Way back in 2020, I started reading a series titled, “The Messenger”. I read four books in that series and don’t know why I didn’t continue reading it. After reading my old reviews, I was pretty much into the series so I don’t know if the fifth book hadn’t been published or what, but I didn’t continue reading some very good books. Now it appears that a long, long time has passed and the Messenger(s) in those older books had died out not only in body but in original purpose.
It seems that the original Messenger, Newton Sawyer, a.k.a. “Dash” knew that his kind were not always going to run the show in his new realm. He had defeated all the current threats to the galaxy, but Dash knew that danger could come from within. So, he passed on his thoughts and a plan to his successor, Conover. You’ll read a little about him in the back of this book. That short story tells about what he did to execute Dash Swayer’s plan and how the role of the Messenger has now changed in ways Dash Sawyer specifically didn’t want but expected it to go.
So now we’re many, many hundreds of years beyond the original Dash Sawyer and the Messenger. The galaxy has changed and so have the people. There’s a new type of human that call themselves the Superba and they have in fact been genetically engineered to be better than the “Ordinaries”, or regular humans. Now a Superba, Darius Spann, had just been elected to the role of Messenger for the Empire by the ruling council. He was now in power, but he wanted more and one way to get that was through ruling the ruling council. All he had to do was make sure the majority was populated by Superbas like him. There was an old Ordinary that was seemingly near death and once that seat was vacated, Spann planned to put one of his cronies in that chair. Only problem was, the guy had a daughter, Serena Tremont, and she would be expected to fill that chair once her father passed.
Then word came that the elder Tremont had died. Now Darius Spann had to make sure that Serena Tremont never made it back to Kingsport and fill that vacant seat on the Council. He sent his minions to deal with her one way or another. Meanwhile, we’re introduced to two young men on Hustanal’s World, an agricultural planet. Lawson Sawyer and his friend Mustaf were out in the field looking for a long lost granary. They knew of a kind of hidden hill that they had seen on several occasions so they headed out towards it. Once they discovered the hidden hill was actually the old granary, they went inside only to find writings on the old walls that stated, “Remember the Five. Remember the one true.” This was alluding to the former original Messenger and his friends. It just so happens that Lawson Swayer is a distant relative of the original Newton (Dash) Swayer.
Lawson and Mustaf didn’t think much of the writings on the wall since that stuff was ancient history to them. The Messenger was now a political position and didn’t really have anything to do with the original Messenger. That original Messenger was viewed by young kids like Lawson and Mustaf as some kind of super hero doing good for the galaxy. Little did Lawson Sawyer know that he was kind of being lead to this location and would soon be finding his entire life changing.
As Lawson was stumbling through the old granary he tipped over a piece of metal sticking up from the dirt. He didn’t think anything of it until he heard this voice seemingly coming from the walls saying that he had tripped a trigger only a dependent of Newton Sawyer could have done. What he had stumbled upon was nothing other than the Sentinel. The Archetype that had been the mecha used by the original Dash Swayer when he was saving the universe. He now has the opportunity to meld with the Sentinel and become the new Messenger, the real Messenger. But will he do it. He’s just a farmer’s son and just out of high school. What does he know about any of this stuff.
Well, you’re about to find out that the Messenger is back and he’s going to be doing much the same as he has done in the past. There’s a lot of intrigue, fast pasted action and certainly war fighting in Lawson Sawyer’s future. I found this book very exciting and had a hard time putting it down each night.
I’m obviously looking forward to the next book, “Cold War”, now available on Amazon.