“The Solar War” by A.G. Riddle – Resurrecting Electricity

A.G. Riddle has brought many of our truest fears to life with his Long Winter Trilogy series, depicting the darkest hour of humanity as alien invaders shut down the planet.

In The Solar War, the second book in the series, we follow Emma Matthews and James Sinclair after they have survived the winter, and are now trying to give some semblance of normalcy to their lives... however, a troubling bit of news heralds the return of the invaders.

A.G. Riddle Gives Humanity Hope

In the first book of the Long Winter Trilogy series, A.G. Riddle depicted a ravaged humanity in the wake of an alien invasion, leaving the planet in a state of total darkness, sending it back to the middle ages.

We made the acquaintance of Emma Matthews and James Sinclair, two survivors who were faced with the impossible task of getting through the winter. In The Solar War, the second book in the series, we continue to unravel their story as the tides might be beginning to shift.

With the long winter now behind them, James and Emma have settled down in Camp Seven and have even brought a child into this world.

However, the newfound peace wasn't meant to last, as NASA makes an alarming discovery: multiple asteroids have broken off from the Kuiper Belt and are heading straight for Earth.

It doesn't take long for James to understand the alien invaders have returned, and he feels this is one battle which can only end with total annihilation.

Along with the rest of humanity, James prepares himself to wage war in space, on Earth, and wherever else the battle might take him. As the conflict escalates further and further, Emma makes a discovery bound to change the course of humanity, potentially being the very costly key to their victory.

However, with humanity splintered and at odds even with itself, there is no guarantee the discovery will ever see the light of day, let alone be used for its ultimate purpose.

A Measured Start in The Solar War

More often than not, sequels tend to have trouble living up to their predecessors, especially if they have high expectations placed on their shoulders.

I want to preface the review with a bit of an honest assessment: I don't think this book lives up to the standards established by The Long Winter.

It has some weak points the previous book lacked, and overall I found the author made a few questionable decisions (I will discuss those in greater detail). However, this is not say the book is bad or not worth reading; it simply wasn't as good as the previous one.

With this being said, I think we should start by looking at the main negative point in my opinion, which is the pacing of the story. For the first half of the book, it doesn't feel like many things happening, with a few chapters feeling drawn out with no real payoff in the end.

Seeing as how the world, story and characters were established previously, it felt superfluous to me. On the flip side though, this means you can easily dive into this second book without having read the first one, if such is your wish.

Additionally, we keep alternating between chapters focusing on Emma and James' stories, but it doesn't feel me to as if they were created equally. James' story seemed to me far more captivating than Emma's which felt stagnant at certain parts.

With all this being said, the second half of the book really picks up in pace, stakes, and overall quality if I can put it this way, and I believe it was definitely worth getting through the first half of the book.

Crescendo of Humanity's Fate

With the aspects which bothered me about The Solar War out of our way, we can take the time to look at the things the book does rather well, and there are a few of them.

To begin with, I found the internal tensions and conflicts within humanity were portrayed in a fairly believable manner, and they added a very welcome layer of excitement and complexity to our protagonist's goals.

While it is true some characters make a few questionable choices (or lack thereof), on the whole I felt most of them had interesting ingredients to add to the stew.

The conflict between humanity and the Grid is nothing short of epic, and Riddle often takes the opportunity to remind us just what is at stake and how desperate the situation really is.

While we, the experienced readers, can wager a guess as to how things will turn out in the end, it still makes the ride no less thrilling. This is especially true for James' story, filled with twists, turns and complex manoeuvres as we fly at breakneck speed towards the great resolution.

While generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of battle scenes in books, I actually found myself enjoying the ones in this book to a great degree. Riddle has a truly remarkable talent for depicting action scenes with poignant details which couldn't help but resonate in my mind and give birth to epic images.

Things only become increasingly intense as we near the final paragraph, and the ending was certainly a high point which perfectly balanced satisfaction and the hunger for more. I generally don't expect much from the ending in a “middle-of-the-series” book, but this one gave me a very pleasant surprise.

The Final Verdict

While The Solar War by A.G. Riddle might have some weaknesses to it, in my opinion it nevertheless remains a very solid science-fiction novel with a few noteworthy unique aspects to it.

If you consider yourself a fan of the sci-fi genre or have enjoyed the first book in the series, then I do recommend you give this book a shot.

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A. G. Riddle Personal site A. G. Riddle is an American author from North Carolina who spent ten years dabbling in the world of internet business before devoting himself to his true passion, fiction writing. The Atlantis Gene is his widely-acclaimed debut novel, having already been translated into over 22 languages and marking the beginning of a bestselling series.