The novel “Stargazer: The Ultimate Artefact” (“Stargazer: Das letzte Artefakt”) by Ivan Ertlov was published for the first time in 2021 and translated from German by Marly Gram. It’s the first book in the After Terra series.
Frank Gazer is a prospector who has worked hard to get command of a spaceship. For a human, it’s not easy to get high positions, even among prospectors, because his species’ reputation is still negative two thousand years after the war in which an interstellar alliance almost wiped out humanity. A mission that targets a comet takes Frank and his crew in an unexpected direction.
The relationship between the Plachtharr Alliance and the Protectorate are decidedly tense and the situation worsens due to the possibility of finding technologically advanced remains of an ancient civilization that could change the balance of power between the two coalitions. A war could be inevitable.
The After Terra series is set millennia in the future when different civilizations that regularly travel among the stars have to manage interspecies relationships that are not always easy. At one point, humanity expanded even violently at the expense of other civilizations, until an interstellar alliance destroyed the solar system in a war that left only a small percentage of humans alive. The Lex Humanitas, the law that regulates humanity’s rights and duties, is important in “Stargazer: The Ultimate Artefact” to the point that each chapter ends with one of the norms that compose it.
In a galaxy full of civilizations that are born and die, finding technologies that are very old and at the same time very advanced can greatly influence the history of many of them. Such an event can also shift the balance of power and is why the chance to discover some significant ancient technology can precipitate a cold war between two coalitions.
Ivan Ertlov wrote a novel that in many ways is a classic space opera filled with space adventure, action, and twists. Humanity’s role is marginal and an important part of the plot concerns an interstellar cold war but the relationships between different species can also be friendly and even intimate. Thinking about the considerable differences between the various species’ anatomical characteristics, it’s better not to think too much about it. Sometimes the author seems to enjoy including certain references as part of the humor bits that are part of the story.
The presence of various alien species can make the beginning of the novel a little difficult because the reader is immersed in situations where Ivan Ertlov offers a lot of details about characters which include their physical characteristics. You can feel overwhelmed by so much information but I think it’s better to let yourself be carried away by the plot. As the pages go by, it will become easier and easier to keep up with everything connected to a complex fictional universe.
In fact, if you manage to overcome the initial confusion, the worldbuilding turns out to be one of the greatest merits of the novel if not the main one. There are many characters, and the important ones have at least some characterization, also connected to their species. Even the dialogues help in various ways to get to know the characters, their species, and other elements of that setting without slowing down a pace that is kept fast thanks to the many events that follow one another.
Ivan Ertlov really put a lot of creativity into “Stargazer: The Ultimate Artefact” by reworking classic elements of space opera in intriguing ways with interesting species and characters. The novel has its own ending, so you can read it as an autonomous work and then decide if you want to continue with the series. If you love space operas full of alien species, this series is for you! It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
