A visceral, powerful and heartfelt read

BLINDSPACE builds on the first book to deliver solid moments of gut-punching emotion, visceral action, and crazy world-building. The stakes get raised and the danger escalates, with all out war looming on the horizon. The relationship between Artyom and Vakov, the two brothers, takes center stage, as they navigate their painful past and build their relationship into something new and powerful. There's a dozen of heartfelt moments between them, with one so powerful it felt like getting headbutted in the heart by a bull. It was so well done and extremely satisfying. In a book packed full of action and shocking moments and intensely dark scenes, it's these quiet, undercutting moments that bring so much emotion to the table, and utterly destroy you.

Otherwise, the world-building is top-notch, expanding in a much bigger scope than was seen in the first book, encompassing several worlds, species, cultures, alien civilizations, and galactic histories. There's a lot to take in, evoking the feeling of Mass Effect or even China Mieville's New Crobuzon, but with a space-opera/cyberpunk aesthetic.

But character comes first here, with Katherine, Grim and Juvens - a horned warrior alien with a devilish sense of humour - all apart of the action. There's several new characters that make up Vakov's new crew, and they're all exciting and interesting people, who come with their own baggage and backstories, and between all the fantastic banter and dialogue, watching their relationships grow and evolve as their brotherhood strengthens is a pure joy.

The action scenes were also a highlight for me, whether they're a vicious brawl on an asteroid, in zero-gravity on a far-flung moon, or in a wild, crazy high-tech space battle that feels straight out of Star Wars. You feel every punch and shot and kill and spray of blood, as you get swept up in the high-octane madness.

Obviously, I loved this book all the way to the crazy conclusion, and I can't wait to see what happens next to Vakov and the gang!

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1 person found this helpful

Good...with some eye-rolling moments

It's good, not great. I feel like it verges in YA territory now and again too. There are a few rinse and repeat missions where something always goes wrong and as well as repetitive explanations of what's occurred beforehand. I found myself on numerous occasions rolling my eyes at some corny cliched dialogue or action scene you'd find in a Marvel movie....but it's still entertaining.

I've listened to quite a few books narrated by Colin Mace, most notably The Painted Man series by Peter V. Brett which is excellent and he narrates some of his best work voicing an ensemble cast of characters. Colin does have moments where he adds an odd hesitant pause in his narration.
In Blindspace he does this a lot and I almost feel he wasn't really invested in this book. There were a lot of moments where he just broke the flow of the sentence. It's not a deal breaker, I like Colin Mace but I think he wasn't on top form with this book.

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Great book Terrible ending

Good book throughout unfortunately let down by a terrible ending. Understand that cliffhangers can be effective this one not so much

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