The Machine Awakes

by Adam Christopher

Overview

Adam Christopher's The Machine Awakes is a far future space opera set in the Spider War universe of Burning Dark.

In the decades since the human race first made contact with the Spiders—a machine race capable of tearing planets apart—the two groups have fought over interstellar territory. But the war has not been going well for humankind, and with the failure of the Fleet Admiral's secret plan in the Shadow system, the commander is overthrown by a group of hardliners determined to get the war back on track.

When the deposed Fleet Admiral is assassinated, Special Agent Von Kodiak suspects the new guard is eliminating the old. But when the Admiral's replacement is likewise murdered, all bets are off as Kodiak discovers the prime suspect is one of the Fleet's own, a psi-marine and decorated hero—a hero killed in action, months ago, at the same time his twin sister vanished from the Fleet Academy, where she was training to join her brother on the front.

As Kodiak investigates, he uncovers a conspiracy that stretches from the slums of Salt City to the floating gas mines of Jupiter. There, deep in the roiling clouds of the planet, the Jovian Mining Corporation is hiding something, a secret that will tear the Fleet apart and that the Morning Star, a group of militarized pilgrims searching for their lost god, is determined to uncover.

But there is something else hiding in Jovian system. Something insidious and intelligent, machine-like and hungry.

The Spiders are near.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765376411
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Series:	Spider War , #2
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Adam Christopher is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Master of Evil, Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith and Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town. He has also written official tie-in novels for the hit CBS television show Elementary and the award-winning Dishonored video game franchise. Co-creator of the twenty-first-century incarnation of Archie Comics superhero The Shield, Adam has also written for the universes of Doctor Who and World of Warcraft, and is a contributor to the internationally bestselling Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View anniversary anthology series and the all-ages Star Wars Adventures comic. Adam’s original novels include Crawlspace, Made to Kill and The Burning Dark, among many others, and his debut novel Empire State was both a SciFi Now and Financial Times book of the year.

Editorial Reviews

2015-02-02
Space opera set in the same universe as Christopher's space-horror yarn The Burning Dark (2014).Earth is losing its war with gigantic alien machines called Spiders. When the current Fleet Admiral's plan to use psychic-powered psi-marines to defeat the Spiders ends in disaster, he's overthrown by hard-liners. Then the deposed Admiral is assassinated, so Cmdr. Laurel Avalon of the Fleet Bureau of Investigation tasks agent Von Kodiak to find out why and by whom—particularly when the Admiral's usurper is immediately eliminated too. But Kodiak's prime suspect, psi-marine Sgt. Tyler Smith, was killed in action months ago, at the same time Smith's sister Cait vanished from the Fleet Academy. Cait, hoodwinked by crazy Samantha Flood's dissident religious sect Morning Star into agreeing to assassinate the (first) Admiral, knows Tyler isn't dead because she shares a telepathic bond with him. But before she can carry out her assignment, somebody else kills the Admiral. Confused, she flees, only to be captured by Morning Star agents and conveyed to Jupiter, where the Jovian Mining Corporation maintains vast facilities. Here, Flood intends to plug Cait into the JMC's AI so as to create, or awaken, her god. But the JMC's shadowy owner has even more unpleasant plans for Cait. And where is Tyler and the thousands of other supposedly dead psi-marines? The plot just about adds up if you aren't too fussy and ignore the irrelevant discursions and limited action. A far more serious blemish are the characters, so paper-thin they don't even qualify as stereotypes, what with an insanely overconfident, chortling supervillain, and a heroine whose accomplishments involve being duped, drugged, beaten up and plugged into a mind-blowing computer system. Fans of the previous certainly will want to investigate.

Kirkus Reviews