Zac is camping with some friends when Earth gets inducted by the Multiverse System. Since Earth doesn't meet the Multiverse standard, it is fused with three other worlds to create one larger planet composed of random pieces of terrain from all four worlds to create a D-grade world. This is theoretically a great opportunity for potential Cultivators, since most worlds are inducted as F-grade. The first thing that happens is that one third of the populations are deemed potential Cultivators, i.e. they can naturally absorb enough cosmic energy to efficiently improve themselves, and are teleported to Tutorial Villages. Sadly for Zac, he's in the other 66%. All he got was the message about the induction and then a message that he's in the exact spot where something else is supposed to materialize and the System can't merge them. Since two beings can't occupy the same spot they have to roll for it, with Zac rolling 1-100 and the "Herald" rolling 1-100,000 because of its level. Who said the Apocalypse would be fair?

Demir Grappo is a powerful glassdancer and a successful military leader, even at his young age. Despite these innate talents and abilities, he has a solid moral compass and he shows unusual compassion to the rebellious factions that he is sent to put down. Such talent and promise breeds jealousy, and when a political rival maneuvers to turn his greatest military victory into a bloody massacre caused by his own troops, he mentally breaks. The emotional toll of what happened under his command is just too much to bear and Demir walks away from everything, including his eventual inheritance, to live out his life as a grifter. That is until his mother, a powerful political figure and head of his family, is murdered on the city streets. Demir returns from exile to use the resources of his family to uncover the truth about his mother's murder, and of course things get complicated very quickly.

Unholy Island, the mostly forgotten neighbor of Holy Island, is a strange place that everyone quickly forgets, except the few granted sanctuary there. Esme Gray escaped an abusive marriage and found her way to the island because their previous Ward Witch had died, and ridiculous as it seems, it's now her job to run the guesthouse while she maintains the island's protections. Luke Taylor has been searching over a year for his missing twin brother and follows a rumor that leads him to Unholy Island, where a suspicious murder leaves the island in need of a Book Keeper, which he finds a strange term for someone who runs a bookshop. Then there is the kindly old mayor Tobias who was the island's first resident so long ago he barely recalls his true nature. All three of them are weaker than they should be, but together they form a tenuous bulwark against the end of the Earth.

The planet Anjiin may have human inhabitants, but fossil and DNA records reveal that humans are not native to the planet. How they got there, though, is information that has been lost over time. None of that matters when the Carryx arrive, instantly killing 1 out of every 8 humans, and then subjugating the brightest and best humans into service within their hive-like society. The invading force is comprised of a hierarchical structure of multiple alien races, and unfortunately, all of them are physically superior to humans. The story follows a group of researchers who have recently made some important discoveries just before the Carryx arrive. Their skills are valuable to the Carryx, so they are taken to another planet and tasked with doing some research work that is not outside their expertise. The Carryx society has been built over centuries entirely on the backs of enslaved alien species, so they know how to subjugate a race. Resistance is truly futile. Carryx culture is also so different from human society that the researchers don't actually know what is actually expected of them. What is clear though, is the price of failure is extinction for humanity.

Some of the characters from Ancestral Night make cameo appearances, but Machine isn't really a sequel. The story follows Dr. Jens, who enjoys her job on an interstellar ambulance crew dealing with a wide variety of medical emergencies. Some of these involve humans but there are so many species here that every call for help is a new challenge. The AI that runs the ship decides to take one last call before heading to the central system, the equivalent of jury duty in the US, and they find two ships locked together with the biological beings unconscious and the ship AIs confused and acting strangely. The take all of them back to Central Hospital and soon all sorts of things start happening in the usually boring station. Someone actually attacks them, the AIs forget things, and there are power failures for no reason, which could be deadly for the patients. But what Dr. Jens finds strangest of all is that there is a ward restricted to only a few personnel and no one knows who the patients are or what treatment they are receiving. Somehow it connects back to those two ships and the crippled AI, so Dr. Jens is determined to find answers.

