User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I totally enjoyed this installment. The strife between Medusa and Oichi kept them (and me) off balance for the book; this conflict made every moment of the two together painful. Despite this, I loved the way this helped to move Oichi forward emotionally.
I also really liked the different peoples of Graveyard, and how the delegation from the ship forged relationships with everyone they met.
And honestly, Dragonette and Kitten -- how utterly cute!
Rating: really liked it
The continuation of Oichi and Medusa's story from Medusa Uploaded sees the
Olympia interacting with the larger universe, including the creators of the ship and everyone on it, the Weapons Clan, and the people of the ship's destination, the planet Graveyard in the Charon system. At the Graveyard awaits the sleeping Three, ancient machines of incredible power that have reached out to Oichi already.
Like the first book, the overall tone is relatively light, although Oichi is still very much a creature of her past and she struggles with her more violent inclinations. There's a lot more focus on her friends in this book including Oichi's protege, Ashur and the bio-mechanical Mini creatures. There's also a lot of questioning of roles, <>Olympia's in the wide galaxy and Oichi's role with her people and Medusa.
Very much the second novel of a trilogy. Recovery from the events of the first while setting the stage for a conclusive third book. For what it is, it's entertaining and goes to some interesting places, particularly with the expedition to the Graveyard.
Rating: really liked it
This book didn't work for me nearly as well as the first -- but it's still a light, fast read. I read it basically in one sitting. But I was left confused by plot twists, such as the time warps on the Graveyard planet. And I found the near-constant references to 20th & 21st century music and movies annoying (as do other readers). Plus, middle-book sag. I LOVED the bio-mechanical Minis. So, 3.5 stars from me, rounded down for the annoyances and my confusion. You definitely need to start with #1.
Lindsay's review is a good one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Graveyard and Joe's Canyon definitely show the author's Arizona background: nice world-building. I'm just getting over the flu, and don't have the energy to write a full review. If there is a concluding volume, I should reread this one, skimming the annoyances. Who knows, I may like it more with a reread?
Rating: really liked it
This book is such a breathe of fresh air. Funny considering it really takes notes from one of the oldest forms of stories. The Greek tragedy. It probably felt fresh to me because it was emulating it rather than trying to subvert. The sin of Hubris permeates the backstory. It truly makes the book seem to be a story of epic importance rather than a basic space colonization story. Ashur and Oichi make the perfect yin and yang team. Oichi is the yang as she is the warrior. Discovering self agency is also one of the themes. The minis were so endearing which really shows Devenport's skill. I would typically find the characters meant to bring levity grating in most other stories. The universe of The Medusa Cycle is amazing I was interested in every tidbit given. The use of time travel is actually well implemented and understandable. I am not sure if there is going to be another one since it seems pretty much wrapped in nice little bow in the end. I was pleasantly surprised throughout this book. The future in this story has so much potential that maybe there is a sequel. I did not realize these books had prequels of sorts in the authors previous pen names. I will definitely read those cause I love this universe.
Rating: really liked it
The second book in the Medusa Cycle moves on from a revolution aboard a generation ship nearing the completion of its voyage to something more like a hero's quest across a desert planet to confront the ancient alien consciousnesses known as "the Three." Oichi, born a worm, a tunnel worker on the vast ship-world of the Olympia, has led a rebellion against the elite Executives, survived the destruction of the sister ship Titania and is now the de facto leader of the Olympians.
The system the ship is headed for contains the planet known as Graveyard, on which you'll find junkyards full of abandoned, but not always dead, alien starships and powerful entities that have been sleeping, but not quite fully detached from their sense of the affairs of Oichi and her friends, because they issued an invitation to her.
Along with her protege Ashur, his bio-robot creations, and a few new friends Oichi needs to confront the Three and decide if waking them fully would be good or bad for her ship and its people.
