3.5 stars.
Nicola Mafalda and her scout ship Frontier Chic have a strained relationship. Or rather, she feels uncomfortable and is still recovering from the trauma of the last time they were together, while Frontier doesn't quite understand Nicola's anger with it. They had been under attack, and in a frantic bid to save her life, Frontier Chic took a drastic action. Her life was saved, but she found herself unable to forgive the ship, and is still having some trouble processing her experience.

Months later, a former schoolmate/lover asks her for help. Nicola realizes that the situation he tells her of is extremely serious, and she'll need to forgive both the man and the ship if they are to all work together to travel to the planet Jzat to find a sort of holy man, Abelisk, who knows details about a massive, ring-shaped construction called the Grand Mechanism, which surrounds a black hole.

Of course this is not a simple job. There are others also searching for Abelisk, including those who want to use the Grand Mechanism for their own nefarious purposes. One of these is young physicist and prodigy Orlando Watson who has not been told why he is there to study the Grand Mechanism.

So, Nicola, after sorting out some of her feelings about her last assignment and the way Frontier Chic resolved it, takes off and pretty soon the journey becomes a race to get to the Mechanism to stop it from opening, which, Nicola and company find out to their horror, could mean destruction of everything, including all the arcs housing humanity (see book one of the "Continuance" to learn more about these arcs). There are chases, fighting, shocking reveals, delightful characters (Kona, a Jzat, was a favourite), neat science, and a pace that never lets up.

I loved how the whole story was framed as testimony delivered by Frontier Chic, who, though not Trouble Dog (of the author's "Embers of War" series), was still an interesting presence and viewpoint on all the action and danger.

Interestingly, though the stakes are extremely high in this second entry in the "Continuance" series, the overall feel of this novel is a little lighter, despite the numerous times Nicola and Frontier Chic are in danger. I enjoyed this fast-moving, high danger novel, and definitely recommend it and these series as a whole.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Having not read the first book in the series, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to follow along. The first handful of chapters were a little rough to get through, but I encourage you to hold on! This book is such a great adventure and perfect for sci-fi beginners. I’m sure there are a few references that I wasn’t able to pick up, but overall, this book can definitely be read as a stand alone. This was my first Powell book and it certainly won’t be the last.

This is a great plot, with well developed characters.

Overall this is a good light hearted space opera, although it did feel a bit rushed at the end.

We interviewed author Gareth L. Powell for his book Descendant Machine for the May episode of the New Books in Science Fiction podcast.

Gareth L. Powell’s Descendant Machine (Titan Books, 2023) is set about 200 years in the future, and yet the recent explosion in A.I. technology suggests Powell’s imagined future—in which the minds of humans and A.I.s are symbiotically enmeshed—is just around the corner.

The Bristol author’s new novel centers around a mysterious machine called the Grand Mechanism, an impenetrable black sphere, which, about two thousand years ago, replaced a star in a binary system. The system is home to a humanoid, multi-armed species known as the Jzat, who are divided among those who want to crack open the Grand Mechanism, believing it contains a wormhole to connect them with a more advanced Jzat civilization, and those who want to leave the mechanism alone, fearing it contains a black hole or other existential danger.

“I got a bit satirical with the way the faction is appealing to nationalism to get the power they need to open this thing by promising sunlit uplands and making Jzat great again,” Powell says. “It's like any scientific experiment, any scientific knowledge that sentient beings see. It’s a process of just poking stuff to see what happens. Chimpanzees do it, and crows do it. You find something you don't understand, you poke it and try and break it and see what it can do. And that's how we learn. And that's what's basically happening on a massive scale in this story with this ancient machine that nobody knows what it does, but they want to poke it and see what happens.”

Powell is known for using fast-paced, character-driven science fiction to explore big ideas and themes of identity, loss, and the human condition. He has twice won the coveted British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and has become one of the most-shortlisted authors in the 50-year history of the award, as well as being a finalist for the Locus, British Fantasy, Seiun, and Canopus awards.

