The Last Watch

The Last Watch is one of those books that caught me completely by surprise, but in a good way. After that opening scene, I really didn't know what to expect, but I guess I was in the mood for a space opera as I really enjoyed this book and the characters. While the initial part of the book felt a bit slow, it certainly picked up the pace and kept me entertained, and guessing, for the remainder of the book.

Cavalon and Rake are the main characters in the book, and couldn't be more polar opposites. Cavalon's attitude certainly set up the tone of the book as he was rebellious and cynical right from the beginning so you knew something was definitely up. And, I have to admit, the first line of the book certainly sets up Cavalon's story arc show more perfectly as you will see when you read it. Rake is as different from Cavalon as a human could possible be, but the two of them worked well together and their personalities meshed well together. The author uses these two characters to help develop the world-building, and it's often done through dialogue and interactions with others which can be a bit difficult at times. Rake is the leader of this motley crew and does not tolerate disobedience, disrespect, or rebellious actions that can compromise the others on the ship. At the same time, she also demonstrates compassion and a high level of intelligence. She has an ability to read people and figure out what they need; however, she is not very good at seeing to her own needs and is often over-worked and tired.

The secondary characters were a lot of fun as well, and I particularly enjoyed Griffith and Mesa, a savant. To be honest, most of the characters were very well developed, and I think the author put a lot of thought into her characters and how she wanted them portrayed.

I enjoyed the plot, and there were plenty of twists and turns. In this one, you've got an old ship out in nowhere, and I mean nowhere, with old technology that is falling apart, and a bunch of soldiers, called Sentinels, who have somehow screwed up in their jobs, fighting against something called The Divide. You know very little about the world at the beginning and slowly develop an understanding of the politics as the story develops, but I will admit, I still don't have a clear picture as to what is happening. I am okay with that however as I feel I am learning with Cavalon and Rake as they piece together their two stories to try and figure out what is going on. Rake is a bit of an idealist and I enjoyed watching her come to terms with what was happening as her illusions about her world started to crumble and she realizes she is going to have to rely on herself and those around her to solve what is happening. I can't state it any better than that without giving away spoilers, but I found it fascinating. One of the things I also found fascinating about this book was the use of something called imprints; they are tattoo-like characters that can change and protect the wearer, and they are different for everyone.

Verdict
The Last Watch definitely has a lot to recommend it; a group of ex-soldier criminals with the main character sticking out like a sore thumb, the end of the universe, politics, aliens, genetic modification, time disruptions, and so on. It can be confusing as the world-building is explained through the characters and the story line so a lot of it is not yet clear, like the mention of previous wars and how the ex-soldiers actually ended up on the ship. I definitely enjoyed the book, and recommend it to anyone interested in space opera. I will be diving into book 2, The Exiled Fleet, shortly. show less

This is one of those novels that sucked me in with the blurb, and never let me go, to the extent that I can't wait for the sequel to come out next month. The premise itself is fantastic, and Dewes crafted both the plot and characters masterfully, offering just the right tweaks to space opera tropes and expectations. The book drew up every imagination I could have hoped it would, and even when I was heartbroken or terrified for what was coming, I still wanted more at every page.

Undeniably, the characters are what kept me turning pages long past my eyes tiring out each night, and the way the friendships (both new and established) bled off the page is something I haven't seen accomplished nearly so well in most fast-moving science fiction. show more It was that prioritization of the human element, alongside a fascinating and fast-moving plot, that so impressed me, and even now that I sit down to attempt a review, the truth is that I'm mostly preoccupied by the moments which most struck me, and by the fact that I've got to wait another month for the next installment in the series.

I would, without hesitation, recommend this to any lover of sci-fi or space operas. show less

DNF p. 68. Shame on Tor for conjuring The Expanse in the same sentence as this amateurish stuff. And shame on the random Twitter guy who highly recommended it to me as a Corey chaser. Five chapters in and I wanted to throw the book across the room out of disappointment and near-embarrassment. Glacial pacing, opaque context and world-building, cardboard characters, and overly precious 'banter' that takes the place of engaging and relevant dialogue all contributed to the failure to elicit care about any of it – and I've always been a very dogged reader, once committed to the book in front of me. I also found the repeated descriptions of the tattoo 'Imprints' as a plot device to be rather limp and stale, like something out of a Cyberpunk show more RPG back in my late high-school days. Dewes is just trying too hard – character names, space-age-sounding swear words, Latin militaria – and yet her prose neither offers any subtlety nor achieves any real substance.

