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The Remembrance War #2
The Blood-Dimmed Tide
Book 2 in 'The Remembrance War' series. Reclaiming Earth from the Zhen was only the beginning. For the first time in a thousand years, humans walk the world where their civilizations first arose. Settlements have become towns, swelling with new settlers fleeing the oppression and lies of the Empire. For the first time in a thousand years, the human race is free. But freedom never comes without a price, and a year of rebuilding ends with the human homeworld pushed to the brink of collapse by a series of Zhen attacks. Tajen Hunt, the man who found Earth and uncovered the truth about the Zhen, is sent to the Kelvaki Assembly to ask for ships and pilots to bolster Earth's defenses. Between an assassination attempt on the Heir to the Assembly throne and the labyrinth of loyalties that is Kelvaki politics, it's not an easy task. And it's made impossible when the Zhen Empire seizes control of Earth and sets up a brutal Occupation. Now Tajen and his team must return to Earth and find a way to end the Zhen occupation. But unlike the first Battle of Earth, the lines between friend and foe are no longer clear--because the Zhen have human agents among the people of Earth--and not all of them are known.
- GenresScience Fiction
229 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 2020
9 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Michael R. Johnston
3 books20 followersMichael R. Johnston is a high school English teacher and writer living in Sacramento, California with his cats, Loki and Rory. He can be found at mjohnstonbooks.com and @johnstonmr.bsky.social.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 17, 2020
A sequel to The Widening Gyre. It can be read as a stand-alone but I feel you are missing out on a great beginning to this series.
Tajen has just married Liam, when an alert sounds. Ships have entered Earth’s atmosphere. One of these ships deliberately crashes into the shipyard and so Tajen and his new husband are back in action.
Due to the Zhen’s constant attacks, Earth’s fleet are in trouble and so Tejen, Liam and a crew head to the Kelvaki to ask for help.
But while they are away, the Zhen take the opportunity to attack again…..they want the planet back and to rid the universe of humans altogether.
Can Tajen raise enough of a resistance to take back control of Earth again.???? And are the Tabrans friend or foe?
This is a full on, action packed space opera, with a great range of characters and fantastic world building. Roll on Book 3….
Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour, for the promotional materials and an ARC of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.
Tajen has just married Liam, when an alert sounds. Ships have entered Earth’s atmosphere. One of these ships deliberately crashes into the shipyard and so Tajen and his new husband are back in action.
Due to the Zhen’s constant attacks, Earth’s fleet are in trouble and so Tejen, Liam and a crew head to the Kelvaki to ask for help.
But while they are away, the Zhen take the opportunity to attack again…..they want the planet back and to rid the universe of humans altogether.
Can Tajen raise enough of a resistance to take back control of Earth again.???? And are the Tabrans friend or foe?
This is a full on, action packed space opera, with a great range of characters and fantastic world building. Roll on Book 3….
Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour, for the promotional materials and an ARC of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.
February 8, 2020
On my blog.
Actual rating 3.5
Rep: gay mc & li
Galley provided by publisher
I really enjoyed The Widening Gyre last year, so when I heard that there was to be a sequel, obviously it rocketed up my TBR. This sounds like a set-up to say I was disappointed: I was not. I liked this book, perhaps less so than the first, but it was still an enjoyable read.
The Blood-Dimmed Tide opens a few months after the end of The Widening Gyre. Tajen and his crew are busy defending Earth from repeated Zhen attacks, and have little hope of holding out for much longer. So, Tajen is sent to the Kelvaki Assembly to ask for help. Unfortunately, while he’s away the Zhen overwhelm Earth’s defences and occupy the planet, leaving Tajen and his crew to set up a resistance if they have any hope of getting their planet back.
Much like the first book, this is an action-packed romp through space. The action starts almost immediately and doesn’t let up throughout the whole book. As someone without pretty much no attention span, I loved that about it. And that the characters have a bickering found family relationship going on too, because that’s my favourite sort. So overall I enjoyed it.
