Review – Nightwatch Over Windscar (The Weep, Book 2) by K. Eason (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera
Length: 482 pages
Publisher: DAW
Release Date: November 8, 2022
ASIN: B0B6ZD9JJV
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in The Weep series
Source: eGalley from Netgalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Iari is good at killing monsters. As a templar in the Aedis, a multi-species religious organization committed to protecting the Confederation, eliminating extra-dimensional horrors is her job. But after she helped stop separatists from sabotaging the entire Confederation, she discovered a new sort of monster: the rogue-arithmancer, political kind.
Promoted and sent north to the tundra of Windscar, Iari leads a team of templars to investigate ancient, subterranean ruins, which local legend claims are haunted, and which have mysterious connections to the dangerous arithmancy used by the wichu separatists. Iari isn’t worried about ghosts. She’s worried about surviving separatists and a fresh attempt to upend the Confederation.
Included in Iari’s team are Char, a decommissioned battle-mecha and newly-joined templar, and Gaer, ostensible ambassador and talented arithmancer. As they delve into the ruins, they find remnants of long-ago battles, bits of broken armor and mechas—which unexpectedly reanimate and attack. It seems there is still dangerous arithmancy in Windscar—but the source isn’t who Iari expected, and they’re far worse than the separatists….”
Series Info/Source: This is the 2nd book in The Weep series; there are going to be at least 3 books in this series. I got a copy of this as an ebook through Netgalley to review.
Thoughts: Compared to the first book in this series I felt like parts of this were a bit slow and long. I think that was because we switched POV between so many characters and backtracked some when that happened. I still enjoyed the story and characters but parts of the story felt very long.
This story starts with all our characters from the last book sent north to Windscar. Iari has been promoted and her team is sent to a set of ancient ruins near Windscar to explore rumors of dangerous arithmancy and supposed hauntings near these ruins.
I am really loving the characters, world and action in this series. Iari is a wonderful character and I really enjoy both Char and Gaer as well. It’s been fascinating to watch these different alien species (and previous enemies) ally together and form steadfast friendships and loyalties to each other. The world building here continues to be fascinating.
This book really focuses on the ancient Kabal culture and a rebellion against the Aedis templars. The storyline about the Aedis nano-biotech being infected, and even possibly gaining sentience, is discussed here as well and that was a fascinating subplot to this book.
There is a lot of action in the story which was well done. I think the only thing that I didn’t love about this book was how when we switched POV we were backtracking in the story at points. I also thought there were just too many POV changes. I do like hearing from different characters but this could have been done better, in a way such that the characters’ points of view were woven together more smoothly. I am eager to see how this storyline continues though.
The writing is easy to read and engaging. I think what really keeps me involved in this story are the characters and the fascinating subplot about the nano-biotech.
My Summary (4/5): Overall this was slower than the first book in the series but still a fun read. I love the characters and watching how they form friendships despite huge differences. I also really enjoying this fascinating world and some of the concepts being explored here. I plan to continue reading this series and would recommend it to those who enjoy space opera sci-fi.
