The Apocalypse Ocean

Xenowealth #4

by Tobias S. Buckell

Humanity continues to gain control of the Forty Eight Worlds as they deorbit wormholes and join the many worlds and civilizations together.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, Steampunk, Science Fiction Fantasy

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.

Reviews

[MadProfessah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tobias S. Buckell's Xenowealth series is an entertaining melange of space opera and Caribbean diaspora culture. I only discovered the series after his eco-thriller Arctic Rising (featuring a Black lesbian James Bond-like character!) became a bestseller in 2012.

The first three books in the Xenowealth series, Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin and Sly Mongoose were published by mainstream publishers but then Buckell successfully used Kickstarter to fund the production of the fourth book in the series, The Apocalypse Ocean. Bizarrely, even though I reviewed the first three books right after it came out somehow I missed the publication of the fourth book.

In fact the only reason I even know that The Apocalypse Ocean exists is because my friend Karen Lord who is a published science fiction author (I love writing that!) was visiting Southern California and she told me that Buckell has a sequel to  Arctic Rising out called Hurricane Fever  (which is dedicated to Karen and set mainly in Barbados) and oh by the way did you know Xenowealth Book 4 came out 18 months ago?

I was able to quickly buy a Kindle copy of The Apocalypse Ocean and enjoyed it very much. The Xenowealth universe is very interesting and Buckell writes with flair. Here is the blurb from Buckell's website giving an overview of The Apocalypse Ocean:

Welcome back to the Xenowealth. 

Humanity continues to gain control of the Forty Eight Worlds as they deorbit wormholes and join the many worlds and civilizations together. But as they do so, they must deal with the horrors of past injustices as humanity forms new societies out of the wreckage of the old. 

And some of those horrors aren’t content to rest. Kay, who has rescued herself from a hellish life dominated by uncaring alien creatures, seeks bloody twisted revenge for what was done to her. 
And a new force is not happy about the manner in which the Forty Eight worlds are reshaping themselves. In fact, it’s about to put a stop to it all.

The plot of The Apocalypse Ocean is an expanded version of "Plaça del Fuego," a short story published at Clarkesworld Magazine in 2009. Both are set on the planet of Octavia, a minor planet in the Forty Eight Worlds that are connected by a wormhole network created aeons ago but are now being used by humans aliens alike. In the first three books, humanity was fighting to break free from centuries of enslavement and domination by an alien race called the Benevolent Satrapy. The humans have split into two primary factions, one group calling themselves the Xenowealth and the League of Human Affairs.

As you can tell from the name of the series (Xenowealth) Buckell's books spend more time depicting one particular group. The Xenowealth group features characters like Pepper and his daughter Nashara, who are both near-superhuman, dreadlocked wearing cyborgs known as "ragamuffins" who appear to be nearly impossible to kill. Pepper and Nashara are great characters who have appeared in most of the Xenowealth books.

In Book 4, Buckell introduces several new interesting characters: Tiago, a street kid who is a pickpocket in the city of Palentar on the island of Plaça del Fuego; Kay, a teenage girl who has been genetically engineered to emotionally control and manipulate humans and is Tiago's boss; the Doaq, a mysterious, terrifying monster who appears to have a wormhole for a mouth; and Thinkerer, a robot from the League world of Trumball who has questionable loyalties and hidden abilities.

The best part of The Apocalypse Ocean is the breakneck pace of the action that Buckell is able to maintain, as he continues to ratchet up the stakes involved and reveal more and more of the underlying structure of the larger Universe the story is set in.

I'm very glad that The Apocalypse Ocean was written and I applaud Buckell for his tenacity and audacity in getting it out there. I hope it (and Hurricane Fever) are successful enough that the wait for the fifth and final installment in the series, rumored to be named Desolation's Gap, will cone out sooner rather than later. I know that I will plunk down my hard-earned cash to pick that up!

Title:  The Apocalypse Ocean .
Author: Tobias S. Buckell.

Paperback: 250 pages.
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services.

Date Published: December 13, 2012.
Date Read: July 15, 2014

OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.

[Jim]

The Apocalypse Ocean is the fourth book in Tobias Buckell‘s Xenowealth series.

