A.G Riddle is back and in fine form, proving why he is one of the top science fiction and thriller writers to watch!
Not unlike his previous trilogy The Solar War suffers from being overly long and at times drags as it tries to justify itself in the middle of two stories.
However, Riddle succeeds in humanizing every moment of the narrative, making this second entry almost more of a drama/Saga than anything else.
Where Winter World was disjointed between Space and Earth- Polarising the story in half as almost two differant things, book 2 is almost 100% set on Earth and builds on many of the previously established relationships and tensions.
While Riddle has a good grasp of space,science and other worlds, the most contentious part of this book is the conciet of the "big bad" and AI/Intelligences in general. This was the weakest part of the ending to some of his previous books and the omnipotent snarky Matrix like AI just doesn't stick. Perhaps because it reminded me of the woeful Ultron in the Marvel movies but: "Conservation of energy" just doesn't fly and feels like a lazy explanation for a highly evolved and dangerous enemy.
Why Arthur doesn't just snap the neck of every living being left on Earth and move on makes no sense, his superior physical body at odds with his actions and motivations. But then some of the actions early on the book could have been solved much more simply given such an advanced artifical intelligence exists within the narrative
Riddle does seem to dance around these issues and assumes this is just how things are while also effortlessly plowing ahead with the creation and design of incredible advances in human technology.
The Solar War is a sweeping novel that continues well past its conclusion and Riddle is quick to address there is another Novella on the way.
In truth the last 10% of the book on Eos could have been the start of the third story splitting these two stories more evenly but as it is, the need for another book is self evident as there are too many unanswered questions.
The Solar War is a wonderful personal journey about the last days of mankind and their will survive and evolve past their own limitations.
For those who like a strong dose of existencialism

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The Solar War (The Long Winter Trilogy Book 2) Kindle Edition
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A.G. Riddle
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A.G. Riddle
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Length: 498 pages | Word Wise: Enabled | Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled |
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Product description
Review
'This is apocalyptic sci-fi at its best. Plot and character are masterfully woven together and the action – which is anything but frozen – sling-shots from stage to stage like an intergalactic spaceship' Daily Mail.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
A.G. Riddle spent ten years starting and running internet companies before retiring to focus on his true passion: writing fiction. He lives in North Carolina. Visit www.agriddle.com.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product details
- ASIN : B07P92TDXQ
- Publisher : Legion Books (25 June 2019)
- Language: : English
- File size : 1599 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 498 pages
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Best Sellers Rank:
7,363 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 37 in Techno-Thrillers
- 47 in Technothrillers (Books)
- 111 in Science Fiction Adventure
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- Winter World (The Long Winter Trilogy Book 1)Kindle Edition
- The Lost Colony (The Long Winter Trilogy Book 3)Kindle Edition
- Pandemic (The Extinction Files Book 1)Kindle Edition
- Genome (The Extinction Files Book 2)Kindle Edition
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4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,070 global ratings
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Reviewed in Australia on 18 July 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 1 January 2021
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Book 1 was fantastic, I really loved it. Book 2 was a tad drawn out & just didn’t seem to get anywhere & made me feel like we were rehashing numerous times. Mind you I still really enjoyed it. I would’ve loved to have seen the human villain left behind alive &/or actually read his demise instead of how it ended for him which was pretty ho hum. Sorry if that’s a spoiler. I agree with other reviewers about the whole “we’re doing it only for the kids” & how Emma’s story takes a backseat because she’s now a mother, that really dragged the story down. I’m about to start book 3 so I hope it’ll be as good as book 1 & much better than book 2.
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
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The story is quite well written with no irritating typos or grammatical non-sense. The book kept my interest until the end although it also become more irritating as I ready on.
I found it annoying the way the parents kept lying to the children about the future. Making promises you cannot keep is generally a bad idea, at least in my view, but failing to keep them and getting no blow-back on it is unrealistic, even in a work of fiction. If I promise my son something, he tends to get pretty irate if I fail to deliver. A lot of the secrecy/lies from the governing clique to the plebs also seemed unnecessary and unlikely to work in practise either, at least in the absence of a well functioning authoritarian police state, which the author doesn’t indicate exists.
I am not a climatologist, so perhaps the author is correct in how the earth would respond to a reduction in sunlight - but I doubt it. Precipitation requires energy, less energy means less world-wide precipitation, so I think it is doubtful there would be heavy and ongoing snowfall through-out a world starved on incoming sunlight. Similarly, for a tidally locked world such as Eos, I suspect almost all the moisture would end up locked up on the frozen side, unless perhaps the “dark side” of the planet was mostly ocean, in which case I suppose an expanding ice-shelf might allow some water recycling. However, in Eos the dark side is all mountain.
