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.

Corvinian Hark comes from a respected line of villains and received top marks at the exclusive university where his ancestors received their degrees in villainy. Alas, human corporations have nearly cornered the market on villainy, and the only internship in London was snapped up by one of his classmates, who quickly took over the Tower by dispatching her predecessor. Left without any good prospects, Corvinian temporarily took a post as caretaker of a safehouse for magical folk needing a bit of help surviving in expensive London. After eight years, Corvinian has noted that his tenants are just as temporary as his job. In fact, the vampire Michael was living there before it was a safehouse a century ago. After slipping into a hospital to kill his phoenix tenant before anyone notices she's not human, and sneaking out with the baby, The Powers That Be, aka his employers, promptly saddle Corvinian with a new and problematic tenant. Analiese is a foreign exchange student from Belgium and more importantly she's unclassified. Corvinian is given six months to figure out her status, in which case he will be promoted, or he's fired. Also, just in case she's actually a generic human, no one can let slip the magical world exists. How hard can it be for ten magical people, if you include Corvinian, to pretend to be normal humans for a few months?

Kazimir Wolfe remains on the run from both the law and an ancient order trying to kill him, but staying hidden is becoming harder and harder as his group of traveling companions continues to grow. It started with Duke the talking golden retriever, who's mind is inhabited by an ancient wizard, and then added on two knights that were sent forward through time to protect him. Then a wise cracking djinn was added, who does nothing but insult Kaz all the time for being stupid, and finally the grumpy 30 pound cat from the Nether, known as Mr Boots. As stated in book one, this urban fantasy doesn't take itself too seriously, and now that The Order has successfully opened a portal to the Nether, Kaz and his group of misfits must figure out how to close it. And then, of course, deal with the creatures that came through before the entire world realizes that magic is real. The dragon might have something to say about that though.

This twelfth installment in the series is all about The Unseen Empire and the class [Witch]. As a reminder, Laken is the blind Earther [Emperor], who named his girlfriend Durene as his [Paladin] and the [Witch] Wiskeria as his [General]. After getting their asses kicked by the goblins and [Chieftain] Rags, Laken added his newly built trebuchets to the human army pursuing the goblin [Lord] before realizing that he and the goblins were being used to conquer the city of Liscor. So he rounded up the surviving goblins and headed home. In the meantime, Durene has finally recovered from her terrible injuries, but she's still afflicted by terrible self doubts and confusion. Wiskeria feels that she has always been a poor [Witch], and is an even worse [General], despite the fact that their defeat was largely due to a well timed betrayal. Now the [Witches] are forming a special coven to meet with Laken and ask for his protection against the [Hunters] that are killing them. Seven of the most powerful and unique [Witches] have come to join Wiskeria, including the oldest, most powerful, and notorious of all, Wiskeria's mother.

Kazimir Wolfe has been on the run since he was a teenager. It started the night that unknown assailants killed his aunt while he was out, and he has been on the run from those killers ever since. Those killers were looking for him that night, and from then on law enforcement has been as well, since they think he was the one who killed his aunt. Why did an unknown organization want to kill him as a teenager? Because he is wizard. And as far as Kaz knows, he is the only wizard in our modern times. And unfortunately, he isn't a very good one. I mean, there aren't any other wizards around to teach him, and It doesn't help that there isn't a lot of magic available in our world to work with. But there used to be, and now it is coming back. You would think that was a good thing for Kazimir, but not exactly. Magic seems to be building up for a "Convergence" between our realm and the Nether world, and only a wizard can stop it.