I get that there's a significant place for this style of sci-fi and that tons of people love it. I also would really love to support passionate writers of all stripes and especially women in this often-misogynistic field. The Last Watch isn't for me, though, which leads me back to being on the lookout for something more substantial and compelling in the sci-fi genre. show less

Fast paced, action-packed, really fun. Not for people who look for plausibility in their sci-fi.

The science is completely made up (she says, knowing nothing of physics) and one of the main characters is a smartass wunderkind who can basically do everything, has a photographic memory, and has been shunted to the literal back-end of the universe by his grandfather, who is basically the evil emperor of the galaxy. But somehow the character manages to be likeable instead of being a complete asshole.

The one thing I disliked here, is something that's been grinding my gears in other contemporary sci-fi as well, recently. And that's the author forcing an unnecessary romance subplot into the story for the sole purpose of tugging at the reader's show more heart strings when the love interest inevitably gets killed off. I just do not care, simple as, when the romance serves no other purpose. I get that relationships add another layer to a story and can be used to raise the stakes, but I would really love it if for once an author decided to not recycle the same worn romance plot lines. How about an important sibling relationship? Maybe a friend in peril? A parent? A mentor? Pet? I'm getting sick of reading genre books where I know from the moment a certain character is introduced where the whole arc of that character is going. In this story, I got pretty annoyed at the death scene near the end, when I felt absolutely nothing, zilch, nada for either of them. And I'm a person who actually cries very easily while reading books.

Other than that, I liked the setting and the central characters. The beginning of the book was A Choice, especially considering the rest of the book wasn't quite similar in tone, but at least it was different. The pacing of the story was pretty fast and I really liked the concept of the imprints some of the characters have. The world-building was interesting, if not totally comprehensive, and by the end I was pretty invested in where the story is going.

Giving this five stars is a little bit generous, because this is by far not the best sci-fi I ever read, but this was exactly what I expected it to be and I had a really fun time reading it. show less

I want to take this author aside and whisper, "Pacing." Because here's the thing: these are some entertaining characters! This is an interesting concept! There was a lot of potential here! But the first half of the book sucks because the author doesn't know to pace anything or develop characters and relationships.

This is the story of Cavalon, over-educated scion of royalty, and Adequin, hero of a lost war. Cav shows up and is mouthy and spoiled and difficult, which -- not a huge surprise, if also not that easy to read -- and then, over the course of approximately 48 hours, he just ... decides not to be and stops and starts doing his best and being a hero. That isn't character development. That's "I want to skip the hard part where I show more actually show him changing and growing up."

Adequin, who is described as a great fighter, pilot, and captain, spends the first half of the book a) walking around the ship and b) having a sudden, intense romance with her best friend of ten years, who she declares her eternal love for and then sends out for One Last Trip. (I assume I don't need to tell you what happens there.) And she makes bad decision after bad, impulsive decision, because her True Love (who she just got with) is in danger and that is her fault. And, like -- the author forgot to show Adequin actually being good at her job, and forgot to show us enough of the romance to care about it, and as a result, she comes off as a terrible captain and it's hard to care at all about the romance. (It would have been so much easier to care if they'd had an established relationship, or had stayed best friends. Either one would be a much better choice!)

But then the second half of the book shows up, and that part is much more interesting -- faster, for one thing, thanks to all the "oh no this is happening WHAT DO WE DO oh no oh no now THIS is happening shit shit shit." I enjoyed the second part! It was kind of my reward for slogging through the first half.

