could not figure out what was happening in certain space maneuvers. I was left scratching my head when I was supposed to be exulting in moments of character triumph, which could be frustrating.

All in all, I definitely liked The Last Watch and recommend that you check it out. There are certain pieces of it that I struggled with, but the sum is definitely more than the parts. Its strange combination of characters and plot creates a wonderful vehicle for a wild and memorable ride and the character stories have me fully invested and excited for the sequel. I just hope that between now and the next book I find a way to better understand how to read some of Dewes’ big moments.

Rating: The Last Watch – 7.0/10
-Andrew

When you compare a book to The Expanse, my hopes are going to be sky-high, right? So how, pray tell, did J.S. Dewes write something that wildly exceeded my already bananas expectations? I don't know but I'll try to explain why I am in love with this book and apparently going to have to go into hibernation until the second book comes out in August.

►Okay but the premise! The edge of the universe!? That is so mind-bogglingly awesome. And the execution absolutely lived up to the premise, no question. I, of course, from close to the first page, wanted to know "but what is on the other side!?" because that is how minds work I guess. Luckily, the characters also had these questions! And yes, they'll be explored, no doubt.

►I looooved the characters. They're all quite different and complex, especially considering they're the group that was sent out to basically die standing guard at the edge of all matter. That's kind of a crap assignment, yeah? Some didn't mind, some did, but none really had a choice. And for the most part, it had been more "boring" than "dangerous". But nothing lasts forever.

►Little moments of levity were everything. This could have been a really depressing novel, frankly. But it wasn't! Not at all! There was so much wonderful character development, and mystery, and even lighthearted moments that made the story so very readable. Yes, there were of course darker moments, and isolation, and fear, and sadness. But I loved how extremely well-rounded, from an emotional perspective, it was.

►The story pulled me in from the start. I was so captivated by the story, I needed to know all the things. I loved that the author would answer some of my questions, while then providing a whole new set of mysteries and questions! Which meant that I was always engaged, always eager for the next chapter.

►Obviously very high stakes. Not just for the characters I fell in love with, but likely for every creature in the universe. So that ups the ante even more, as you'd imagine.

Bottom Line: I could not put The Last Watch down, and I will be eagerly awaiting my pre-order of The Exiled Fleet to see what happens next in this incredibly engaging, perfectly paced, and wildly emotive series!

Pitched as Battlestar Galactica crossed with the Night's Watch from A Song of Ice and Fire/GOT, The Last Watch definitely lived up to its comps and is an engrossing start to a new sci-fi series. I found it a little dense right in the beginning but as soon as the plot kicked off I knew I was going to be in for a wild ride!

There's also nothing I love more than the "ragtag group needs to band together to save the world" trope so I absolutely adored the characters and their interactions with each other. When this trope is included, backstories and how the characters all come together is one of the most important aspects, but Dewes hit the nail on the head in this debut. All of the characters felt real and human with compelling stories that kept me hooked and staying up late to keep reading. The plot twists involving certain characters were mind-blowing—I never would've expected them. I would also say this is a well-balanced novel with respect to being character and plot-driven. There are a lot of major plot points and an expansive universe at play but the characters are what truly drove the story.

Overall, The Last Watch is a sci-fi debut to look out for. Dewes is a new voice in the genre and is already doing amazing things with The Divide. Hopefully, the release date for The Exiled Fleet is still in August because I can't wait to read the second instalment.

J.S. Dewes' debut novel, The Last Watch, is ready and primed to blow science fiction fans out o the water (out of the atmosphere?). It's the first novel in The Divide series, and I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

The Divide sits at the edge of the universe. It is the space between the stars – and nothingness. Here, the Sentinels stand guard: the old, the infirm, the rebellious, and the stubborn remainders of the military.

Adequin Rake has made her life here. She's the commander of the Argus, and while the post runs on limited supplies, she makes it work. That is, she did. Right up until something changed in the Divide, and that changed the role she had to play.

“There was something off-putting about utilizing technology created by a species that had all but wiped out your own, even if the war had ended centuries ago.”

