Can the panoramic, multi-character, multi-world multi-universe Beyond the Impossible series grow even more complex? On the basis of Book 6, “Bitter Fruit,” the answer is “yes indeed!” Earlier volumes have focused on different strands: Kara Syung and Ham Cortez aboard the warship Scylla; ex-Earthling and now super immortal Michael Cooper and his young crew on terraformed Aeterna; devious Bonju Taron; Royal, the assassin’s assassin; and the enigmatic Inventor. In Bitter Fruit the conflicting parties uneasily unite to deal with the most invidious foe of all, the Swarm. The book is a whirl of negotiations, plans, action, battles, manipulations, and, ultimately, further existential puzzles.
An intoxicating cauldron of a space opera, Bitter Fruit at last yanks the patient reader toward some unidentified cosmic climax.