Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe Series: Emeralis Synth Chronicles #2
Published by BHC Press on July 23, 2020
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Science Fiction
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
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Will synthetic intelligence evolve to reflect the best or worst of their creators?
Ravenhawk, Cybercorps Corporations rogue synthetic creation, and Viktor Chernovich, a renegade pure human, have joined a secret society known as Caïssa’s Gambit to fight corrupt corporations and a government corrupted by those corporations to protect society from collapse. But another threat, once considered a mere philosophical possibility, lurks behind it all that if mishandled, could spell the end of both human and synthetic futures.
I have mixed feelings about Bishop to Queen by Lexy Wolfe. I didn’t know it was the second in the series until I started to get this post ready. I did feel like this worked fine as a stand-alone and given the beginning and end of this one, I do wonder how the first fit in, but don’t think I’ll bother going back to read it.
On the one hand, I enjoyed reading Bishop to Queen. I flew through it and maybe put off doing some work to read it instead. It was a fun book that moved along at a good pace. The characters were interesting and amusing if slightly one-dimensional. The idea of what makes a being human and what makes someone “good,” while not a new topic in sci-fi, was explored well here.
There were a couple of things I didn’t like about the book too. First, as I mentioned, the characters were not a multi-dimensional as I could wish and the dialogue was stilted at times. The climax of the story was a bit of a let-down; it just wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. And the reveal was just too obvious. The story had a lot of potential, but didn’t quite live up to its promise for me.
About Lexy Wolfe
Mother, semi-professional cat-herder, and lover of shiny things, Lexy Wolfe is the author of the highly acclaimed epic fantasy novels of The Sundered Lands Saga. After her time in the Army as a Russian linguist was cut short due to injuries, she has continued a tradition of serving as a translator, now between technical and business folks.
Lexy enjoys learning as much about everything, with a special love of all fields of science. Unfortunately, she never could decide on a single field of study to focus on. Having to set aside a childhood dream, inspired by Carl Sagan, of becoming an astronaut and traveling to other worlds, she now weaves vivid worlds and vibrant characters into intricate stories.
Not a genre I usually read so I like to read “about” it. Thanks for the review.
This one definitely could have been better though.