Thanks to everyone who volunteered to read and review Endgame by Kristine Smith. For those of you that didn’t have the opportunity, make sure to check the Eos blog for more chances to win advance copies of other great titles.
With Endgame, award-winning author Kristine Smith delivers the explosive finale to her acclaimed Jani Kilian series, full of intrigue, military adventure, and first contact.
Check out reader reviews for Endgame! (Warning…there are spoilers after the break.)
"The amazing conclusion to the Jani Kilian series starts with an assassin and plunges along with unstoppable momentum. Once again Jani is at the center of galactic intrigue, fighting hard to keep the humans and the alien idomeni from galactic war and from destroying the home that she’s tried so hard to create, Thalassa. While her friends, each hell bent on their own courses, seem determined to undermine everything she’s done. Packed with complex characters, top-notch aliens, action, and brilliant suspense, Endgame is a story that you’ll want to read again and again." ~Adrianne
"On the strength of having read and enjoyed Contact Imminent, a novel in Chicago-based author Kristine Smith’s Jani Kilian series, I signed up for a contest to get a review copy of Endgame, the last novel in the series. I’m doubly glad – I got a review copy and I enjoyed it immensely.
Jani Kilian is a “hybrid,” a human who has been altered genetically and surgically to become a mix of “Humanish” and Idomeni. Needless to say, conservative members of both species have much heartburn over this, and that heartburn is a key part of this novel’s conflict. In Contact Imminent Jani discovered that she wasn’t the only hybrid, and that there was in fact a community of hybrids living on Elyas, a human-controlled colony planet. She decided to stay and help run this colony. Well, if a single hybrid was causing heartburn, a whole colony of them are causing something more like a heart attack.
To add to the strife, various Human and Idomeni colony worlds are looking to secede from their respective home governments. The same powerful people who don’t like hybrids like secession even less. The Idomeni decide to strike first, sending an operative to “secretly kill” the religious leader of the hybrids. Assassination is not typical Idomeni style – if they want to kill somebody they do it face-to-face, so this will look like a Humanish attack.
Although it certainly helps to have read Contact Imminent, this book can be a standalone entry into the Jani Kilian world. That world is an exciting one, with intrigue, adventure and suspense, all masterfully crafted by the author. Kristine has spent a huge amount of time creating a believable alien society, which Jani and the other characters in the book spend a lot of time exploring. It’s time well spent by the reader.
Jani Kilian is a compelling character, but certainly not the only one. I find Captain Lucien Pascal, a former lover of Jani (and assassin) to be the most interesting, but all the characters are believable and multi-faceted. There are no cardboard cutouts in this book – every character thinks they’re doing the right and honorable thing. In short, I found Endgame a most fitting cap to the Jani Kilian series."
~Chris
"I have been fortunate enough to receive an advance review copy of Kristine Smith’s new science fiction novel Endgame. It is the fourth book in the Jani Kilian universe, following Code of Conduct, Rules of Conflict, Law of Survival, and Contact Imminent. My challenge with this review is to talk intelligently about the book without spoiling it for those who will want to read it.
The Story: Endgame’s protagonist, Jani Kilian, is a compelling, complex, driven hero. Injured over 20 years ago in a messy conflict between humans and the alien idomeni, she was rebuilt using idomeni genetic material. In the intervening years, she’s survived the inevitable medical crises of her physique hybridizing. She’s also navigated multiple bloody and paranoid political, alien-human and personal upheavals by staying always on the run. Until now.
Jani has found a home with a group of fellow hybrids on Thalassa, where she serves in the role of religious leader and diplomat. When her new home is threatened by human and idomeni political and economic pressure, she decides to confront the issues and fight.
Her battle is staged across multiple worlds, at bedsides and in boardrooms, and with guns and prayers. Through it all, she remains a driven, charismatic, polarizing presence. Enemies despise and fear her, allies love her, but all respect what she stands for.
This book should be accessible as a standalone novel, however, having read all the predecessors was helpful in understanding characters and worlds.
The Writing: I admire Kristine Smith’s writing. Her style is intricate, layered and detailed, but her pacing is rapid and her characters vivid. Jani is a tremendous, multidimensional protagonist. (I won’t demean her by calling her a heroine – she will never require a rescuer on a white horse.) She’s brilliant, driven, strong, paranoid, angry, hopeful and visionary, and her every action consistently builds her character. I cheered and agonized for her through every step of her battle.
The author’s worldbuilding, as well, is outstanding. Although the stories and settings are not similar, the political and religious themes rival Dune in their complexity and reach. You feel the wind and heat as she stands on a Thalassan cliff, the sterility of shipboard life, and the sun-baked immensity of the idomeni homeworld.
The idomeni are a well-drawn alien race. They may look similar enough to pass as humans, but their culture, taboos, behavior and violent reactions all mark them as entirely, well, alien from us. In this story, the author brings multiple story arcs to a close successfully. Idomeni internal politics threaten to explode, human politics and anti-hybrid sentiments come to a head, and Jani’s personal life falls apart. Jani, of course, has a hand in resolving all of it.
The final scene is spectacular--compelling, symbolic and poetic. It’s a fitting conclusion to Jani’s saga and left me very pleased with this book. Endgame’s release date is November 1, 2007. Buy it and read it!" ~Jeri
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