Ceephay Queen

Spiral Wars, Book 8

By: Joel Shepherd

Narrated by: John Lee

Deep within hostile Reeh Empire space, the UFS Phoenix is hunting another AI queen. This one is named Chion, and she has been installed at the heart of Reeh Empire power, enslaved against her will, for the past 8,000 years. Within her vast knowledge lies the most intimate data on Nia, the deepynine queen now threatening humanity's very existence. Freeing Chion could be the key to beating Nia and saving humanity.

But Phoenix's allied drysine queen, Styx, and Chion's AI former sidekick, Shali, both want Chion for their own purposes. And Chion, of course, will be defended by the full might of the Reeh Empire. To free her, Phoenix and Styx must win control of an AI fleet known as Raka, derived from Nia's deepynine technology long ago, and used by the Reeh Empire for special missions. But this will mean placing the most powerful AI war fleet in known space into the hands of Styx. Shali insists it's suicide, and every bit the existential threat to humanity that Nia is. But do Captain Debogande and Major Thakur have any other choice?

Cover design by Stephan Martiniere

©2022 Joel Shepherd (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Fantastic

I expected this 8th installment to be entertaining but not quite as exciting as some of the older editions. however, this is an excellent installment. It really hits the ground running with non stop action. The interplay between all the interested parties keeps the political tension high. Styx is in full glory. I really enjoyed this story.p

interesting thoughts on AI and sentience

The Spiral Wars series continues to be a great story. John Lee provides excellent narration as always. Though the entire series contemplates the boundaries of AI, sentience, and free will I found book 8 stimulating me to give it more thought. Is Styx nothing more than the grandest probability machine? Can AI have consciousness and feelings, such as Shali appears to have or appears to desire? Are humans nothing more than biological programs that evolved from non-living matter to living matter by mindless, materialistic, random processes? If that is the case, then is there good and bad, right and wrong? What does it matter if Styx takes over the universe? What does it matter if terrorists or communists subject humanity to tyranny? But everyone knows it matters. What does that suggest? Even Styx makes decisions and judgements based on its programming of what is good and bad. There must be a source of what is the measure of a best outcome. There is much food for thought within this great sci-fi series.

Excellent

Loved it. Nonstop and fast paced action. Great story. Great performance. Can’t wait for the next book.

Worth all the build up

While I generally enjoy the cultural and political depth Joel Shepherd brings to each new alien species, the series was starting to drag on for me. Each new installment had some new cool places and peoples but the payoff somehow wasn't big enough at the end of the past few books. Then this book - I could not put this one down. There was a lot more action which is an obvious page turner but it also just felt like the culmination of a lot of story lines leading up to this point.

I've also apparently been really missing John Lee's captivating narration. I picked this series up because of his narration and I'm reminded why.

Alll in all, this was a blast!

Joel Shepherd and John Lee's Performance is All Consuming and Irresistibly Enticing!! You will Love it!

John Lee is definitely a narrator of the highest class!! Paired with The most astounding author has been an all consuming experience for my whole family!
We just spent the last 2 months listening to the entire Spiral Wars Series available so far and it was marvelous!

Interesting and well researched science content that makes this sci-fi series feel realistic and completely enthralling!!

Definitely reccomend everything from Joel Shepherd as well as anything performed by John Lee!!

Freaking Amazing!

Good series

Good story but the story ended too quickly and with no resolution. It felt rushed at the end.

Can’t wait for the next book

A great series. I listened to them all in a row. Now I have to wait for him to write the next book.

Great continuation of the series.

This continues to be one of my go to series. Solid writing and performance.

Complex and weighty, but necessary to the plot line

Great book. A bit meaty, a bit complex, with a whole lot of moving pieces, not a great deal of character development with the main cast, but some welcome development of side characters such as Scar and Lizbeth.

John Less is brilliant as always, though I noted a few instances where he repeated a voice, rather than switch character voices, and he’s subtly altered Lt Dales voice from previous books, but other than this little quibbles, he is simply phenomenal to listen to.

Really looking forward to the next book!

Wow!

Absolutely loved every minute of it. I hope someday there will be a TV adaptation of this work. Engaging style of writing augmented with great characters, political intrigue, sprinkled with epic battles. Can't wait for the next chapter in the saga.