About

The Engineer is the second book in the The Last Horizon series written by Will Wight.

The Engineer book cover

Blurb

“I can’t juggle starships. I make the ones who can.”

The battle with the Iron Legion has left The Last Horizon battered and broken, drifting in space. Varic needs an exceptional Engineer to fix his ship, and there’s only one person for the job: Mell, the master Aether Technician.

But first, they have to break her out of prison.

Mell has been captured by the Advocates, a group of super-powered vigilantes who dominate their corner of the galaxy. They are led by Starhammer, an invincible champion with a personal obsession with Mell.

The Last Horizon may be crewed by the greatest heroes in the galaxy, but even they have to be careful with Starhammer. Every time he survives a battle, he grows stronger.

In another life, Varic saw the end of that road. If he lets Starhammer become too powerful, the galaxy is doomed.

Review

This was a fun sequel, though not as good as "The Captain". I especially liked getting to know the crew better. I had reread the first book as preparation for this one and some of the crew members felt more likeable this time around. There were flashback scenes from Varic's alternate life experiences too, which was a welcome addition.

Starhammer as the villain didn't really standout like Iron King did. And Starhammer's character arc had a trope that I dislike — people compelled to behave differently. That said, the author did a good job of showing the threat level.

It was nice to see the full crew in action when The Last Horizon was repaired from the damage dealt in the first book. The best part of this book was in the Epilogue — not only did it escalate certain scenarios, we finally got the connection to Willverse as well. I went back and reread the relevant parts from "Reaper". It would be interesting to see those scenes described from the perspective of this iteration and how those events affect the crew and other major players.

Bloopers were hilarious as usual.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

What others are saying

From E's review on goodreads:

Enormous fun, and better than the first book, I think. Book 1 had to do a huge amount of scene setting and character introduction which meant that the plot was a bit rushed and character work beyond our main dude Varic was scant. With that out of the way, and a more focused plot, there's more room for the bonkers "every space opera trope in a blender with voltron and a dash of epic fantasy" plotting and worldbuilding, and some actual character development for the crew of the Last Horizon.

From Sophie's review on goodreads:

Last third was awesome, some of the middle dragged, but it’s fun to see all of them using their powers. Very intrigued by the Zenith Devices