Dissonance: Aurora Renegades Book Two (Amaranthe) Paperback – April 1, 2016

Dissonance, the second in the Aurora Renegades trilogy and the fifth overall novel in the Aurora Rhapsody series, follows two distinct yet intertwined storylines. We continue to follow Alex and Caleb as they explore a variety of alien universes. At the same time, we witness a deadly game of chess being played back in the Aurora (human) universe. The large cast of main characters move in a dance of politics and violence that many will not survive.The aspect of GS Jennsen's novels that make them so enjoyable is the incredible characterization. Every point of view character is a delight to follow. One of the most common issues I find in a series with a lot of POV characters is that I will have one or two favorite characters and then every chapter with one of the other characters is just a dreadful side not that I need to get through to get back to my characters. In Dissonance, we do not even get a glimpse of the two primary characters until the 15% mark of the book. The fact that I was loving the book and felt that I was not missing anything up until that point goes to show how well developed the cast of characters is. Even the two POV characters that I detest were still fun to read. I may have spent the duration of their chapters hoping for another POV character to come in and kill them, but I still loved to hate them.In the Aurora Universe, we get to see Miriam, Olivia, Mia, Malcolm, Richard, and so many more amazing characters continue their struggle for power and survival. As always with Aurora books, there is just the right amount of political maneuvering in this installment. As the battlefield of intergalactic powers continues to evolve and grow in complexity, we start to see the clusterfrak that is bound to happen in book three between these powers. The cultural and technological (r)evolution is really amping up and I find myself constantly trying to plot out possible routes for these plots to take.The storyline following Alex and Caleb falls in the more philosophical, contact-with-aliens type of science fiction. We get to meet more alien races and even revisit one or two from previous novels. The best part of the expanding mythology of the series is that it does not negate or invalidate the events of the Aurora universe. Too often in novels the scope of the story zooms out to show that everything previously has just been the equivalent of a fishbowl in the real world. The issue that follows is that if the story zooms back into that fishbowl, everything that happens in the fishbowl feels wildly insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Who cares if there is a mean fish killing all of the other fish in the fishbowl if there is an apocalypse out there in the real world? GS manages to keep the importance of the events in the Aurora Universe at the same level despite the widening scope of the mythology and story. The peril and triumph of the Aurora characters feels just as real as the experiences of Alex and Caleb.A large part in my enjoyment of novels depends on the predictability of events. Dissonance scores exceptionally well in this regard. In terms of the prevos, especially Alex, I have been able to follow along with their evolution about two steps ahead of the story. This is not a bad thing because Im just drawing on past science fiction novels to see find the logical next steps in the story. 3/4 of the way through Dissonance, I narrowed the progression of the Alex/Valkyrie storyline down to two possible outcomes. I guess we will see if I got it right in the third book! As for the BIG revelation, I only manage to figure it out a paragraph before it was revealed, which is much later than Im usually able to guess reveals.As a Sociology major and Women's Studies minor, I am always looking for representations of diversity in novels. The one area of GS Jennsen's novels that I feel a wee bit dicey on is race. Jennsen has decided to create a society where race/ethnicity is no longer a point of oppression and domination. At the same time, races have blurred over time to the point of being inconsequential. While this is a possible evolution of race, and a pretty nice sounding one, I have concern over the end result when this book is being read by people in our society. We live in a white privileged society, and we are going to read this book with all of our implicit racist socializations. When I read all of these characters that are supposed to be a mix of races and cultures, I end up defaulting them all to white in my mind and I assume I am not the only one that this will happen for. In addition, wiping away all privilege and and disadvantage without commenting on them allows these issues to continue on our own society unchecked (I suggest doing a google search on color blind racism to see where Im coming from with this point).Despite this concern I have, Aurora Rhapsody continues to score pretty well on diversity. We never have a shortage of incredible women doing incredible things. Not only are there a lot of powerful women, they are all very different from each other. We do not get the short stick of the cookie cutter bad ass woman here. There are a lot of representations of masculinity and femininity throughout the cast. As for queer representations, we have gotten another queer power couple (wooooooo!!!). I won't spoil who gets together, but it is a pretty awesome development. There have not been any transgender characters introduced (or at least this aspect of any characters has not been acknowledged). Hopefully at some point we will see this issue touched on in some way in the future. Class divides were touched upon in earlier novels and those themes continue here. Class is especially prevalent in the short story Solatium (read that by the way. Apogee too. Before you read Dissonance. Do it now).If you have not gotten it yet, my point is that you should read the book, it is amazing.

I've been reading this series in order, but my library didn't have this book for some reason. I liked the rest of the books enough to buy this one, and it didn't disappoint.

