The Last Watch cover art

The Last Watch

The Divide Series, Book 1

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The Last Watch

By: J. S. Dewes
Narrated by: Andrew Eiden, Nicol Zanzarella
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About this listen

"Both readers are brilliant and nail the characterization in a way that instantly connects them to the listener. Everything here is top-notch." (Booklist, starred review)

The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes' fast-paced sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing - and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels - the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms - nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer - genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons”.

She knows they’re humanity's last chance.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

©2021 J. S. Dewes (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Adventure Fiction Military Science Fiction Space Opera Space Outcast
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Critic reviews

"An epic tale of survival at the end of the universe." (Megan O'Keefe, author of Velocity Weapon)

"Crisp writing, vivid characters, and a plot that beguiles the imagination. The Last Watch is a stunning military sci-fi debut. I was hooked from the opening lines. If you like science fiction, then this book is definitely for you." (Jasper T. Scott, USA Today best-selling author)

"The Last Watch is an amazing debut. The smart world-building and explode-off-the page action scenes make it perfect for fans of The Expanse and other fast-paced Sci Fi. I predict that Dewes is going to be a 'must read' author for years to come." (Michael Mammay, author of Planetside)

What listeners say about The Last Watch

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sci-Fi at its best!

Superb from start to finish and the sequel is downloading as I type this

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Epic

Great story, but confusing at first but worth it. Fantastic performance. Recommend if you like dead silence

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Beginnings of a great series

I found the story to be incredibly compelling! There’s a good amount of plot points that keep the story moving and the desire to keep listening. It’s also pretty good sci-fi - a good blend of classic sci-fi challenges, interesting themes/tech! and a little humour. Love the slow build up of events and stories that form a backdrop for what will hopefully be a great series.

Not overly sold on the narration. The Cavalon narrater’s overly intense delivery is a bit much at first but with time I got used to it and took as part of his character. The Adequinn narrator takes it the other way and can be a little Microsoft Sam-ish at times, but again I took this as the character’s way and perhaps a counter balance for Cavalon’s character. Can be a little jarring when the accents/vocal inflexions differ between the two narrators for the same set of characters.

Definitely recommend, I’ve already download the second book :)

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable and original deep-space adventure

3.5 out of 5 - I liked it! It was an original idea, and the whole 'Nights Watch in Space' thing is definitely apt. The story takes some interesting turns, the setting is interesting and the stakes are well established and, frankly, couldn't be higher! Everything unfolded at the right pace to keep me interested and while there wasn't really any one 'stand out' feature, it was just an enjoyable story.

I felt the performances were great, although it did amuse me how the two different narrators both performed the character of Griffith. Zanzarella voiced him as a silky smooth Irishman, where Eiden voiced Griffith as a gruff soldier who at certain moments ALMOST sounded a little Irish, but at other times sounded Native American.

One thing that prevented the story from really excelling was the prose, which was heavily bloated by the POV characters' ruminations on what is currently happening, sometimes inexplicably detouring into their past in ways that felt very 'tell' rather than 'show'. And someone really should have picked up on some of Dewes' writing tics, such as the 'quirked eyebrow' (I think I noticed close to two dozen of them) and frequent usage of an action, expression or noise which "was equal parts X and Y". Diaglogue was also clunky in parts.

The characters had plausibility issues as well. Adequin continually flagellates herself for things which she patently had not control or foresight about. Towards the end, another character calls this out as one of her faults, so I guess it was intentional on the author's part, but it had still irritated me for most of the book. Much is made of Cavalon's multiple university degrees, yet whenever these are called into use it ends up being for a task which seems disappointingly basic. Like in the final sequence when his expertise is required to, apparently, fill up a tank of hydrogren and press a clearly marked button.

Even though these niggled persisted throughout, I did finish the book, was glad I had done so, and might even consider reading the next one.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Space Action Soap Opera

Too much romance for my taste. Also too much focus on describing every breath, sigh, nod etc.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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enoyed

a good sort of coming of age story in space . I found the ending a bit meh but all n all an enjoyable start to a series.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Not my cup of tea

Struggled to finish the first of the books, unlikely I will finish the second as really lost interest. Some enjoyable characters but jumped around too much especially with the different styles of narration.

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