Descendant Machine is the second in Gareth L Powell’s Continuance series, following on from 2022’s Stars and Bones. While that first book will give readers a deeper understanding of the universe that Powell has created, no deep knowledge of it is needed to enjoy the sequel. The basics are covered well enough and there are only extremely tangential connections to the main events of that book. That said, while Stars and Bones was derivative but okay, Descendant Machine is a better book that its predecessor in pretty much every way.
Once again, the action centres around a sentient space ship, the VSS Frontier Chic, and its pilot Nicola Mafalda. After a traumatic incident, Mafalda is put back to work, asked to reconnect with the four-armed alien, but strangely human-compatible, Jazt. A rogue elements of the Jazt are trying to unlock the secrets of a giant object in their solar system. Nicola and her crew have been tasked with finding the one Jazt with the answers to what the object is before someone manages to get it operational. What they find, besides a supersized, ancient starship, is much more than they bargained for and a potentially galaxy-ending threat.
Descendant Machine is great space adventure. Powell got past all of the set-up and established the rules of his universe in Stars and Bones and now just seems content to play in it. There are still eldritch machines, laser battles, space chases and galactic stakes. But there is a lightness to Descendant Machine, engaging characters, and a great sense of humour that helps it all go down smoothly.

The book "Descendant Machine" by Gareth Powell is an enjoyable sci-fi .The story is told through alternating POV chapters of Nicola Mafalda, and Orlando Walden, a young scientist.

While the first five couple of chapters were a bit off putting, it went full steam ahead post that. I really enjoyed the end chapter of the book where Nicola starts to understand her destiny and the way she sets the future path of execution.

Overall, , would definitely recommend this book.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book for my unbiased feedback.

You know what you're getting when you read GLP, it's a fast paced story with wide concepts and a varied cast leading to vast adventures, I'll be honest when I say that I preferred Stars and Bones, but then I'm a Galactica groupie at the best of times.

Thanks to the Author and Netgalley for the free copy in return for the honest review.

Thanks to Titan & Netgalley for an advance copy of Gareth L Powell's latest, wonderful chunk of sci-fi goodness.

Full of wit, charm, sentient spaceships, advanced super-cool tech stuff, great characters, a plot that covers billions of years, fur-covered, four-armed aliens, a plot to end the galaxy, and more advanced theoretical physics than you can shake a Dyson sphere at.

And yet....it's also full of thought provoking ideas and discussions on love, destiny, life, the universe and everything.

Another absolute cracker from my favourite Sci-fi author. Tres Chic.

Have you heard about the new book craze?
Listen to me, I'm sure you'll be amazed
Big fun should be read by everyone
It's up to you, but I loved this one

The length of a book is a weird variable, particularly when it comes to a genre like Space Opera. Descendent Machine is set in Gareth L. Powell's Continuance universe (Earth nearly destroyed, benevolent aliens evacuate the whole Earth and force them to live in Space Arks), but stand-alone, and follows a lot of the recent fashion in the genre. Namely, there are giant superstructures in space, no-one knows what they are, they shouldn't be meddled with, they are meddled with. But its rather straightforward with how it gets there. We have a prologue but of character building and trauma set-up. The gang is pulled together, we have a little side quest and then we are at the gigantic object fighting for control.

I appreciated its direct approach, whilst wondering if these characters perhaps needed a little bit more space to breathe (no pun intended). The book flits in and out of three main protagonists' heads, and we get a sense of their motivations but there isn't really a sense of the bigger universe. that may well be because Powell has done that in other books in this universe, but it just meant it felt a bit thin for the genre. Or alternatively, I have got used to space opera bloat - and its quite possible that is the answer considering that for all these quibbles I enjoyed Descendant Machine a lot. Whilst it is using lots of tropes of its genre, it does it in an interesting way and the big bad is a little bit more interesting than the unknowing mind from the dawn of time that seems to crop up. Most importantly it pulls a bit of a Doctor Who when it comes to the eventual conflict resolution, which I will always appreciate.