Much of the last book was focused on the relationship between Oichi and the sentient bio-robot Medusa, with whom she developed a close bond and partnership. Now that relationship is strained by Oichi's self-centeredness and driven personality. An ally who doubles as powered armor would come in handy on her journey, but she's on her own this time.
Set in the far future, there's a hodgepodge of technology here; generation starships alongside interdimensional gates, zones of fractured time, and it all reads as much like high-fantasy as science fiction, because, well, Clarke's law.
It's good, and you should check it out.
Rating: really liked it
Pros: interesting new characters and settings, Oichi develops more as a person
Cons: lots of new players and it can be hard to keep them all straight
Oichi’s world has changed with the overthrow of the Executive class and the mass joining of medusa units. It’s time for the inhabitants of Olympia to engage with the outside world, starting with a messenger from the weapon’s clan ship that’s following them, and ending with meeting the three on the planet Graveyard. But how does someone who’s used to executing opponents learn to negotiate? And why doesn’t Medusa agree with her chosen path?
If it’s been a while since you read Medusa Uploaded, there’s so much going on that it’s worth giving that a reread before starting this one. Medusa in the Graveyard picks up roughly one year after the first novel ends, and there’s little recap.
Unfortunately I had a number of tasks I had to accomplish while reading this so it was a disjointed experience of a few pages here, a chapter or two there. This book requires some measure of concentration as there are a lot of new players that come in briefly and then don’t show up again until later. And it’s easy to forget who is who.
Having said that, I loved seeing the new groups the Olympians would have to trade/negotiate with and just how big their universe is. There are belters, aliens, a variety of ships on Graveyard created by vastly different intelligences. The actual trek to see the ships was quite interesting and a little trippy.
I liked that Oichi had to go through a lot of personal development. It makes sense that she’s not the best suited for negotiating given her past, and I thought the trials she went through as a result were realistic.
I’m not sure if there’s more to this series, but the book had a satisfying ending that wrapped up a lot.
Rating: really liked it
Absolutely loving this series. Where I expected a basic space travel science fiction, I got a Greek Tragedy in space! Every character is unique and complicated. The story is emotional. And the settings are magnificent.
Rating: really liked it
Originally published at Reading Reality
I picked up Medusa in the Graveyard because I absolutely adored the first book in the Medusa Cycle, Medusa Uploaded.
As I said, I loved Medusa Uploaded, but I’m still not sure how I feel about Medusa in the Graveyard.
Which may be because the books are very, very different. Medusa Uploaded is the story of a revolution on a generation ship, and we spend the book seeing the action through the eyes of one of the formerly downtrodden “Worms”, Oichi Angelis, who leads a rebellion that upends the order of her little corner of the universe, the generation ship Olympia.
Medusa in the Graveyard is the story of what happens after. So it can’t be that political story of the rise to rebellion that the first book was and that made that story so damn good. Actually it’s not a political story at all. Or at least not very much.
Instead, this is a story about who the Olympians are going to be when they “grow up” – meaning what happens when they take their place in the wider universe. A universe that holds more wonders, more dangers, and more enemies than their regimented life as “Worms” had ever prepared them for.
And not that their former hidden puppet masters, the Weapons Clan, aren’t eager to get the Olympians back under their control – or perhaps under their bootheel would be a better way of describing exactly what the Weapons Clan intends.
So this is just the beginning of what happens after the rebellion is successful, as old friendships and alliances fracture and new ones spring up to take their place – or try to manipulate events back onto the same old paths.
Oichi and her friends have returned to the point of, if not the ship Olympia’s origins, then at least the place where the “Worms’” DNA was first extracted. More than one history is about to come full circle on the planet Graveyard, with Oichi and her friends battling time fractures and old enemies to determine a future that may be better for the universe – but worse for them.
In Oichi’s past, her Medusa unit once acted as a deus ex machina to save her life. But on a planet that seems to be chock full of dei, with or without machina, Oichi isn’t sure whether her old partner is planning to save her life – or end it.
Or whether the gods and monsters of Graveyard will just stomp on them all.
