The Architect of Aeons

Starred review from March 2, 2015
Wright continues his latest space opera (following The Judge of Ages) in this galaxy-spanning extravaganza with nods to the Odyssey, Shakespeare, and Japanese legend, as well as classic visionary and military SF. Brilliant posthumans Ximen del Azarchel, suave and snobbish, and Menelaus Illation Montrose, earthy and stubborn, continue their multifaceted relationship as friends, allies, deadly foes, and bitter rivals for the love of the Princess Rania, who long ago departed from Sol’s planetary system. As the two geniuses debate whether to oppose or welcome the invasion of the solar system by planet-sized intelligences sent from afar, their ongoing dispute over the princess also continues unabated, sometimes in jests between the two and at other times in actions that affect the fates of millions of people. The years roll by in the tens of thousands while humans ascend to the stars, revert to barbarity, and ascend again. Wright revels in a linguistic phantasmagoria, including Montrose’s detailed and colorful cursing and numerous multisyllabic scientific and pseudoscientific terms. The jacket copy claims this is the last book in the series, but there’s easily room on this broad canvas for Wright to add another. Agent: Jack Byrne, Sternig & Byrne Literary.

February 15, 2015
Fourth of a projected six-volume series (The Judge of Ages, 2014, etc.) charting the future history of an Earth threatened by almost inconceivably advanced alien invaders. Two rival post-human supergeniuses, boorish libertarian Menelaus Montrose and supercilious totalitarian Ximen del Azarchel, laid plans against the Hyades and then retired into suspended animation to await the result. They awaken, eager to learn whether humanity defeated the Hyades, as Montrose hoped, or were found worthy of being slaves, as was del Azarchel's intent. The truth, when they finally learn it-after what seems like hundreds of pages of tedious bickering-proves disastrous for both, since whatever they do, they seem constrained to carry out the Hyades' designs. Worse, another invasion threatens, this time by the Hyades' bosses, the Cahetel. Montrose prepares an elaborate fleet to combat them, while del Azarchel begins a process to transform the planet Jupiter into an intelligence 250 million times smarter than a baseline human. Montrose and del Azarchel will fight yet another duel. And at the end of it all, 17,000 years remain before a third post-human, Princess Rania, over whom they are fighting, returns from the remote globular star cluster where she has gone to confront the Hyades' bosses' bosses' bosses. Once again Wright provides plenty of intellectual food for thought, with a useful chronology as an appendix, the intent being to emulate such works as Olaf Stapledon's classic Last and First Men. Inevitably, what plot there is deteriorates into a series of revelations that test the characters-and challenge those readers tenacious enough to stick with it, especially knowing they'll wait two more books before finding out what happens and who gets the girl. Impressive, with dull intervals, but for the committed only.

March 15, 2015

The space opera series that began with Count to a Trillion concludes in this sequel to 2014's Judge of Ages as Menelaus Montrose joins forces with former adversary Ximen del Azarchel, although neither has forgotten the woman they both once loved.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2015
The epic, millennia-spanning Count to a Trillion series concludes. Menelaus Montrose and Ximen del Azarchel, who have been sworn enemies sincewell, pretty much since foreverfind themselves fighting on the same side. Montrose was unable to save the human race from an alien invasion; del Azarchel's plot to hand over humanity to the invaders was likewise fruitless; now they have but one chance to save humanity from total extinction. This is the fourth volume in the series, and, while it can be read as a stand-alonethere's enough context to let readers pick up at least the gist of the larger storyit's best for new readers to familiarize themselves with the previous books: Count to a Trillion (2011), The Hermetic Millennia (2012), and The Judge of Ages (2013). Fans of space opera on an epochal scale should thoroughly enjoy this final volume of one of the more mind-bending series of recent years.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)