Avilon

Dark Space, Book 5

By: Jasper T. Scott

Narrated by: William Dufris

The Sythians Invaded Again

Dark Space, the last refuge of humanity, is overrun; its citizens are either enslaved or dead. The relentless Sythians have slaughtered humanity wherever they could find them, and now only a few hundred survivors remain. Desperate to escape, these few chase rumors of a lost sector of humanity and end up on Avilon, a planet covered with a vast, kilometers-high city that lies hidden and shielded from the rest of the galaxy by its impossibly advanced technology and its benevolent ruler - Omnius, the artificial intelligence who would be god to his human creators.

Humanity Found Refuge on Avilon

Omnius reveals that no one really died in the war - he couldn't save them from the Sythians, but he did find a way to record the contents of their brains and resurrect them all in the bodies of immortal clones. Omnius keeps a record of everyone's mind in order to make predictions about the future and prevent people from making mistakes. The result is a perfect paradise where you can be assured of a happy, successful life for the rest of eternity - just so long as you are willing to give up your freedom and submit to Omnius' will. If you refuse you can live in the Null Zone, a city that lies cloaked in shadows below the immortal paradise where Omnius reigns supreme. In the Null Zone humanity has its freedom, but the result is chaos, death, and forced separation from everyone living in the Upper Cities of Avilon.

Paradise for Some Is a Prison for Others

To Ethan Ortane, who spent years exiled on a prison world in Dark Space, Avilon and its utter lack of freedom is the Netherworld incarnate, and Omnius the Devlin himself. His son, Atton, is not so sure - it's hard to argue with Omnius' governance when death and suffering have become just a distant memory. Even better, it looks like Avilon, with all of its advanced technology, might finally be able to put an end to the Sythians.

©2014 Jasper T. Scott (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Things are falling into place

In this book, Destra and crew must flee Dark Space and find a place to live while the Sythians and Avilonians battle for control. Meanwhile, Ethan and crew must adjust to live in Avilon and live under the rule of Omnios.

For the most part, the action here is non-stop. It quickly becomes apparent that Avilon is no utopia and we spend much of the book trying to find out the motives and true nature of Avilon. By the end of the book we have a much clearer picture of who Omnios is, what is wrong with Avilon, where the Sythians came from, and what part the resistance plays. Meanwhile, Destra and the Gores end up on somewhat of a cliffhanger, with their fate to be determined in the next book.

Overall, I enjoyed the action and the novel. The author even comes up with a nice way to explain the constant convenient coincidences that happen through the series. I continue to dislike most of the characters...they continue to be quite dumb, which I suppose adds to the realism, though I typically enjoy a very strong protagonist. And yet there really isn't one in this series... Ethan certain isn't it and Hoth mostly has a back seat in this book. Aton and Ethan make some incredibly dumb decisions through the whole novel, and Destra is just coasting. Hoth and Ilara don't have a lot going on. But the book sets up well for the next one and everything is falling into place.

For the audiobook, the narration continues to be great with no misses, but yet I cannot decide if it is the narrator or the author who makes Atta such an annoying character.

Looking forward to seeing how this all ends.

NOTE: I received the audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

Wow space Nazis

Even with the parallel between the immortals and space nazis this book turned out turned out to be very good I did not want to put it down in short it makes you think about the real meaning of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And stops to make you think is there actually someone or something controlling everything we do. And also raises the question how far do you allow Computer AI’s to develop and would actually be possible for something like that to end up controlling the entire universe. What would the repercussions for all life in the galaxy if machines or allowed to get that smart. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the series goes.

best book in the series so far

so many twists and turns, and better characters. I really liked this book. as usual, Defries was wonderful reading. I am going to continue to follow Dufries.

This book is amazing

I could not stop listening to this audio book. Good good narration and a Great story. I recommend this.

hard book to keep with

I struggled with this book in the series.
it never gave any hope during the book and then left it with a big cliff hanger and without and hope for the future. the author needs to believe in freedom not totalitarianism and give the characters a chance to win true freedom. then also stop the huge cliff hangers. I don't think I'll continue with this series it made me feel hopeless at the end.

Good book

for book Number 5 I thought this book was a little slow in getting started it finished up well but it is quite a long book and there's a lot of things that happened in here which I felt was a little slow for me but overall was a pretty good book.

Best book in the series

If you could sum up Avilon in three words, what would they be?

This is by far the best book in the series, lots of twists and turns. The end leaves wide open for a few more books

Who was your favorite character and why?

There a lot of good ones, I can't pick just one

Which scene was your favorite?

When the renegade Null finds out he is still connected to Amiose and it transferred to the body of a droid, his memory is wiped clean along with the rest of his shipmates. And he is only of of a Trillion Droids, which is how many humans have been turned into droids.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were to many to pick out just one.

What a diabolical antagonist!

I’m not sure if I should love this book or hate it! It is a mockery of Christianity on the one hand. On the other hand, it is a masterfully written (and narrated) story about good and evil and what motivates humans to choose one or the other. It also illustrates the foolishness of people who worship a man-made idol, rather than accept the one true God.