Scan barcode
mferrante83's review against another edition
4.0
Heretics is the sequel to 2009′s Prophets and is the second book of the Apotheosis series. It picks up with events mere minutes after the previous volume though Swann uses the early section of the novel to bring readers somewhat up to speed, at leave when it comes to the bare bones of the plot from the first book. The AI known as Adam has finally revealed himself and has begun his quest to “save” humanity by absorbing them into the collection of nanobots that comprise his physical existence. The crew of the Eclipse, hired by the now dead AI Mosasa to discover what happened to a missing star, has been either captured by agents of the Caliphate or stranded on the planet Salmagundi below. Elsewhere a soldier left to watch over a seldom-used wormhole is confronted by a strange occurrence that reveals a threat to the galaxy at large.
Despite some initially slow opening chapters which give the reader some insight into the Race AI that spawned both Mosasa and Adam Heretics rockets off on an intense ride full of entertaining action sequences and fascinating technology. Swann does a fantastic job of bouncing around the various perspectives around the planet Salamagundi reintroducing the characters readers came to know in Prophets. While all these characters are universally threatened by Adam, now claiming to be God, Swann deftly handles the variety of other threats that assail them as they race to get a message out to the rest of the universe. From Parvi’s escape from the now beseiged Caliphate warship, to Mallory and the scientists captivity at the hands of the Salamagundi natives, to Nikolai and Kugara’s strange alliance with a Protean (a race of technologically evolved humans) each section is as tense and engaging as the last. Added to that readers are introduced to Toni Valentine who, after spurning the advances of a superior officer, was forced into a boring assignment babysitting a wormhole that is until she is confronted by a mysterious and disturbingly familiar visitor, a product of the strange and mind blowing wormhole physics, that uncovers Adam’s galaxy spanning attack against humanity. It’s a testament to Swann’s writing that he can introduce a character outside of already engaging events elsewhere in the story and maker her story equally, if not more, interesting than the characters we are already familiar with.
Swann also manages to toss in a perspective that reveals just what it means to be absorbed by Adam. As data analyst Rebecca, somehwhat addicted to data and information, agrees to join with Adam. Despite being part and parcel of his being the retention of her own individuality allows for a fascinating perspective on Adam from the inside and, through what Rebecca encounters as part of Adam, a means to explore in detail the further history of the Race AIs. Of course, as in Prophets, I found the moreau man-tiger hybrid Nikolai to be the most engaging characters and I wouldn’t be surprised if Nikolai was one of Swann’s favorites as well. Religion plays an important role in Swann’s universe and Nikolai, as a product of man yet a believer in God, provides a conflicted and complex perspective to engage with those religious themes. I found his confusion when dealing with Kugara later in the novel quite amusing and a wonderful reminder of Nikolai’s humanity despite his size and appearance.
While the novel keeps the pace fresh and the action tense the build up towards the final chapters doesn’t really go anywhere. Much like in Prohpets, Heretics ends on a cliffhanger. While this doesn’t take away from the entertainment, excitement, and though-provoking theological implications that are rife in Heretics but it does rob the reader of a certain sense of satisfaction at novels end. Its direct ties to Prophets at Heretics’ beginning and its lack of a proper conclusion means it works as part of series but not at all on its own. This isn’t an entirely fair criticism, to an extent it is the nature of series fiction and the choice to make the series a more cogent whole rather then three distinct pieces is entirely structural and does little to distract from the quality of writing; save the fact that the reader has to wait rather too long for the next installment of the story! I suspect the Apotheosis series would have made a rather excellent, though likely massive, single book. If you’re a fan of epic, sweeping science fiction full of fascinating technology, big action combined with some not-so-subtle meditation on religion and the nature of Godhood then I highly recommend you give the Apotheosis series a try.
Despite some initially slow opening chapters which give the reader some insight into the Race AI that spawned both Mosasa and Adam Heretics rockets off on an intense ride full of entertaining action sequences and fascinating technology. Swann does a fantastic job of bouncing around the various perspectives around the planet Salamagundi reintroducing the characters readers came to know in Prophets. While all these characters are universally threatened by Adam, now claiming to be God, Swann deftly handles the variety of other threats that assail them as they race to get a message out to the rest of the universe. From Parvi’s escape from the now beseiged Caliphate warship, to Mallory and the scientists captivity at the hands of the Salamagundi natives, to Nikolai and Kugara’s strange alliance with a Protean (a race of technologically evolved humans) each section is as tense and engaging as the last. Added to that readers are introduced to Toni Valentine who, after spurning the advances of a superior officer, was forced into a boring assignment babysitting a wormhole that is until she is confronted by a mysterious and disturbingly familiar visitor, a product of the strange and mind blowing wormhole physics, that uncovers Adam’s galaxy spanning attack against humanity. It’s a testament to Swann’s writing that he can introduce a character outside of already engaging events elsewhere in the story and maker her story equally, if not more, interesting than the characters we are already familiar with.