Descendant Machine by Gareth L. Powell is a smart science fiction adventure filled with witty dialogue. Descendant Machine is the second book in the Continuance book series. It is a very loose sequel to Stars and Bones the first book in the series, where no characters return and the events in the book are light years away and not mentioned. The only thing tying the books together is the set up for how humans currently live and what happened to Earth. You do not have to read the first book, Stars and Bones, to read Descendant Machine. The genre for this book is science fiction but I think of it as a deep dive into science fiction. This book explores subjects like AI, blackholes, and quantum physics. I do not have a brain for science at all but was able to understand these high levels of science that the book laid out. The opening scene was confusing me but I don't know if it will be for new readers. I was trying to find out the connection between this book and to the last book, Stars and Bones. It took me a while to realize there was no connection. The book opens with chaos as the AI ship and their captain is getting fired upon during a sanctioned mission with some double crossing. The scene ends with a dire decision that will be the catalyst to the novel's direction. The story is told through 4 perspectives which works well and keeps it fresh; 3 are with the main action while the other perspective keeps the tension of the ticking clock scenario. The pace of the novel is pretty fast. There are twists all throughout. There's double and triple crossing from characters. The standout of the novel is the witty sharp dialogue that makes every scene enjoyable. The humor is across the novel that really helps with the pace. I was asked to join the Book Tour for Descendant Machine by Titans books who provided me with a free copy via Netgalley. Descendant Machine by Gareth L. Powell is published on April 11 2023.

Plot Summary: 75 Years in the future the Earth will be at war and on the verge of armageddon, but as the missiles flew, the entity was watching and stepped in. A scientist just hours before had found the substrate, a way of which to travel from place to place over distance. Years after this event all earthlings are placed on giant arks called the Continuance, traveling through the substrate searching light years in the future for a new home. Nicola Mafalda works in transport, moving both people and things. She has just picked up a passenger that a Jzat, a four armed humanoid, does not want her to join the Continuance or seek out Ran'nah Abelisk, a Jzat that has knowledge of the Grand Mechanism, a device as big as a planet that is believed to block a worm hole. The Grand Mechanism has been up for centuries and the debate on how to get it open and what is behind it is the reason for war. Nicola is caught in the middle and her only tie is her former boyfriend, who is a Jzat. There's a secret that some one doesn't want out after Nicola is almost killed to keep it a secret. She takes it upon herself to seek out Ran'nah Abelisk and find out what he knows. She takes her ex-boyfriend, her AI ship "the Frontier Chic", and ex military buddy with a grudge.

What I Liked: The humor in this novel is very funny and a theme throughout. The plot is complex, but once I figured everything out, it made sense and I thought it was really smart. The frog in the milk jug dialogue is such good writing and it is a hilarious observation. The second part of the book is so great, really good pace and high stakes adventure. I liked the way the Jzat were described and how their four arms worked. There's another interesting bug-like creature that is named based on what their greatest weakness one is called Allergic to Seafood . I would love to see this species get explored more in future books. The twists and reveals added a lot to the story, there are some pretty great ones. The dialogue is very witty and fun, one of my common critiques in science fiction novels is bad dialogue, which makes this book stand out even more for its cleverness.

What I Disliked: The confusion at the beginning was a callout from the the first book Stars and Bones, when you write into chaos in your first line it makes it interesting, but you lose some connection to why we should care about these characters. Powell makes it up later but it was a little too much right at the beginning. The description setting up the scene was sometimes lacking, I would get confused which ships were in the vicinity of the others. There's a battle where characters escape in a hatch, that took me a while to figure out which ship they got on to.

Recommendation: Descendent Machine by Gareth L. Powell is solid science fiction that is both smart and fun. When I described Stars and Bones I said it was like 3-4 really good concepts of Star Trek episodes combined and the same goes with Descendant Machine. Stars and Bones took its self a little more serious than Descendent Machine. I rated Descendant Machine by. Gareth L. Powell 4 out of 5 stars.

Gareth Powell is a master storyteller and a master of sci. This stand alone book, set in the universe of Stars and Bones made me think about the classic of sci-fi: a lot of fun, highly entertaining but also a lot of food for thought.
We meet new characters, learn more about this universe, and have fun in reading the actions and the battles.
A highly entertaining sci-fi
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I was looking forward to the continuation of this series, where the author Gareth Powell portrays a wandering humanity relocated on huge ark-ships by the powerful aliens called Angels of Benevolence. Descendant Machine is not exactly the direct continuation of the first book, Stars and Bones, since it takes place some fifty years after the events depicted there, and as such it can be read as a stand-alone, although I would recommend reading the first volume as well, to better appreciate the nuances of characters and backgrounds. Before delving into my review I would like to share a detail about the writing of this book: in the Afterword, Mr. Powell speaks about the difficult genesis of Descendant Machine, since the first draft was completely lost due to some technical problems, and he had to start again from scratch. Everyone who lost some important file to computers’ quirks understands what kind of blow that must have been, so this book also stands as the proof that no situation is unsurmountable, no matter how dire it looks - and in light of the events that constitute the core of this novel, I wonder how much of this realization went into the crafting of the story itself…

