"Ancestral Machines"

Michael Cobley was born in Leicester, England, and has lived in Glasgow, Scotland, for most of his life. He has studied engineering, been a DJ and has an abiding interest in democratic politics.

His books include the Shadowkings dark fantasy trilogy, and Iron Mosaic, a short story collection. Seeds of Earth and The Orphaned Worlds, books one and two of the Humanity’s Fire sequence, are his first full-length foray into space opera.

Cobley applied the Page 69 Test to Ancestral Machines, the latest Humanity's Fire novel, and reported the following:

Interestingly, page 69 of Ancestral Machines is part of a short chapter involving Lt Samantha Brock and the Construct drone Rensik Estemil, as they pore over survey data from a destroyed world. It provides some context for the incursion of the Warcage system, and looks a little into Brock's own background. Her parents came from Tygra, a hidden Human colony world from the earlier Humanity's Fire trilogy, just a slight connection to that story, just as Rensik Estemil played a part in the trilogy under the name Reski Emantes. It's not at all necessary for readers to have read the preceding trilogy - these connections are just minor skeins stitched in for my own amusement, and as a little side-wink for those readers who really get into the detail of it all.

Does page 69 represent the rest of the book? It's not a fast-paced, energetic moment, while there is much of that throughout the book, but it provides some reflection, some necessary information, hints and nuances which reading further on will definitely expand upon.

Visit Michael Cobley's website.

--Marshal Zeringue