AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE UNIVERSE

Humankind fled to a mysterious planet to escape hideous cyborgs, but now they find themselves confronting the monstrous machine-creatures again in this SF series installment.

Bruno concludes a trilogy with this volume, begun with In the Orbit of Sirens (2020). In a spacegoing future, human refugees fled their home system to avoid the Undriel, a shape-shifting cyborg race determined to assimilate all humanoids. A generation later, on the distant world of Kamaria, the settlers assume the danger is behind them—but then an Undriel dreadnought, hundreds of years old, rises from hibernation in the sea. Kamaria already has a native population of technologically advanced bird-people, the auk’nai, who’ve suffered grievously due to the actions of the new human arrivals. The relationship between humans and the auk’nai are at a low point as the new Undriel threat dawns, but a few key colonists from the science-minded family of resourceful Denton Castus have tapped into Kamaria’s primordial forces and may hold keys to fighting back. Bruno has infused the material with massive amounts of extraterrestrial mythology, alien (and avian) metaphysics, and seemingly supernatural events that may puzzle even regular readers of SF/fantasy. However, these same fans will have no problem grokking the horrific, engaging Undriel, who are reminiscent of the Borg from the Star Trek franchise as well as the Decepticons from the Transformers films; they’ll also appreciate the wily strategies to probe the weaknesses of this relentless, grotesque foe. The hefty book features a storm of kinetic battles that should satisfy readers who enjoy video game boss fights. In the hands of a lesser storyteller, the mayhem might have become a dizzying maelstrom, but Bruno manages to efficiently pull all the narrative strands together, thanks in part to scenes involving a psychic power called “Shade walking,” which provides exposition and breathing space.

A satisfying, action-packed climax to a sprawling space epic.