First off, if you haven’t read the first book of Alex White’s series The Starmetal Symphony, go read it. Or, at the least check out my interview with them about that 2022 novel, August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, on my review blog. It’s a fantastic start to a space opera series that is full of action, joy, and heart. The characters are superb, most particularly the affirming relationship between the titular jazz pianist August (Gus) Kitko and the glam pop star Ardent Violet, the latter whose name serves for the title of the new second volume in the series: Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye. For fans of the first novel, I’m happy to say that the second movement to this symphony has all the strengths of the first book and adds even more.
The story begins soon after the events of the previous book, where an unlikely group of musicians joined up with some giant Mecha robot Vanguards that switched allegiance to save Earth from destruction by their AI-controlled brethren. As Ardent, Gust, and the other humans are trying to get used to communicating as Conduits within their paired strange giant mechas from space, the government of Earth is eager to figure out the nature of these human-robot relationships and how far they can be safely trusted. Complicating things, the AI threat to the galaxy and to Earth is by no means gone, and the mechas have called for reinforcements: a coalition of aliens dedicated to resisting and stopping the rogue AI threat.
Warily and with some controversy within, the Coalition opens up diplomatic communication with Earth, with Ardent, Gus, and the rest of the team serving as representatives to take part in the next steps of a growing war against the Infinite. Toward that end, while merged with his paired mecha Greymalkin, Gus makes a potentially game-changing discovery regarding the nature of the Vanguards, why they were able to be turned from the designs of the Infinite and fight for humanity, and how the AI might be stopped. Gus and Ardent just have to find a way to bring all the members of the Coalition into this plan and get it off without any hitch.
Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye exceeds expectations from the first novel because White so effectively maintains the tight plotting (with nice twists) and pacing while expanding a lot of the world building and filling in a lot of uncertainties from August Kitko and the Mechas from Space, particularly concerning the nature of the rogue AI Infinite and its Vanguard creations. The new details both enrich memories of that first novel and drive forward the story of this sequel. The alien race members of The Coalition are also an added delight to this second book. Cybernetic crab-like aliens and furry stoat-like aliens make for two personality/cultural extremes of a continuum of varying member species. And White does very interesting things here by making some of these species (and the Coalition as a whole) founded on aspects of robotics and AI that are contrasted against the antagonistic AI of the Infinite.
In this way, Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye has a lot more thematic depth to it in terms of the benefits/risks/harm of artificial intelligence created by biological organisms than the first novel does. White effectively adds more depth in this regard without really sacrificing anything in quality for sheer SF action fun or the relationship between Gus and Ardent. There is perhaps a little less in terms of the relationships that Gus and Ardent each have with other secondary characters, but these are still present in significant ways. Also, this second book allows for further exploration between the human-mecha relationships plus human-alien relationships.
Despite Ardent Violet being in the title, it’s Gus who has the biggest and most consequential interaction with the aliens, specifically one named Scent of Rot. It’s elements of their interactions that set up what will come in future movements of this literary symphony. And I can’t wait for it.