Nicola Mafalda is the pilot of the scout ship Frontier Chic, belonging to the Vanguard - the exploratory arm of the Continuance, the vast fleet of ark ships on which humanity has been forging the vastness of space for the past 125 years. At the start of the novel, Nicola is ferrying passengers to Jzat, a planet inhabited by furry, four-armed humanoids who have been studying for generations a mysterious object orbiting their planet: the Grand Mechanism - the same size as Saturn’s rings, the object has been the source of endless debate about its origins and function, and there is a growing faction on Jzat that’s set on opening the Mechanism to uncover its secrets and, hopefully, reap the rewards that its superior technology might offer.

What started as a pretty routine run ends quite badly for Nicola and the Frontier Chic (I will let you discover how badly on your own…) and when we see her again she’s recuperating from the ordeal on one of the arks: contacted by her superiors, she is sent - not exactly willingly - to look for a Jzat mystic, the Rav'nah Abelisk, the latest in a long line of custodians of the Mechanism’s secrets, to obtain his help in avoiding the disasters that might follow the opening of the construct. Fighting against time and the Jzat faction bent on harnessing the Mechanism’s powers, Nicola faces dangers, betrayals and a threat to the end of the universe as we know it, in a non-stop, enthralling story whose stakes keep mounting from one chapter to the next.

Descendant Machine is written in alternating POV chapters belonging respectively to Nicola Mafalda, to the Frontier Chic’s envoy (envoys are the ships’ avatars) and to Orlando Walden, a young, bright scientist whose letters to his lover Ramona are a delightful mix of purple prose and self-centeredness. This narrative choice keeps the novel moving along at a swift pace, turning it into a compulsive read once the pieces are all set on the board and the action rolls on with unstoppable momentum, without however forgetting a good number of well-placed sparkles of humor and a few forays into emotions that feel natural and organically developed and contribute to the excellent narrative balance of this story.

I enjoyed Nicola’s portrayal very much: she possesses a delightfully snarky disposition that does not shy away from a consistent use of profanity, but which also hides the self-doubt and vulnerabilities that round up her character into a very relatable one. If she can be all business when performing her tasks, it’s in her dealings with the Chic’s envoy that we are able to see the real Nicola: here lies one of the most intriguing aspects of the novel, because we learn that Vanguard’s navigators and their envoys are somewhat mentally linked to better travel the intricacies of the Substrate (or hyperspace), and therefore share a bond that is as deep as it is unique. The voice of the Chic’s envoy is an equal mixture of intelligence, humor and shrewdness that works as the perfect foil for Nicola’s prickly attitude and the exchanges between the two of them are among my favorite sections of the book, particularly where the undeniable affection underlying their relationship comes to the fore.

The chapters devoted to Orlando Walden are of a very different nature for two reasons: on one side they explore his personality through the impassioned letters sent to Ramona, his love for her expressed in a flowery and childish way that’s quite funny; on the other they afford readers a peek into the mindset of the Openers - the faction set on uncovering the Mechanism’s secrets - and in particular of their leader Aulco, whose speeches pave the road for some humorous pokes at the sectarian kinds of politics we have seen crop up in recent years.

Narratively speaking, Descendant Machine enjoys a lighter tone in respect of its predecessor, even though it does not lack for drama or the levels of tension that accompany the possibility of seeing the universe as we know it vanish in a puff of smoke - from my point of view, it’s space opera of the most gratifying kind, where alongside the more adventurous themes you will find deeper considerations about life and death, love and friendship, the strength to accept one’s end for a higher purpose, and much more. Once again I can rest assured that Mr. Powell is very comfortable in this genre, as well as skilled, and that I will welcome every new book of his with great expectations.

Descendant Machine is a fun, a true delight of a book that is exciting, innovative and crazy at all places. It’s playtime for the imagination, and I loved it.

The action starts with a nuclear missile exploding and rarely slows down from there. Human Navigators, Ships with personalities, and four armed aliens all feature. Taking place around 50 years after Stars and Bones this book is funny at times and all around a fun read.

