Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two (Amaranthe 2)

Book Two of this remarkable series goes way past answering questions and furthering action! Usually the scenario of "humanity meets massively evolved beings of light" paints them as helpful, empathetic and kind; reaching out to flawed humanity to help us on the path to enlightenment. Jennsen turns that on its head, giving us beings of light who are bent on eradicating mankind. Enter two brilliant characters who immediately try to kill each other - a painfully independent, and emotionally guarded space explorer/contractor who is the daughter of an Alliance Admiral (and like her mother is driven by grief, anger and unbendable stubborn will), and an equally independent Federation spy who is a walking weapon, filled with anger, grief and impeccable honor, with a wide streak of compassion. Covered in book one, they discover a portal into another Universe (in book two, we discover the exact number of Universes available through the portals) and an armada of intelligent, massive machine ships directly out of our worst nightmares, bent on annihilating a humanity that has spread to hundreds of worlds. Other authors might lose track of the number of characters, but Jennsen thrives on giving the reader a realistic set of people on all sides of the conflict. The plot is refreshingly complex, and Jennsen pays the reader the complement of assuming that s/he can follow it, appreciate the physics and the remarkable tech, and still want characters with real, and 100% believable motives and emotions. The dialogue is superb, the psychology is spot on and the philosophy is intriguing! The twists actually contribute meaningfully to the plot, which is a joy ride of hope and dread, love and hate and a philosophical exploration of what makes humans worth saving. This volume gave far more answers than expected, and extended the action in a breathtaking adventure, following the multiple main characters who are surviving despite multiple villains' and aliens' best efforts to kill them. Though not quite a sweeping and religiously bent as DUNE, Jennsen deserves to be classed with Frank Herbert through brilliant writing, fascinating characters and a story that exposes the best and worst of what it means to be human. Unlike virtually all other "end of the Universe" space operas, the depth of writing, bleeding edge tech and compelling characters make this impossible to put down. Unashamed brilliance is honored, rather than dismissed, which is refreshing and encouraging in an era where half the people base their voting on who they would rather have a beer with than actually understand that genius is needed to solve our problems; the glorification of stupidity has spiraled out of control. Jennsen is not only aware of that, she uses that knowledge to spin out a marvelously complex tale of high level incompetence, intrigue, conspiracy and brilliant twists that mocks the very fabric of bureaucracy, short-sighted power hunger and vengefully incompetent military martinets vs. military, political, and creative tech geniuses, hackers, assorted AIs and designers. Her three dimensional protagonists are full of human foibles, reluctantly assuming the burden of saving humanity, but filled with fiery passion, brilliance, energy, daring and a contempt for following the rules. Her antagonists are also surprisingly three dimensional, and sometimes the lines blur in a blindingly realistic fashion. I can't wait for the final book in this series, and would give it 10 stars if I could. Everyone science fiction lover, who wants hard science in the fiction, will LOVE this series!

Starshine blew me away. Loved it. It set the stage so well for the wild adventure in this novel. Unfortunately, Ms. Jennsen merely hit a walk-off single with the sequel as opposed to a walk-off grand slam. Still wins the game, but not as memorable. First of all, the main characters that we became so invested in after Starshine almost take a back seat here. Their story plays a hugely significant plot line, but we get maybe 2 to 3 pages of their story, and then on to some other locations and characters. I realize that Ms. Jennsen has created an incredibly intricate and complicated galactic warzone, and that takes several plot lines. However, Alex and Caleb are the stars and Jennsen never lets the reader get any traction with them. You get 3.5 pages, and just when things get interesting, we cut to less interesting plot lines and characters for the next 20 pages, then back to 2.5 pages of what we want. This also causes the Alex/Caleb storyline to seem rushed. It's like Ms. Jennsen cares more about telling the story of characters elsewhere in this universe than the ones she spent an entire first novel developing so spectacularly.Also, is there some weird eye color changing tech that she failed to mention is present in these people? Her description of a characters eyes exploding with magenta and burning a deep amber... it got old quick. As did her description of every kiss between every character as "crushing her mouth on his...". I got so sick of hearing about people "crushing" their mouths on each other I found myself actually rolling my eyes. Come up with some additional ways to describe a kiss or stop having people kiss.Despite the aforementioned, the plots and character development, tech, action, aliens, adventure, and sci-fi in this book are so incredible and gripping that it's still amazing. I guess when you like something so much, you get a little passionate bout it. Well done Ms. Jennsen.

