{"id":1124,"date":"2015-06-03T21:27:24","date_gmt":"2015-06-04T02:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2015-06-03T21:27:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-04T02:27:24","slug":"and-so-it-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/and-so-it-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"And So It Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Masterminds-ebook-cover-web\"<\/a>Masterminds<\/a><\/em>
\nKristine Kathryn Rusch<\/a>
\nWMG Publishing<\/a>
\nTrade Paper $18.99
\nEbook $5.99<\/p>\n

No, not the Retrieval Artist<\/em> series, just the Anniversary Day Saga<\/em>. Miles Flint and his associates will be back sooner or later.<\/p>\n

Masterminds<\/em> ends the eight volume Anniversary Day Saga<\/em>. Reading this has been one of the highlights of the year for me. This is the one were everything comes together.\u00a0 It goes on sale in the next few weeks, so you’ve got time to get caught up if you’re a book or two behind.<\/p>\n

Rusch has set herself a major task in trying to tie together all the threads in a coherent manner. I’m not going to go into any detail because I don’t want to give away any of the surprises. But I will tell you a few things.\u00a0 SPOILERS AHEAD.<\/p>\n

First, if at all possible you should read this book as soon as you finish reading Starbase Human<\/em> (review here<\/a>).\u00a0 Masterminds<\/em> opens with the scene that closes Starbase Human,<\/em> but told from a different character’s point of view.\u00a0 There’s absolutely no break in the action.<\/p>\n

\"Starbase-Human-ebook-cover-web\"<\/a>Second, all the plot threads come together.\u00a0 This is one of only two complaints I have, and for reasons I’ll discuss in the next paragraph, I’ve decided it’s not a major one.\u00a0 There are several characters involved in the main story that aren’t part of Miles Flint’s team nor are they working with Noelle DeRicci in any capacity.\u00a0 They all show up at the same time with vital information.\u00a0 I found the timing a little too convenient to completely swallow.<\/p>\n

Third, things move quickly, Very quickly.\u00a0 The conspirators are still out there.\u00a0 They’ve been playing a long game, planning their attacks for years.\u00a0 And they aren’t through yet.\u00a0 There is more to come.\u00a0 I found this aspect of the book to be so suspenseful that I was (mostly) able to ignore my sense of disbelief in everyone showing up at the same time with vital information.\u00a0 Rusch shows the tension everyone is working under and the trauma they’re trying to overcome with great skill.\u00a0 She gets into multiple characters’ heads and makes you feel what they feel.\u00a0 The result is an immediacy that makes the readers keep turning pages when they’re supposed to be doing something else.<\/p>\n

There is another threat imminent.\u00a0 SPOILER WARNING:<\/p>\n

This one also involves clones.\u00a0 I really liked how the clones were discovered.\u00a0 That was a very clever thing, having DNA of clones killed in previous attacks show up in the databases as belonging to people who died years ago.\u00a0 This is the other thing I had trouble buying.\u00a0 Granted the Moon has a large and dispersed population, and given that not all of the clones are on the Moon, over the amount of time involved, I would think at least one or two people who knew the originals would spot at least one or two clones, especially since some of them are in highly placed positions.<\/p>\n

END SPOILERS<\/p>\n

Neither of those things was enough to spoil my enjoyment of the book.\u00a0 I neglected other things I needed to be reading for review while finishing it.<\/p>\n

Kris Rusch has attempted an ambitious project, one that succeeds.\u00a0 I think it’s one of the major science fiction stories of the year.\u00a0 Yes, there are plenty of loose ends.\u00a0 Something this big is going to change everything, and the fallout of the bombings, personal and political, will continue for years.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in this universe.\u00a0 I know I’m going to have to wait a while because Rusch has said she needs a break.\u00a0 I understand that, and I think she’s earned it.\u00a0 Fortunately, there are some earlier Retrieval Artist novels I still haven’t read.\u00a0 They will have to tide me over while I wait.<\/p>\n

In closing, I would like to thank WMG very much for providing me with copies of six of the novels in the Anniversary Day Saga<\/em>, including Masterminds<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Masterminds Kristine Kathryn Rusch WMG Publishing Trade Paper $18.99 Ebook $5.99 No, not the Retrieval Artist series, just the Anniversary Day Saga. Miles Flint and his associates will be back sooner or later. Masterminds ends the eight volume Anniversary Day Saga. Reading this has been one of the highlights of the year for me. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[519],"tags":[727,767,726,728],"class_list":["post-1124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kristime-kathryn-rusch","tag-anniversary-day-saga","tag-kristine-kathryn-rusch","tag-retrieval-artist-universe","tag-wmg-publishing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3P5pJ-i8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresfantastic.com\/futurespastandpresent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}