The Last Watch (The Divide, #1) in The Evolution of Science Fiction

Jul 20, 2021 Peter Tillman rated it did not like it

Shelves: friend-recos, stalled, did-not-finish, at-slo-paso-bg-pa, lost-interest, low-priority, new-tbp, science-fiction

Apprentice-work, and I lost interest pretty early on. Best one-word descrip is "generic". Let's see if I can find someone else's writeup to point you to:
OK, here's Sarah's : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"It's got a generic sci-fi plot with flat characters . . . It's also way too long, especially because it is, of course, the first book of a series."

Not recommended, and definitely not for me! 1.5 stars at best, rounded down. Pretty dire, really. ...more

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Jun 10, 2021 Thomas rated it really liked it

Dewes, J. S. The Last Watch. The Divide No. 1. Tor, 2021.
The Last Watch is the debut novel by J. S. Dewes, a young cinematographer whose interest in science fiction was sparked by the Mass Effect videogame franchise. It is epic-scale, far-future space opera that Dewes says she hoped to position in the middle of the hard and soft science fiction scale. In the end, the story is more Star Wars than Star Trek. (By the way, pay no attention to the blurb that says it is Game of Thrones meets The Expan Dewes, J. S. The Last Watch. The Divide No. 1. Tor, 2021.
The Last Watch is the debut novel by J. S. Dewes, a young cinematographer whose interest in science fiction was sparked by the Mass Effect videogame franchise. It is epic-scale, far-future space opera that Dewes says she hoped to position in the middle of the hard and soft science fiction scale. In the end, the story is more Star Wars than Star Trek. (By the way, pay no attention to the blurb that says it is Game of Thrones meets The Expanse.) The character development, action, and suspense elements are well above average for the genre, but its world-building and delayed exposition make my teeth grind with frustration. The story is set in a space station made from a repurposed dreadnaught, decommissioned after a recent war with a powerful alien race. The station is, quite literally, at the edge of the universe, so far out there is no visible light from any galaxy. Yes, I know you did not think the universe had an edge, but if you stick with the book for 300 pages or so, you may find out how that is possible. The station is there to watch for a renewed alien attack, maybe from across the divide that marks the edge of the universe. The crew is made up of weary veterans with embarrassing secrets, exiled aristocrats, and other misfits. As far in the future as we are, humanity is ruled by an emperor and a one-family aristocracy. The history and economics of the empire is barely sketched in, which is why any comparison with The Game of Thrones or The Expanse does The Last Watch no service. For some reason that is never explained, the human military seems to be a throwback to the Roman Empire—at least they use a lot of Latin names for ranks and divisions. The soldiers that keep watch are Occuli, their commander is an Optio, and the fighting soldiers are Centurions. The emperor, of course, is an Augustus. Dewes, I think, has potential as a storyteller, but I wish she had started with something that did not try to juggle so many elements at once. A sequel is due out in August, and I will probably read it. 3 and a half stars. ...more

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Jan 08, 2022 Alisanne rated it liked it

DNF

I am not quite half way through, but I have thoughts. First the plot, The main character

Cavalone is being delivered to Chateau D’if like prison ship at the edge of space. Then space is collapsing so they must tell someone, but the ship can’t move, nor does communication work.

My problem is with the inconsistency of Cavalone, when he gets on the ship he is cocky, and snarky, but as soon as he meets the captain, get becomes very submissive, but why? What made him change? I don’t know. He has 6 ...more

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