It would be a good idea to read my review of ‘Hidden Empire’, the first book in this series, before starting this, it will save me repeating myself. Find it here.

It's now five years later. The hydrogues - the aliens living at the cores of gas giants - have forbidden the mining of ekti, thus effectively bringing to a near standstill interstellar travel for humans and Ildirans (a near standstill because there are reserves and the Roamers continue to risk their lives to harvest the vital element from gas giants).

King Peter, another in the long line of manufactured and controlled monarchs, although he has his own ideas about how the Hanseatic League should be run and is working towards them - has succeeded King Frederick, who was killed by the hydrogues.

At the end of book one, the Colicos' discovered the inter-dimensional transportals ,a method of travelling from planet to planet instantaneously. This information is brought back to the Hanseatic League, giving them the means to re-colonise the worlds discovered by the Klikiss (Wonderful. More humans spreading their pestilence across the stars, just what the galaxy needs...) - which now means that ekti is far less vital to the human race.

Enter two new protagonists, the faeros and the wentals. Well, three actually, if you count the verdani, although since we've met them before - in the form of the sentient worldforest on Theroc - I'm not sure they could be called exactly new.

So now we have four elemental races on the scene - the hydrogues (gas), wentals (water), verdani (earth) and faeros (fire) - who were involved in a vast conflict between themselves millennia ago, a war which the hydrogues won. The wentals were blasted into atoms and scattered across the spiral arm, while the verdani survived in a massively diminished, hidden colony on Theroc: both species are now willing to fight the hydrogues for their own survival (which incidentally places then on the side of the humans and Ildirans).

The faeros survived the original war but cannot be trusted not to changes sides arbitrarily. I can't help but wonder if the author is going to introduce the fifth element (spirit, not Leeloo) in the next book or whether he'll stick to the traditional interpretation of spirit as the essence of the human race. I hope not.

Then, of course, there are the Klikiss robots, who it transpires, were instrumental in the destruction of their creators and who have their own hidden agenda...

Most of my comments on the first book stand for the second. It's a little less dull and a little faster paced which however unfortunately leaves even less time for the characters to become fully developed. It doesn't help that I simply don't find any of them particularly likeable. While the idea of vast elemental entities isn't exactly new, it's handled well even if I'm sceptical about the possibilities of such easy communication between them and humanity.

I think what depresses me most is the author's portrayal of the human race. No lessons have been learned from history, there's been little change despite everything that's happened in the past three hundred and thirty-odd years. The human race is still as short-sighted, selfish, arrogant and greedy as it is today. Not exactly surprising, I admit, but it would have been nice to have found some hope for the species in a series of this size and complexity.

Joules Taylor

http://www.wordwrights.co.uk