Nicola Mafalda isn't having a good day. The Continuance navigator is attacked in her scout ship, suffers a fatal dose of radiation, and loses a rather important body part. Or, the entirely body, depending on how you want to view it. And that's just chapter one and the start of her adventures!

In the first book of this loosely-linked series (that is, same universe, different time period and characters, and can be read first or as a stand-alone), Stars and Bones, we discover the alien intervention in mankind's nuclear war that sees the entire human race adrift in space in city-sized arks. Banned from ever settling on another planet that they might destroy, we now skip forward to a point 125 years into the exodus. Contact has been made with a few alien species, and while many are beyond a human's idea of 'life' (as an aside, it's great to read these really imaginative alternatives!) there is at least one vaguely humanoid species, the Jzat, and they're asking for help. Trouble is, reactivating the giant, star-sized machine at the centre of their solar system might be the last thing anyone does...

The chapters alternate between a few characters, including an almost insufferable poet-scientist writing love letters home from an alien world, the sentient ship Nicola is brain-linked to as navigator, and of course, Nicola herself. She's a brilliant main character, absolutely mastering the line between hedonism and morality and just a huge amount of fun to tag along with as she swears, drinks, and gallivants around the universe. Kudos to the author, the voice of each character is very different, so I doubt it would have caused issue even if the chapters weren't clearly headed with the current narrator.

As well as a rip-roaring space opera action fest, there is a lot of subtext here. Sly digs at current political events and world issues are easy to see if you want, but absolutely don't intrude if that's not your kind of thing. There's also a slight framing conceit, which to be honest I didn't much care for in the brief prologue, but stick with it as it all comes together very well by the end.

The pace doesn't let up much through the whole thing, and we end up in a very different place to where we started - I won't spoil it, though. Suffice to say, if Star Trek was allowed free reign (and a much bigger budget!) to be a little less wholesome - but, not too much - then it could well have produced this story, albeit I doubt with quite the same style and flourish and wit.

I really enjoyed Stars and Bones, but I found this to be a little lighter, a little more joyous. Overall just FUN and I loved it! Very recommended :)

Space Opera is now a classic part of Science Fiction we are used to scale; BIG conflicts and non-step action but as we move onwards into the 21st century what direction will it move into? What has it to say about today’s world? Gareth L Powell continues to refine this in the exhilarating Descendant Machine that offers scale, action, moments of wonder and awe plus a new mix of self-reflection and compromise rather than simply pyrotechnics (though those too are aplenty).

Nicola Malada is very unhappy with her sentient ship Frontier Chic. When a mission to the Jzat system goes awry and under nuclear attack she was not expecting her friend to decide the only way to save her was to behead her. Now in a new body and healing she is required to return to the same system with her ship. Something is going on in the system and in particular around the Jzat’s nationalistic new government and their plans for a huge ancient object in the system known as The Grand Mechanism which no one knows what it is for. Nicola recruits old friends to help investigate but danger awaits in old sides and the Mechanism’s purpose is about to be revealed with consequences for the whole universe.

This is the second in the Continuance Series where humanity after nearly destroying itself in WW3 was booted off Earth en mass to ark ships by a mysterious intelligence and are now wandering space and learning. You don’t have to have read Book 1 at all and this too makes a good jumping on point as it’s a hugely enjoyable epic SF tale with a big amount of heart and just a little righteous indignation at leaders who plunge their people into terrible situations while promising sunlit uplands….U.K. readers will recognise this for the danger it presents.

Powell has at the heart a classic Big Dumb Object scenario in the form of The Grand Mechanism that is immense, powerful, strange and has no explanation. As such everyone has an opinion and one group of Jzat want to open. This creates a tense and unpredictable environment that has already led to Nicola’s loss of her head. That this is not itself fatal should explain how hi tech humanity has become. What we have is humanity’s best and curious in the form of sweary, introverted but compassionate Nicola versus narrow minded and corrupt Jzat leaders who seek power and glory and care little about the risks.

