Ok, I almost forgot to write a review of this book! This is the third book in this series that I have read and, as you would expect, the most frightening of all. This is a science fiction horror novel, plain and simple. Yeah, it’s also a military science fiction book, but one that goes far, far beyond the normal humans fighting aliens thing. If you’re not the kind that likes to read science fiction horror stories, you might want to move on to something else, otherwise, this is a very, very good and intense book.
We’re back with what’s left of “Dragon” platoon or whatever it was called prior to landing on the Indrani moon, Corpus Christi. Now, they have reached Nightfall Outpost and are staring at a vast armada of human ships. So numerous are the ships around Nightwall, that Marco can’t begin to count. He realizes that here is where all the wealth of Earth has gone for the last fifty years. Everything is pristine and ready for war, but what war? Has their actions on Corpus Christi caused a change in the normal ebb and flow of the last fifty years between the scum and humans? The answer is a definite, “Yes!”. Because Marco and his friends killed the hive and hive king on Corpus, the scum have struck back at Earth far worse than ever before. But, Marco and his friends are not on Earth right now. They have a much bigger mission coming.
When I say Marco’s friends, you probably know that the only survivors of Corpus Christi were Lieutenant Einav Ben-ari, Addy, Marco, and Lialani, the latter of which is secured in the ship’s Brig. Once they dock with Nightwall, they expect to be integrated into the Space Territorial Command as originally scheduled. Yet, that doesn’t quite happen immediately. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered about just what took place around the gas giant Indrani.
Meanwhile, Nightwall Outpost is still gathering a fleet, a huge vast armada of ships and personnel for one final mission that will end this 50 year war one way or another. This battle will be led by a distant heroic figure from the past. He will give Lieutenant Ben-ari one final mission which Marco, Addy and even Lialani might not come back from. They and the millions of ships, multi-million Marines and other personnel are about to invade Abandon, the scums home world. What humanity has gathered might not be enough!
The author certainly kept me in suspense. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen from one page to the next, but what did happen was exciting. Some of it was pure fanciful, like huge, gigantic monsters with exoshells that tank rounds bounced off of while hand grenades did a lot of damage? Then there was the strange manner in which Marco’s ship to Abaddon was manned. Instead of a crew who manned their various guns and missile stations, Marco’s platoon had to do this. And, the guns that Marco operated, had manual lanyards and firing mechanisms. Why wasn’t this all automated? Then there’s the Android, Osiris, who apparently just piloted the ship and nothing else; well, she did tell corny jokes for some reason. The Android was extremely valuable, yet she went into the tunnels with the humans. She had a map of the tunnel system, but was never called on to lead the platoon any where. So, yeah, there were some strange situations created by the author that makes you scratch your head. But, overall, these were very, very good books.
And, it appears there is another book coming sometime soon. I really don’t know if I want to read it or not. I’ve been scared enough for this year, maybe!