Review Day: Deep Black by Miles Cameron

Deep Black is the conclusion of the Arcana Imperii duology by Miles Cameron. The book finds a perfect endpoint for the story of Marca Nbaro with a good balance of resolved threads and open-ended future scenarios that are fun to fill in with your own imagination.

The book's identity is very much the second half of a continuing story rather than an independent sequel with its own dramatic arc -- like A Drowned Kingdom and Last of the Atalanteans in P.L. Stuart's excellent Drowned Kingdom series, or Ships of Merior and Warhost of Vastmark in Janny Wurts' finally completed 11-book Wars of Light and Shadow series, this duology should be treated as a single, continuous story across physical bindings.

The plot picks up immediately after the conclusion of Artifact Space and barrels ahead with minimal attempts at recapping. I reread the first book just last year yet still had to tab back to refresh my memory about the endless roster of supporting characters. The massive merchant ship, Athens, travels farther away from human civilization against an uneasy blend of menacing human conspiracies and novel alien interactions. (Try to put some space between this book and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky because you might keep trying to force assumptions between the two stories' concepts that don't actually exist). Marco Nbaro and her friends continue to thrive in their positive bubble of human friendship. All of this continues to be set against the chaotic backdrop of mundane ship life, from repair duty, to space battle drills, to filing personnel reports.

A lot of these elements, such as Marco's ongoing mantra ("I'm an idiot"), her relationship banter, and the sea of characters that have minimal depth beyond their name and rank, feel too similar to what we read in Book One. This sameness is not helped by the introduction of a neural link which makes many conversations span physical, electronic, and virtual transmissions to the point where it's often hard to tell when someone is speaking, telepathing, typing, or just thinking to themselves.

However, the overarching plot methodically takes shape out of this chaotic soup as Marca's doubts trickle in about the efficacy and trustworthiness of the artificial intelligence that controls every aspect of life aboard the ship. Anytime I felt like I was about to be stuck in a story rut, the characters would have a realization that propelled the story in unexpected directions. By the climax, all of the chaff has burned away and the conclusion is absolutely worth the journey.

Deep Black fills in all of the blanks left behind in the "temporary pause point" that concluded Book One. If you enjoyed the beginning, you will be pleased with how Cameron wraps it all up.

(I also read the short story collection, Beyond the Fringe, between Books One and Two -- while I liked the additional perspectives added to the universe through those stories, I don't think they're necessarily mandatory reading to enjoy the main duology).

Final Grade: B