The Last Watch is marketed as a novel for fans of Game of Thrones and The Expanse. Having read the novel, I don't think that description does The Last Watch justice. This was simultaneously the most detailed and compelling science fiction novel I've read in quite some time.

I think what really got me was how human each character felt. It wasn't just Rake (though there is that – she was easily my favorite character and perspective). All of the secondary characters felt fleshed out as well, though some more than others. Cavalon's personality (one part humor, one part sardonic pain in the butt) helped to balance out the otherwise strong military feel that many characters brought with them (looking at you, Rake).

Even the reason for being out in the Divide carried with it a certain sense of weight. As did their lack of supplies. All of that added to the complexity of the situation, naturally. But it also made it all feel so much more realistic.

“Sentinel, Sentinel at the black – do not blink or turn your back. You must stand ready to stem the tide, lest Viators come to cross the Divide.”

All of the details in The Last Watch helped to build toward some seriously epic moments. Even that feels like an understatement. If you're a fan of science fiction where everything is on the line (sometimes literally), then this book is going to thrill you.

Amazingly, the next novel, The Exiled Fleet, has already been written. Better yet, it looks like it's expected to publish in August. So sit down and get ready because I just know that it is going to be one hell of a ride.

The Last Watch is the first installment in author J.S. Dewes The Divide series. Imagine the soldiers of the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones, faced with the high stakes politicking and interstellar action of The Expanse, and you'll begin to get the flavor of the first entry in the Divide series. Dewes uses her flair for the dramatic to stack twist after twist, compounded by epic space-battles fought by uniquely compelling characters like Cavalon Augustus Mercer II, and Excubitor Adequin Rake. Adequin, the Commander of the Argus, is a Titan--one of the elite special operation soldiers during the last war against the Viator's. Titans are legendary heroes and Rake was one of the best known along with her partner Griffith Bach.

Adequin has been a fighter pilot, tactician, and marks-woman. So why has she been relegated to the edge of the Divide? I'll not spoil the entire reason except to say that Five years ago, she made a life or death choice that sent her to the farthest reaches of the universe so that nobody would discover what she did. To make matters worse, The Argus is ancient and is falling apart. The Sentinels stationed onboard the Argus are a mixed bag that have some problematic reason for their posting: hacking, disobeying an order, lack of respect for officers, etc.. One could say that Adequin is captain of a ship filled with criminals. Including one very special one. Cavalon is an outcast royal heir who has been stripped of his titles and sent to the Divide and the SCS Argus.

All of his alleged offenses have been redacted and he was lucky to keep his own name. What crime did Cavalon commit that would get him sent to a military battle-cruiser on the edge of the Divide? A very creative one. Cavalon nuked his grandfather’s genetic labs trying to stem his grandfather's machinations. When he's not being a smartass, he's brilliant with a list of advanced degrees that come in handy time and time again. He's also the only one onboard without any military training. The Sentinels at the Divide are allegedly protecting mankind from another Viator incident. Except they died out two hundred years ago. Had to clean up a few during the so called Resurgence War that led to the discovery that the Viators created a race of beings called Drudgers.

Some may not believe in coincidences, but shortly after Cav's arrival, the Divide does some wanky things which forces Rake and a hand full of her crew to abandon ship. What's even more disturbing is that the crew has no communications back to civilization. They are literally cut off. They have jump stations that are deactivated. They have Drudgers who show up at unusual places, and with no way to return back to civilization, Rake and her crew must make a stand to prevent the Divide and Drudgers from killing any more Sentinels who have been stranded by their own people. What's curious about this world is that Humans have chosen to borrow, as it were, technology from their hated enemies called Imprints. Rake's are very curious and above anything you will see from any other character in this book.

There is another group in this book as well called Savants. The Savants received intellect, grace, and an appearance that is alien yet not frightening. They were also slaves to the Viators. Cavalon starts out a jerk who thinks the world is against him, but what he needs is Rake. She challenges him to be better and gives him structure and he responds in big ways. There is mild romance in this story basically on two characters Rake and Bach. There is also plenty of darkness, plenty of deaths, and plenty of action to keep everyone satisfied right to the final page of the book. I liked this story so much that I requested the sequel which will be releasing later this summer.

