Two Suns at Sunset

By: Gene Doucette

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, Paul Boehmer

Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Welcome to Dib!

Dib is an Earthlike planet, only slightly smaller, with shorter days and longer years, in orbit around twin suns.

On the continent of Geo, in the city of Velon in the nation of Inimata, a man lies dead in his study.

The Murdered Monk

In life, Professor Orno Linus was a world-class scholar: an astrophysicist, a dead-language linguist, and an expert in (and apparent true believer of) the religious concept of the Cull, i.e., the end of the world. Widely respected, nothing about Linus’s expertise suggests somebody might want him dead.

Professor Linus is also Brother Linus, a high-ranking member of an ancient, powerful religious organization known as the House. This makes his murder much more complicated, but no more explicable, because murder on House grounds just doesn’t happen. Not even when one of the last things the victim did was steal something important from the House vault.

Finally, Orno is also the younger brother of Calcut Linus, one of the most powerful and criminally dangerous people on the planet. Killing any Linus means incurring the wrath of a man for whom laws very rarely apply.

In short, Professor Orno Linus is a highly unlikely murder victim.

And yet, somebody killed him.

The Cursed Detective

Detective Makk Stidgeon already knows he’s unlucky. He’s a cholem: an outcast. A bad-luck charm. He was born this way, and has the brand on his wrist to prove it.

But in terms of bad luck, the gods have really gone overboard by sticking him with the Linus case.

Between a House leadership that seems more interested in retrieving their stolen artifact than in solving the murder of one of their own, the demands of the murderous Calcut Linus, a new partner who seems to know more than she’s telling, and an omnipresent news media constantly looking for an angle on the biggest story of the year, Makk barely has time to just follow the clues.

And that’s before an impossible video surfaces that purports to reveal the killer’s identity. What makes it impossible? The person in the video couldn’t have possibly done it.

To get to the bottom of the Orno’s murder, Makk will have to navigate between the House and the Linus family, find the source of the video, and figure out what’s missing from the House vault. Even if he can pull all that off, he may discover he’s not at the end of a mystery at all, but at the beginning of a much larger one.

Tandemstar: The Outcast Cycle. The journey begins here.

©2020 Gene Doucette (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing and Skyboat Media, Inc.

Cautiously positive

This is quite a departure from the Immortals and Fixer books, and even from the Spaceship Next Door. In fact, it took me quite a while to get into it because the beginning felt a bit slow. But then the book started to grow on me. Not much of the overt self-deprecating, sly humor of the Immortals series but still, Doucette manages to write yet another book in which each sentence just feels right and makes me feel he is one of the most underrated sci-fi authors around.

The story has ups and downs but comes to a reasonable conclusion. Yet, what makes me trim a star of my final rating is that in the end this feels like a movie trailer whetting our appetite for something else. Standing by itself, it feels kind of pointless as you always feel there's more lurking but you can't quite figure out what it is. I hope at least the author has some sense where he wants to take the series. I for one have no idea (yet) why it's called Tandemstar or Outcast. Yes, the book explains what an Outcast is but it's not clear how that may provide the backstory to a longer series.

refreshing take on sci-fi

This is another wonderful story from author Gene Doucette! The world building is on point with a compelling story line. I can't recommend this book highly enough!

meh

the first 2 readers are great, the 3rd is terrible. luckily he doesn't read very much. the story is thankfully over by then.

unfortunately the story was a lot of words without much meat. I enjoyed the writing. But I don't recommend this one unless it's at the bottom of your list.

I like this first book in this new series.

As a long time fan of the Immortal Series of books, I was delighted to listen to this new book in a very different direction and I loved hearing a different genre with humor and great characters developed.

Please keep them coming and please continue to leverage these narrators as they read your work very well.

Waiting eagerly for the next installment in the series.

A Noir/SciFI mashup done very well

Doucette did a great job adapting the noir classic hard-bitten and doleful police detective to the sci-fi genre. As is typical for noir, the story is convoluted and not always logical. But, I immediately liked all the characters, and found myself looking forward to each listening session.
Only the usual weaknesses of Stefan Rudnicki marred the narration, and I was always relieved when Gabrielle de Cuir took over for him.

I like it and will continue the series

I liked the storyline and I love Doucette's writing. I found myself looking forward to each opportunity I had to continue listening, which ultimately, is the reason I'll continue the series. The first male narrator was good but made it very hard to differentiate between male characters. I enjoyed the female narrator.

You Lost Me

Huh? No satisfying ending and a bunch of world building facts at the end (a death sentence if only listening to this book). I, for one, am left with no desire to continue the series.

A good story ruined

This story had an interesting premise but it was ruined by the constant "look at how smart I am" declarations of the author. To really enjoy this book you need a lexicon that breaks down all of the unique and proprietary terms he uses in place of common terms. Additionally the only reason this is "scifi" and not a murder mystery is because he places this story, needlessly, on another planet. Change the setting from alien world to Rome Italy and Vatican City and the story would work just as well.

Lots of exterior detail

It rambles on about exterior detail and does not catch you up in the story quickly, so it II s hard to find a connection or interest in the characters.