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The Last Watch (The Divide Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by J. S. Dewes (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 3,608 ratings

Book 1 of 3: The Divide

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes's fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, the first book in the Divide series, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

Goodreads Most Popular Sci-Fi Novels of the Past 3 Years

Space.com—Best Sci-fi Books 2022

New York Public Library—Best Science Fiction 2021
Business Insider—Best Science Fiction 2021
Polygon—Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021
Amazon—Best Science Fiction 2021
FanFiAddict—Lord TBR's Best of 2021
Best SciFi Books—Best of 2021
P. S. Hoffman—Best of 2021
10 Best Books Like Foundation—ScreenRant
20 Must Read Space Fantasy Books for 2021—Bookriot

Most Anticipated Book for April 2021:
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SFF 180

Amazon Best of the Month April 2021

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer--genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.”

She knows they’re humanity's last chance.

The Divide series
The Last Watch
The Exiled Fleet

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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Editorial Reviews

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Praise for The Last Watch

“One of the most stunning sci-fi series debuts of recent years. Fans of the genre―and particularly those already mourning the end of The Expanse series later this year―don’t want to miss out on this nail-biting space epic.”―Vulture

“Dewes’s debut is an exciting, fast-paced ride around the edges of the universe, where those rejected by much of humanity are the only ones who can save it. Fans of K. B. Wagers’s ‘Farian Wars’ series and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War will welcome this military science fiction thriller.” ―Library Journal, starred review

“The Last Watch is a bravura debut that blends great action with compelling characters, lighting up this new series like a dark matter generator.” ―Booklist

"Gripping space opera debut." ―Publishers Weekly

“The Last Watch is my pick for science fiction debut of the year. Dewes has written a masterwork space opera that needs to be on bookshelves world-wide. Epic, character-driven sci-fi goodness that is the cure for your Expanse hangover.”―FanFi Addict

“A high-energy thrill ride at the edge of space featuring a crew of miscreants racing against time aboard an ancient spaceship. A great concept with an even better execution, this is a sci-fi space opera for readers looking to dial up the excitement.”―Bookpage (starred review)

“An epic tale of survival at the end of the universe.” ―Megan E. O'Keefe, author of Velocity Weapon

“Crisp writing, vivid characters, and a plot that beguiles the imagination. The Last Watch is a stunning military sci-fi debut. I was hooked from the opening lines. If you like science fiction, then this book is definitely for you.” ―Jasper T. Scott, USA Today Bestselling Author

“The Last Watch is an amazing debut. The smart world-building and explode-off-the page action scenes make it perfect for fans of The Expanse and other fast-paced Sci Fi. I predict that Dewes is going to be a 'must read' author for years to come.” ―Michael Mammay, author of Planetside

“More fun than that time The Expendables, the Dirty Dozen and all of The Night’s Watch all got picked up by a random quantum tear in the fabric of spacetime and shot out the edge of the universe to kick ass and save humanity.” ―John Birmingham, author of the Axis of Time trilogy

“Take the action of Marko Kloos' Frontlines novels, mix in the intricate world building of Game of Thrones or Warhammer 40,000, and light the fuse. . . . Bursting with snappy dialogue and detail and furious with action, you’ll want to catch your breath when it’s over, and then you’ll want more. Bring it on.” ―Dayton Ward, bestselling author

“A scary edge-of-reality setup, cool martial-arts tattoos, interesting time anomalies, and OMG! The Universe is contracting!? Clear your schedule, because once you've gotten on this roller coaster, you're not going to want to get off until you've ridden it to the end.” ―Emily Devenport, author of Medusa Uploaded

“The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes is as spectacular a science fiction story as one is going to find. From a plot that is full of drama to amazing characters that are relatable and interesting, all over a backdrop of a futuristic space setting, The Last Watch is nearly flawless.” ―FanFi Addict

“The Last Watch has it all! Risky orbital maneuvers! Knife fights with grotesque aliens! Mysterious ancient artifacts! Secret royalty! Tragic backstories! It's classic military space opera with a touch of the cosmic.” ―David Levine, winner of the Andre Norton Award for Arabella of Mars

“J.S. Dewes' impressive debut...features big ideas, kick-ass characters, and an environmental collapse; you have to try to not be interested in this book. Highly recommended!” ―Primmlife

About the Author

After graduating with a degree in film production, J. S. DEWES went on to serve as cinematographer for independent films, write, produce, and shoot a zombie musical, slay internet dragons, and act as lighting designer for presidents and presidential-hopefuls so many times it became mundane. To add to her list of random career paths, she unlocked the Dream Job achievement and now writes for triple-A science fiction video games.

