As Alex battles depression and withdrawal, others plan strategy to defeat the Earth Alliance government and restore rights to Artificials amid growing unrest among the populations.

A great resolution that focused on diplomacy and technology over (mostly) firefights, which I greatly appreciated. It shows that people can try and preserve lives, even when the other side doesn’t follow those ethics. The author does a great job of showing Alex’s depression and addiction, and has a great set of moral characters in politics, the military and the intelligence agencies, to counter those who want to grab power for power’s sake or out of fear. She keeps the action moving, even when the action is only great speeches and emotional edginess. Great stuff, and I’ll be eagerly moving into the next trilogy.

I guess I was wrong –Olivia Montegreu is dead, and seems to be staying that way. I thought for sure she would have uploaded her consciousness into the artificial so she could enact revenge on those who might kill her physical body in Dissonance. But no, or not yet.

Instead, the book brings everyone back together to resolve a civil war. I’m not sure the author resolves the question about the rights of artificials or prevos, but it opens the discussion on Earth, at least. Obviously the independent systems have embraced them and given them full rights, as they led the defense of Pandora and Romane. In a show of solidarity and to remind Earth of their independence, Seneca also recognizes Prevo rights. Earth will have time to set things up in the next books, I imagine, as there are many more books to come.

The main story revolves around Miriam and her break from the Earth Alliance. She faces off against her own military, but retains the moral high ground, claiming the government has enacted an illegal law. It’s interesting that she makes this interpretation not only because she’s biased toward her own daughter, but because everyone deserves to be treated the same, and held to the same laws, keeping due process in the forefront. People can’t be arrested or killed because of who they are –society is in a state of change, and it will take time for those who feel threatened to catch up. They recognize that Prevos can go bad, like Olivia, but also allow for the vast majority, who want to be left alone. It’s a human rights issue, and is relevant today as it will continue to be in the future.

Helping the story along is the fact that Jude Winslow is behind the concerted attacks on Prevos and Artificials, and that his mother Pamela, now President of the Earth Alliance, knows all about his involvement. I didn’t see that twist coming, and it was nice to know that the President wasn’t oblivious that he was stealing sensitive information from her computer –she let him have it. When Jude is imaged by Noah, and the Senecan intelligence agency obtains it and eventually links the face to a name, Alex and Caleb find him on Romane and Caleb secretly kills him in his cell. Regardless of whether he was alive or dead, Jude compromised his mother and the office of the President, and was always eventually going to be her downfall. Not to mention that she’d threatened and blackmailed all the members of the Council, so she had a free hand in creating laws and becoming an authoritarian ruler.

As in Sidespace, protests turn into riots, and while Earth manages to subdue theirs due to highly restrictive laws, the Senecan intelligence building is destroyed, and on Romane the entire capital city is engulfed. This is where Mia, Morgan, Alex and Caleb are situated, and we get to see a lot of it firsthand.

Caleb mostly reacts to events beyond his control, helping save the Romane government and capturing Jude Winslow.

Alex, on the other hand, undergoes severe addiction and depression, and almost loses everything. She can’t be away from her ship and Valkyrie for more than seconds, and Caleb often finds her zoned out, experiencing life from the ship’s skin instead of her own body. He tries to make her feel, through sex and anger –any emotion, but she fails to react. Finally, when she realizes she’s going to lose him forever, she tries to make herself feel –by destroying the warehouse being used by the Order of True Sentients to coordinate the riots and attack on the government. Even then, she doesn’t feel any real emotion, except satisfaction that she’s eliminated a horrible threat to herself and to Caleb.

Standing watching the warehouse burn and burned bodies removed, or escaping bodies still burning, she realizes how much she’s lost, and instructs Valkyrie to destroy all accesses to her merged personality, so she can never join with the ship again. It takes time for her to recover, both physically and mentally, and even by the end of the book she isn’t fully herself again, but she’s better, and her relationship with Caleb has been restored.

With the unrest on Romane quelled, and her military position solidified, Miriam makes her way to Earth. Fortunately, she has the backing of the Prevos, including a recovered Alex, who has figured out how to replicate the Metigen shields –which actually redirect incoming fire into another dimension. When Winslow orders Miriam’s ship destroyed, Earth’s weapons don’t even hit the shields. Winslow is also showing her psychotic nature, helping more military and council members to defect toward Miriam. Alex and Caleb use invisibility shields to enter the committee hearing with Miriam, and confront Winslow directly. The council does not object, and Winslow is defeated.

I liked the way the truth was forced to the forefront after being subverted, and that people actually cared, especially those in charge. They couldn’t ignore Winslow, and their sense of rightness overcame her threats so they could take her down. Hopefully the truth will always prevail in the end.

Malcolm and Kennedy appear interspersed in the story, but we get less of them due to events beyond their control. Both Kennedy and Noah are offered to return to their families, something that Kennedy rejects and Noah accepts.

The metigens don’t feature much in this story. Instead, they are replaced by an Anaden scout, who was checking on the progress of a world they were in the process of destroying. Unfortunately, one of the species that the metigens had transported to safety was so distraught that his mate didn’t make it that he retraced his steps back to his home planet, where he is killed by the scout. The scout then uses the navigational data from the ship to find his way into the metigen portals, and finds the displaced inhabitants. Realizing that the metigens have betrayed them, he travels into the Aurora portal, to discover in horror that humans –Anaden ancestors, have been recreated here.

Mesme contacts Alex, and she uses the Prevos to destroy the Anaden scout, but it’s unclear if he managed to get a message out. Mesme is content that humans have overcome their disruptive nature and settled their grievances, at least for now –something that maybe Anaden ancestors were unable to do. With a clear picture of what humans could become if they pursue violent ends, maybe they can learn and the Anaden future can be avoided.

There is another trilogy to go before I get to the next one I’ve read (in Exin Ex Machina), but things from that trilogy are already starting to make more sense. Looking forward to continuing the great series.