In terms of plot and action it’s a classic intercept mission with Nicola and Frontier Chic assembling a tight crew with lots of weapons to go and find out what is going on. Pretty much at that point everything goes wrong and we get a great set of set pieces that tell us more about Nicola and her past but also the wider situation. Prepare for weapons dealers; spies, betrayals and secrets to rock the universe. It gets gradually more and more epic in a way that strongly reminds me of Babylon 5 in how multiple factions fight over great secrets with ancients pasts and futures. Powell always does this with style and can make a gunfight or a space battle sing with action, grace and well timed swearings. Very much a sit back and relax and marvel at the events.

What though struck me as new and a hallmark of this series are the quieter more intimate moments. We have in Nicola someone processing trauma from their last adventure and a damaged friendship with her friend plus she is unhappy how her relationship with the charming Kona a Jzat she is getting to know a lot more than she expected. In classic SF these issues are sorted out in fights or right at the end but Powell let’s these develop as plot points too and they’re handled as by adults having adult conversations with themselves and others. That perhaps should not l be as radical in SF as it sounds but it adds a lovely sense of deft to this SF and importantly has ramifications for the story’s finale which in your normal science fiction tale would just lead to big explosions. Instead Powell gives us a HUGE thread to everyone but they approach the situation with brains not just brawn and the end is still hugely satisfying but in a way that while doesn’t have a huge insurance bill still gives us an adventure and a lot of big questions to think about. As a standalone tale there is not too much time to reflect on the outcomes of this so in some ways everything feels suddenly stopped but I quite like knowing I don’t need to read another few books to know what is going on.

Descendant Machine is a fast, action focused space opera with a refreshingly adult approach to characters and emotions that firmly make it feel fresh and modern. You as I too did should have a lot of fun with this tale that flies through the plot as nimbly as its heroes fight in space. Settle back and prepare for take-off highly recommended.

A brilliant mix of science fiction, humour and adroit story telling render this book to be very readable indeed. The story is superbly told and is entertaining throughout. I absolutely loved the streaks of humour and the superbly crafted characters, as the plot hurtles on to a slightly predictable but nevertheless enjoyable ending.
This author's experience and ability to tell a story is clear from the onset, so buckle in and enjoy the ride.
One to easily recommend.

Descendant Machine is uproarious fun. A true delight of a book that feels unabashedly indulgent. It’s playtime for the imagination, and I loved it.

Do you remember when you were a kid and the thought of travelling into space got you excited? Can you recall the giddiness of how cool it all was? How the conversations you had about spaceships and aliens didn’t turn into an ethics debate, but were just a really awesome way to spend an afternoon? That’s how I felt reading Descendant Machine — like a kid who was discovering the fun in space-opera all over again.

Gareth L. Powell has built up quite the catalogue of spacefaring sci-fi with his Embers Of War series, his novella co-written with Peter F. Hamilton (Light Chaser), and his BSFA Best Novel Nominated Stars And Bones. But in Descendant Machine, he’s let the brakes off, and the ride he takes us on is wilder, weirder, and more wondrous than ever. He’s described it as his “most Gareth L. Powell book yet,” and he’s not wrong.

To give you an idea of just how zanily brilliant this book is, let me tell you about the prologue. Well, the second prologue — the first one is an introduction letting you know that the book has been written by a spaceship. But the second, official prologue includes nuclear space-attacks, dilemmas over teleporting, and decapitation. And that’s all before you hit chapter one, where things REALLY get going!

See — I told you it was wild!

In terms of content, any sci-fi enthusiast is going to lap up the tale that’s woven across this universe. But in terms of style, the book comes into its own in the way it throws everything at the page. It’s written in such a character-centric way as the book toggles between multiple points of view. The risk a writer runs in taking this approach is that the characters can sometimes sound too alike. But not so here. This book is a masterclass in writing using a variety of voices.

The star of the show is Nicola Mafalda, a navigator with more snark than you can shake a stick at, whose brought back from retirement to save her furry four-armed alien boyfriend. She’s hilarious. An absolute joy to read, with layers of insecurity she masks in acerbic one-liners, a penchant for swearing, and bar-room brawls.

But Nicola’s snark doesn’t carry over to the other characters. Contrast Nicola with Orlando Walden — he’s a scientist who is tasked to unlock a massive machine that’s the size of a moon which some aliens believe will be the key to their rise to power. But Orlando is a stuttering wreck of nerves, and his chapters are told in the form of communications back to his beloved Ramona, for whose beauty the stars twinkle and the suns shine. His adoration is sickly with young love, but it provides an excellent juxtaposition to the other characters, who are all just as unique from one another as you can get. And that’s the joy of Descendant Machine — just how much it packs in to every page, even when it comes to something as nuanced as the diversity of the character’s voices.