Escape Rating B: Part of what made Medusa Uploaded so terrific, but that works a bit against Medusa in the Graveyard, is that both books hold tightly to Oichi’s first person perspective. During the revolution, it increased the tension dramatically, as we only knew as much as Oichi knew, and she was often in the dark about events occurring in other parts of the ship or to other people.
But those events happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to be consumed by her own doubts. That’s not the case in Graveyard, as Oichi’s internal dialog in this one is filled with plenty of doubts. Oichi seems to doubt herself at every turn.
At the same time, we’re aware that she is narrating this story from a point in the future, so it’s obvious that she survived, no matter how many regrets she stacks up along the way. To the point where Oichi’s tone throughout this story can be summed up by three words: woulda, coulda, shoulda. She spends much of the story telling herself – and the reader – that things would have worked out better if she’d just made a whole bunch of different choices. She ends this story with a ton of regrets – and an entire shipload of emotional baggage.
That she spends much of the story navigating her way through various sloughs of despond fits right in with the idea that this is the middle book of a trilogy. Middle books aren’t known for being light and fluffy. (This does lead me to point out that Graveyard makes no sense without having read Medusa Uploaded first – and possibly recently. There’s a lot to unpack in this story.)
Graveyard also deals with a lot of “timey-wimey” bits, as this is a place where time fractures are a feature of the landscape. At the end, Oichi’s journey, which took 300 pages or 12 hours of audio (I listened to the audio), and goes both backwards and forwards in time as well as light years in space, takes so little time for the characters who were not part of the trip that it could almost have been a dream. Unlike the Wizard of Oz or season 8 of the original version of the TV show Dallas, it was not – but it still feels that way.
I think we’ll see the results of Oichi’s sojourn on Graveyard in the final book of the Medusa Cycle, whenever it appears. I hope we get back to the political potboiling of Medusa Uploaded. In the end, I liked listening to Medusa in the Graveyard, but it just wasn’t as compelling for me as the first book.
Your mileage, whether at faster than light speeds or the blink of an eye, may vary.
Rating: really liked it
Both books in the series so far are eminently readable, but I found the constant call backs to 20th century music and film increasingly distracting in the sequel, especially as we learned more about the universe these characters inhabit. It's apparently been more than 30 thousand years since humans achieved space travel - were there really no other meaningful musical compositions in that time? Were no movies made after 2005's
Elektra? (And seriously, Oichi has an enormous film database at her disposal, and
that's what she chooses to watch?)
The media references were also distracting for me in the way they highlighted a missed opportunity in the worldbuilding. Our main characters spent their entire lives on a generation ship, living in an intensely stratified society that placed very little value on human life, but they have no issues interpreting and enjoying media from a time and place that should by all rights be foreign to the point of unrecognizable to them. Additionally, the
Olympians entire existence was built on a lie - from their genes, to their planetary origins, to their supposed destination and duration of the journey. Their acceptance of the truth and embrace of vast societal changes in a very small amount of time was suspiciously uncomplicated.
Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely reading the next book in the series. I
like Oichi and Medusa. I really liked their expedition into Graveyard, and the beings they encountered there. I'm a total sucker for any manipulation of time. Just...I want to learn more about the world Oichi lives in. I want to see how the people of
Olympia are adapting to their new reality, and I want to see how their society differs from the society of the Union, or the Clans. It's such a huge, enticing universe - I want more of that, and less of Woody Allen and Nancy Sinatra, thank you very much.
Rating: really liked it
Medusa in the Graveyard (Kindle Edition) by Emily Devenport
This sequel is second to none. Okay, bad pun, but you get the idea. Our author develops this story, and the characters, even further than in the first novel. And to good effect.
We also have a new and improved set of evil, bad guys... Which, of course are not totally bad guys. Very clan, or group acts in it's own best interest, and so alliances can be broken, or formed, very quickly. But the real story, among the many wonderful subplots, is that of Oicho's journey. And what she has had to learn. There are no easy lessons here, and time does get rather fractured, as does space.
