The 22nd century's WWIII crashes to an unexpected end in this slam-bang conclusion to Williams's Autumn Rain trilogy (after 2008's The Mirrored Heavens
and 2009's The Burning Skies
). The Russia- and China-led Eurasian Alliance uses two heretofore secret megaspaceships to blast the U.S. and bring the American space fleet to its knees, while the spooky commando triads of Autumn Rain carry out desperate clandestine maneuvers. At the focus of the bloody action is Claire Haskell, the Manilishi, a “posthuman” supercomputer/cyborg able to implement the theories of her designer Matthew Sinclair, who intends to become God via experiments with teleportation, telepathy, and time travel. Williams's readers will eagerly devour this cyberpunk feeding frenzy, long on dizzying action and sinister tangled politics, but newcomers to the series will struggle with the shallow characterizations and overdoses of X-rated vocabulary. (June)
