Conclave

The Silver Ships

By: S. H. Jucha

Narrated by: Nicole Poole

The time is opportune for Alex Racine. Omnian efforts and sacrifices culminate in a singular opportunity. With good fortune, Alex will bring together the diverse races the Omnians have encountered.

Alex selects the human colonies of New Terra, Haraken, Omnia, and Méridien to solicit their attendance. Unknowingly, he sails toward a deadly encounter.

The Omnians have their supporters, but they also have their detractors. Nowhere is that truer than on Méridien. Alex, Renée de Guirnon, his partner, and Julien, the SADE leader, have continually disrupted the long-held norms of the powerful Confederation Houses.

In one instance, Alex wins the rights for SADEs to be freed from their boxes. In another, he presses the Confederation Council to construct ships and supply crews to support Omnia Ships’ fights against the dangerous Nua’ll spheres and Artifice.

However, Alex’s influence is most heavily felt when Mahima Ganesh, the tyrannical Council Leader, is deposed. Her supporters never forgive Alex for his trespass, and one House Leader decides Alex must pay for that insult.

Leader Darse Lemoyne is a clever man, who hopes to deal with Alex. Also, he desperately wants to be rid of an ambitious daughter. Daphne Lemoyne covets the House, while she pretends to be a doting daughter. If Darse succeeds in this plot, he rids himself of one problem or the other. If fortune stands by him, he will be done with both.

©2021 S. H. Jucha (P)2021 S. H. Jucha

sadly the ending makes this sound like last

loved it listened to all the other books this is only one that really hit me hard

Awesome Conclusion to a Fantastic Series

This is book 20 in the Silver Ship series. I have thoughly enjoyed listening to the entire series. The creation of so many entities that interact and converse with each other. Violence is at a minimum and the story is performed well! Thanks so much for pulling the threads together before ending the stories.

I can't believe it's over...

great book and culmination to the series. so sad it's over and won't have the next story to look forward to. but it put finishing touches on all the characters

A fine ending with some flaws

I've enjoyed this series, so I was a bit disappointed by some narrative flaws in this closing story.

Brief summary: All the different realms Alex and his team have explored come together in this finale, as the "known" galaxy takes bold steps towards peace and prosperity.

Most of the flaws were from points of plot tension that didn't quite fit the broader narrative. (Warning: spoilers)
i) Apparently they can permanently block a dome Q-gate simply by leaving a block on the platform. Why then in previous books were there such significant armed defences of Colony-oriented gates?
ii) Kasie's lack of control appears to be overplayed. Ophelia and all other empaths appear to be able to control their emissions, but Kasie always seems to be slipping up. Similarly, in the dome investigations, she is continually impulsive and resistant, more like a teenager than an adult working as part of a team.
iii) The SADEs who are the most curious and thorough entities in the books, fail to thoroughly explore the resources in the dome basement, multiple times. This seems quite bizarre in a prioritised effort to explore and understand something. Why wouldn't just one SADE be left to unpack, inventory and document all the equipment?
iv) The SADEs can't back themselves up - destruction of their kernels would result in their death. Except in this book, they suddenly can backup and restore? Why, through all previous books, would they fear their mortality? When was this breakthrough discovered/enabled?
v) Travellers and SADEs have strong visual, heat and electromagnetic tracking capabilities (as frequently displayed in conflicts or when fighting the Colony) and yet there seems to be no real-time tracking (or even imagery) of the assassins? (not just from Alex's Traveller, but also from the other travellers flying overwatch)
vi) The (Meridien) killers of the assassins are sent to their deaths by their employers - and yet are strangely completely loyal to them until they are threatened to be sent off to fight the Colony?

I feel Jucha was more thorough in avoiding plot holes like these in the previous books in the series.

Overall, however, it was a good tying together of all the various threads that have been developed in the series.

Love this series.

No spoilers.. I just love this series. It explores a what-if scenario of people actually being kind and the things that can be accomplished if we actually considered others more than our own personal advancements all the time. A very unique trait in this genre.

Rushed Ending

The ending was not satisfying. There was a lot of story lines left open & questions unanswered. The story was good, but it was missing something. While I was listening to the story, I got the impression of a naive teen writing the story where the problems are always figured out with a mostly happy ending.

A fantastic can't stop reading series

The only thing bad about these books are they came to an end. I would put these books are comparison with Frank Herberts "Dune" series. Great reading!!!!

Sad to see it end.

Considering the wide canvas and number of storylines that needed to be joined, Conclave had a lot of work to accomplish. I thought it fared well. It left a lot of room for further stories or for the imagination to explore on its own. Nicole Poole did an excellent job on the Pyreans series, so I was very happy when she was called off the bench to finish the series (due to Grover Gardener's unavailability) I thought she did great. Gardner's Julian, Miranda & Z voices were sorely missed, but I enjoyed all the new characters -and those were legion!

They will be missed

I have read and listened to this series many times now. I love the person with the power is the good guy. I will miss this crew. I do look forward to the SADES adventures to come.

Just wonderful series

I own every audiobook in this series and have really enjoyed them. highly recommend to any space opera fan. I understand we are moving on to a new timeline in this universe now and I feel like I already miss these characters. Thank You Scott