You must read on for an incredible journey.
Rating: really liked it
Loved this follow up and the characters totally make the story.
Rating: really liked it
I listened to this on Audible as i did with Medusa Uploaded, loved the book, loved the narration, I hope that Emily writes more using these characters because I am keen to dive into this world again
Rating: really liked it
Excellent expansion to this unique and original world. The technological uses just get better and better!
Rating: really liked it
Medusa in the Graveyard is a grippingly provocative science fiction novel that is hard to put down. Continuing the story of Oichi Angelis and her partner Medusa, we travel from the generation ship, Olympian, that was the setting for Medusa Uploaded, and visit other worlds that provide a diverse and mysterious backdrop for the dramatic story.
What I liked:
The use of elements commonly found in Greek plays adds classical and mythical undertones to the story. From the use of a chorus and music, the many references to Gods and Goddesses, and the ongoing theme of the sin of hubris, all these Greek play references work together to create this undertone and implies to the reader that they are reading a story of great importance. This device is rarely found in stories today, and I appreciated the throwback to plays of long ago.
Oichi Angeles and Ashur are a good team, a yin and yang type pairing. Oichi is a fighter. She was created to be an Insurgent. Ashur is young, but he is more of an inventor and diplomat. Together, they make the perfect team, each one providing something that the other one lacks. As a reader, you can’t help but root for them as they follow their heroic journey to awaken the Three.
The minis add a touch of whimsy and fun. They are pets that can talk and interact in ways that pets as we know they cannot. They are a much-needed break that keeps the story from becoming too dark or heavy.
What I wish:
The villains were developed more fully. The characters discuss the villains, but they are rarely featured in a scene, so the reader doesn’t have a complete picture of what the Olympians are fighting against and for. It is hard to be emotionally involved without that understanding for what you, the reader, are routing.
Baba Yaga had played a more significant role. The Baba Yaga character was so witty and wise, yet also interjects humor into the story. I wanted to see more of her and would love to know her story.
The character descriptions had been more detailed. I had a hard time visualizing what the characters looked like because descriptions of them were so sparse. This lack of description causes a bit of detachment from the story when the reader needs to be immersed in suspending disbelief.
To Read or Not to Read:
This novel is a wonderful example of an accessible science fiction novel but be prepared to put your thinking cap on.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest reciewu .
Rating: really liked it
I only recently read the first book in this series,
Medusa Uploaded , so I think it's fresh enough in my mind to safely argue that Devenport has maintained an even keel in the transition from book one to book two. Much of what I loved most about the first book in the series remains, here, but is tweaked and refined just enough to convince me that Devenport is progressing in both style and substance, as all good authors do.
Sure, the cover isn't as
obvious as that of its predecessor, and sure, there are still moments when the dialogue feels a touch flat, but by and large this book is both a worthy sequel and a signpost along the highway of Devenport's evolution as an author. Devenport handles an enormous cast of characters (albeit slightly less enormous than the first time around) with a fresh deftness and weaves diverging and convering timelines together with a deftness that required me to pull out some graph paper every now and again, only to be convinced that the author really
does know the way around a timey-wimey tangle.
Fittingly, this book also allows several key characters to grow up and grow
into their own agency. In
Medusa Uploaded, you'll remember, either the Executives or Medusa/Oichi called the shots, directing the decisions and paths of all other characters. Since this book picks up where the last left off, the former are no longer a threat and things
might just have gotten a little tedious had not Devenport, as I've already mentioned once, had a deft hand with the development. Here, in this sequel, Medusa and Oichi have to figure out who they are in relation to one another again, have to figure out who they are apart as well as together, and also support the growth and progress of several other key characters. The collateral damage is lower, but the moral stakes are just as high, and we get some beautiful scenery descriptions to go with them.
I'm truly excited to see where this series goes next. There's definitely going to be a
next, isn't there?
