![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhACDOIZeOR9oCTOQLh-ebZ62Uhv4CWKES_UrjFyPrRLpOETkkSKQO2jcEYj_LouPfI1jObA2tGt3u_1DZgl8MCIphqj9BuKY6v87hjBII__tAlUP8ttMShD5Zfc-7LsLojnQ_G8tzl1KU/s320/cobley.jpg)
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.Visit Michael Cobley's website.
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.
--Marshal Zeringue