The story behind this book is almost as interesting as the book itself. Buckell talks here about how he used Kickstarter to successfully reboot this series. I haven’t seen the ebook, but I can tell you the hardcover is gorgeous. More about that later, though…

The Apocalypse Ocean continues Buckell’s tradition of blending larger-than-life characters (Pepper and Nashara are back!) and … well, let’s call them “life-sized” characters for comparison. Tiago is a boy doing his best to survive on Placa del Fuego, an island where acidic, flammable rains are only the least of people’s troubles. Placa del Fuego is a dead zone, where little technology functions, and an alien known as the Doaq roams the streets at night, devouring all who oppose it. Tiago is a clever but low-level pickpocket, and his Fagin is Kay, a woman raised and engineered on a hellish alien world who’s determined to run Placa del Fuego for herself. Unfortunately, their island is about to be caught in the middle of a galactic conflict…

It’s been four and a half years since I read and reviewed Sly Mongoose, the previous book in the series, and I stumbled a few times as a result of my own forgetfulness about what had happened. The new book does stand on its own, but it will mean more if you’re familiar with the first three.

You can tell Buckell knows his world and his characters very well, and has spent a lot of time developing both. From the smallest details of the home Tiago shares to the sweeping history and conflicts of the wormhole network, he’s gone beyond surface flash to consider the implications and possibilities of his worldbuilding. The Doaq uses a horrifying but fascinating version of wormhole technology, for example.

All in all, it’s a strong, engaging adventure, one that leaves me hoping for a fifth book in this universe.

As an author myself, I was fascinated by the way this book came about. Buckell has always been near the forefront of publishing, following and analyzing the trends, and doing a good job of taking advantage of new possibilities. So I wasn’t surprised to see him try Kickstarter, nor was I surprised to see him succeed. Physically speaking, this hardcover is as good or even better quality than a lot of what I’ve seen from professional publishers. I did notice a few typos, but nothing that threw me out of the story. Buckell put a lot of work and care into this book, and it shows.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the Xenowealth series by Tobias S. Buckell. As in the previous books this one takes place several years after the events in the previous book. This one starts with an alien monster in the dark and its randomly killing people. In the fight against this monster there is a pickpocket, a genetically engineered criminal mastermind, two cyborg political agitators and an alien android. This is all set in a universe where mankind is divided in to two different' and sometimes warring, political entities that must work together to kill this monster and to discover the power behind it. Set this in a world where the characters have a Caribbean heritage and this book and series make for a fascinating read. I recommend this book and this series but unfortunately it looks like this is the last book in this series. I have read some of the "Halo" books by Mr. Buckell and found them to also be very good. I will definitely read more of this authors works.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published at SFFWorld.

The Apocalypse Ocean is the fourth novel in Tobias Buckell’s highly entertaining Xenowealth series, following on from Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose. However, the path to the release of this novel wasn’t a smooth one: after three novels that allowed the story to grow and expand, Buckell and his publisher, Tor, decided not to go with a fourth novel and instead a change of direction was called for (which led to Arctic Rising and its sequel, Hurricane Fever). When I first heard of this it was met with sadness that I wouldn’t – at least in the foreseeable future – see further tales of the Xenowealth and its inhabitants. Fortunately I wasn’t the only one amongst Buckell’s fans to feel this way, and he went ahead and successfully Kickstarted the writing and publication of The Apocalypse Ocean. Released in 2012 as both a limited edition hardback and a widely available ebook, The Apocalypse Ocean shows that just because a novel isn’t traditionally published it’s not the end of the road. However, the question of whether it was worth all the effort can’t be ignored, though I suspect that’s more a question for Buckell than his fans – I for one think it certainly was.

Taking place on the island of Placa del Fuego on the planet of Octavia, we follow two of its native inhabitants: Kay, a young crime-lord who is something more than simply human; and Tiago, a pickpocket and thief in the (somewhat forced) employ of Kay’s organisation. With the island in a technological dead zone, the residents make do with what they can, though the recent terrorising by a creature known as the Doaq has them locking their doors each night to stay safe. When Nashara arrives looking for Pepper, a chain of events is set into motion, and the realisation that there is much more at stake here than anyone could possibly guess.

As well as the rather imposing figure of Kay, and the timid-yet-determined Tiago, we have returning favourites Nashara and Pepper. Anyone who has read the other books will know just what to expect when these two show up on the page. Not one to disappoint, Pepper shows up early, falling into a lure by Kay which pits him against the Doaq, a situation that itself is all kinds of entertaining, but one that leads to his disappearance for much of the novel. Nashara shows up to track Pepper down, and her dealings with Kay and Tiago are both filled with tension and strangely intimate, giving the reader some genuine emotion that begs further exploration. Buckell’s characters are enjoyable for their diversity and difference, and all make for interesting reading.

apocalypse-ocean-ebookThe story itself is somewhat of a stranger one, with the focus being on the small island and the intrusion of the Doaq and its reign of terror on the community. It’s this that leads to deeper and further reaching questions and answers as the plot progresses, with the wider picture from earlier novels coming into play towards the end. The Apocalypse Ocean doesn’t end there though, and Buckell manages to raise more questions that beg for answers, and gives a hint of where the story will progress in the as yet unwritten final novel, Desolation’s Gap.