Eight years in the making, the adventures of Xavier "X" Rodriguez finally come to a close, and despite the fact that this moment is clearly overdue, it is still bittersweet. Nicholas Sansbury Smith writes a lot of post apocalyptic fiction, and if you described each of his series to me, this is the one I would be the least interested in. When I reviewed the first book in this series I wrote "I found that I was able to put aside the improbability of it all and just enjoy the thrill ride. The characters were interesting, the scenario was unique, and I thought it had a good mix of grit, heroism, and despair. So if you want something different, but not too deep, then put on your radiation suit get ready to dive - The Hive needs you." So, now that we have reached the end of this thrill ride, does the finale deliver the ending this series so richly deserves?

They thought the planet was tidally locked to its sun, so they built mines on the dark side, and Nightside City to provide entertainment to the miners and part them from their hard earned pay. About a hundred years later, they realized it wasn't a tidal lock but rather an incredibly slow planetary rotation and suddenly the doomed Nightside City, with its showy casinos, became a popular tourist attraction. The lucky few got off-planet before the casinos realized their workforce was fleeing and they ensured only the wealthy escaped. P.I. Carlisle Hsing had hoped working for some of the larger casinos would be her ticket off-planet, but a rival framed her for some illegal hacking and she got blacklisted. Now she's stuck living and working in the part of town between the vibrant downtown and the abandoned sky scrapers up slope in the sun without the money to move further into the shade and forget about passage off-planet.

Despite growing in power as a wizard, Kazamir Wolfe still finds himself unable to do much to stop the impending convergence of our world with the netherworld. He does know that it will be apocalyptic if the gods of the netherworld make their way to Earth, so he must ensure that doesn't happen. His ability to see the flow of magic shows him that magic is growing throughout Europe and he can even see multiple anchor points where he expects portals will open when the time comes. However, all of his efforts to destroy those anchors have proven to be a waste of time. Frustrated and desperate, he convinces his eclectic team of misfits that the best course of action is to tackle the problem from the other side. That means it is time for a road trip into the netherworld itself. What could possibly go wrong?

The last time we saw Kaylin Neya the Chosen was rescuing an old woman named Imelda and her ghostly roommates from an evil Barrani wizard. Imelda has joined Kaylin's eclectic household, but there are still many questions about her ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Only Kaylin knows that Imelda can also command spirits because tales of necromancers are all about armies of undead, not grandmotherly women who take cookies to Elantra's police and the dragons are already nervous enough. Speaking of dragons, Bellusdeo is enraged again. As the only female dragon everyone expects her to waste no time producing more and she finally chose Emmerian as a potential mate because he was the least annoying. Unfortunately, the whole idea still drives her crazy so she attaches herself to Kaylin's continuing investigation of Imelda's situation to avoid the issue. Once again the Elements are disquieted and it seems to be related to an Ancient, aka those beings that made the worlds and various races, that was being used by the Barrani wizard as a power source. Kaylin freed it but it's power is now leeching into the world and distorting reality. Kaylin has no idea what she can do since it says it's already dead, but once again it's up to the Chosen to save the world.

Stopping a convergence from happening is priority number one, but the band of misfits trying to prevent the nether gods from invading our world isn't exactly the A team. A noob wizard who can barely control the magic he attempts to use, and usually winds up blind after he does anything, a talking dog, a cat from the nether, an untrustworthy djinn, and two knights from the past are partnered up with two operatives from the present in order to get the job done. Unfortunately they are up against an ancient organization with more resources and firepower, so they are going to need some assistance. If you think that the next member of the team is going to be an elite soldier capable of turning the tide of battle, think again, because it turns out to be a vacuum cleaner infested by a demon. The only reason that the djinn was able to summon a demon into our world in the first place is because the barrier between our world and the nether appears to be weakening. With time running out, Kazimir finally convinces everyone that it's time to go on the offensive.