The Last Watch is the debut novel of J. S. Dewes. It’s an intense sci-fi military adventure that begins The Divide series.

At the edge of the universe is the Divide where the expansion of the universe has stopped. Sentinels are posted to guard the Divide to make sure that an ancient alien enemy won’t attack humans from there. But everyone knows that nothing survives the void on the other side of the Divide, and the post is in fact a punishment for criminals and demoted soldiers.

Their commander is Adequin Rake, a decorated hero of the latest war with the aliens that ended ten years previously. For the outsiders, it looks like she’s been promoted to her post, but she knows the placement is a punishment for something she did at the end of the war. But since she’s punishing herself for it too, she’s determined to be the best commander the outpost on Argus, a decommissioned starship that houses the Sentinels, has ever seen. She’s respected and capable, but then the universe throws a problem at her that she has no idea how to handle. Namely, the universe.

For some reason the universe has begun to shrink fast and the closest thing on its path is Argus, with a few hundred soldiers and nothing to evacuate them with. All communications to the command centre are cut. But since the only other option is to be devoured by the void, Rake sets out to do her best to save them.

The book is pretty much action from start to finish. A problem after a problem is thrown at Rake from evacuating Argus to finding fuel to establishing communications to fighting aliens to saving the universe. Rake is indefatigable; I don’t think she eats or sleeps for days. Her physiology is assisted with Imprints, alien technology inserted under her skin that makes her stronger and helps her heal faster, but it’s still impressive. She’s fuelled by her duty and her personal relationship with a fellow officer who has gone missing with the crew of his repair ship.

The other point of view character is Cavalon Mercer, grandson of the ruler of the universe and the sole heir. He has a toxic relationship with his grandfather, which has led to him being banished to the edge of the universe, hopefully to die there. Privileged and unaccustomed to military life though he is, he nonetheless manages to make himself an indispensable part of Rake’s team—mostly because he has several useful degrees from genetics to astromechanics. He’s a great character, a coward who rises to the occasion time after time.

This was a wonderfully solid book, with language that grounded the reader to the world and action with ease. There was nothing unnecessary; the backstories and the world were given only as much space as they needed, and it didn’t try to be anything other than it claimed, a sci-fi adventure. Politics and romance were background noise.

With only two POV characters, I expected the relationship between Rake and Cavalon to be the driving force of the narrative—whether antagonist or romantic—but while a friendship of sorts forms between them, they have their own storylines that only occasionally meet. Even though the action was almost non-stop, there was time for their personal stories, growth and grief too. All in all, a great book that instantly made me want to read the next one too.

One of the reasons I wait before writing my reviews (other than time) is that usually when some time passes after reading the book, I can process it better especially the impression the book left on me. Many times I enjoy a book but upon reflection, it either didn’t leave anything with me or I notice some faults I didn’t care about it before. I originally rated this book 4 stars but I’m dropping my rating to three 3 stars because while reading, this is a sci-fi and I rarely read sci-fi, I might not be appreciating this because I don’t understand everything that’s going (one of the things I hate about not being a native English speaker is that I don’t know sometimes if the lack of comprehension on certain things is my fault or the author’s).<p>

The book takes place in our universe but over a thousand years in the future and after a thousand years war with aliens (that are supposed to be extinct now), the universe is ruled by a military monarchy. They send outcast soldiers to the edge of the universe to “guard” it from those aliens but they’re basically shunned from their society. It’s like the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones. Except that these people are the center of the plot.

It’s told from two perspectives, Cavalon, an outcasted royal heir and Adequin, a former Titan (basically she was important in the war with the aliens) who is the head of the ship. The book’s pace is fast and stuff gets more interesting as we progress through this book. I wasn’t that invested in the story at first but I found myself enjoying it more than I expected. The banter between the characters and dialogue was fun and light to read.

