Yay! I finished another Extended Reading Challenge book! I don't know why this one took me so long to get through... But... I do; I was cross-stitching too much. The book was not a long one, and it was science fiction, so of course I enjoyed it.
Transgalactic (2016) by James Gunn is the sequel to Transcedental (2010), which I read back in April. So, it has been a while since I was first introduced to Riley and Asha, the aliens of the Galactic Federation and the new fad-religion of transcendentalism sweeping the spiral arm of the galaxy.
I purposefully did not spoil the ending of the first book, but in order for this post to make any sense, I have to write:
"Transcendence was an accident."
Basically, transcendentalism was an accident stumbled upon by Asha and her previous crew when they ended up on the Arachnoid-world and used the Transcendental Machine as a means of life or death escape. The machine is a matter-transmitting device built by a millennia-old civilization that destroys, transmits, and then rebuilds the occupant with none of their old imperfections. Thus creating a "better" human out of Asha and Riley when they go through.
Transgalactic follows Riley and Asha's separate journeys as they try to get back to one another after they are both transmitted to different worlds; thousands upon thousands of light-years apart. Each has to overcome different planets, its inhabitants and whether or not the dominant native species has even achieved interstellar travel.
Riley ends up re-materializing in an ancient pyramid on a tropical-like planet inhabited by a mostly-intelligent dinosaur-esque species. The pyramid, he determines, was made by the Transcendental Machine builders. While on the planet and looking for a way off, Riley starts to experience all the enhancements that Asha obtained and described to him: the ability to track the passage of time in his head, enhanced reflexes, strength and reasoning, now able to influence other and computers to his will and the ability to learn the language of locals in little to no time at all. When he finally discovers a way off the planet by means of one of the machine-builders ancient spaceships (see the book cover - a giant red sphere), he also gains a ride-along dino-buddy he names Rory.
Asha, on the other hand, ends up on a civilized world inhabited by humanoids. She is treated well, but also forced into a weird coupling ritual with a local "man" because they deem her a god due to her coming through the machine. Asha had been through the machine before, so unlike Riley, she is not discovering her talents, just continuing to use them, but also not too much to draw attention to herself. She uses the discovery of a federation ambassador on the Squeal-planet to facilitate her get-away and heads right to federation central space in search of Riley.
While Asha and Riley search for each other across the galaxy, they also learn more about themselves and what "trancesdentalism" really means for the human race and human condition. There is a lot of philosophical exploration on what it means to be human and what the transformation in the machine could mean to human evolution.
They also begin to speculate who the really enemy is, and it is not the Galactic Federation as they had assumed. Each has a run in with someone from their past, which changes their outlook on the events to come and what they believe must be done. But the need to find each other, despite all the hardships they face in trying to do so, does not stop either Riley or Asha from laying the foundation, in their own ways, to help humanity rally together, fight against and overcome the threat only Riley and Asha can see coming.
I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs more about this book and the plot, the characters, the development in each and all the questions they pose about their existence... BUT I'M NOT GOING TO. I left the post about Transcendental kind of vague until I had to spoil it for this one to make sense. So if you want spoilers about Transgalactic, you're going to have to wait until I read the final installment, Transformation.
Now, a while ago, before I started reading Transgalactic, I had planned to read The High King's Tomb by Kristen Britain after the last book club choice in August. However, after a very bizarre set of circumstances (I will detail these in the review post), that did not happen, so I had to move on and wait for that one. I now have a readable copy and will be reading that next. I feel like it's been forever since I last rode a horse alongside Karigan and the Green Riders. So excited to continue on that adventure.
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