This is the second book of the Chronicler Saga. For those who haven’t read it, the first book, Construct, came out about 6 years or so ago. It’s one of the first, if not *the* first, self-published books I ever read, and honestly kind of skewed my expectations for what is normal in self-pubbed books. Kinda like how the men’s basketball team being crazy good while I was an undergrad (go Terps!) has eternally left me feeling like any season they don’t reach the Sweet Sixteen is a miserable failure.
(No disrespect intended at all for self-publication; the best self-pub books are every bit as good as the best traditionally published books. But the lack of any kind of bar to self-pubbing does mean the floor is lower.)
Anyway. Not to get into spoilers, but to provide context for this review, Construct is about an automaton named Samuel. He doesn’t remember anything about his past or who he is, but he does remember other things. I called it “The Bourne Identity meets Iron Giant.” Plot happens, mysteries are revealed, friends are met, enemies made, etc.
The book starts out with a recap of book 1, for which I’m grateful - every author should do that. So that’s the first point in the book’s favor.
Companion picks up right where Construct left off, and dives right into the action. Unlike in Construct, where Samuel was the clear protagonist, here we get three principal protagonists - Eriane, Jacob, and [REDACTED], each separate from the others and doing their own thing. Samuel is with Eriane, but he’s in more of a support role in this book.
This is an excellent book, but it’s also clearly a middle book. The questions and mysteries that were at the heart of Construct are explored, and while there is a great deal of progression on all of them, none of them reach any kind of a satisfying conclusion. This is very much a “journey before destination” book, but it’s a great journey. All the major characters here have growing they need to do, and all of them do it, in a very satisfying way. It’s hard to call a series with this much plot “character driven,” but it kind of fits here.
I was going to say here that Eriane’s plot was my favorite, but then I got to thinking about Jacob’s and [REDACTED]’s plots, and thought each one, in turn, was my favorite plotline - so I guess they’re all my favorite plotline. I will give special mention to [REDACTED] here, because that plotline went in directions I didn’t expect, and that subplot ended on a note I was totally caught off guard by.
This does end on a cliffhanger, which some people (by which I mean me) don’t like at all. But I’ll survive.
Thanks to Luke for the ARC.
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