Nightwatch over Windscar

August 22, 2022
Unlikely allies embark on a dangerous mission to save their friends in the discombobulating second space opera in Eason’s The Weep series (after Nightwatch on the Hinterlands). Cantankerous Templar-Initiate Iari is promoted to captain after successfully leading a mission to save civilians from a lethal army of Confederation separatists, but things take a turn when she and her team discover that the separatists aren’t the only ones working to bring destruction to the Confederation. The separatists have allied with murderous cultists led by a mysterious arithmancer. Together, they’ve created mutilated, part-human, part-cyborg beings called One-Eyes in the name of their god, Axorchal One-Eye. Worse, the cult has created a portal that enables the One-Eyes to easily eradicate their enemies. The odds are not with Iari and her misfit friends as they infiltrate the cult to destroy this portal. Eason packs in cool action sequences, deeply complex characters, and an excess of specialized terminology and technically detailed worldbuilding. The result is that many readers—even those who’ve been following the series—will struggle to find their footing in the fray. This is best suited for Eason’s most devoted fans. Agent: Lisa Rodgers, JABberwocky Literary.

September 1, 2022
Iari, Gaer, and company investigate a supposedly haunted cave and find more than ancient ruins. After the events of Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (2021), Iari got a promotion and was sent north to Windscar along with Gaer and his arithmantic expertise. Gaer, Iari, and Iari's team of fellow templars are charged with investigating a mysterious cave. Local legend says the cave is haunted. Government intel says the cave is a former hideout used by a long-dead alien species trying to save themselves from extinction. With this in mind, Iari assumes that those aliens used arithmancy to feed the rumors about hauntings in order to keep their hiding place a secret. In any case, she's more concerned with discovering whether the cave is now being used as a home base for violent insurgents. But when the team delves into the cave and is attacked by ancient mecha that is able to reanimate itself, Iari and Gaer discover that rogue arithmancers are the least of their problems. Iari and Gaer's unlikely friendship was a nice highpoint in the series opener, so it's disappointing that they spend much of this book separated from each other. Equally anticlimactic is the way the main antagonist from Book 1 is quickly forgotten, making way for an entirely new villain. Still, Eason excels at action sequences, and the new villain is wonderfully frightening. Gaer's tense situation as an ally to Iari but spy for his own people continues to provide plenty of narrative interest. A nice balance of political complications and SF action sequences.

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October 1, 2022

After surviving the events of Nightwatch on the Hinterlands, Iari, an Aedis templar soldier, and Gaer, a vakari arithmancer, are now investigating newly discovered caves, which hold several unwelcome surprises. What they discover there sends them into the remote Northern tundra of Windscar, where they find a camp of cultists following a man proclaiming to be a god, who wants to destroy the Aedis and has created abominable creatures to win that battle. With help from battle mechs and additional soldiers, Iari and Gaer must destroy the altar portals and fissures in the aether if they want to survive. Eason puts a macro lens on the battle scenes, allowing readers to see how Iari's nanomecha and battle-rig armor work and to watch Gaer peer through layers of aether as he reads and creates the arithmancy equations. This level of detail adds to the complexity of the worldbuilding but still manages to sustain the suspense of the action. VERDICT Eason successfully melds a multiverse full of technology, arithmancy, and alchemy in this engaging military space opera that should be read in series order.--Melissa DeWild

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