She is the author of the Divide series (The Last Watch, The Exiled Fleet) and Rubicon

Jenny spends her free time drawing, gaming, scrolling ArtStation, cuddling her two sweet dogs and mercurial cat, and occasionally sleeping.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08HKWZT7J
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (April 20, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 20, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2808 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 472 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #40,237 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #435 in Space Opera Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #442 in Science Fiction Adventure
- #786 in Space Operas

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4.3 3,608 ratings

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J. S. Dewes

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J.S. Dewes is an author, cinematographer, video editor, and gamer. With a degree in film production, Jenny cut her narrative teeth writing scripts for award-winning feature films and shorts. After recently unlocking the Dream Job Achievement, she now writes for triple-A science fiction video games at Humanoid Studios.

Jenny's debut science fiction novel The Last Watch and its sequel The Exiled Fleet are out now from Tor Books. Her next sci-fi action-adventure Rubicon arrived March 28, 2023.

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Jaenus55

Very good plot, characters, action, hooked - basic scifi could be improved

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2024

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Title says it all, my only grievance is the lack of explanation for some tech and mostly the distances which are just ridiculously inaccurate & inconsistent. The edge of the observable universe is 45bn light years away, so an actual edge that could be mildy realistic (a phase change) probably 1000x farther, but let's just say the edge of the universe is bns of light years - the author talks in millions maybe hundreds of millions, it seems like humanity has colonized 1 galaxy, and space is huge. I don't know maybe explain this universe is different than ours and give a brief in the beginning i.e. it's much smaller, there is a 'center' & an 'edge' be consistent with distance. I think author cared more about the story than not picky things but be consistent at least and hopefully more of a backstory will emerge. Again I'll be finishing and the story is great if you ignore inconsistencies and a lack of back story on the timeline. Best guess, humanity is 1000s of years more advanced, so seems strange some tech is unavailable but again ignore the inconsistencies & just focus on the characters and plot and throw in your own #s,

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Thunder in the Dark

Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2024

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J.S. Has created a world that is believable and wired it up with personalities that defy all the normal space jockies normally rocketing through space.

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Stephen Pollard

Billed as "Game of Thrones meets The Expanse," but it's SO much more!

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021

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The Last Watch, a novel which I can scarcely believe is a debut, was marketed as "Game of Thrones meets The Expanse." That comparison does not do this novel a fraction of the justice it deserves—but we'll come back to that. In The Last Watch, author J.S. Dewes tells the story of a reluctant ship captain riddled with guilt and a newcomer to her crew, a member of the royal family who has screwed up royally (my only pun, I swear!), as they face a threat of literally universal proportions. Along the way, both characters are taken on a journey that results in some of the strongest character development I have come across in sci-fi, and unlike other sci-fi stories I will opt not to call out by name, it does not feature a generic, boring protagonist surrounded by infinitely more interesting characters.

That is perhaps what surprised me most about the novel. In the beginning, we are introduced to Cavalon Mercer, a smartass, aloof, disobedient man who seems to enjoy getting under the skin of authority figures. Opposite him is Adequin Rake, commander of the ship Cavalon has been dumped on, and she is no-nonsense, tough as nails, and humorless. You know the types, because you have seen them countless times...except Dewes is not content with cookie-cutter archetypes, and what on the surface seems to be a story about cut-and-paste characters very quickly turns into a surprisingly heartfelt (and heart-pumping) tale about two deep, fleshed-out characters that repeatedly defy the stereotypes you initially think these characters are going to adhere to.

