Metal of Night

This second book in The Secantis Sequence picks up after the events in Compass Reach with a whole new group of characters. Metal of Night can easily be read as a stand-alone as there is very little overlap with the proceedings in the first book.

Space battle? Check.
Ground-based conflicts? Check.
Political intrigue? Check.
'splosions? Check.
Some gore? Check.
Aliens? Double and triple-check.

And yet, this story is not really about any of those things. They are just the back-drop. The writing style is sparse and rich at the same time. Almost every sentence in this tightly constructed novel serves to move the story forward. Tiedemann does a great job of shifting the viewpoint through the cast of characters leaving you the reader to figure out what is happening by listening to their dialogue and hearing about their memories and experiences.

I give this a solid 4 stars as I look forward to the next Secantis book.