In fact, really any problems I had were just to do with how the writing style worked with me, personally. There’s a tendency for the book to feel a lot like “this happened and then this happened and then that happened” and, while that’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it did make it feel sort of like events weren’t given necessary weight at times. People die at the hands of their oppressors in this book, and yet it never carried much emotion for me, perhaps because it happened and then things moved on immediately the next chapter. I can’t believe I’m saying this, me with my poor attention span, but you sometimes do need to slow down and dwell on things. Just a bit.
But that aside, this was a fast-paced and enjoyable read, and definintely a series I will be recommending.
Actual rating 3.5
Rep: gay mc & li
Galley provided by publisher
I really enjoyed The Widening Gyre last year, so when I heard that there was to be a sequel, obviously it rocketed up my TBR. This sounds like a set-up to say I was disappointed: I was not. I liked this book, perhaps less so than the first, but it was still an enjoyable read.
The Blood-Dimmed Tide opens a few months after the end of The Widening Gyre. Tajen and his crew are busy defending Earth from repeated Zhen attacks, and have little hope of holding out for much longer. So, Tajen is sent to the Kelvaki Assembly to ask for help. Unfortunately, while he’s away the Zhen overwhelm Earth’s defences and occupy the planet, leaving Tajen and his crew to set up a resistance if they have any hope of getting their planet back.
Much like the first book, this is an action-packed romp through space. The action starts almost immediately and doesn’t let up throughout the whole book. As someone without pretty much no attention span, I loved that about it. And that the characters have a bickering found family relationship going on too, because that’s my favourite sort. So overall I enjoyed it.
In fact, really any problems I had were just to do with how the writing style worked with me, personally. There’s a tendency for the book to feel a lot like “this happened and then this happened and then that happened” and, while that’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it did make it feel sort of like events weren’t given necessary weight at times. People die at the hands of their oppressors in this book, and yet it never carried much emotion for me, perhaps because it happened and then things moved on immediately the next chapter. I can’t believe I’m saying this, me with my poor attention span, but you sometimes do need to slow down and dwell on things. Just a bit.
But that aside, this was a fast-paced and enjoyable read, and definintely a series I will be recommending.
October 29, 2019
This is the second in Michael R. Johnston’s Remembrance War space opera series. It would have been helpful to have read the first, but Johnston provides enough backstory that reading the first isn’t essential. In the distant past, human destroyed their planet and took to the stars. They wandered alone in space until finally taken in by the Zhen. The Zhen were not as compassionate as they originally seemed. Earthlings remain second-class citizens. Tajen Hunt, a human, has rediscovered Earth and took the planet back from domination by the Zhen. As a result, humans are again walking where their ancestors walked 1000 years ago. The world building is excellent and technical stuff believable enough for me to suspend disbelief. There’s a touch of romance (I enjoyed two men being both husbands to each other and partners in saving Earth), lots of techie stuff, and humorous banter.
Received copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
Received copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
February 17, 2020
A sequel to The Widening Gyre. It can be read as a stand-alone but I feel you are missing out on a great beginning to this series.
Tajen has just married Liam, when an alert sounds. Ships have entered Earth’s atmosphere. One of these ships deliberately crashes into the shipyard and so Tajen and his new husband are back in action.
Due to the Zhen’s constant attacks, Earth’s fleet are in trouble and so Tejen, Liam and a crew head to the Kelvaki to ask for help.
But while they are away, the Zhen take the opportunity to attack again…..they want the planet back and to rid the universe of humans altogether.
Can Tajen raise enough of a resistance to take back control of Earth again.???? And are the Tabrans friend or foe?
This is a full on, action packed space opera, with a great range of characters and fantastic world building. Roll on Book 3….
Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for an eARC of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.
Tajen has just married Liam, when an alert sounds. Ships have entered Earth’s atmosphere. One of these ships deliberately crashes into the shipyard and so Tajen and his new husband are back in action.
