I have just finished listening to the last available book in the immensely long and detailed sci-fi series that has been my companion for many months. It is always a grief to end a series–to leave a world I have been living in for so long.
There were a few recent scenes that completely beguiled me–kept me awake at night, even.
For instance, the death of Bobby Draper, the gigantic woman warrior (and I must add in passing, that I bless modern sci-fi and fantasy for the way they honor women; e.g., Philip Pullman, Steven Erikson).
Bobby dies in an extraordinary act of incandescent courage. She is part of a small force defying the terrible invaders who have overwhelmed the worlds. Her ship is disabled, so she dons her powered armor and launches herself–with the deadly bomb they have built for the purpose–into the black space between her small ship and the huge battleship that so easily overmastered the less advanced ships of Earth, Mars, and the planets–but that revealed a blind spot during the last battle. She guides the bomb into that blind spot, boldly firing her weapons as she does–and then comes the spectacular explosion that completely destroys the battleship.
Alex, her companion and colleague for 30 years and more watches in horror and awe from another ship, and long afterwards, tells their team mate Naomi, “You should have seen it. She was like a fucking Valkyrie.”
Tears running down his face.
Rest in peace, Bobby.
Another scene that I found extraordinary occurs when the more-or-less emperor of the universe–who has been dosing himself with dubious alien powers–is damaged beyond recall by a stunning blow from the same implacable forces that killed those aliens so many millennia ago. His mind is quite gone, and his beloved daughter sits with him, distraught and grief stricken. She tells him how his vile second in command wants to kill her, even though she knows her father can’t hear or understand her. But in fact, when that second in command is next in the room, the emperor makes a careless gesture–and the man is killed instantaneously.
And then the emperor returns to blankly staring out the window.
The LAST BOOK (#9) which will complete all these frantic plots, is being written right now. We trust you are going at it FULL FORCE guys (N.B. there are two authors).
We are waiting but our patience is OH SO THIN.
Note that I have mentioned the show made of these books on my other blog several times, dismissing it as changing the plot in many arbitrary ways, which it does. But I came to an understanding with it, see this.
Book Club 