Swann also manages to toss in a perspective that reveals just what it means to be absorbed by Adam. As data analyst Rebecca, somehwhat addicted to data and information, agrees to join with Adam. Despite being part and parcel of his being the retention of her own individuality allows for a fascinating perspective on Adam from the inside and, through what Rebecca encounters as part of Adam, a means to explore in detail the further history of the Race AIs. Of course, as in Prophets, I found the moreau man-tiger hybrid Nikolai to be the most engaging characters and I wouldn’t be surprised if Nikolai was one of Swann’s favorites as well. Religion plays an important role in Swann’s universe and Nikolai, as a product of man yet a believer in God, provides a conflicted and complex perspective to engage with those religious themes. I found his confusion when dealing with Kugara later in the novel quite amusing and a wonderful reminder of Nikolai’s humanity despite his size and appearance.
While the novel keeps the pace fresh and the action tense the build up towards the final chapters doesn’t really go anywhere. Much like in Prohpets, Heretics ends on a cliffhanger. While this doesn’t take away from the entertainment, excitement, and though-provoking theological implications that are rife in Heretics but it does rob the reader of a certain sense of satisfaction at novels end. Its direct ties to Prophets at Heretics’ beginning and its lack of a proper conclusion means it works as part of series but not at all on its own. This isn’t an entirely fair criticism, to an extent it is the nature of series fiction and the choice to make the series a more cogent whole rather then three distinct pieces is entirely structural and does little to distract from the quality of writing; save the fact that the reader has to wait rather too long for the next installment of the story! I suspect the Apotheosis series would have made a rather excellent, though likely massive, single book. If you’re a fan of epic, sweeping science fiction full of fascinating technology, big action combined with some not-so-subtle meditation on religion and the nature of Godhood then I highly recommend you give the Apotheosis series a try.
kozzy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mostlywicked's review against another edition
4.0
Good, solid hard science fiction, with decent (though not exceptional) worldbuilding and some interesting ideas about technology, philosophy/religion/morality and their intersection that it plays around with.
If the first book was a mere prologue of sorts, here the story truly starts to unfold. The stakes get higher, and the reader begins understanding the universe the author has wrought better, especially in regards to the looming threat that is only roughly sketched by the first book.
It ends essentially on a cliffhanger, making the third book a necessary read to complete the full story.
In my opinion, this work, while it doesn't truly compete on a level field with the masters of the genre, is still very much worth reading, and it pains me to see how underappreciated and little known it is.
If the first book was a mere prologue of sorts, here the story truly starts to unfold. The stakes get higher, and the reader begins understanding the universe the author has wrought better, especially in regards to the looming threat that is only roughly sketched by the first book.
It ends essentially on a cliffhanger, making the third book a necessary read to complete the full story.
In my opinion, this work, while it doesn't truly compete on a level field with the masters of the genre, is still very much worth reading, and it pains me to see how underappreciated and little known it is.
publius's review against another edition
3.0
I like action. I like suspense. I like drama. And increasingly, I like S. Andrew Swann. He knows how to write all of these into his plot, and he does it deftly, smoothly, and never lets the writing get in the way of the story.
Heretics is the second book of Swann’s Apotheosis trilogy (apotheosis means “the exultation of a subject to divine level”). While facing the risk of succumbing to “middle book syndrome,” Swann manages to keep the action on the edge, heighten the danger, and pull out an ending that, while appropriately leaving the situation more grave than at the beginning and tee-ing off the starting point for book three (the appropriately named Messiah), still follows a story arc that makes the read a satisfactory experience.
Nevertheless, Heretics still is a middle book, and at the end, its main function is to move the plot to the dénouement, and it just barely stays away from middle book syndrome. We are introduced to a few new characters, learn more about our antagonist Adam, and watch the known universe crumble before his claim as the one true god. Adam, the nanobot entity possessed of a more than slightly insane artificial intelligence, has assumed divine status. He begins each planetary invasion with a perfunctory demand of its inhabitants that they worship him by joining in his restructuring of the universe on a molecular level. “Live forever,” he promises, “or be destroyed.” Using technological powers that mankind universally considers “heretical,” he swoops through the universe remaking worlds in his own image, an image that is composed of entirely nanobots and networked artificial intelligence. It is Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and Michael Crichton’s Prey all in one, and on a scale spanning many galaxies. It is horrifying, a destruction by our own creation, and Swann pulls no punches.
