I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue this series or not, but here I am. This book starts off with a literal bang and the whole thing is an action-packed 24-hours, basically. We’re briefly introduced to the Devoted/True Blues who want to go back to a government ruled by brutality that the rest of the country barely survived. We’re reminded that Krug didn’t create fear or ignorance, which have been around forever, he only invented an invisible enemy. The other enemy is “regular people who are scared about the future and terrified that freedom and the equality for everyone represents a threat to their chance of supremacy.” Krug created, or otherwise discovered, Emergents and attempted to control human evolution. More importantly, wars don’t end just because one side won.
The Conspiracy is in London now, looking for more Emergents. It seems the UK used the same “Eastern Order” but possibly spread viruses to cull the population and blame it on Emergents so they could take them into holding without any push back. At least that’s what I took away from it. The new Royal Fort Knights hoard all the wealth and power to “prevent fighting” and the Hyde Park Banter kids get protection in return, unless they’re kidnapped as payment. Very manipulative.
Then there’s the continued underlying story. I still don’t fully understand the sub plot, but I like the package it’s wrapped in, if that makes sense. Now I think we’re talking about dreams and universes and time travel. We meet Branwynne who isn’t an Emergent, but she things, yet never spells it out “It just might not be the now you know.” Like Cardyn said “great, more riddles.”
The are new Hypnagogics too that can manipulate dreams, but not the ones when you sleep, the ones in your heart, like your wishes and desires. We’re introduced to two new Emergents, Lucid and Reverie, whom the Conspiracy save, but then they’re immediately taken back to DC with Granden and we have no idea what additional tests have been run on them the last 3 years, or even what their abilities are. The twins are also from Boston and have tattoos like Kress’s, which are the keys to Lyfelyte, the space between waking and dreaming. Branwynne can also speak raven? They enter the space between universes? There’s floating orbs which are “possibilities“ and the mind is a participant of the universe and sometimes it can be the creator? I know, I’m just as confused. This was better than the last one because of the action, so we’ll see where the next one goes. Hopefully towards some answers. The story is good, maybe a little muddy and complicated, and it lacks answers, but I keep reading because I like the action. Or because Kress seems just as confused about all of it as I do.