I found it annoying the way the parents kept lying to the children about the future. Making promises you cannot keep is generally a bad idea, at least in my view, but failing to keep them and getting no blow-back on it is unrealistic, even in a work of fiction. If I promise my son something, he tends to get pretty irate if I fail to deliver. A lot of the secrecy/lies from the governing clique to the plebs also seemed unnecessary and unlikely to work in practise either, at least in the absence of a well functioning authoritarian police state, which the author doesn’t indicate exists.
I am not a climatologist, so perhaps the author is correct in how the earth would respond to a reduction in sunlight - but I doubt it. Precipitation requires energy, less energy means less world-wide precipitation, so I think it is doubtful there would be heavy and ongoing snowfall through-out a world starved on incoming sunlight. Similarly, for a tidally locked world such as Eos, I suspect almost all the moisture would end up locked up on the frozen side, unless perhaps the “dark side” of the planet was mostly ocean, in which case I suppose an expanding ice-shelf might allow some water recycling. However, in Eos the dark side is all mountain.
Reviewed in Australia on 13 July 2019
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The worst thing that can be said about an entertainment is that it is boring. I got up to chapter 39 but could not continue. This book is BORING. I stopped caring about the characters quite early on, but kept plodding my way through hoping for the story to kick into gear. After 38 chapters it hadn’t, so I stopped reading.
Your value may vary to mine, but as a long time Sci Fi enthusiast this book just doesn’t do it for me.
Your value may vary to mine, but as a long time Sci Fi enthusiast this book just doesn’t do it for me.
Reviewed in Australia on 16 July 2019
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This writer continues to improve. AG Riddle has always been strong on plot development and making a real page turner with just enough of a realistic connection to reality to ease the suspension of reality. With this newest novel, part of a sequence now 3 books long, AG Riddle improves in his character development. His characters are becoming more believable. Note though that’s this skill remains a work in progress.
The series provides a believable solution to the Fermi Paradox, hopefully book 3 will take this plot line a little further.
Thoroughly recommended.
The series provides a believable solution to the Fermi Paradox, hopefully book 3 will take this plot line a little further.
Thoroughly recommended.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a bad read but such a cliche female lead who loses all desires outside of her maternal drive to protect her children
Reviewed in Australia on 17 December 2019Verified Purchase
The story line was good, no happy ending which I liked, but the female lead role was pathetic, why do all authors reduce females to purely biological protectors who lose the desire to achieve anything meaningful once they have children.
On a positive note, I listened to the audio version and the role of the infected Android (Arthur) was excellent with great humour.
On a positive note, I listened to the audio version and the role of the infected Android (Arthur) was excellent with great humour.
Reviewed in Australia on 15 October 2020
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I read all three books in The Long Winter Trilogy. A.G. Riddle provides a thought provoking journey to the age old questions; what’s out there and can humans adapt and survive space and time travel, live on another planet and a possible theory on how the universe will end or maybe just start over. Very exciting!!
Reviewed in Australia on 6 August 2019
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Totally enjoyed the first book, and this one was just as good. Looking forward to final book, though disappointed it will only be a small book.
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Iain Alexander
2.0 out of 5 stars
This time, we're doing it just for the kids.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2019Verified Purchase
AG Riddle is a superb writer and I've thoroughly enjoyed every single book except this one.
In the first part of this trilogy (which I loved), the main characters are out to save the Earth and Humanity from extinction because, y'know.. it's humanity and planet Earth. They don't need more motivation than that - who would?
In this book though, their prior motivations go out of the window in favour of the saving the planet "for their children" and the underlying feeling I got throughout this book was that was their only real reason for trying to save the planet, everything else they've done up to this point was somehow null and void and the pervading subtext I kept feeling was "you (reader) just won't understand their motivation unless you have your own kids" - and whilst that may be true for some people I'd like to believe that humanity is a tad more altruistic than that and might want to save Earth and humanity because we're worth saving, because it's the right thing to do.
Maybe as a #childfree person I'm being overly sensitive, but the "doing it for the kids" felt forced upon me as a reader and not (like in dozens of other books I've read) just another element of a character's motivation.
I'm still going to read book 3 (which isn't out at time of writing this) because he is a great writer, I just hope the characters evolve out of the 1 dimensional writing they found themselves in during book 2.
In the first part of this trilogy (which I loved), the main characters are out to save the Earth and Humanity from extinction because, y'know.. it's humanity and planet Earth. They don't need more motivation than that - who would?
In this book though, their prior motivations go out of the window in favour of the saving the planet "for their children" and the underlying feeling I got throughout this book was that was their only real reason for trying to save the planet, everything else they've done up to this point was somehow null and void and the pervading subtext I kept feeling was "you (reader) just won't understand their motivation unless you have your own kids" - and whilst that may be true for some people I'd like to believe that humanity is a tad more altruistic than that and might want to save Earth and humanity because we're worth saving, because it's the right thing to do.