Adam never develops far beyond the villain and with good reason. He’s just the bad guy, and we readily accept that he is arrogant, evil, and non-human. The people we care about—our heroes—are who we begin to see grow and develop in the furnace of their fight for survival. In Heretics, Swann shows his characters begin to step out of themselves, grow, and connect with each other. That said, it is important to note, that Swann writes with more focus on action and plot than on internal character development. Even as the characters grow, brood, agonize, and struggle, the struggle is more against the larger than life threat to humanity, the caricatured Adam, not the inner man’s transcendence of himself. Rather, their transcendence emerges as self sacrifice for the greater good of human survival, not unlike Joseph Cambell’s “Hero of a Thousand Faces.” We don’t get too close to them—just close enough to care, to see what we expect of a hero, and then it’s back to the action. And you know what? It works great. It’s space opera, and it’s exactly what I expected when I picked up the novel.
With a villain everyone can hate and fear, heroes that everyone can empathize with, and a dire situation that pits both heroes and villains in a “Hail Mary” fight to the death, I enjoyed flipping the pages of Swann’s novel. I finished the last page of Heretics, set it down, and immediately picked up Messiah (book three, which came out just this year) and started reading. I had no desire to put off the conclusion to the Apotheosis, and I look forward to seeing the finish of the story.
A cautionary comment on content: One scene in the book bothered me. At one point, the mutant tiger begins a relationship with one of the humans (also mutated, but not quite like him) characters. While there is only brief description, there is foreplay and reference to a sexual relationship. This is science-fiction, and perhaps interspecies romance has a place there, but it was the sexual description that was a bridge too far for me. I just didn’t buy the interspecies love affair thing. Fortunately, the scene is brief, short, and not reoccurring.
Heretics is the second book of Swann’s Apotheosis trilogy (apotheosis means “the exultation of a subject to divine level”). While facing the risk of succumbing to “middle book syndrome,” Swann manages to keep the action on the edge, heighten the danger, and pull out an ending that, while appropriately leaving the situation more grave than at the beginning and tee-ing off the starting point for book three (the appropriately named Messiah), still follows a story arc that makes the read a satisfactory experience.
Nevertheless, Heretics still is a middle book, and at the end, its main function is to move the plot to the dénouement, and it just barely stays away from middle book syndrome. We are introduced to a few new characters, learn more about our antagonist Adam, and watch the known universe crumble before his claim as the one true god. Adam, the nanobot entity possessed of a more than slightly insane artificial intelligence, has assumed divine status. He begins each planetary invasion with a perfunctory demand of its inhabitants that they worship him by joining in his restructuring of the universe on a molecular level. “Live forever,” he promises, “or be destroyed.” Using technological powers that mankind universally considers “heretical,” he swoops through the universe remaking worlds in his own image, an image that is composed of entirely nanobots and networked artificial intelligence. It is Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, and Michael Crichton’s Prey all in one, and on a scale spanning many galaxies. It is horrifying, a destruction by our own creation, and Swann pulls no punches.
Adam never develops far beyond the villain and with good reason. He’s just the bad guy, and we readily accept that he is arrogant, evil, and non-human. The people we care about—our heroes—are who we begin to see grow and develop in the furnace of their fight for survival. In Heretics, Swann shows his characters begin to step out of themselves, grow, and connect with each other. That said, it is important to note, that Swann writes with more focus on action and plot than on internal character development. Even as the characters grow, brood, agonize, and struggle, the struggle is more against the larger than life threat to humanity, the caricatured Adam, not the inner man’s transcendence of himself. Rather, their transcendence emerges as self sacrifice for the greater good of human survival, not unlike Joseph Cambell’s “Hero of a Thousand Faces.” We don’t get too close to them—just close enough to care, to see what we expect of a hero, and then it’s back to the action. And you know what? It works great. It’s space opera, and it’s exactly what I expected when I picked up the novel.
With a villain everyone can hate and fear, heroes that everyone can empathize with, and a dire situation that pits both heroes and villains in a “Hail Mary” fight to the death, I enjoyed flipping the pages of Swann’s novel. I finished the last page of Heretics, set it down, and immediately picked up Messiah (book three, which came out just this year) and started reading. I had no desire to put off the conclusion to the Apotheosis, and I look forward to seeing the finish of the story.
A cautionary comment on content: One scene in the book bothered me. At one point, the mutant tiger begins a relationship with one of the humans (also mutated, but not quite like him) characters. While there is only brief description, there is foreplay and reference to a sexual relationship. This is science-fiction, and perhaps interspecies romance has a place there, but it was the sexual description that was a bridge too far for me. I just didn’t buy the interspecies love affair thing. Fortunately, the scene is brief, short, and not reoccurring.
bent's review against another edition
4.0
A good follow-up to Prophets. It moved very quickly and kept me interested. At time it seemed a little to overwhelming - Adam just seems too powerful, but Swann found ways to keep me reading. Looking forward to the conclusion.
More...