Lords of Uncreation

Endings are hard, and this series wibbles on landing. It’s not bad, mostly more of the same. The intermediary Idris is locked in a desperate battle against the great forces of unspace; variously merely human characters tossed about by factional politics. There are some decent action set-pieces, but the only moment that really stuck with me was Adjudicator Tact sacrificing herself and stranding a group of renegade Parthenon in unspace to be consumed by the Presence that haunts the hyperlanes.

Berserkers, immense machines that aim to kill space-faring civilizations, are a scifi staple, from Saberhagen’s original to Revelation Space and Mass Effect. The Architects are notable for the style in which they convert inhabited planets to cosmic scale artwork, but otherwise much the same. And the things behind the Architects are an unsatisfying foe, refugees from another universe guiding the collapse of this one so a place more hospitable to them can be found.