Due to the Zhen’s constant attacks, Earth’s fleet are in trouble and so Tejen, Liam and a crew head to the Kelvaki to ask for help.
But while they are away, the Zhen take the opportunity to attack again…..they want the planet back and to rid the universe of humans altogether.
Can Tajen raise enough of a resistance to take back control of Earth again.???? And are the Tabrans friend or foe?
This is a full on, action packed space opera, with a great range of characters and fantastic world building. Roll on Book 3….
Thank you to The publishers and NetGalley for an eARC of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.
February 22, 2024
I found the first in this (inevitable) trilogy dull and derivative. But I pressed on--and that was my second-biggest mistake.
What to do when you just have to write three volumes but can't structure an original plot to span all three? Why, rinse and repeat, of course. So we have the original alien attack replayed as a do-over: Buck Rogers Has Trouble Coming a Second Time.
All of the original flatness and cliché are here--many of the same cardboard characters dressed up as new cut-outs--since this is formula fiction without much original insight or even effort. The dialogue is mechanical, the plot wraps up, incident by incident, at the end of each episodic chapter. Even the quality of the book's unoriginality is not high: this book reads as if it were stitched together from motifs and ideas that didn’t make it into first-rate tales by more thoughtful tellers.
Save yourself the effort--watch a Stars Wars movie. The writer sure did.
What to do when you just have to write three volumes but can't structure an original plot to span all three? Why, rinse and repeat, of course. So we have the original alien attack replayed as a do-over: Buck Rogers Has Trouble Coming a Second Time.
All of the original flatness and cliché are here--many of the same cardboard characters dressed up as new cut-outs--since this is formula fiction without much original insight or even effort. The dialogue is mechanical, the plot wraps up, incident by incident, at the end of each episodic chapter. Even the quality of the book's unoriginality is not high: this book reads as if it were stitched together from motifs and ideas that didn’t make it into first-rate tales by more thoughtful tellers.
Save yourself the effort--watch a Stars Wars movie. The writer sure did.
March 25, 2020
A fast-paced sequel to his debut book, "The Widening Gyre," Johnston delivers more of exactly the right stuff. His characters are fun to be with, but never too slight or facile, and the complexities of the situations that protagonist Taken Hunt find himself in are thoroughly explored. Hint: it turns out, Tajen has plenty of room to grow and change! And of course, the dogfight in space scenes are simply spectacular in this space opera beauty. If you liked the first book, you're gonna love this one!
February 18, 2020
...They thought it was over. They believed the Zhen invasion had been thoroughly repelled. Earth would be safe again at last.
....Not so.
Tajen, Liam, and crew burst into action again, because Earth MUST be defended....no matter the personal cost. THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE is Book 2 in THE REMEMBRANCE WAR Series, sequel to THE WIDENING GYRE.
....Not so.
Tajen, Liam, and crew burst into action again, because Earth MUST be defended....no matter the personal cost. THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE is Book 2 in THE REMEMBRANCE WAR Series, sequel to THE WIDENING GYRE.
November 24, 2020
It was ok. I just really couldn't connect with the characters.
July 23, 2022
great series
I am really enjoying this space adventure and am going to be moving into the third book. Well written, fast paced and hard to read put down.
I am really enjoying this space adventure and am going to be moving into the third book. Well written, fast paced and hard to read put down.
February 2, 2024
riveting
Who knew that scotch drinking gay science fiction leads could be a thing.
Well written and worth the read. Enjoy
Who knew that scotch drinking gay science fiction leads could be a thing.
Well written and worth the read. Enjoy
August 25, 2025
Great use of futuristic tech. very imaginative and well though through. Compelling story without being predictable.
"It is utterly karking selfish for you to even think about dying here when you've got skills humanity needs."
'Have faith.'
'In you?'
'Hell no. Have faith that the universe doesn't mean any of it personally.'
