Eyes of Empire
by JCM Berne
DETAILS: Series: Hybrid Helix, Turn 5 Publisher: The Gnost House Publication Date: September 3, 2024 Format: Hardcover Length: 399 pg. Read Date: July 1-4, 2026
The native’s body was humanoid, but its head was catlike. Something like a tiger. Or a lion. Whiskers; eyes with black pupils and sclera of gold; white fur around the muzzle; long, sharp teeth. Definitely a carnivore.
Tiger? Lion? Liger? I’m fighting a liger-headed alien. My mother warned me I’d have days like this. Don’t leave Earth, she said. You’ll end up fighting liger-headed aliens on distant planets where they don’t even have breathable air or working totlets.
What’s Eyes of Empire About?
I feel very much like our friend Inigo: “Let me explain… No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” How Berne fit all this in to 399 pages without it feeling rushed or anything I don’t know.
The station Repentant is acting stranger than usual…and that’s not good.
The il’Drach Empire has wiped out most of the population of a planet—the refugees are on their way to Wistful, who doesn’t have enough room for them all—and some are in a very medically fragile state.
While Ben and Marion try to deal with the immediate problems (keeping them alive), Rohan needs to find a place for them to live in the long-term
Hyperion is mixed up in the wiping out of the planet, and Rohan just might have to do something about that.
The il’Drach are checking to see if they need to do any more clean-up work in the area related to Hyperion.
The Hybrid that decided to stick around on Wistful is having a hard time acclimating.
Another wormhole opened up to another system with a couple of very funky planets. One of which supports life, and Rohan goes off to make first contact.
That first contact is with a feline-human race, and first contact could’ve gone better. Which leads to Rohan having someone else to help acclimate to life on Wistful (and among more species than she believed existed in the universe)
Why did I pick this up? Why did I keep reading?
“The bad news, however, is about as bad as you could possibly imagine.”
“What? That’s impossible, I have a powerful imagination. It’s not as if you contaminated their culture and doomed the planet, right?”
Rohan shrugged.
Wei Li’s eyes widened. “Oh my.”
Ben frowned. “Really?”
Ang’s jaw dropped. “My Katya-le’s people?”
Rohan sighed. “I’m going to fix things. I will.
“I’m just not sure how.”
I picked it up because it’s a Hybrid Helix novel. I love these things. Yes, it took me too long to get back to it, because I was enforcing my “no moving on until you write about the previous book” rule—and I kept putting that one off. Now that I’ve read this, I’ve got the next book slotted for September (unless my August isn’t as crazy as I think it’ll be).
I kept reading for two reasons: 1. It’s a Hybrid Helix novel. I love these things. 2. What Berne is doing with Rohan in these pages—and setting him up to do for the next arc of the series—is fascinating. Also, the new characters/species/planets are so cool that I wanted to learn more about them. Lastly, I really enjoyed what Berne’s doing with our established secondary characters in general and how he’s mixing the new characters in with them.
Vaguely Spoiler-y Section Ahead, Feel Free to Skip to Next Section
Rohan’s Realizes That He’s Not John Rambo
(I’m referring the movie version, not the book version. Although, he’s clearly not that, either)
I just wanted a quiet life. Tow ships, drink tequila. Maybe find a girlfriend. Now people are trusting in me. Counting on me.
In every First Blood movie sequel, the beginning is the same—John Rambo has found somewhere quiet, away from society, where he can meditate, do some simple tasks as work, and live at peace. Something interrupts that (frequently, but not always, related to Col. Trautman) and he has to go shoot, stab, and manhandle whoever this particular movie’s enemy are.
This is really Rohan’s goal when we meet him, and it looks like it’s working (well, except for that in medias res opening to Wistful Ascending). And it’s continually his goal throughout the series. But things keep happening to interrupt that: a wormhole opens up and drops a new race on his doorstep and he has to work to keep them safe; giant monsters are coming out of the ocean to wreak havoc and destruction and he has to go help out; a nasty space vampire is running amok on Wistful and he needs to stop it; etc. It’s not quite as explodey as (and quite a bit more articulate than) Rambo’s adventures, but the outline is similar.
Each time Rohan intervenes, he takes on more and more responsibility for those around him. Unlike Rambo, who just leaves everyone else behind to get away from the world. Okay, I’m done talking about Rambo, let’s focus on Rohan.
At the same time, Rohan’s doing things to improve his power, to gain a better handle on it, so that he doesn’t have to tap into his anger (that will then be hard to control), to use it in combat-like situations.
He’s presented in this book with an opportunity—if not a responsibility—to choose another way. A way that means he won’t only be a tow-chief anymore. That he’ll embrace greater responsibility in the systems around Wistful (and connected to them by wormhole).
This really marks a step forward for the series and will set our Hybrid in a new direction for a while.
So, what did I think about Eyes of Empire?
Dr. Simivar poked at one of his still-open wounds. “Ouch.”
“Another hour in the tank and you’ll be ready to get dressed and walk around. If you can, try to avoid any significant exertion for another eight hours. Let someone else do the fighting for a while.”
“I’ll try. How will I know if I moved around too much, or too soon?”
She shrugged. “Check your feet.”
“My feet?”
“Yes. If there are puddles of blood gathering around them, you’ve done too much. Come back and we’ll get you stitched back together.”
While reading this, I remembered that I was close to the end of the first arc of the Hybrid Helix—but I wasn’t sure if that was this book or the next (and why bother looking that up when I could just keep reading?). In the last few chapters (maybe 50-100 pages) it sure felt like a conclusion of sorts was on the horizon, and even better—it felt earned, deserved, and organic. This isn’t a case of Berne deciding to change things up and forcing it on the series. Berne says this has been his plan all along, but Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have rendered me incapable of trusting writers when they say things like that.
Anyway, it was a very satisfying way to take this book and series—I’m looking forward to seeing what the next arc looks like.
This is filled with all the trademark Berne flourishes—great action, great banter, interesting musical recommendations, crazy new alien creatures. Sure, the “cat people” are not that revolutionary—but their culture is (and Rohan’s misunderstanding of it was pretty amusing). And the fauna on their planet…ugh. I want to talk about it, but I don’t want to ruin anyone’s exposure to it. But they could be my favorite thing introduced in this series since we met the Ursans. I’ve been talking about the bigger arcs, and deeper things going on in the series for most of this post, but I shouldn’t neglect to say that this is just a fun read. Whatever else Berne does, that is preeminent in his books.
We also meet a disturbing new representative of the il’Drach Empire. Each time I think the Empire is as distasteful and horrible as it can be, Berne finds a new and interesting way to prove that I’m wrong. Okay, okay, they have their whole “for the greater good” justification—or really, “the lesser of two evils” justification. But, I’m not entirely certain that I buy it. I’m thinking there has to be a better way. Another way. I expect that within the next 17 books, we’re going to find out what that way is.
Really, there’s no reason (unless you’re following stupid self-imposed rules) to not grab this book if you’re into super-hero fiction, space opera, witty dialogue (internal or otherwise), and/or good fun.
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