Maybe as a #childfree person I'm being overly sensitive, but the "doing it for the kids" felt forced upon me as a reader and not (like in dozens of other books I've read) just another element of a character's motivation.
I'm still going to read book 3 (which isn't out at time of writing this) because he is a great writer, I just hope the characters evolve out of the 1 dimensional writing they found themselves in during book 2.
15 people found this helpful
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Gameshow72
1.0 out of 5 stars
Identity issues
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2019Verified Purchase
This book has identity issues - it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or in fact whom it's written for.
Book 1 in the series (4 stars!) was imaginative, well structured, had a well-paced story arc, had characters I could relate to and liked and, not unimportant, was riddled with gripping and exciting scenes IN SPACE. Full disclosure, right at the end the whole thing took a bit of a nosedive (that's where the fifth star went), but a good read nevertheless.
Book 2 has nearly none of this. Gone are the rockets, the hair-raising near escapes and the high-concept ideas that made book 1 very decent. The first 24 chapters are about rationing food. Yes, all of it - it's a painfully slow description of a dwindling food stock and starving children. Heart wrenching, surely for some, but that's a different audience than the first book was intended for I suspect. Paint, dry, watch. I didn't recognise the characters either, who are these suddenly bland, out-of-the-box, 13-to-the-dozen stereotypes, who's only skill seems to be making incredibly daft decisions? The occasions where there was an opportunity to move the story forward were rare, far between and incredibly predictable.
In the end, I gave up leafing forward in the hope of finding that small nugget, that little story twist that would rekindle my interest. I feel this is a huge opportunity missed and more than a bit cheated out of a good read and 5 pounds.
Book 1 in the series (4 stars!) was imaginative, well structured, had a well-paced story arc, had characters I could relate to and liked and, not unimportant, was riddled with gripping and exciting scenes IN SPACE. Full disclosure, right at the end the whole thing took a bit of a nosedive (that's where the fifth star went), but a good read nevertheless.
Book 2 has nearly none of this. Gone are the rockets, the hair-raising near escapes and the high-concept ideas that made book 1 very decent. The first 24 chapters are about rationing food. Yes, all of it - it's a painfully slow description of a dwindling food stock and starving children. Heart wrenching, surely for some, but that's a different audience than the first book was intended for I suspect. Paint, dry, watch. I didn't recognise the characters either, who are these suddenly bland, out-of-the-box, 13-to-the-dozen stereotypes, who's only skill seems to be making incredibly daft decisions? The occasions where there was an opportunity to move the story forward were rare, far between and incredibly predictable.
In the end, I gave up leafing forward in the hope of finding that small nugget, that little story twist that would rekindle my interest. I feel this is a huge opportunity missed and more than a bit cheated out of a good read and 5 pounds.
15 people found this helpful
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Chris D
1.0 out of 5 stars
A very poor follow up and slog
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 March 2020Verified Purchase
After the excellent Sci Fi of the Long Winter, this book is a complete and utter mess with an author who is not sure if he wants to write Sci Fi or a family saga, suitable for a non SF audience. Suddenly the spirit of the first book has become the plodding lay down and let the Aliens win sequel, which is boring..boring..dull. The ingenuity of the first book has been replaced by a plot so mundane you can see the end result coming and you resent having to read pages of made up ` excitement` to get to a pre-ordained result, which if it didn't happen would close the story there and then, This is just the hallmark of a 0ne-shot author, who used up all his ideas on the first book. The final result is just not worth the slog to get to it. I have also read the third book in the series and if anything it is even worse!
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warning! Don't start reading this unless you have time to finish it in a single sitting.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 August 2019Verified Purchase
This and the preceding "Winter World' are extremely satisfying books to read. I've done little else in the past few days but to be gripped by the plot. I'm not a great reviewer of books so all I can say is that 5 stars is nowhere near enough. Upon finishing 'The Solar War' I immediately pre-ordered the next & last in the series: 'Lost Colony'. Probably the best I've read for a long time. Now checking out Mr Riddle's other offerings.
6 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 July 2019Verified Purchase
Having discovered The Atlantis Gene accidentally whilst searching for something new and unusual to stimulate my grey matter I have followed Mr Riddle on his literary journey to fame and fortune.
No one deserves the plaudits heaped on him more.
Having read a great many books of this genre I find him to be among the greats.
Looking forward to the conclusion of this saga and onwards to the next one.
No one deserves the plaudits heaped on him more.
Having read a great many books of this genre I find him to be among the greats.
Looking forward to the conclusion of this saga and onwards to the next one.
6 people found this helpful
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