So I will read the next book in the series and hope that Dewes can make all of the next book interesting. I just really wish she'd spent enough time on the first half of this book to make it work. show less

First things first, my thanks to Tammy at Books, Bones and Buffy because she was the first of my fellow bloggers to review The Last Watch and literally propel me toward this book and its gripping story: I cannot turn away from a promising space opera novel, and this one met all my expectations, and makes me look forward with eagerness to its sequel which is happily slated to come out in a short time.

Long ago, humanity fought a bloody war with the alien Viators, bent on conquest and/or destruction of the races they encountered on their path: humanity managed to prevail and the Viators retreated back beyond the rim of the universe, a border called the Divide. Fearing that the alien invaders would return one day, humans set up a border show more patrol, the Sentinels, in a line of ships and buoys monitoring the Divide’s activity. The task, however, was not assigned to rotating crews but rather to the fleet’s misfits, criminals and the unwanted at large, as a way to permanently exile them while still making them useful: practically abandoned at the edge of the universe, far from the Core where life and civilization move forward, the Sentinels keep watch aboard old ships that are literally falling apart, as their requests for spare parts and essential supplies take far too long to be fulfilled, if ever. The overall feeling is that the central government stopped worrying long ago about the Viators’ return and that it also choose to apply the saying “out of sight, out of mind” to the men and women assigned to guard their backyard.

Adequin Rake is the captain of one of the Divide’s capital ships, the Argus, and as the story opens she feels all the boredom and futility of a duty in which even her superiors seem to have lost interest, but soon enough she finds herself faced with a series of problems: starting with the new recruit, Cavalon Mercer, who does not come from the military as the rest of her personnel, and sports a rakish attitude that’s out of place in the ranks; then she must deal with a series of strange phenomena that impact the already struggling systems of the Argus, while to top it all, the Divide seems to be closing in at an alarming rate on the deployed Sentinel ships, an ominous indication that the universe might be contracting… This is only the beginning of the adventure, and if these troubles look more than enough to keep your adrenaline flowing… well, think again, because they will pile up in a harrowing sequence that will task to the very limits Rake’s and her crew’s ability to react.

The Last Watch has been presented as a cross between The Expanse and the theme of the Night Watch in Game of Thrones: while I tend to be wary of these comparisons, I have to admit that there are some connections there, but this novel is its own story and it successfully melds some intriguing scientific notions with interesting and relatable characters and a space opera flavor that keeps things lively throughout the book. I was surprised to learn that this is a debut novel because, apart from a couple of “hiccups” I will mention later, it feels like the work of a seasoned writer, which makes me look forward to the next volume with great impatience.

Characters and plot share equal space in this story, in what I discovered is a very effective combination, and if some details about the political and military structure of the universe, or the events that led to the present, are left a little on the vague side, I can always hope that the next books will widen the horizon: the pace in The Last Watch, after the introduction of background and characters, is relentless and it would have been weighted down by too many details, so I’m quite happy with what I got. Even though this is a space opera novel, the cast of characters remains contained to a handful of people, which makes it very easy to connect with them: the first we meet is Cavalon Mercer, the odd man out since he does not come from the military - on the contrary, he’s the scion of the ruling family, but his continuing acts of rebellion against his grandfather’s ruling strategies finally led him to exile, and he finds himself forcibly enrolled with the Sentinels, and in dire need to hide his true identity, since the Mercer family does not instill much sympathy in the ranks.

From the very start, Cav’s rakish, impertinent attitude is no help in keeping the low profile he needs, and puts him in dangerous social situations, but as the story progresses and his skills come to the fore, often proving instrumental in solving some dire straits, both Captain Rake and the closest crewmates start to warm up to him and accept him as one of their own. Some of Cavalon’s talents require a little suspension of disbelief, because it often looks as if he possesses the right skill at the right moment, making him something of a proverbial Gary Stu: while it’s true that as the heir of the ruling family he might have had a lot of time on his hands, and therefore the opportunity to become acquainted with many aspects of science, it does sound somewhat preposterous that he would be proficient in fields ranging from medicine to engineering. Luckily for him (and for the readers…) Cav counterbalances this wide knowledge with a far-from-heroic attitude and a healthy fear for his wellbeing that manage to make him quite sympathetic.

