Audiobook Review: The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro

The Bronze Skies
Author: Catherine Asaro
Narrator: Morgan Hallett
Series: Major Bhaajan (Book 2)
Publication: Recorded Books (June 11, 2018)
Length: 13 hours and 11 minutes

Description: Tough female P.I. exploring the underworld of a vast star empire. Book 2 in a new series set in the world of Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire series.

Major Bhaajan achieved the impossible. Born to the Undercity, the slums below the City of Cries on the planet Raylicon, she broke free from crushing poverty and crime to become a military officer with Imperial Space Command. Now retired from military duty, she walks the mean streets of Undercity as a private investigator. And she is about to embark on her most challenging case yet.

Summoned by no less than the Ruby Pharaoh herself, Major Bhaajan is tasked with finding a killer. But this is no ordinary murderer. The Ruby Pharaoh witnessed a Jagernaut cut down Assembly Councilor Tap Benton-which shouldn't have been possible. The Jagernauts are the elite of the elite soldiers in the Imperial Space Command. What's more, the spinal node implanted in all Jagernauts should have prevented the murder. But the Ruby Pharaoh is sure of what she saw, and she has reason to believe that the Jagernaut will kill again. Now, Major Bhaajan must hunt down a killer before it is too late. To do so, she must return to the one place on Raylicon she knows best: Undercity.

My Thoughts: The second Major Bhaajan mystery takes Bhaaj deep into the Undercity which has been inhabited by her people for years. Only recently, the Majda and other residents of the City of Cries learned that the residents of the Undercity have a much higher than normal number of psions.

Psions are essential to the survival of the Imperialate on its vast network of planets. But Bhaajan is determined that her people not be exploited. She wants help because they live in poverty and suffer from birth defects because of their millennia of inbreeding but she wants the help in a way that fits in with the culture of the Undercity. 

When the Jagernaut accused of murdering a man flees to Raylicon and the Undercity, the Ruby Pharaoh hires her to find the woman. But the search leads Bhaaj to a much more dangerous thing than one out of control Jagernaut. An EI is waking up and has the goal of wiping out humanity. Its waking is disturbing the Psions in the Undercity and wreaking havoc with the mental network that runs things. 

Bhaaj, the Ruby Pharaoh, and an order of monks must find a way to defeat the EI which calls itself Oblivion before all humanity is destroyed. 

This was an enjoyable and exciting second episode in the series. I like seeing Bhaaj's growth as she comes to terms with her past and begins to build a new future for herself and for her people. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.