The Engineer: The Last Horizon, Book 2

Great sequel! My first introduction to Will Wight was CRADLE. I never looked back. I find that Will has fun characters you grow to love. My husband and I read this series together and quote Raion’s “FRIENDSHIP!” anytime we wear red, or Omega’s “Good good good” in conniving or eating dessert - or of course… Lightcasters. They work anywhere. The magic and types of humanoids, planets, etc is creative and by the end of the first book you feel like you are getting it now. The first book was a bit simpler as a hero meets villain, but villain just wouldn’t die! But THIS book was like a chess match! Every new chapter had my husband and I guessing what was going on and there were so many twists and turns, and for my husband this was a good read because he is a writer and it was not easy to guess the conclusion ! I already have tons of Will’s books in my library, to be read. I was shopping for more books and wanted to get more Will Wight books and realized I already got the ones I wanted. If you read The Captain, don’t hesitate, it gets even better. If you want something different but kinda liked The Captain, read CRADLE and don’t give up after the first two books. The just the get the show started.

I’ve read a lot of books, and Will Wight already stood out as an author. With his unique writing style, his sense of humor, and his ability to write independent and strong characters, he was amazing from the start. This, however, may be his best work to date. I very much enjoyed it, and was captivated from beginning to end.

Will brings the action in this series, and as I said in my review in The Captain, this is the epitome of what non-stop action means, it’s just one after another with little breaks in between that focus a little bit on the story and the characters. Though I’m not going to lie, this is my least favorite series by Wight, I just feel like this has a lot missing to it so far. The magic of Cradle and its short books was that you at least got some leveling up with the characters, so there was an element of development despite them being on the shorter side. With this series so far, it’s no longer in that progression based style and the characters we meet are already at their max of who they are. Now to combat some of the development issues, there were callbacks to his other lives and things that Varic went through that led to where he’s at now, in his 7th life. The only one that really and truly gets any kind of development is Horizon and that’s only because she’s not complete yet. I do like the characters, they are fun and passionate, but the growth is just not anywhere close to what it should be for being book 2, they just are, who they are. “An enemy fleet entered our system!” Lemon declared. “We will not stand idly by! When you squeeze the lemon, you get the juice!” The banter between the characters really makes Wights books standout, and I think that’s his biggest attribute as a writer, because even though I didn’t exactly love this, the protagonists all stood out in their own ways and it was easy to like them all. Can’t tell you how many times I giggled. The story is pretty fun, though, it does kind of give off that whole “villain of the week” type of vibe, with how book 1 and now book 2 has finished. So you can really tell that Wight got inspiration from television shows and kind of used that same model of story-telling to tell this story. And I can’t talk about Wight, without talking about, he who does not need an introduction, Mr. Travis Baldree, with the sensational narration. Honestly, he’s what gives this entire thing life, if I had just read this and not done the whispersync, I don’t know if I would’ve finished it or not. He just brings so much life in his narrations, I recently did a review about another narrator and mentioned that when it comes to characters yelling, he uses a soft voice and it feels weird. Now I know why, because Baldree doesn’t treat it like just a narration, he GETS INTO CHARACTER! Raises his voice, and demands attention when it’s needed. It’s hard to compare others to him because he does such a phenomenal job, but his work should be used as an example of what to do when narrating. Easily a 5/5 performance.

In this story, we get to see a space wizard fight the Galactic version of the Justice League. What more could anyone ask for? I mean, aside from more of Raion. Don't worry, he's in there, and he's still wonderful. As usual, Will Wight is a fantastic writer, showcasing new creativity and his signature lightning-fast pacing with this book. If you enjoyed the first book in this series, the sequel is even better.

Look. This series is nuts. I can’t believe how well Will draws all these different characters, powers and tropes together. This series is a love letter to Sci-Fi, the heroes and villains are an homage to different franchises. The most obvious being our favorite crimson crusader Raion, who resembles a certain red hero, from a certain kids show. Despite a large cast of characters, and a variety of power systems. Will blends them together almost seamlessly, and the book is a fantastic romp across the galaxy. I highly recommend picking it up.

Will Wight did a great job here following up The Captain with a similarly paced novel. It never failed to keep me on my toes and subvert my expectations in the best way. There were a couple crew members in the first book I wasn’t sold on yet, and this book did a good job of making me love them. Altogether a solid follow up.

I liked it a lot, I just wish Varic did more with the kids. That whole subplot felt rushed. Still a great series.

With this being the second series that I have read from Will Wight, this man never disappoints. Extremely engaging and interesting read with a amazing world building. The way he combined magic with sci-fi is second to none, I can’t wait for part 3!

The second book of the series picks up the pace a bit, as most of the characters were introduced in the first book. It is packed with action and features an adversary that is worthy of our galactic heroes. The main antagonist known as Starhammer was clearly inspired by the self-evolving Cell and androids of the Dragon Ball Z saga. But while he is still somewhat human in the beginning, he is slowly turning into Homelander from The Boys. If you like or know those references, this story will be right up your alley. The group of galactic "superheroes" backing Starhammer is a direct reference to The Boys too, in the way that some of them do it just for show and are very corrupt. I could not help but laugh when there was a small passage where one of them had two swords on his back and a smile on his face. Yep, Deadpool confirmed in this universe. Great book and a fun read. I am in desperate need of more of this franchise though.

Will knows how to write books that just make me want to read 100 of them and this series is right in line with cradle in terms of my voracity for consuming it and my excitement whilst doing so. It's well paced, exciting, has such a fascinating mix of magic systems and is just overall fun. 5 stars and I cannot wait to read the next one!

The book had you entertained throughout the story and kept you reading the book to the end to see what happens next in the series of books.

Entertaining from start to finish. The characters a well fleshed out and the plot is very intriguing. I would recommend this series immensely.

This book made me really appreciate what happens when actual experts of the galactic level get together. This was such a good read. I am so excited for the next book