This was less fun for me than the first book - and didn't so much leave me contemplating philosophical questions such as the nature of humanity, though I feel as if the book intended me to come away with such questions.

One of the things that appealed to me most about the previous book was getting into the heads of the alien characters and their own cultures and thought processes, seeing the radically different ways they approached warfare and social structures. But in this book the whole point is that the protagonist really lacks an identity and thus is searching for those cultural ties and where he fits in. So I felt a bit let down in that respect.

The narrative continues to take a detached historic sort of tone which tends to keep the reader at arms length, and I was a little disappointed that this takes place far in the future from the first book so I couldn't revisit any of the previous characters.

Still, not a bad read and I am now moving on to the third and final book of the series. ( )

1000 years after book 1. Amplitur mess with humans and end up giving us a form of their mental abilities. Now I just have to find book 3. ( )

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot. wordpress.leafmarks.com & Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road Facebook Group by Bookstooge's Exalted Permission. Title: The False Mirror Series: The Damned Author: Alan Dean Foster Rating: 4 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: 343 Format: Kindle digital edition Project Reread:
I am attempting to reread 10 books in 2016 that I have rated highly in the past. I am not attempting to second guess or denigrate my younger self in any way but am wanting to compare how my tastes have changed and possibly matured. I am certainly much more widely read now [both in the good and bad quality sadly] than then.
I will hopefully be going into the reasons for any differences of opinions between then and now. If there is no difference of opinion, then it was a hellfire'd fine book!
Links may link to either Booklikes or Blogspot, depending on when the original review was. Synopsis: The fight continues. The Amplitur are on the defensive and so make a choice to create a new set of beings masquerading as one of their own allies, a hybridized human without the mental defenses against the Amplitur that normal humans have. We follow one of these super soldiers through his training, to his capture, to the revelation that he is human. Now he is on a crusade to free the other super soldiers. And he is hiding a secret, one so big that it could tear apart the Weave and cast humanity into a role that is even more hated than the Amplitur. My Thoughts: This was different than I remember. I remembered a lot of conspiracy by the newly created humans to keep their existence a secret. I think I was confusing this with the next book. Just like in the first book, aliens get as much face time as humans. I think that Foster does an excellent job of creating different species and cultures without resorting to rooting through human history and stealing forgotten cultures for ideas. The training maze chapter near the beginning was probably the best one and sadly, the rest of the book doesn't live up to its awesomeness. You get a lot of introspection from the main human character who is dealing with the fact that he's a human and not an alien. It felt very "whah, whah, poor me". The ideas put forth in this book though are what carry it. Humans are already on the fringe of the Weave alliance. Our ability to commit, and love for, violence makes us attack dogs, not really allies and definitely NOT equals. For the most part, we don't care. But there are people, and aliens, who wonder what humanity's role will be once/if the Amplitur and their Purpose, is defeated. Then you add in the fact that there are now humans who have Amplitur mental powers. The humans realize what a danger they pose and hence the secrecy. For a SFF book that is pretty shallow overall, Foster really takes a hard look at possible consequences of such a situation. I think that is why I like this trilogy so much. Gives me a little brain food with my candy. "

While the second book in the The Damned series, this story takes places at least a few hundred years after the first one. The story centers on Ranji, raised believing he was an Ashregan, a member of the enemy. But when captured, the truth is discovered- he's human, surgically altered to look like an Ashregan. I enjoyed watching Ranji's journey - his initial resistance, his acceptance, and the things he struggled with - his place, future - and most importantly, those he left behind. A steady pace, a good mix of action and introspection, and solid world building make this a fun and engaging read. Solid science fiction with a good dose of military action and what-does-it-mean-to-be-human philosophizing. Worth reading! ( )

Pretty standard scifi, but with enough distinctive features to make it interesting. This book is not set in Foster's usual Commonwealth universe, but in a universe where 2 empires have been fighting for many years - the Weave and the Amplitur. As implied by the name, the Weave is a collection of many different alien races, most of which either don't or cannot fight, so they have Humans for that. The Amplitur use mental control to induce races to fight for them. The story follows a young warrior, Ranjii, as he completes his training to fight monsters (humans) for the Amplitur. When he is captured on a raid, the situation changes quite a bit.
The story is good and the characters are interesting, though not captivating. Like most of Foster's scifi, he assumes that living beings still take predominance not computers or robots, which isn't really in line with today's scifi. ( )