Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley (Humanity’s Fire 1)

The first book in the Humanity’s Fire series. I liked it even if I was a bit fooled by the cover. I was expecting more of colonists meets aliens and finds out about their secrets while establishing their colony but that is in the past when this story takes place. This is about when the earth they left for dead reestablish contact, now associated to an interstellar empire of dubious nature and morals.

The planet does indeed house a secret, a warpwell, a weapon from an earlier war fought between what at a glance might be life and machines. Now old foes across the galaxy wake up and make their moves to take control of the ultimate weapon.

I enjoyed reading it.