Ultimately, Tobias Buckell’s writing is entertaining, engrossing, interesting, and intriguing. The pages turn at a rapid pace, and the novel is over way too soon, which, for me at least, is a shame – I could easily lose myself in the Xenowealth if given more material. Much like the previous novels in this setting, it is quite easy to pick up The Apocalypse Ocean and read it without having read the other books. Of course, I wouldn’t advise that in the slightest, and highly recommend you start at the beginning with Crystal Rain.

Having just finished a read-through of all four Xenowealth novels I can recommend them in a heartbeat. This is science fiction at its most enjoyable, offering plenty to marvel at, while still giving food for thought. Personally I hope Buckell returns to this universe in the near future to complete the tale, and whether it be by Kickstarter or some other route, I’ll support him every step of the way.

[Anne Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apocalypse Ocean gave me the connection to place and characters of the first book in the Xenowealth series, Crystal Rain, while also containing easily as much action and adventure as the other two, Ragamuffin and Sly Mongoose. I think this is Buckell's best book yet.

The book starts with some of the classic tropes of a fantasy novel - young beggar queen of a dockside town is watching a dangerous looking interloper from the rooftops; she has arranged for him to run into trouble so she can observe what happens. A scared little pickpocket in her gang is intercepted months later by a warrior looking for that earlier transient, hoping to meet with his boss, seeking information. He escapes her as the rain starts, but she hunts him back down and the meeting is arranged.

But this is not fantasy, this is hard science fiction. The two warriors are cyborgs who helped found the Xenowealth, named Pepper and Nashara. Nashara has clones of herself that live purely as AIs, one of whom, Piper, runs one of their spaceships. The local beggar queen, Kay, is a rare survivor of the Caretaker class of genetically altered humans who were slaves to the alien Nesaru until the League liberated them - but not before the Nesaru killed many of them in an attempt to hide the evidence. As a Caretaker, she has been bred to be hypersensitive to human expressions - she can read people, and thus control them. Her family managed the other classes of slaves - the Runners, the Luminoids, the Ox-Men. That type of control, using other people as tools, is her special skill.

Kay has not yet figured out her goal in life, but her current goal is simple: to stay free of Alien dominance. And that goal is threatened; an Alien with a wormhole for a mouth is terrorizing her city. So she tries luring Pepper into a fight with it. He injures it, which is interesting, then is forced to flee into the ocean. But there's a lot more going on in this town than she knows. Her planet, officially a neutral area in the shaky truce between the League and the Xenowealth, is just one stop on the network of planets strung together by "grounded" wormholes. Ships can sail along this network, planet to planet. Are some of those ships an Alien invasion force?

The pickpocket, Tiago, will play a bigger part in the coming events than he would ever have imagined. In the meantime, it rains. Well, they call it rain. Napalm mist from the Fire Valley floats over the mountains and scars the skin of anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it.

Both Tiago and Kay have some significant growing up to do, and the lessons Buckell weaves for them are rooted in fundamental questions of how people trust and collaborate. And fight. And dream.

Highly recommended.

[Christopher Gerrib · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of the SF writer Tobias Buckell ever since I met him at a convention. He’s a cool dude, and writes fairly hard-boiled SF novels. He first came to fame with Crystal Rain, set in a world colonized in part by aliens who wanted to be worshipped as ancient Aztec gods – human sacrifice and all. This was to be Book One of a five-book series. Alas, after three books, his publisher suggested they move on, and Tobias did so. But he still wanted to write Book Four and Book Five, and had fans willing to read it. So he did a Kickstarter project (full disclosure – I contributed) and the result is Apocalypse Ocean. This novel is now available to the general public as an ebook.

Buckell has done something I am striving to do in my own writing, namely write loosely-connected sequels, such that a reader can start with any book in the series. I believe Buckell has succeeded in that goal with this book. Set on Trumbull, a human-colonized world that has fairly recently become independent of alien domination, the book features Buckell’s recurring dreadlocked agent of general chaos Pepper, one of his “daughters” Nashara and a criminal mastermind named Kay.