Underneath the bravado, hijinks, and humour, the concepts and themes which drive the story are surprisingly provoking. There’s speculation over how a being without end can reconcile the terrifying finality of death, the chaos that sprouts from nationalistic propaganda, the folly of hubris, the impact of trauma, the symbiosis between ancestors and descendants, and how every individual (regardless of whether you’re a parent or not) shares responsibility for the next generation of humanity. Escaping death is a complicated business, and there’s no shortcut to a happy ending. But the way these heady concepts are snuck in without you even realising it highlights just how encompassing sci-fi can be — it can be serious and fun at the same time, and it totally works. While the tongue of this story may be very firmly in its cheek, there’s nothing flippant or unsubstantial about it.

In terms of scale, you’d be hard-pressed to find stakes that go much bigger than this. How does the end of the universe sound? Instead of measuring things in thousands of miles, the characters measure them in billions. And why not? Space is big. This story’s big. And everything in this story’s big! But just because the stakes are high, doesn’t mean they’re not personal. It’s heartfelt. It’s touching. And the whole thing just feels so… human.

Gareth L. Powell delivers, yet again. This is the second book in the Continuance universe (a standalone sequel to Stars And Bones which really does stand alone) but it also marks a continuance in itself. It continues this author’s reach into the impossible universe, to the places that lie beyond our imagination, and is sure to thrill longtime fans of his. But it also makes the perfect jumping in point. If you’ve never picked up a Gareth L. Powell book before, this will do the job nicely.

If you’re a fan of talking spaceships, impossible odds, and space-travelling antics, then Descendant Machine is the book you’ve been looking for. It’s fun dialled up to the max. It’ll put a smile on your face, a glow in your heart, and butterflies in your stomach. An absolute blast of a novel.

Solid sci-fi. I read and enjoyed the previous book in the series, and like this one just as much. This has good a pacing and it's from an experienced author who knows how to create a fun plot.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Descendant Machine opens with the conceit that it is a report to an investigative committee, told by a sentient spaceship via the main players in the story; the ship themself, their navigator, and a highly lauded physicist, all of whom were involved in an 'incident' that resulted in multiple deaths and the restarting of a piece of giant alien technology. Thus begins a breakneck romp through parts of the galaxy that are so far flung even "outer reaches" doesn't cover the distance.

Nicola Mafalda, one of the primary narrators of the story, is a wise-cracking, cussing, fist-swinging gem, who is written with the kind of no-nonsense attitude and joie de vivre that I aspire to in my every day life. She is undeniably human, despite being so far from the humans of our reality, and her down to Earth attitude brings a punchy and refreshing attitude reminiscent of the likes of Ellen Ripley. This is chiefly her story, as she navigates her way - literally and metaphorically - through a political and scientific minefield.

There are some very clear nods to our real world in the politics of Descendant Machine, such as the verbose and blustering leader of one faction, who claims he wants to push aside the corrupt elite and raise his people and planet to the greatness that they are owed. The novel leads us on a journey through such suggestions, to their logical conclusion, whilst making some fairly damming statements about the themes of selfishness and individualism that we see prevalent in current Western politics and beyond. Powell is not afraid to show his opinions of such isolationist ideas, and the prose rings with his damning of such injustices.

One aspect of The Continuance that I very much enjoy from Powells prose is the use of alien races. He doesn't fall into the trap of making other species distinctly humanoid, and gives an absolutely shocking revelation about one of the major races in Descendant Machine partway through, that not only subverts a lot of the plot up to that point, but also makes you look anew at all the characters of that species.

Descendant Machine is set in the same universe as Powell's earlier novel Stars and Bones, but is hugely accessible to readers new to the world he has created. His flowing prose guides the reader into the worlds of The Continuance, without being overbearing or condescending to those who haven't encountered it before. As a stand alone novel Descendant Machine works superbly, which is a feat that benefits the reader greatly. There is enough backstory to explain The Continuance, and the novel also works to fill in gaps for readers who have already entered their world.