Sadly, the characters while “interesting” in theory, didn’t mean much to me. I found it weird how Cav which no real-world xp can pull of so much shit. It’s just convenient for him to be skilled in those areas that are needed… it actually became too much. I think he was my favorite character (and Puck).

Adequin’s character was kind of underwhelming. I wanted to admire and love her characterization but I also couldn’t care. The romance between her and another crew member was meh, I didn’t feel any chemistry and it felt like just another addition to the plot, a way to make humanize Adequin since she’s strict most of the time but it didn’t feel useless.

A lot was going on and I seldom do that but on a specific chapter, I had NO CLUE what’s going on so I skipped a few pages because truly, I gave up trying to understand in this book. It was too confusing for me. They use a lot of terms and such that weren’t properly explained and when they were, it was too late since they’re not relevant anymore. Even the whole world-building was confusing to me and I did try to make sense of things (that’s why sci-fi isn’t for me).

Nonetheless, I did enjoy reading this book for the most part and the ending left me interested enough to want to read the sequel because it was well done. To me, this was a plot-driven book and not character-driven although the author tried to make her characters more realistic and give them depth yet I wasn’t attached to them. I couldn’t stop reading the last part and that’s why I wanted to give this book 4 stars but now.. yeah I didn’t enjoy it enough to rate it 4 stars.

Being compared to A Game of Thrones might be a rite of passage for new release fantasy books, but I was somewhat surprised to see J. S. Dewes’ *sci-fi* debut receive the same treatment. Ironically it’s fairly spot-on, with The Last Watch being something like the Night’s Watch in space, with the fate of the whole universe at stake. The result is a high-octane space adventure that had me tearing through the pages!

In an attention-grabbing opening scene, the novel introduces Prince Cavalon Augustus Mercer II… mid-body cavity search. Cav has been sent to serve on the SCL Argus by his grandfather as punishment for an unknown crime. The spaceship Argus patrols the Divide–the literal edge of the universe–for threats to the System Collective Legion. But the war against the technologically advanced Viator race from beyond the Divide ended hundreds of years ago, and the Argus now operates with a skeleton crew of misfits and criminals, underfunded and all but forgotten by the SCL.

War hero Adequin Rake leads the Sentinels, spending her time keeping her crew out of fights, but busy enough to not be driven to existential fear of the starless expanse surrounding the ship. Disaster strikes when Rake realises that the Argus hasn’t been drifting, but that the Divide is creeping closer, the universe itself is shrinking at an exponential rate. Cut off from the rest of humanity, the Sentinels race against space and time to save, well, everything.

The Last Watch reads like a blockbuster action film, which makes a lot of sense given Dewes’ experience in film and screenwriting. Feisty characters, mind-boggling physics and dangerous EVAs to fix the crucial thingy (phalange?) keep the story fast-paced and exciting from beginning to end, with plenty of snarky humour along the way.

I found Cav quite annoying at the start of the book, but while his character development feels a little artificial, I couldn’t help but love him in the end. The Last Watch has an entertaining cast of characters and plenty of found family feels. I thought I’d read enough sci-fi adventure stories to expect this by now, but it still took me pleasantly by surprise, perhaps because of the focus on military stations and roles early in the story.

Some of the exposition-through-dialogue tends to be a little on the nose, but to be fair to the author there’s quite a lot of history and nomenclature to get your head around, plus it kind of works with the action film vibe that the book has.

The tension in The Last Watch is fueled by fancy physics related to dark matter and time-altering gravity, but like Interstellar, I didn’t have to understand the science to enjoy it, so hesitant sci-fi readers needn’t worry.

I had a lot of fun with this book and raced through it much quicker than I usually read. With the fast pace and epic stakes, I’d recommend this one to fans of Megan E. O’Keefe’s The Protectorate. Check out the first chapter on the Tor/Forge blog!

Many thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

Trigger warnings: drug use, addiction, emotional abuse

Stars: 5 out of 5

I think I found my new favorite scifi series, and I have been looking for one for a long time.

This book has it all, at least in my opinion - great worldbuilding, multifaceted characters, high stakes, and non-stop action.