"It is utterly karking selfish for you to even think about dying here when you've got skills humanity needs."
'Have faith.'
'In you?'
'Hell no. Have faith that the universe doesn't mean any of it personally.'
September 3, 2021
This is the second novel in the Remembrance War Trilogy. I reviewed the first one in episode 2 of the If This Goes On (Don’t Panic) podcast (https://itgodp.libsyn.com). Feel free to go back and check that out if you’d like. In the first novel Tajan Hunt, our heroic space jockey main character, finds the secret past of the human race. Now the human race has started to move back to earth after having lost it for 800 years. This time, however, the controlling alien race called the Zhen have had it with human rebellions and intend to do something about it.
Much like the first novel, this is an action packed, high adventure novel. There are a lot of battle scenes and spying and not a lot of philosophizing. A fast pace is kept throughout the novel, while the author does manage to pack in a couple character arcs, a few months can easily pass in a few paragraphs between adventures. There are a lot fewer space battles in this novel and a lot more land combat and spying, which are equally fun in my opinion. Oh, the main character is also queer. Previously I’d compared this to Star Wars without the Jedi and I stick by that description for the most part, but Johnston does start to develop his world further, giving it a little more original flavor.
So if you’re into queer, space adventurers blowing up the space alien baddies, then this novel is definitely for you.
Much like the first novel, this is an action packed, high adventure novel. There are a lot of battle scenes and spying and not a lot of philosophizing. A fast pace is kept throughout the novel, while the author does manage to pack in a couple character arcs, a few months can easily pass in a few paragraphs between adventures. There are a lot fewer space battles in this novel and a lot more land combat and spying, which are equally fun in my opinion. Oh, the main character is also queer. Previously I’d compared this to Star Wars without the Jedi and I stick by that description for the most part, but Johnston does start to develop his world further, giving it a little more original flavor.
So if you’re into queer, space adventurers blowing up the space alien baddies, then this novel is definitely for you.
March 8, 2020
They say history is the raw material of fiction. This book is very much a case in point. It's book 2 in a series, and opens about a year after the events of the previous book. Tajen Hunt has led a group of humans in reclaiming an uninhabited Earth from the Zhen Empire. Said empire had claimed to "save" humanity from the wreck of a slower-than-light starship.
Here's where the history comes in. The template for the events of this book are based on the Irish war of independence which started with the Easter Uprising of 1916. Much like Ireland and England, humans and the Zhen have been living together for hundreds of years, which makes this war feel more like a civil war than the typical "D-Day in Spaaaccceee!" military SF. Now don't get me wrong - much stuff gets blown up real good, but there's a lot more than that going on.
Johnston's characters are very interesting. Tajen, our lead character, is gay and early in the book he marries his partner Liam. This, however, is not treated as unique nor is it a focal point of the story. It just is, and it's treated as such. The book is Book 2, so the ending is more of a "that's all for now" than an ending, but overall it's highly enjoyable.
Here's where the history comes in. The template for the events of this book are based on the Irish war of independence which started with the Easter Uprising of 1916. Much like Ireland and England, humans and the Zhen have been living together for hundreds of years, which makes this war feel more like a civil war than the typical "D-Day in Spaaaccceee!" military SF. Now don't get me wrong - much stuff gets blown up real good, but there's a lot more than that going on.
Johnston's characters are very interesting. Tajen, our lead character, is gay and early in the book he marries his partner Liam. This, however, is not treated as unique nor is it a focal point of the story. It just is, and it's treated as such. The book is Book 2, so the ending is more of a "that's all for now" than an ending, but overall it's highly enjoyable.
April 27, 2020
A solid 4.7!
I was so excited to see the follow up to The Widening Gyre. It was an excellent second to the series and I am now fully anticipating the next! You won't be disappointed!
I was so excited to see the follow up to The Widening Gyre. It was an excellent second to the series and I am now fully anticipating the next! You won't be disappointed!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews