Review: The Exiled Fleet

Human societies existing in space will depend mainly on two general areas for survival: engineering and logistics. Engineering will build the structures and vehicles that contain life, but logistics will constrain engineering solutions. Much like in war, survival depends on supply lines. Unlike in war, ships or stations in space cannot forage or pillage to eat. Each non-planetside structure will require trade in some form or fashion. If a society runs out of supplies while out in the desert between planets, they will slowly starve or suffocate. Certain science fictional stories hand-wave away supply concerns. Think Star Trek’s replicators. In J. S. Dewes’s The Exiled Fleet, replenishing supplies is the critical mission. The survivors of the previous book are running out of food. It’s up to Excubitor Adequin Rake and ex-prince/current-genius Cavalon Mercer to figure out how to get the survivors from the literal edge of the universe back to human space in order to resupply. This sequel to The Last Watch picks up soon after the first book, and it maintains the same excitement, sense of urgency, and fun. The Exiled Fleet confirms that the Divide is a series worthy of attention.

Spoilers Alert for The Last Watch! Do not continue the review unless you’ve read the previous book in the series.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

© PrimmLife.com 2021

TL;DR

J. S. Dewes’s The Exiled Fleet is an excellent follow up to The Last Watch. It builds on everything I loved about the first book and delivers more insight into the Divide’s universe. This is a series to watch. Highly recommended.

Review: The Exiled Fleet by J S Dewes
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From the Publisher

J. S. Dewes continues her fast paced, science fiction action adventure with The Exiled Fleet, where The Expanse meets The Black Company—the survivors of The Last Watch refuse to die.

The Sentinels narrowly escaped the collapsing edge of the Divide.

They have mustered a few other surviving Sentinels, but with no engines they have no way to leave the edge of the universe before they starve.

Adequin Rake has gathered a team to find the materials they’ll need to get everyone out.

To do that they’re going to need new allies and evade a ruthless enemy. Some of them will not survive.

Review: The Exiled Fleet by J S Dewes

Cavalon Mercer has a huge problem. He needs to build a star inside a 200 year old ship to power the jump drives that will take the survivors of the Divide’s collapse back to human civilization before they all starve to death. Adequin Rake is cruising the Divide, restarting Viator dark matter stations to push the Divide back, saving any other Sentinels that she can find. Supplies are running low. Stomachs are growling. The political force responsible for abandoning the Divide still looms in the background, but the more immediate threat is lack of supplies, a.k.a. the logistic problem. To survive, the Sentinels must travel from the Divide back to human space. Cavalon and Mesa work around the clock to figure out how to adapt Viator technology to Sentinel systems, a.k.a. the engineering problem. With all the others that Rake saved from the collapsing Divide, factions are beginning to form. They need a leader, and Rake is caught up in grief over the death of her lover, over the loss of her troops, and over the abandonment by the chain of command. Can she figure out leadership amidst the processing of her grief? Can Cavalon figure out his place in the Sentinels while building the mechanism that could save them all? As these questions are answered, things change quickly. Rake and Cavalon jump back into human space in order to procure fuel for the ship. It doesn’t go well.

The Exiled Fleet splits its time between Cavalon and Rake’s point of view. Readers learn more about each character, who are processing the changes brought about in the previous book. Cavalon is a genius who has found purpose for the first time in his life, and he’s beginning to think that he’s not the screw up his grandfather believed him to be. Rake keeps getting thrust into bigger and bigger leadership roles even though she wants nothing more than to rest and to dwell in her grief. The book maintains the same pace as The Last Watch, and the plot starts narrowly focused and expands its scope as the novel progresses. So much ground is covered in this novel. Rake and Cavalon endure even deeper changes and challenges in this book. The plot was unexpected and all the better for it. Along the way, readers learn more about the Viators, about human civilization, and, specifically, more about the Mercer family. The Exiled Fleet opens up the universe of the Divide and sets the stage for a shift in storytelling gears.

