LaSayle M got it right in their review: This fantastic series the Archangel Project is would have been bleak without Hsissh and 6T9 to lighten up the serious setting. The sex'bot gaining sentience in the end of the Heretic was a reward for readers hooting and rooting for the simple loving hunk of bolts. It made for great contrast to James' character contemplating his own programming. Reading "Carl Sagan's Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe" after the Archangel Down and then reading the Archangel Down again made the whole story anew and managed to add even more positive expectation for the next books. Keeping the pet's sentience hidden in the main storyline for the first three books was brilliant, it felt like a true secret between the author and the readers and gave me a smug sense of satisfaction every time the humanoids addressed the werfle's actions as just animal instinct! Oh, the eye rolls behind those hisses! And the power of human obliviousness when Carl appeared in Noa's dreams… Even James with his knowledge of his own otherness did not clue in on the possibility. Hilarious!
This second strory line gets underway pretty rapidly. Carl Sagan convinces 6T9 effectively of his sentience, but has problems doing the same concerning Sixty's own suitability to the mission. But the adventure keeps bucking and rolling the pair and later the trio in such a way that no-one could argue them anything but just right for the cause. That of course is how Cynthia creates it, but to me it feels like more than fiction.
C. Gockel states her skills on writing erotica lacking, but that is not my finding. There's nothing wrong with her building long burning overwhelming passion with as complex characters as she portrays. Once they do get involved, it's is real enough, and not every thrust and moan needs to be described to convey the passion. The scifi/erotica ratio is well-balanced and the style consistent with the whole. The relationships are fascinating, layered, thought inspiring and emotionally true to life, or programming as it may. The conundrums the non-biologicals experience with their coding and how they circumvent or interpret their primary directives is still in line with their programming but excersizes something resembling free will. Volka, the she-weere, though biolocigal is still programmed in her own way, imprinted on a male of her past who's all but impossible to have for herself in the future. 6T9 finds himself yearning to be the recipient of such intensity from Volka and I really anticipate the next part in the series so we can continue observing how their relationship evolves.
And the reason for the mission Hsissh recruited 6T9? Something has scared a sentient, ancient spaceship buried in ice. Is freeing it enough or is it just a start for figuring it out? Read for yourself and you'll find yourself telling Cynthia Gockel: Hurry, please!
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