Cavalon and Adequin, accompanied by a satisfyingly well-rounded cast of supporting characters, operate within an equally compelling narrative that features some of the most intense, jaw-dropping space sci-fi I have ever read. If this were ever turned into a film (and god, does it deserve a film adaptation), I can just imagine all the visual flair and mind-blowing effects that would easily rival Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Aside from that, the novel's pacing never wavers, slowing for deeper character moments at all the right beats while never lingering too long before thrusting the characters (and readers) into another fast-paced, high-stakes string of scenarios.

Whether your preference when reading sci-fi is nerding out over the scope of the plot, the science-oriented aspects that get our characters out of danger with clever problem-solving and applying the rules of the universe (whether real or fabricated for the novel), or exploring the depth of human characters in all their flaws, failings, and enduring spirit, this is one of those novels that I believe has something for just about everybody. For me personally, the novel was at its best when it subverted expectations for how either of the protagonists would be expected to behave. There is a specific chapter involving a spacewalk that really gripped me and made me realize these characters were could never be relied upon to act how I expected.

To close, I will circle back to my first point. The Last Watch is sort of Game of Thrones meets The Expanse—though I feel neither comparison captures the essence of the story. The premise of individuals being punished by being sent to the edge of civilization to stand guard is about all I got from Game of Thrones, and while the next novel (due out in August, which somehow still seems too far away) could potentially get into a little more politicking, this novel has very little of that. The Expanse comparison may be a little more fair, though I feel there are other space epics that Dewes may have drawn more inspiration from. Chief among them is the video game series, Mass Effect, of which I have no doubt Dewes is a fan. Adequin Rake would fit nicely as a parallel to FemShep, and genetic engineering comes into play in The Last Watch, in one instance in a near identical plot point that occurs in Mass Effect. I have also heard comparisons to Stargate and Battlestar Galactica, but as I have never seen either, I could not say. Interstellar would be another fair comparison, primarily for the time-distortion elements and what I imagine would be colossal visuals were The Last Watch a film. (Dewes certainly paints compelling pictures with her prose.) Really, though, this novel does not need to be reduced to comparisons. It is one of the best space sci-fi novels I have ever read and, if subsequent books are as good as this one, will go down as one of my favorite sci-fi series of any storytelling medium.

If you are a fan of space operas, sci-fi, or just fascinating characters who will keep you on your toes, I cannot recommend this novel enough. I just wish the sequel, The Exiled Fleet, was already out!

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Music and SciFi Fan in Philly

Achingly bad science, obvious plot, yet compelling story and characters I want to know more about

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2021

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One of things I like about this book, and clearly some other reviewers don’t , is that the captain (Excubitor or EX) is a woman. And very human. Her leadership style, like people in the real world, is to rely on her friends and a few trusted subordinates for advice and guidance. Then decides, then leads. And yes, has doubts and questions her own decisions. That’s actually how many successful people, male and female, lead in the real world. And it tends to work better than the strong loner type. But it isn’t, apparently, what at least some readers are looking for in a SciFi protagonist.

Takes a little while to get going, but it doesn’t stop accelerating, and by the time you hit halfway the plot is going warp speed (obvious reference intended).

Larger political / social setting is filled in via flashbacks a d different characters’ perspectives. Which is always more interesting than a bland narrator filling the reader in whenever it’s needed. And enough is explained either ahead of or after rather than right at the time to make it interesting.

The author definitely learned some Latin and/or studied ancient Rome. Kudos for that.

Two demerits for bad math - the surface of a sphere does not scale linearly with radius - and for not understanding the Newtonian mechanics of objects in space - ships do not require engines to keep moving in space. Which is kind of baffling, given the author used both special and general relativity as plot devices. How does one get the advanced physics at least a little right, only to fall down on the basics?

Bad cosmology…. really bad. The plot hinges on the universe (not the galaxy, the entire universe) having not just a border, but a circular one. Forget the flat Earth society, this is the flat Universe society - the entire universe forms a plane. Not a sphere, not a hyperboloid. A disc. With an edge! Look out Terry Pratchett, your ideas have been stolen, switched to a SciFi setting and expanded...

