Table of Contents

“In the final book of this explosive Philip K. Dick Award-nominated space opera, the universe is under threat and an ancient alien intelligence threatens to bring humanity down – unless Major Sanda Greeve and her crew can stop it . . .

The code has been cracked. The secrets of the Casimir gates have been revealed. But humanity still isn’t safe. The alien intelligence known as Rainier and her clones are still out there, hell-bent on its destruction. And only Sanda can stop them.

With the universe’s most powerful ship under her command and some of the most skilled hackers, fighters and spies on her team, it will still take everything she has to find the key to taking down an immortal enemy with seemingly limitless bodies, resources and power.”

Title: Catalyst Gate

Series: The Protectorate #3

Author: Megan E. O’Keefe

Page Count: 608

Genre: Science Fiction

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Date Read: August 5th, 2023

After starting this series as a buddy read last year with a group of friends, I finally had a chance to continue and finish it this year with Catalyst Gate. I recall one of those friends enjoyed that first book so much he went right into finishing the series shortly after.
 
At this point Catalyst Gate was actually my fourth read by Megan and I have to say she has become one of my favorite science fiction authors. I will continue to check out more of her work in the future.
 
The pacing was on par with the rest of the author’s works from my experience. I’ve found no real issues with names or writing style to trip over. I did listen to the audiobook for this one which can give both pros and cons. Joe Jameson does a solid job narrating this series. I visually read book one and listened to his work on both the second and third. The only thing that tripped me up from time to time was his pronunciation of one of the character names. Not to say he was wrong, but it wasn’t how I thought it would be pronounced in my own mind.
 
The world building was done well. I think we had more expansion of areas and things already introduced in previous books in the series more than new locations. However, with that being said, we had some mind blowing moments as things were revealed circling back around to previous moments read in earlier books which was a lot of fun. It made me look back on some scenes in completely different light.
 
The character development falls into line right with the world building. We do have some new characters and some more details given with some previously mentioned characters but the way several things were revealed to us as this story went on, was just a lot of fun! I will admit that at some point in Catalyst Gate I began wondering why I felt Sanda and Jules were such similar characters in that they were both head strong capable females doing everything they could to protect the ones they love. But seeing the two so much in this book, especially the end assured me that they were each their own character with their own opportunities.
 
Looking back on the series I think I enjoyed the characters around the heist story arc the most and that really continued throughout the series even if they did get split up.
 
As previously mentioned, if someone is looking for a solid space odyssey type of science fiction with action, intrigue and some really good twists and turns along the way, I’m going to recommend The Protectorate series.

World Building 4.5/5
Pacing 4.5/5
Character Development 4.5/5

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Chad Barnard

Owner/Operator of The Hiking Reader Blog. Sharing thoughts on books and hiking trails and trying to find ways to continue to incorporate both hobbies together.

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