I didn’t think I’d really like this book all that much, but I was wrong. I liked it quite a bit even though it wasn’t a follow-on to the first book in this series. I’m not sure why the authors wrote this book as part of this series, but they do attempt to explain their reasons in the back of the book. This is not about soldiers and combat as was the first book. This is about someone want vengeance for a killing and she’s out to find a bounty hunter to do the killing for her.
The only think interesting to this story-line, is that the person who wants someone killed is a very young little girl. And that’s how she’s described all the way through the book, a very young little girl. She’s also a very determined young child and nothing is stopping her from achieving her vengeance. She leaves a freighter that carried her to the planet Ackabar which was being overrun by the Republic just as the ship landed. You’ll read that when the Republic comes to a planet, it doesn’t do so peacefully. They are there to collect a tax and the inhabitants will pay one way or another. Most that can will flee the planet as soon as a Republic starship is spotted. This freighter is now caught and isn’t going anywhere and that suits the young girl just fine. Now if only she can find where they keep the bounty hunters on this planet.
Fortunately, the young girl now known as Prisma Maydoon, is accompanied by a rather large battle bot called KRS-88 (a.k.a. “Crash). He’s been programmed to guard and protect the young girl with his existence and that he will do. While with Prisma he sounds more like a huge Nanny than a dangerous robot. Still, even though the ship she arrived on is now under fire by the Republic legionaries, she and her bot leave the docking bay heading for the one place where she might find a bounty hunter, a bar, the Jaris Cantina. She also has a name, “Tyrus Rechs”, so she’s going to hire him to do her killing. Except the Republic also happens to be after Tyrus Rechs and they have of troops combing the city.
Just so you know, Prisma Maydoon does meet up with Tyrus Rechs and then the adventure really starts. So does a lot of the killing! We’re also going to follow another string in the story involving one Captain Aeson Keel, Captain of the Indelible VI, which happens to be a very fragile freighter engaged in smuggling when it’s not carrying some VIP passengers as it was doing at the moment. How all of these people, Prisma, Rechs and Keel meet up and for what is the entire story. There’s a lot of things that are not as they seem. Each one of these people have a deep background story that you’ll read about and they are all interesting. While this isn’t about soldiers, there is a lot of fighting since the Republic seems to attack anyone and everything.
Still, the one driving force in the entire story is the little girl and how she can talk a dangerous bounty hunter to go after and attempt to kill Goth Sullus. Why she wants him dead is also a very good back story; one that does deserve to have someone killed for it.
I like the writing although I would prefer to get back to the original story about the Legionnaires in Victory Company. So, I’m going to look for book three, “Kill Team” which is available on Amazon.