I was pleased to see this one arrive for review – after all, this series has been one of my favourites in recent years. (The two books so far – Book 1, Artifact Space, and Book 2, Deep Black – have been in my ‘best of the year’ lists in both 2021 and 2024, for example.)
Whalesong, Book 3 of the Arcana Imperii series, follows on immediately from Deep Black (and therefore there are minor spoilers here in this review for Book 1, Artifact Space, and Book 2, Deep Black.)
Although Deep Black clearly tied things up with one story arc (the huge battle between the Directorate of Human Corporations (DHC) and the PTX, and Nbaro’s ascension in political power), Whalesong begins another story arc, as it follows on immediately from the end of Deep Black.
It also means that although Whalesong is the first part of a new story arc, it is not the story to begin with in this series – there are revelations here that will mean little if you haven’t followed what has gone before – but if you have, you will be rewarded.
We start Whalesong with Marca Nbaro & Horatio Dorcas adjusting to a life back at home base and also married life. Dorcas becomes obsessed with salvaging an alien Hin spaceship, now lifeless yet intact outside the Kuiper Belt of Ultra-Medulla and travelling out of the galaxy. We also have Nbaro arranging for a whale to be transported to communicate to the alien Starfish, as this was one of the alien’s requests in Deep Black.
My initial thought was that this would be the main plot of the novel, although this third book actually focusses away from our main characters to date, to focus on Thor Stokel, their friend and ex-colleague. Thor has retired from active duty and is now (thanks to some actions of Nbaro and the AI Morosini) the captain of the Silver Star, a refitted spaceship and is able to be a merchant spacer, trading across the galaxy.
This means that the next part of the novel is rather like a Heinlein-esque travelogue as Storkel travels from planet to planet – anyone who knows the classic computer game Elite will get the idea. Storkel also has to assemble a crew for his new spaceship. He employs Cawo Elmi-Mahmoud as a competent second-in-command and the enigmatic Badal-Mehra as an astrogator. When Marca ends up in hospital, Dorcas later joins the crew, as well as Feyyan Zhao as a weapons officer, despite Zhao being a person with connections to the PTX, (a competing group to the DHC.)
As is typical of this series so far, all of the main characters are interesting. Storkel himself is particularly noticeable, because knowing himself to be paranoid (a result of the battles in Deep Black and the drugs taken to cope with high-g manoeuvres) he questions everything – his ship, the AI, his colleagues and himself. This leads to difficult choices being made more challenging as he thinks or even overthinks every decision – for example, is the ship’s erratic AI working with him, or against him? Can it be trusted to do what it is asked to do?
Furthermore, as he delivers goods around the galaxy, Storkel finds that others want him dead, for reasons that evolve within the story. The last part of the book is a tense and exciting chase with everything to lose.
To counterpoint this, Dorcas, as seen in Deep Black, is this book’s Spock – often aloof, always questioning, his connections with the AI through a neural lace and his work to communicate with the alien Starfish in Deep Black which is paramount to this story.
With that in mind, then, Whalesong deftly juggles political intrigue, philosophical musings, and space battles at a ridiculously high speed, but using proper science and math. There’s espionage, deep cover exercises, loyalty and treachery involved, all filtered through Storkel’s increasing paranoia that keeps things moving and the reader questioning everything.
As befitting a story from a master plotter and storyteller, it is well done. I did feel that, as good as it was, the previous novel (Deep Black) sagged a little in the middle with its endless descriptions of space travel in an enclosed environment. I’m pleased to say that there’s no such issues for me here.
Although the story (as before in the first two books) is centred on a few characters, Miles is adept at also playing the long game. I liked the fact that although the story focussed on a relatively small group of characters, there are bigger issues at stake, although most of these are still unresolved. The last few chapters, as with Deep Black, bring us back to the bigger picture and set things up for the next book. There are clearly more revelations to follow – in fact, book four is due in 2026.
In summary, Whalesong continues to show the author’s strengths in characterisation, pace and plotting. It is a tight, fast-paced and shorter story that effectively builds on what has gone before, before leaving with a humdinger of a cliffhanger ending.
© 2025 Mark Yon
Hardback | Gollancz
WHALESONG by Miles Cameron
October 2025 | 416 pages
ISBN: 978-1399615082