I was going to say that 3 minutes of reading the Wikipedia entry on the shape of the universe would have cleared this up for the author (and the test readers, and the editor…) but I have the bad feeling that the author (and maybe the test readers, and maybe the editor) read about the topology of the universe potentially being flat, hyperbolic, or spherical, and that experiment indicates it’s probably flat, and then decided that the probable flat topology of the universe, meaning zero curvature in spacetime, must mean flat in the everyday 2-dimensional paper map sense. So the whole thing is a disc, right? Sigh.

There is also no sense of mass or scale.

Forgive me for ranting on this one, but I feel I must. The characters go inside a giant 70km diameter alien sphere, then another sphere, and at the heart of it all is a 10m diameter cylindrical chamber. I think cylindrical, if that’s what the author means by “open circular”.
They fill this chamber with the hydrogen from “four dozen, meter-and-a-half-tall compressed hydrogen tanks”. Which they carried in, under normal gravity. So at maybe 200 atmospheres, that’s about 5 tons of hydrogen. And the fusion reaction from this quantity of hydrogen is supposed to generate enough 'dark energy' to counteract the collapse of at least this local edge of the universe? Sigh. But a sharp-eyed editor or test reader must’ve caught this, so one of the characters points this out and in swoops our friend, deus ex machina, and we then get… a "hydrogen duplication machine". And then “spacial compression” gets added in for good measure.

Of course. Why shouldn’t we have free duplication of matter. Near-instantaneous, too, as far as I can tell.

The whole reason the (very large) alien device isn’t working, producing energy via hydrogen fusion at stellar scale, is because it is out of hydrogen fuel to power the fusion reaction. So the team carries in cylinders of hydrogen, which is then replicated by the machine… et voila we suddenly have a star’s worth of hydrogen to use. I think. It’s a little unclear how much duplication and spacial compression is going on.

The mass of the sun is about 2 x 10^30 tons. Which in the story just got “replicated”, in minutes, from 5 tons of hydrogen.

Didn’t it cross anyone's mind (the author, the editor, the test readers…) that if you can increase a quantity of matter by a factor of 10^30 in minutes, why would you ever need to burn hydrogen in a fusion reaction? At that point you’ve just posited the most amazing energy source anyone could ever want. Creating stable matter is the most energy-consuming transformation we know of. Hate to state the obvious, but the ratio between mass and its energy equivalent, i.e. the amount of energy you’d need to make it, is the speed of light, squared. You know, E=mc^2? To create 1 kg of mass, one would need

1 kg * ( 3 x 10^8 m/s ) ^2 = 9 x 10^16 kg m^2/s^2 = 9 x 10^16 Joules.

That’s pretty much the quantity of energy produced by every power plant on Earth, added together, for an entire day. To ‘make' 1 kg of matter.

And in this story, the machine just did exactly that - in mere minutes - for… 10^33 kg worth of hydrogen.

That’s 10^50 J of energy in minutes. Call it 100 seconds. That’s 10^48 Watts. 1 followed by 48 zeroes. Of Watts.

For comparison, the sun puts out 3.8 x 10^26 Watts.

So… the author just posited the near instantaneous, harnessed output of approximately 10^22 stars… yes that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars… in order to create the hydrogen the alien device needs to produce the power of... 1 star.

What a wonderfully efficient process! Why didn’t I think of that?

Ok, so maybe, even though it’s supposed to be “how a star is made” it’s not actually at stellar scale, and we’re just looking at a more ordinary quantity of hydrogen. Fusion at the 10m scale, we’ll posit. Even then, we’ve gone from 48 cylinders that together have about 350 cubic meters of volume… to a cylinder that’s 10m by 10m (we’ll guess the height, it’s not stated), which would be about 800 cubic meters. So we’ve just doubled the volume. The pressure at the center of the sun is 10^11 atmospheres. So… 800 cubic meters of hydrogen at 10^11 atmospheres… say we start at room temp (273 K). Ideal gas law gives about… 3.6 x 10^15 moles needed to achieve that pressure. And 1 mole of hydrogen (H2) masses 2g. So we’re talking 7.2 x 10^12 kg.

