The Acheron Pulse [AUDIO/2012.10.25]

★★★☆☆

  I couldn't wait to jump into The Acheron Pulse. The Burning Prince did a superb job in setting up a trilogy, and I genuinely had no clue as to what would come next (minus the very obvious but nonetheless fun element that Prince Kylo was the big baddie here). I love it when stories playing very much in its genre's sandbox leaves you with such a belter that there's no telling what's coming next. It's never the best thing to do, stacking up expectations, but I was anticipating a worthy successor anyway and... this turned out to be it! It's sadly not as geared to my liking as the previous John Dorney story is, but it's still a gripping tale of consequences and space-opera machinations. I like how it turned the Igris, the "big baddie" monsters of the first installment, into an actual plot element and used them to reflect the darker aspects of Drashani royalty.

  Comparing this particular installment to its predecessor is pretty unfair to The Acheron Pulse; for one thing, it's simply less fun than The Burning Prince. It also goes for a much different subgenre, eschewing the survival horror/thriller of the first story in favour of epic, sweeping Shakespearean tragedy. I'm a fan of both subgenres, and Rick Briggs certainly writes the character of Tenebris well; we feel his pain, his suffering and we also know to fear and loathe him in a way. James Wilby brings so much depth to the character, and it's the championing aspect of The Acheron Pulse -- which is not to say that it's the only good part of The Acheron Pulse, because the overall adventure is pretty bloody good. I can see quite a few people being taken aback by the deeply personal approach of the second half, but for me it's what separates it from its predecessor; bombastics and action are replaced with more personal, cerebral observations of a reviled warlord, and to have Colin Baker bring alive the material of his Doctor being the watcher of tragedies and manipulator of fate is electrifying. The Drashani Empire trilogy is shaping up to be quite a belter of a trilogy.