I really, really like this series. It has changed considerably since the first book, or rather, episode. Once, a long time ago, Lieutenant Nathan Scott has been just out of the Academy on his first voyage in an experimental starship. That ship, the Aurora, has taken him thousands of light years and back and made him it’s Captain. All of this was done in a very fine science fiction manner. Captain Scott is now believable in his positions as are all the other characters that made up the Aurora as she traveled to the Pentarus Cluster and back.
From the Pentarus Cluster we got a whole bunch of new characters and things in this book changed. The storyline has evolved into Earth against the Jung. There are now many more jump capable ships with many more Captains than just Captain Scott. We now have Admiral Dumar running the show and he’s doing an admirable job. All the other characters are there, but the story is now about much more than just the Aurora. I like the way the story has grown.
In this episode, be prepared to get really confused right off the bat. You’re going to be thrown into the middle of a battle, no, into many battles right from the first page. Then you get into the actions that are happening in the Pentarus Cluster and come right back to Tau Ceti and are in another major battle! It doesn’t feel like you’re going to get any time to just read without trying to figure who’s shooting at who. So, there is a lot of action in this book, that’s for sure.
I still think Commander Telles is my favorite character. He’s the Commander of the Ghatazhak Soldiers and he doesn’t take nothing from anyone. The action he gets into is fast and furious and very, very hard to figure out. But, survive he does and accomplish his mission, he also does. He also doesn’t care for some of the more “compassionate” consideration of his senior Commanders. Not a guy you would want to tangle with, but Lieutenant Commander Nash seems to want to take him on. She’s got a chip on her shoulder that just might get knocked off hard in the next episode.
Ok, so this book is great. It finishes off what the Alliance started in the previous book. Remember the scout ship that got clobbered and tractor-beamed by a Jung ship that went FTL immediately. The Alliance can’t lose a ship with an intact jump drive, so find out how the Aurora gets that problem resolved.
Good episode, great series, excellent science fiction!