Worldbuilding: I love when the author progressively introduces me to their world and does it right. You won't find any infodumps here. You won't have characters rehashing events or concepts that they SHOULD already know just for the sake of telling the reader what's going on. No, sir, no ma'am. We get thrown off the deep end along with Cav, one of our protagonists, who was just sent to the Divide, or the butt of nowhere to serve along with the Sentinels, another bunch of criminals and misfits that the rest of the world would rather forget. It is stressful and confusing at first, but the puzzle of this world gets assembled one little piece at a time, and I found myself fascinated by it. I really want to know more about this world and the aliens and what lies beyond the Divide, if there is anything.

Characters: Cav is a genius in some things, and a complete idiot in others, like human interaction and keeping his mouth shut. He was a spoiled prince who just wanted to stick one to his uncle and rebel against his control... and never thought all the consequences through. That's one of his biggest weaknesses - he doesn't respect authority and he doesn't think about consequences. But he isn't a complete moron either. He learns, he adapts, and he definitely becomes a better human being by the end of the story. I was really rooting for him throughout the book.

But my biggest favorite is Adequin. She is such a wonderfully complex and flawed character. She tries her best to keep her derelict ship from falling apart and her crew of misfits from killing each other and themselves. She thinks that she isn't cut for command, because she was just a pilot, but when shit hits the fan and thousands of lives depend on her, she picks up the mantle and does the impossible to keep as many of these people safe as she can.

There are a lot of other supporting characters that stand out, and you can't help but like them for their quirks and flaws that make them so alive, it's refreshing. Unfortunately, not all of them will make it to the last page of this book, and I admit that I felt the death of some of them rather deeply.

So we have an interesting world and great characters, which would already rate a book very high in my opinion, but add to that a great story, and you have me hooked. I know book one has barely come out, but I am so ready for the next one!

PS: I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two hundred years after humanity defeated the evil alien Viators after a thousand-years' war, the Viators return. But it's been five years, and the hero of the war, Adequin Rake, is cooling her heels on at the edge of the universe, stuck in a deconstructed battle cruiser at the Divide, watching for the return of her enemies. It's a boring job, but someone has to do it—and it's going the same as usual until a new Sentinel soldier arrives, and the Divide begins to do some wonky shit. Soon everyone's life is in danger, and it's up to Rake—and Cavalon—to save the universe.

Okay. I don't even know to sum up my thoughts on this one.

There was a lot of potential, and the individual parts were all there to make this shine, but in the end it was a bit of a mess. The parts came together eventually, but not enough to salvage the whole. It was just...messy.

As is my review.

It felt like I was reading fanfic written by an enthusiastic writer in their early career. I mean that in the nicest possible way, because I love fanfiction and I love fanfiction writers. The beats were all there—the emotions, the banter, the relationships, the world-building, but everything felt scrambled together and haphazardly rearranged. As such, everything failed to hit right. It felt...off. To the point where I felt I like I read a different book than everyone else.

Particularly the world-building hit not so great. There are a lot of terms thrown about, and normally I'm okay with that early on in the book because I expect details to unravel later, but when the definitions and explanations did come, it was well after the necessary time. There's a lot of unpack in this world—mega corporations, clones, aliens, genetics, physics, the Divide, the military and its relationships with people, being a ship captain (whatever that meant??? It seemed Rake's inabilities were all part of her mind????), a romance, space battles, lots of zipping to and fro from places, time ripples, etc., etc., etc., there was a lot and it felt like things were popped out there without elaboration or explanation or connection, and while I don't like things spoonfed to me, I like a little more connective tissue between the threads, particularly when I can see what the author is trying to do but it's just not entirely coming together.

Additionally, the relationships failed with me. Cavalon is the quirky, smart-but-fuckup prince sent to the Divide to shape the fuck up (but really sent for other reasons). Adequin Rake is the stand-up military hero filled with conviction and boredom and angst over not doing enough as a leader. Their relationship felt forced the entire time (they are not romantic), and the secondary characters all felt like names on a page instead of actual people, including my favorites—Jackin and Puck. I felt nothing for Adequin's relationship with what's-his-face, because it was a haphazard mix of tell vs show, and he was basically a hot, older name on the page instead of a person who felt real.