Logistics

As the opening suggests, I admire that Dewes thought through the logistics issues the Sentinels would have. It adds depth to the world building while increasing the tension of the plot. Society itself depends on logistics despite the fact that we take it for granted. When a person can run down the street to pick up whatever food they want, they don’t give much thought about how that product got to the store. If the food is missing, then we wonder why we can’t get something. The military understands logistics is the backbone of a strong force. If a country can’t get bullets, food, or fuel to the front lines of the fight, then that front line will run out of eventually and be overrun. Or they can fall back until the supply lines can reconnect. Granted, logistics isn’t quite as attractive as world threatening weapons, diseases, or alien invasions. But, as J.S. Dewes demonstrates, it can add to the tension of a story. Starvation is an underlying threat to the reader that spurs our heroes to act, but for the crew and characters, starvation is the main threat. And it’s a big one.

Part of the logistics problems is that the Sentinels are stationed on centuries old ships. Machines break and need to be repaired. Repairs need parts. Sometimes those parts can be made aboard the ship and sometimes they can’t. If the material stock that those parts are made from is depleted, then, again, there’s a supply problem. And ships age. Machines age. We all know this, but it rarely registers in Sci Fi. As miles get put on the car, the wear and tear of use ages the car. Eventually, most people buy a new car instead of repair, replace, or modify the aging vehicle to keep it going. The same thing happens with aircraft, and eventually the same thing will happen with spacecraft. Dewes understands this and uses it to her advantage to create a world that feels lived in. Narratively, it creates sympathy for the characters that they’re a plucky group doing all they can to keep the ole ship a runnin’. But it also mirrors the military experience to a degree. A portion of the military are mechanics and engineers dedicated to ensuring that their vehicles are operational and safe for use. The Sentinels at the Divide live on and maintain vehicles that have been in service longer than they or their parents have lived. Much like old cars, old spaceships need a lot of care. Dewes uses this backdrop to propel the tension in her story, and it’s well done.

New Characters

There are new characters, survivors from other Sentinel ships stationed along the Divide. Two really stood out. One, Owen, knew Cavalon prior to both of them being stationed with the Sentinels. In fact, Owen helped Cavalon in his bombing of his grandfather’s cloning facilities. Owen’s family is another exiled member of a royal family. The other, Emery, is being trained by Rake as a pilot. Though neither have a POV scene, they both receive quite a bit of page time. Both are likable and excellent additions to the cast. Emery is my favorite new character, and I bet many fans of the Divide series will say the same. Both provide a balance to Rake and Cavalon’s depression, grief, and PTSD. While I enjoy that Dewes allows her main characters to explore and experience these emotions. After the events of The Last Watch, how could they not be hurting? But a book filled with that alone would be a much different book. So, Owen and Emery give the reader a break without undercutting Rake and Cavalon’s emotions.

Politics

We get a lot more insight into the political elements of Dewes’s universe. We’re still missing the big picture, but readers learn about political changes since the Sentinels were abandoned. Things that I want to discuss in more detail will be spoilers for The Exiled Fleet; so, I will just say that the expanded view into the system’s politics made me happy. While I wouldn’t consider this a political book, the political parts of it are sound.

Critiques

Most of my critiques are nit-picking. The major critique I have with the book is also a spoiler for this book. A key plot point wasn’t set up and felt like an author imposed solution to the problem. It’s possible that I missed the set up to this plot point. If I did, then I apologize. But this critique had a minimal impact on my enjoyment of the book. While it did knock the rating down, it didn’t knock it down much. I enjoyed this book, and I think a lot of people will as well.

Conclusion

J.S. Dewes The Exiled Fleet surpassed all my expectations, and, based on The Last Watch, I had high expectations for this book. There are some wonderful and unexpected reveals in the book. Some of the theories formed in The Last Watch were confirmed here. Dewes balances world-building with character development. Rake leans into her grief; Cavalon continues to discover a place for himself in the universe. Where the The Last Watch was an environmental disaster novel, The Exiled Fleet is a survival novel. And I look forward to seeing what Dewes does with the next installment of the Divide. Action? Mystery? Spy thriller? Whatever it is, I’m looking forward to it.

The Exiled Fleet by J.S. Dewes is available from Tor Books on August 17th, 2021.

© PrimmLife.com 2021

7.5 out of 10!

2 thoughts on “Review: The Exiled Fleet

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