So we started with ~ 5000 kg of hydrogen and now have… 7 x 10^12 kg of hydrogen. In minutes. Due to the “hydrogen duplication machine”. That’s still manufacturing matter. That would require 6 x 10^29 Joules of energy. Assume 100 seconds. Heck, assume 1000 seconds. That’s 6 x 10^26 Watts. That’s the output of the sun.

So we have a machine that can output the power of the sun, in order to ‘duplicate’ hydrogen, in order to turn around and fuse that hydrogen, throwing away 99.6% of the available mass energy in the process.

Right.

So logical.

If we’re going to posit a mass-energy converter… why in the world(s) not just run it in the other direction? Convert just a small amount of the available mass to energy, and use that to power the dark-energy producing part of the device?

Again, sigh.

I’m not even going to talk about this author’s idea of dark energy. It’s just wrong.

And yet, despite all the cringingly, achingly bad physics, childlike cosmology, and even bad basic math…. I enjoyed the book. Despite the plot being so very predictable. Despite the author’s screenwriting background being abundantly clear (deep, difficult personal challenges are brought in to serve the plot at a moment’s notice - just like on TV).

And yet… and yet…. I find myself ordering the next book in the series.

That says something about this author’s ability to tell a compelling story. Predictable. Bad science. Obvious plotlines. Yet I want to know more. Care enough about these characters to want to read more about them.

Well done to accomplish that.

88 people found this helpful

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HPBrickhead

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023

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Ripping yarn!

Characters: Adequin Rake reminds me of Nikki Haley (politics aside), Cavalon Mercer of Pete Davidson, of the Murdoch clan. Mesa reminds me of Guardians of Galaxy Mantis.

Technology / plot has shades of the Lost Fleet & The Expanse gates. Also this book is written like a series of episodes, so each chapter has excitement and could be a TV episode.

Very enjoyable

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Brandon Devnich

Fun, fast, cinematic.

Reviewed in Canada on July 1, 2021

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Was pleasantly surprised by this book. Characters development was excellent, and there was more than enough plot intrigue that made the book hard to put down. My only complaint is that I have to wait almost two months for the next book. Come on J.S. Dewes, write faster!

Аmazon Customer

Good first book. Needed a space sci that ticked many boxes for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2022

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After the lost fleet series I've been kinda stuck with those RPG another world kinda books, while keeping an eye out for another space opera. As I got into this book I was wishing that I had more than one book to read after this one in the series, that's how good it was! I like a little more space action but theres a good story, characters and it's feels fresh enough to give it 5 star and be bothered to leave a review! Good story, not the same old good guy bad guy drama with a hero of old bringing his old out of date ways to a space opera and saving the universe. Well done S.J Dewes, more books please.

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Leather DeBoeuf

De très bonnes idées, mais avec des défauts

Reviewed in France on January 30, 2022

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The Last Watch fait partie des livres de SF qui ont de l'impact, grâce à de très bonnes idées et une histoire solide. Même si l'univers est un peu caricatural et si d'un point vue scientifique le livre risque d'être rapidement périmé. (Mais tous les livres de SF prennent ce risque.)
Dommage que la plume de l'auteure manque de légèreté : elle en rajoute beaucoup trop sur les tourments intérieurs de ses personnages, et elle nous noie parfois dans des descriptions techniques absconses.
Du coup, c'est parfois pénible à lire, malgré un bon suspens, et comme souvent, c'est trop long.

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John jackson

Sci-fi conspiracy with good physics

Reviewed in Germany on August 11, 2021

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Good story. First book in the series. Innovative plot. Interested to see how the second book turns out.

Peter Eerden

I have a new favourite author

Reviewed in Australia on June 16, 2023

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J. S. Dewes is at once a consummate storyteller and someone who has the ability to keep us readers turning pages at a furious pace. The expanding/contacting universe theories are explored and delved into in such a way as to make a believer out of me. All of the authors characters are well fleshed out and personable and their deeds and foibles all there for us to examine. Even the enemy has its place in rendering a story that resonates with possibilities. I am off to read part two. Get behind this series to ensure more stories come from this exciting ‘new’ author. (new to me anyway.)

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