The Last Watch

A group of likable rogues race to stop the universe collapsing in Dewes’s gripping space opera debut, whose premise will put readers in mind of A Song of Ice and Fire’s Night’s Watch. Ships stripped of their engines line the edge of the universe, staffed by the Sentinels, court-martialed Legion soldiers sent to guard the Divide in case the hostile alien Viators return. Cavalon Mercer, a rebellious royal heir, becomes the only civilian among them when he’s stripped of his titles and sent to the Argus to serve under stoic war hero Adequin Rake. Sharply pointed descriptions pepper Dewes’s prose as Cavalon faces the soldiers’ hostility over his family’s background in eugenics, and an investigation into a suspected sensor error reveals that the Divide is collapsing. Failing communication systems compel Rake to send a group to the nearest jump gate to warn the Legion and request evacuation transports, but the gate is mysteriously abandoned when they arrive. Meanwhile, those aboard the Argus experience some delightfully strange temporal anomalies as the Divide races inward. Dewes fluidly interweaves complex worldbuilding with a fast-moving plot and satisfying character development in Cavalon and Rake. This should win many fans. (Apr.)