The Judge of Ages (Count to a Trillion)
The impending invasion of Earth grows closer. There are now only a handful of centuries remaining for Menelaus Montrose, the posthuman also known as the Judge of Ages, to find a way to stop Ximen del Azarchel, otherwise known as Blackie, from orchestrating humanity’s surrender to the approaching alien armada. This is the third volume, following The Hermetic Millennia (2012), in a grand, space-operatic epic set 8,500 years into the future; Montrose is a Texas gunfighter, a mathematical genius, a guy who’s seen civilizations rise and fall (rescuing, and putting in cryosleep, survivors from each of them). Familiarity with the previous two books would definitely be helpful here, as Wright tends to avoid slowing down the action with backstory, but the book is so much damned fun, so engagingly written, and so hugely imaginative that knowing exactly what’s going on isn’t entirely necessary. There are, apparently, at least two more books in the series yet to come, so now’s the time to get on board (and backtrack to the earlier installments). Science fiction in the grand tradition. --David Pitt