Jennsen's first book, Starshine, captured my attention with gorgeous vistas and well-developed characters who made me care. The cast isn’t small by any means, and in those first few books, it was Alex and Caleb who dragged me along for the desperate ride.By the time I got to the fourth book, Sidespace, which kicked off a brand new trilogy in the world, the entire cast had become family. I fought beside them, cried with them, felt their triumphs and suffered their defeats. G.S. Jennsen is one of those rare authors who holds, not just a story, but an entire world inside her mind.So now we come to Dissonance, which released today. This book picks up where Sidespace left off, following the characters into a world of aritifical intelligences as real as you or I, and wars plaguing the human worlds that are stretched among the stars. As one of my favorite characters says at the start:"Galactic domination wasn’t so difficult."And how could it be, with the cracks of betrayal and mistrust forming planet-sized fissures in every alliance you can name?I attempt to avoid spoilers in these reviews. I firmly believe that G.S. Jennsen’s ability to make you truly live through every single moment of the story is her strength, and to ruin any of that for you would be doing you a disservice. Do you remember the books you read as a child, the series’ that you lived out in your daydreams? Did you follow the Pevensie’s through the wardrobe, or fight along side the students of Hogwarts in the final battle? Did you walk every weary mile to Mordor, or face the horrors of war with Ender? Whatever story it was that captured your young imagination: Jennsen’s series is that, for adults. It’s escapism at its finest, a place where you can be more through the characters. Everything that your geeky heart has ever wanted to explore, from finding a soul mate to integrating your consciousness with an AI, is all here.I highly recommend also grabbing the short story, Apogee. While it is not critical for reading Dissonance, it does add a layer of understanding that fills the story with even more depth. That’s another thing I love about Jennsen’s books; you can choose to read them for a bit of simple entertainment, the equivalent of your daily prime time TV binge. Or, if you’re brave enough, you can follow her down the rabbit hole and discover a future far more real than anything else on the market.

**** As with ‘Sidespace’, I received an Advance Review Copy from GS Jennsen ****The future role of the AI and Artificials – despite the critical role they played in defeating the Metigen invasion – adds another level of intrigue, political manoeuvring and friction between the various elements of Earth Alliance, Senecan Federation and the Independent Colonies. For much of the time this friction is contained although, occasionally, it spills over into violence.In the depths of space beyond the Metis Portal, Caleb, Alex and her AI Valkyrie encounter a network of multiverses and civilisations associated with Metigens, some benign, some enigmatically advanced, some highly aggressive. The evidence makes them wonder whether the Metigens are saviours or killers, protectors or deceivers, creators or destroyers – or perhaps something completely different, a species with an agenda of their own.As Alex penetrates deeper and deeper into the world of the Metigen she begins to suspect what, just perhaps, may be the fundamental truth behind these apparently all-powerful beings.Out of interest…Everything about ‘Dissonance’ – the events on the other side of the Metis Portal and those within the known universe – hangs together extremely well. With ‘Sidespace’ I was concerned that we were effectively dealing with two separate stories but, as GSJ commented in an e-mail to me:“Not being able to weave the separate plots together was a shame (for me, too), but the story simply demanded it. At one point I did consider telling the story in six novellas rather than 3 novels, knowing the paths would be separate for a while - but themes continue to echo across the parallel stories, and they'll reconverge for ‘Abysm’, so the novella structure wouldn't have worked for very long.”So, all we now need is ‘Abysm’ – and, according to GSJ, I should receive an advance review copy no later than June 23…

The continuation of a fantastic science-fiction space opera that continues to get better with every release. Jennsen really ups her game and ramps up the tension in what has become my favourite new scifi series. Multiple universes, omnipotent aliens, fear of artificial intelligence, embattled politicians and military and organised crime.If you haven't yet discovered the Aurora Rising series, then you are in for a hell of a ride.

One I kind of saw a hint to earlier in the series, but I guess that was the intention. I won't give it away, but suffice to say, this series has really impressed me and kept me page turning for hours and hours!

Another wonderful addition to the Aurora universe; Dissonance is an exciting page-turner from start to finish and, as always, leaves the reader hungry for the next instalment. Book 3 can't come soon enough!

When I read Starshine, the very first book by G. S. Jennsen, I was eagerly anticipating a wonderful story with amazing characters and a world I could get lost in. I found that and so much more. I formed a crush on Alex and Caleb, wanted to explore the massive, glorious world they exist in and bury myself in their adventures.But it got better. Along came Vertigo and Transendence and I was so in love with the characters, their story and their world I hated to see it end. It was a rip roaring adventure from start to finish and it was painful to let it go.But there was more to come. Sidespace took us in another direction, opening up more avenues and stories to follow, all the while continuing to build on what we already knew, keeping the familiar but expanding into the new.Then along comes Dissonance. And it gets better still. A concern with stories that carry over multiple books is that the author will lose steam and the story suffers for it. Not so here. The world is as fresh and alive as the very first time I encountered it. The characters have grown in ways I couldn’t have imagined or expected and it only becomes more fleshed out as the story continues.The tension, the mystery, the adventure and the people we already know and love are all here. But there is so much more. New worlds, new threats, new problems to face and these characters do it so well. I want to keep reading, turning the page to see what happens next. Yes you can read these books one chapter at a time but I dare you to try, see if you can put it down before it’s finished because they hook you in.It’s a testament to G. S.’s writing that she has kept that initial sense of wonder and anticipation alive through every one of her books. I want to come back for more. Especially after Dissonance where secrets were revealed and the story takes an impressive turn. There’s nothing like a reveal to make you want more and this does exactly that.I thoroughly enjoy every one of G. S. Jennsen’s books, including the short stories, and I eagerly look forward to what comes next. I’m sure it will be as engrossing as everything that’s come before.