I would like to thank Paige from Head of Zeus for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Head of Zeus

Published – Out Now

Price – £20 hardback £5.79 Kindle eBook

The Sturm, an empire of species purists, have returned from the farthest reaches of Dark Space to wage a war against what they call mutants and borgs: any human being with genetic or neural engineering. In a sneak attack, they overwhelmed almost all of humanity's defences, blasting vicious malware across galaxy-spanning networks: dark code that transformed anyone connected to the system into a mindless psychotic killer. The Sturm's victory seemed complete, their final triumph inevitable, until one small band of intrepid, unlikely heroes struck back.

Commander Lucinda Hardy and Admiral Frazer McLennan used the Armadalen Navy's final surviving warship to fend off the Sturm, destroying the massed power of an entire Attack Fleet. With brilliant tactics – and support from drunken, grief-ravaged pirate Sephina L'trel and treasonous battle-rig operator Booker3 – this ragtag crew sent the Sturm running, managing to save Princess Alessia, the sole surviving heir to the gigantic Montanblanc Corporation and perhaps Earth's only remaining senator.

Now left with the remains of a fallen civilization, they must work together to rebuild what was lost and root out the numberless enemies of Earth. The Sturm invaders remain vastly more powerful – and they may not be the only threat lurking in the darkness of space.

NB – some spoilers for the earlier novel The Cruel Stars reviewed earlier this week

Who doesn’t like a fightback against the odds? We always naturally want the underdog to beat the powerful but in fantasy we can also rely on magic, special powers or fighting sills or in science fiction great big spaceships and advanced technology. I’s already enjoyed John Birmingham’s refreshing  The Cruel Stars where a small group of unlikely heroes assembled and managed a cunning, rescue, escape and initial fightback but now in The Shattered Skies it is how can you win a war against the odds?

To recap where we have left things in the last book. Humanity now has become technically very advanced with special abilities via nanotech allowing supreme skills and for the rich near immortality for the rich. A group though known as The Sturm who say only pure humans can thrive (yes Space Nazis) have returned after hundreds of years. A devastating sneak attack turned the nanotechnology against its users creating murderous rampaging zombies in the industry, military and government layers of society and The Sturm want to use this chaos for a return and battle for all areas including ancient Earth. Just managing to escape where the smart and young Commander Lucinda Hardy, the ancient hero who last fought The Sturm that is Admiral Fraser McLennan; Lucinda’s almost best friend the smuggler Sephina, Booker3 who now lives as code and currently runs Sephina’s ship and currently one of the most powerful representatives in the Vacuum – 12-year-old Princess Alessia the only surviving Head of Government. Their last attack let them stay alive and damaged the Sturm but the war is ongoing and now the team need to find the tools to hit back.

The Shattered Skies continued to impress me with Birmingham’s imaginative and epic storytelling.  The focus of the story here is how can s very small group get up to speed to fight back. This means for our heroes they need to go into old enemy territory and find other remnants of various fleets. This time the story introduces the Javan Empire that Lucinda fought so bravely in the last war. But there are plenty of ambitious officers who see this a chance to re-fight the last war and not care that The Sturm are coming. In this case The enemy of my enemy is probably also my enemy.

While I suspect the final war is being saved for the last book in the trilogy this middle volume offers another enticing adventure. Rather than as in the previous story we had the characters meeting up this time we have them working together on missions and using their skills. For Lucinda and Mac this focuses on their sole ship going into enemy territory and navigating two ambitious powerful men with their own agendas and raising a space station filled with crazed humans to get weaponry for the ship. For the others its means sneak attacks in space and entering a very dangerous space station filled with all sorts of crime gangs. It’s a really neatly plotted suite of set pieces all moving the story along and giving us new obstacles for the resourceful cast needing to find ways to get around or in some case through using guns and bombs.

There is a neat line in character development, Lucinda is very much the competent sensible officer thrust into danger and proving herself a great leader. Watching her develop and not get sucked into Mac’s larger than life’s shadow is a really neat line. She is learning leadership on the job and still cares more about the right thing than support morally grey politics which is where Mac can stay a little too much.  Another storyline I liked was watching Sephina and her friends deal with this smart, headstrong and reckless character still grieving for the loss of her lover in the first story. Among all the explosions and betrayals this was a neat line in showing the humanity of the other characters. Everyone gets a moment to shine again, and we are nearly primed for the last epic to come. One dangling thread to watch out for is The Sturm are shown not to be stupid and are assembling slowly a devastating idea of their own – always refreshing when a book shows the enemy isn’t stupid and have their own geniuses to go up against.

This is a series that The Expanse fans mourning the end of their favourite series may want to get into. Epic adventures, dazzling technology and a crucial mix of adventure and character made this an entrancing read yet again. I will definitely be watching the Skies for the final volume, but this is another strongly recommended slice of space opera. (PS keep an eye out for various SF easter eggs!)