One of the things I did like is that the book addresses a lot of misconceptions about dying in a vacuum and operating in space. So bonus points for that (although not so sure about the whole concept of a line of parked cruisers at the edge of the universe—that was something that I just couldn't wrap my head around).

I probably would have been able to overlook a lot of the failures in character development and world-building—and even the very uneven pacing of this book—except it was so...so.

Okay, how do I even start this?

Well, the book starts off with Cavalon getting anally probed in a search for contraband. Like, he's literally bending over, making a joke about it, and then oops there're the fingers. He's joking about it to disperse some of his awkwardness and discomfort in the entire situation, but still.

The tone is jovial but the subject matter is—well. It's a man getting anally probed. It's a prison rape joke, perpetuated with the guard/prisoner dynamic. It's played off as all well and standard, but again, there's the joke aspect underlying what happened. I just—it hit me wrong. I might be misreading it, but again, if it had been approached a little better instead of this weird tonally funny vibe, I might have been okay? But it just felt like the entire situation was approached as a joke, and I wondered why the hell this was literally the first scene in the book—or hell, why it was included at all. It added nothing to Cavalon's character, nothing to the story line, it sure as fuck wasn't funny (prison rape jokes never are, and neither are military processing "examination" jokes) or handled well.

Plus, there's another scene were Adequin and Cavalon are trying to make a repair outside the station because only those two can do it, and they tell a story to get Cavalon's mind off the dangers of space walking and being outside in a vacuum. Adequin's story is how she joined the military as a sixteen year old (and lied about her age to the recruiter), and Cavalon jokes about her seducing the recruiter/the recruiter taking advantage of this young "seductress."

Jokes about statutory rape are never cool, and it really grates when folks joke about recruiters taking advantage of poolees (or the idea of the jailbait seductress taking advantage of the poor, older man who is actually in the position of power in this situation), because these are both very serious issues, and are things that run rampant in the military today. Granted, it turns out (much later) that Adequin's recruiter actually had integrity and put a quick stop to her flirting, but it was still written in a way that diminished the very real impact of that action.

Perhaps both these scenes hit me because I was in the military and things like this affected me personally. For example, after I was commissioned, a fellow second lieutenant asked me if the sergeant instructors took away the buffer of our rifles (ngl they legit look like vibrators but also ew) because he'd heard that the female OCS candidates would masturbate with them in our squad bays at night. (Also the whole anal probing thing to make sure you didn't have anything inside you doesn't happen in the military?? Maybe in prison, which is kind of what the Divide duty station is, but still—I feel like it should have been written differently or kept out—and maybe it is kept out in the final version).

Secondly, you wouldn't believe the number of people who have asked me if I did something inappropriate with my recruiter (firm no), or the number of Marines I have known who were physically assaulted or harassed by their recruiter taking advantage of these young people—and you wouldn't imagine the kinds of jokes you hear about it. Recruiters having sex with their poolees is a fucking punchline, and it's an awful stereotype women in the military endure. Seeing it here—with an underaged kid flirting with a recruiter to get what she wants—set up as a joke/trivial story and kinda played off as not a big deal (it was addressed later, to an extent, but the damage was done, and they didn't really address the underaged aspect or the power differentials), was really annoying.

Anywho, so while the pacing is uneven, the character development is kinda all over the place, and the world-building is messy, I really just had a hard time with the tone of this. And especially with those two scenes (there were a couple others that felt the same to me, but I didn't include them).

I feel that it tried to do too much and didn't provide enough connective tissue to hold everything together, and that it really needed some sensitivity readers to handle the subjects that might not seem sensitive or touchy, but totally were.

So long story short—it was messy.

I can 100% see the appeal—plucky cast of outcasts banding together to save the universe in space—and I even kept reading to see if it would get better and hit the pitches it was swinging at, but the execution was just a big no for me. There were a lot of balls being thrown (to continue my shitty baseball analogy) but not hits.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.