Before I proceed to the review a quick note. It’s been over a year since the last review in this series. The explanation is a puzzling fact. I buy the paperback version of books and for some reason Legacies never came out in paperback. I’ve checked and the subsequent books in the series are now available in paperback but Legacies never was. So recently I gave up and bought the hardcover version. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit. Anyway, welcome back.
Legacies rejoins the story with Aeson Ford, aka Aeson Keel, aka Wraith and now aka Tyrus Rechs in search of Prisma, the young woman who has found herself embedded in the conflict between a confusing array of sides. From the previous volumes in the series, she has seen Goth Sullus destroy her family in his quest to convert the Galactic Republic into a personal weapon against lurking threats and she has been swept along by Tyrus Rechs and Aeson Keel and discovered that she has mysterious powers that somehow make her important in the conflicts still to come.
In this book we will follow separate stories involving Prisma and Keel as they struggle to survive in a galaxy filled with confusing threats. Prisma is aboard a war machine left over from the Savage Wars, a device that replays historic battles to evaluate alternate strategies to some mysterious end. Keel goes under cover as Tyrus Rechs to find out who has put a price on his head and why. And these two seemingly unrelated threads are slowly woven into one fabric. Truths are revealed about Aeson Ford’s father and Tyrus Rechs and Goth Sullus that go back to the beginning of the Savage Wars and maybe beyond.
The book shifts back and forth between the two main narratives and then adds another plot line from the past. This leads to some whiplash for the reader from time to time but the writing is quite well done and it kept my interest throughout. Anspach and Cole have a very complex world-building project going on in this series. In this volume, they provide origin information on the Cybar, Aeson Ford and links with the Savage Wars plot lines that expand a great deal on what I knew about the story previously. And any hope of finishing this series in less than a million volumes has flown out the window. But I’m happily resigned to my fate.
Highly recommended for all fans of the series. Year two of the series is barreling along on hyperdrive.