If Velocity Weapon blew your mind, CHAOS VECTOR will scrape your remaining brain goo off the floor and launch it into space to be vaporised with a full complement of laser guns. While the standout feature of Velocity Weapon is the twisting storyline and unexpected plot, I wasn’t anticipating this experience to continue in CHAOS VECTOR, thinking it an unrealistic expectation to have of any sequel. At first this was more or less accurate as O’Keefe dives into the aftermath of the closing events in Velocity Weapon and delivers more of her signature intrigue and political espionage. But very soon I found I was quite wrong. This instalment continues the three POVs from the first book delivered in the same punchy, short chapter format. There are many familiar faces and I was pleased to get to know Arden, Nox, Tomas and Graham a little better. There are also some new and likeable characters that fill out an endearing little space crew. O’Keefe manages to create compelling characters in between all the conspiracies and action so I hope there is time to explore their relationships further in the next book. O’Keefe also introduces some new sci-fi elements in this instalment like the virtual interface internet and some pretty epic space warfare scenes that will please any hard space opera fan. I have no idea how O’Keefe has mined so many fantastic ideas and deployed them all cohesively without relying on suspiciously convenient plot devices, but she did, and the result is incredibly fun. I had butterflies in my stomach as this book reached its climax which, despite all of my best efforts to predict, caught me entirely by surprise. The closing chapters of CHAOS VECTOR are both thrilling and satisfying, while impossibly leaving key questions to be answered in the next instalment.

I was so excited to get approved for this, I loved Velocity Weapon so much and I couldn’t wait to read this. Let me tell you I was not disappointed, not one little bit. I felt like I had never left Sanda and Tomas, it was so good to be with them, full of action, drama, tension and I loved how much more character focused this book is, I mean the first book was fabulous but this just seemed to be another level for the characters and their journey. Megan is just a master of plot, things sneaking up on you, expertly woven in, full of subterfuge and nothing obvious and it builds up that you are tense and anxious as you read (maybe it’s just me but I do ) This was a fabulous follow up to an amazing book, I think I may have liked this even more. Roll on future books by Megan, I will definitely read anything she writes now, she has been added to the must buy and favourite authors list. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Quite engaging space opera with raygoons, A.I., Spies, double-agents, Galactic Government, rogue very very OAP sentient creatures, shady goings on, and a 'loveable' gang of misfits with superior level abilities roaming about in a ‘alien’-tech ship. Though it isn't played for laughs. A seemingly un-killable baddie means the saga continues [though I think book 1 baddy isn't as dead as people keep saying]. Some of the McGuffins are a bit hokey and a few other writers have done this with more scale and breadth, building more human stories where the tech and virtue aren’t signalled so heavily. [A great many have done it a lot worse, and many with alarming brevity]. However, this romps along and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though it is seeming to suffer from extended-series-bloat it didn’t last long nearly long enough. More please!

I'm grateful to Orbit for a free advance copy of Chaos Vector. Following Velocity Weapon, with Chaos Vector O'Keefe takes us further into the twisted world of The Protectorate. Further meaning both deeper and higher. Deeper, because while the first book focussed on a relatively straightforward rebellion in a remote system, where the planet of Icarion was challenging the local leadership of the galaxy-spanning Prime government, Chaos Vector goes beyond that conflict, revealing more about the hidden forces which have been shaping the destiny of Prime. Higher, because even beyond those shady figures in the background, there are greater powers at work. O'Keefe's writing is like a constantly revealed map, with each new unfold opening fresh perspectives on what went before, showing things that seemed close together as distinct and offering new symbols and features to fit into the pattern. We begin, as in Velocity Weapon, with Major Sanda Greeve. All she ever wanted to do was to defend Prime, to protect her brother, Keeper Biran. Yet after her gunship was destroyed at the battle of Dralee, everything went wrong. She's been kidnapped by a rogue AI, put on trial for piracy by Icarion, experimented on, spaced by a traitor Keeper and - now - framed for said Keeper's murder. Sanda is pretty cross and is searching for the truth. Probably a bad move, as the hard-bitten gang of Grotta outcasts comprising Jules, Now and Arden discovered for themselves in the previous book when they raided the wrong warehouse for the drug Wraith and poked their noses into the wrong places in that wrong warehouse. Now they're scattered and in hiding. We saw these two threads of story evolve in parallel throughout Velocity Weapon but not come together and I think this was a brave decision by O'Keefe, allowing each strand to develop at the right pace rather than forcing things together too early. It's not too much of a spoiler (I hope) to say that in Chaos Vector, they finally merge, as Sanda gets command of a ship again and forms her own strange but effective crew, fit to discover the weird corners of this universe. The strange gates that link distant systems. The unknown, powerful military forces that seem to have infiltrated Prime itself. The far-flung research stations pursuing knowledge that Prime forbids. It all takes off here, but to Sanda's frustration she's not free to pursue her own vendetta, but has responsibilities thrust on her - for Prime, for the Keepers and, of course, for her brother Biran. While he fights his own bureaucratic battle in conference chambers and over score links - trying to put out the fire that Icarion lit in the first book - Sanda follows a trail of breadcrumbs halfway across the galaxy. This is a fast-moving adventure, full of epic battles, treachery, sudden reverses and above all, secrets. EVERYONE here is hiding things and the details are revealed slowly and sparingly - trust is in short supply. The real tension is not only, or not primarily, from physical conflict (although there are moments of high adrenalin conflict you have to read over and again just to be sure you got them right) but from the emotional drumbeat, the rhythm of the story, as all that is dependable, sure, and safe falls away leaving survival to the quick wits and desperate gambles of Sanda, Tomas, Biran and the rest. If you thought at the end of Book 1 that you were beginning to understand what was going on, you'll soon realise you don't. And while a great deal is clearer by the end of Book 2, I'll guarantee that there are more surprises and twists in store in the next one - which is fine by me, I just need to get my hands on it! Following up with the second in a series is a tricky thing to do, with the need to offer more of the same while also adding in the new, prompting the reader on what happened in the first part without too much recapping, and offering enough of a self-contained story to satisfy those strange creatures (I am sometimes one myself) who read individual volumes as standalones. O'Keefe succeeds with aplomb, delivering an intelligent space opera with compelling and flawed characters working their way through a messy, shady world where nothing is as it seems... just perfect SF really.