Captain Rake is indeed able to see beyond Cavalon’s smoke screen and to understand that offering her trust and keeping him engaged she will be able to bring the real person to the surface, and turn him into the man he needs to be for the good of the team. I liked Adequin Rake from the very beginning: here is a woman who distinguished herself in the war against the Viators but for some reason (which we will learn along the way) she was sent to the Divide and is now battling with depression at what she perceives as a futile role. When things start going sideways, however, she shows great determination, courage and moral strength against both the impending doom and the discovery that the central government might have abandoned the Sentinels to their destiny. What’s more, I enjoyed the way she connected with Cavalon as a mentor and guide, leading to what promises to be a rewarding friendship between two very different personalities.

Besides these two main figures there is a number of secondary characters that are wonderfully drawn and given very distinctive qualities that make them much more than simple background extras: from scientist Mesa, a genetically engineered human/Viator hybrid, to gum-chewing Emery, to serious and dependable Jackin, they help fill out this story by giving the reader other people to care about apart from the main characters, and by showing other angles of this universe through their eyes rather than through lengthy exposition.

The Last Watch seems more like an introduction to this universe than the first installment in a promising series, and as such it left me with a lot of questions about the narrative nooks and crannies that were left unexplored, but what this book managed to do was to hold my attention from start to finish and to make me look forward to the next volume, where I hope to find the answers to those questions. That is, besides the continuation of this amazing adventure, of course… show less

In The Last Watch, J. S. Dewes imagines a universe that is not infinite. It has an end. The end is called the Divide and beyond the Divide there is nothing. It is a void so absolute that the word “void” is an expletive for disgust and frustration. The Sentinels are the soldiers who patrol the Divide. They are mostly soldiers who have been court-martialed or somehow disgraced themselves, a prison/patrol ship more or less though patrol is a big word for a stationary ship.

Cavalon, a prince and an heir to the powerful Mercer family, has been exiled to the Argus, one of the Sentinel ships at the Divide. Not being a soldier, it’s no surprise he does not fit in and promises to be a thorn in the side of the Excubitor, the commander of the show more Argus. That person is Adequin Rake, a war hero whose heroism embarrassed the military so she has been assigned to the Divide. Not one to write people off, she notes that Cavalon has an extraordinary education that could be of use if he could learn to be less oppositional.

Shortly after Cavalon arrives, the Divide begins to advance, slowly at first and then faster and faster. Soon the Argus is threatened and Rake’s pleas for equipment and advice are ignored. They have to save themselves and Cavalon becomes their last hope.

The Last Watch is incredible. It is fast-paced and relentless. This is one of those frying-pan-to-fire stories where the frying pan is disappearing so the fire is the only hope. Unlike many science fiction stories, the jeopardy is real. What I mean by that, is there is no guarantee that all the important characters will survive. People become important, you come to care about them, and then they die. This is a good thing in terms of the story because you never come to believe that some characters are inviolate and will always come through in the end. Even the characters who make it to the last page are not necessarily safe because this is the beginning of a series and their jeopardy is real. While it makes the book more fraught, I love the sense of real jeopardy that is omnipresent.

I loved everything about this book. Even the contradictory science of a universe that is finite gets a theoretical explanation linked to science. Science matters in this book, even the invented science. On a superficial level, you might think this book advocates trusting your gut, your instincts, but that is only a shallow view. This is a book about trusting the knowledge and experience that informs your gut. This helpful antidote to today’s preference for feelings over science is apparent when people doubt their decisions and are reassured that their instincts are not just feelings, they are informed instincts that rest on rational thought processes.

In addition, I am in love with this book because it was so engrossing it overcame my post-COVID fog and fatigue so that I read it in just a few sittings, even reading until 3 A.M. and then reading it while brewing my morning coffee the next morning. I have not read like this since early March last year. It gives me hope that I am finally getting over “Long COVID.” The only problem is the next book, The Exiled Fleet, won’t be out until August.

The Last Watch will be published on April 20th. I received an ARC from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

The Last Watch at Tor Books
J. S. Dewes author site

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