Trumbull is a world where trees emit a flammable mist, which rains down and coats buildings and people like napalm. Oh, and there’s a dead zone, an area in which all unshielded electronics fail to work. Lastly, an unknown “thing” called a Doaq is running around at night, eating buildings and people. It is, in short, a nasty place; interesting to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there.

I’ve admitted my bias – after all, you don’t donate to a Kickstarter project unless you like the work – but Apocalypse Ocean is one hell of a good read! Buckell starts the action early, and it never lets up. Not only that, his worlds are not the stereotypical clean rooms of old-school SF; they are real, gritty places inhabited by believable aliens and people. I highly recommend you read this book.

[Chelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realize I give out a fair number of 5 stars. I can't help it. I enjoy reading! The ability to give out half stars would be nice.

But on to this book. I contacted the author via a twitter giveaway and got a digital copy of this book. OH MAN OH MAN AM I GLAD I DID!!!!

It was sci-fi without being tech-p*rn... you guys know what I mean. The world was interesting, and the beginning was just confusing enough that I wanted to keep reading. I discovered after finishing that there are more books written about this world, probably some of those would clear up a few of the backstory/world building questions I had. Nothing that took away from the book, more a case where I loved it so much I want more!!

Wound up adoring the character of Tiago. But all the characters were interesting and dynamic. And they change, not in annoying and unbelievable ways, but in the ways that people change when they go through stuff.

Excuse me, I'm off to find books 1-3 of this awesome series and write a somewhat angry letter to whatever publisher decided to stop putting it out so he had to Kickstart this one.

[[ J o ]]

[ read the first book in the series, 'Crystal Rain', and did not enjoy, therefore will not be continuing with the series ]

[Brian Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent action novel set in the same universe as Buckell's other novels, with a recurring character or two. Fleshes out some of the backstory on the former alien overlords. In general it's a fairly by-the-numbers "urchin gets involved in events beyond his reckoning and has adventures" tale that makes for a fun read.

[Patrick Trotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of sci-fi in my life. Even for sci-fi some of the concepts in this book were really far-fetched.

The first half of the book I devoured in one day, the rest over the course of a week. The first half was really pretty good, while the latter half was a trudge.

I read this as an I09.com book club selection. I probably won't read the rest of the series.

[Andre · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book started with that most classic of scifi tropes, there's an alien monster in the dark and its randomly killing people. Throw in a pickpocket, genetically engineered criminal mastermind, two cyborg political agitators an alien android and some awesome dialogue and mindbending high tech and you have the fourth novel in the brilliant Xenowealth Universe, of which this is the best one.

[Robin Marwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

So happy Buckell did a Kickstarter and wrote this book! Fascinating new world and a riveting character in Kay, plus some old friends. It's been a while since I read the other Xenowealth books and I should reread them, but it wasn't really a barrier to enjoying this one.

[Lora]

I got lost a few times with who was on which side, but that's just because I read fast and tend to skim when I'm doing the "get as many pages done while on the train" thing.

I liked this a lot. I managed to miss the part where it was Book 4 somehow, so I'll go back and read the other 3. :)

[Roy Kenagy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Kickstarter-funded book. About what one would expect from crowd-funding: a lot of telling rather than showing, passable plot, wooden characters. But mildly entertaining and I made it through to the predictable end.

[Roberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best book in the series. Interesting setting (as usual for Buckell) but cleaner writing and better character development for the new ones (the old standbys are just there).

Also, what happened to Etsudo?

[Grglstr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have mentioned this long ago, but this was a great, really fun read...pretty much what you can expect from Buckell's Xenowealth series.

Buy it, read it, and encourage him to write more of these.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid 4th instalment. Not quite as impressive as the previous books but some interesting new characters & plot elements. I would have liked a longer book though - there's a hell of lot of story crammed into a very short space.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a hard one to put down. I hope Buckell kickstarts the next Xenowealth book because if this is what the end result is, then Viva la Kickstarter!

[Arun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worthy sequel to Sly Mongoose. Highly recommended to fans of Buckell's Xenowealth stories. Pepper is back!

[James Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent entry in the Xenowealth series. Here's hoping crowdfunding can keep this series a viable one for Buckell.

[Luke Kanies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book, decently written although more of a romp than a tight story, and more variety in perspective than you'd normally see in a scifi book.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

quick fun sci-fi action.

[Tim Thraeryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy, I hope another of these gets written, because that story sure isn't done. It's a great story, too.