Ada Palmer

“A cornucopia of dazzling, sharp ideas set in rich, wry prose that rewards rumination with layers of delight. Provocative, erudite, inventive, resplendent.”—Ken Liu, author ofThe Grace of Kings In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision for the needs of all, a future in which no one living can remember an actual war…a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end. For known only to a few, the leaders of the great Hives, nations without fixed location, have long conspired to keep the world stable, at the cost of just a little blood. A few secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction can ever dominate, and the balance holds. And yet the balance is beginning to give way. Mycroft Canner, convict, sentenced to wander the globe in service to all, knows more about this conspiracy the than he can ever admit. Carlyle Foster, counselor, sensayer, has secrets as well, and they burden Carlyle beyond description. And both Mycroft and Carlyle are privy to the greatest secret of all: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to life. Shot through with astonishing invention,Seven Surrenders is the next movement in one of the great SF epics of our time. “Seven Surrenders veers expertly between love, murder, mayhem, parenthood, theology, and high politics. I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long time.” —Max Gladstone, author ofThree Parts Dead

Seven Surrenders

Apurva Chitnis

I enjoyed this conclusion to the first part of the Terra Ignota series. Whilst the first book, Too Like The Lightning, is mostly slow set up and world building, this one is the pay-off.

There's a good amount of action and far less pretentious philosophy and theorising. The story moves on fast and at times even reads more like a space opera. After a difficult first book, this is where I really started to enjoy the series.

That being said, the sequel still has many of the problems that faced the first. Characters continue to speak and think in long awkward paragraphs - so long that it'd take multiple reads to understand the point. Philosophy and history has been shoe-horned in without genuinely adding to the plot. Finally, the characters feel like standard archetypes or cookie-cutter models, and aren't particularly interesting or engaging.

Overall it's far more readable than it's predecessor, but unfortunately still falls short of being great sci-fi. I'm not going to read the sequel anytime soon.

Aloe Han

This series is pretty thought-provoking. I rarely read series, but since this was originally planned as a quartet with a fully developed arc, I am making an exception for Terra Ignota. I wish I knew more about philosophy so I could really understand the references to historical thinkers, but the story is still great even if I can't fully appreciate the depth of research.

Ashlyn

Gavin

It is so, so striking to see Palmer, who obviously lavishes enormous systematic attention on "worldbuilding", blow her own world up.

Frederik De Bosschere

Great continuation of the series. Whereas the first entry had a lot happening, I felt that - with most characters now introduced - the second book flows even nicer. The world and its proceedings are as imaginative as ever, and Ada Palmer's prose makes you want to keep reading.

This whole series is full of interesting ideas and questions (it’s a world unlike anything I’ve read before), and I enjoyed this book more than the first in the series, but ultimately I think it is not for me. Heavier on philosophy and what feels like academic ideas and complicated plot rather than putting you in the head of a character, which is what I’m more interested in.

Katy Watkins

Luke Kanies

A great construction of a book, unfolding in layers and characters.

It’s both highly addictive and hard to read, which is a strange combination. While a lot of the built world is hard to believe, it is at the same time apparently coherent and written in a way that salves questions you might push against it.

The unfolding of the characters happens in tandem with the plot, and as each develop the story gets faster and both harder to believe and less needing of your belief.

Like the first book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but can’t give it 5 stars because I can’t decide who else might enjoy it.

Brian Alderman

Lewis james martin

Boothby

Bo Gotthardt

Kevin Finlayson

*2018 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL CATEGORY* From 2017 John W. Campbell Award winner, Ada Palmer, the second book of Terra Ignota, a political SF epic of extraordinary audacity “A cornucopia of dazzling, sharp ideas set in rich, wry prose that rewards rumination with layers of delight. Provocative, erudite, inventive, resplendent.” —Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision for the needs of all, a future in which no one living can remember an actual war...a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end. For known only to a few, the leaders of the great Hives, nations without fixed locations, have long conspired to keep the world stable, at the cost of just a little blood. A few secret murders, mathematically planned. So that no faction can ever dominate, and the balance holds. And yet the balance is beginning to give way. Mycroft Canner, convict, sentenced to wander the globe in service to all, knows more about this conspiracy the than he can ever admit. Carlyle Foster, counselor, sensayer, has secrets as well, and they burden Carlyle beyond description. And both Mycroft and Carlyle are privy to the greatest secret of all: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to life. Shot through with astonishing invention, Ada Palmer's Seven Surrenders is the next movement in one of the great SF epics of our time. “Seven Surrenders veers expertly between love, murder, mayhem, parenthood, theology, and high politics. I haven't had this much fun with a book in a long time.” —Max Gladstone, author of Three Parts Dead Terra Ignota 1. Too Like the Lightning 2. Seven Surrenders 3. The Will to Battle At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Seven Surrenders

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