I'm going to be totally honest here: After reading the first book in this series, I wasn't sure I was going to like the sequel. Starshine was a decent book, but I had some major misgivings with certain aspects of the writing and wasn't sure it was really my cup of tea. Despite that, the story and main characters were compelling enough that I wanted to keep reading, so I bought Vertigo. I'm so glad that I did, because within twenty pages, G.S. Jennsen converted this reluctant reader into a die-hard fan.The story hooks you from the first page, and before I knew it, I was completely immersed in Jennsen's universe. New questions are raised as fast as old ones are answered, which made me eager to keep reading and find out more. The action will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what happens next. Many of the characters we met in the first book appear again here, but they each seem to have a much more distinctive voice and role in the story, which makes it easier to keep track of them all. The continued development of certain secondary characters from the first book is especially good here, and I particularly loved how Jennsen wrote Miriam Solovy's character in this book. I didn't really care for her in Starshine and felt very detached from her, but that completely turned around here in Vertigo as we see her open up more and become a major driving force in the larger events of the story. She's easily one of my favorite characters in the story at this point. The author's take on invading aliens was interesting and unique. More importantly, I found their motives and reasoning believable, which is something I always have an issue with in stories like this. Overall, I was very impressed by this book and the way Jennsen seems to have improved from the first one. If you're anything like me, the last few paragraphs of Vertigo will leave you eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

Alice and her discoveries at the bottom of that rabbit hole are utterly eclipsed by everything Alex and Caleb discover after transiting that mysterious portal in the Meltis nebula. Deep in another universe (or have they moved into another dimension?) lies a shrouded duplicate of Earth which, except for several fire-breathing red dragons and a couple of ethereal immortals, appears completely uninhabited.The role of those dragons is a tribute to Ms Jennsen’s skill as a writer whilst the immortals clearly have differing views about the future of humanity and the Artificial Intelligence controlling the alien battle fleets invading ‘our’ galaxy.Despite the ensuing violence it takes a predictable amount of time before the underlying reason for the war between the Earth Alliance and the Senecan Federation is recognised for what it is – and ended.Something tells me the belated development of galactic Artificial Intelligence capabilities (plus a suspected schism between those ethereal immortals) will be a critical factor in ‘Transcendence’, the final part of this skilfully written trilogy.As other reviewers have commented, the number of dramatis personae is large and can sometimes be slightly confusing. But, of course, Ms Jennsen’s canvas is vastly more complex – and challenging – than our own trivial galaxy…

Clearly I've just finished reading the second book in an excellent (so far) trilogy.With a wide scope (across dimensions in fact) and well written characters who you genuinely care about, this book takes you on an exciting, enjoyable journey.Additionally, the science is believable and the storyline credible. I look forward to starting the next book right away.Oh, and I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.

I am about half way through this sequel and it is quite gripping once you get through the mushy romantic nonsense. I like the attention to technical detail and scientific stuff. No qualms about seeing it through to the end. Might this be picked up as the basis for a movie at some time in the future?

Having read the first book on a free read I was tempted to buy this one to see what happens next. I couldn't put it down and read it in a couple of days. Buying book three right now what a great read it's been well done author.

Loved this, been looking for a series with the breadth of Iain Banks' culture novels, and this one also has the equality of the sexes so sadly lacking in other sci fi series, where the authors find it easy to imagine futuristic lives that are still just as male dominated as the present. Lots of action, lots of hard tech, lots of aliens,just great!