This series is kind of hard to read, but once you get into the books, they do take off and are interesting. Noah Gantz is or was a Major in the United Earth Defense Forces, but he got lost in a new galaxy test flying Earth’s second FLT spacecraft. Fortunately, he was rescued by Kayan, a living, breathing space creature that also served as a starship. She had healed Noah since he had been quite injured in his flight and now they had a symbiotic relationship unlike any other. While some time has now passed, Noah has amassed an amazing crew of different alien species that are working together to solve a lot of problems in the Reach. The Reach is that part of the galaxy currently controlled by the Gavant.
While the Gavant seems to be the enemy to the living ship, Kayan, there are not others appearing in this Galaxy that may be a greater threat. The biggest problem for Noah and his crew is that the Kayan cannot and will not fight. Even if her life it threatened, she will flee if possible rather than destroy her attackers. That doesn’t mean that the occupants of her starship can’t fight. They do and are often called upon to defend the ship from one kind of an attack or another. Still, each one of the alien crew has problems they must periodically attend to while still trying to stay away from the Gavant military.
Wozim, a Tyton warrior, was now in competition for the leadership of his entire race. He did not exactly want that position, but he would rather have it than let it fall to those he considered of questionable character. So, he has to venture back to Tyson III and begin his trials to the thrown. Meanwhile, Hash, a Mavik, having given up everything to stay aboard the Kayan, now had news that his world was experiencing a terrible natural disaster. His family and all his holdings were in danger. He told Noah that he must get back to his home world Mavik Prime. So Noah and Kayan dropped off another one of their crew to take care of his business.
Noah also had something to take care of and that concerned the three United Earth Defense System (UEDS) ships that had came to the Reach and promptly found themselves attacked by the Gavant. They had gone to a primordial world of Distinia and had become trapped on the surface with their three starships captured by the Gavant. Noah was off to rescue them if he could. He did find them on the planet although some of the advanced party had got separated. For some odd reason, Colonel Patricks, commander of the UEDS fleet, was among those on the planets surface. Noah now had to figure out how to rescue all his fellow Earthmen and then get their ships back.
It just so happened that while the Gavant had been attacking the UEDS ships, they also came under attack by the Taliz. This was a new alien race that were subservient to the Seer. They appeared to have come from another galaxy, but their intent was to take over this galaxy, claim all its resources, destroy everything and everyone else, and then move on. They had a formidable force in the Reach and the Gavant was just now becoming aware of them, but the Gavant couldn’t actually believe that anyone could stand up to their might. Meanwhile, Kayan was getting hurt by all the fighting that was going on around her. She was also being attacked by a strange species almost like her called the Azok. It was a living ship but unlike Kayan, it had no compunction against using weapons to kill.
Kayan had to flee to another a place of safety. That place was a remote world mostly of water. She felt that she might be able to go below the waters surface and stay hidden until all the fighting was over. So, that’s what they did only they found something there entirely unexpected. Noah also found evidence that his home Solar System was also a target of the Taliz so he had to do something about that and quickly.
While I’m not all that crazy about this series, I’ll probably continue reading it since I’ve gone this far. Book 5, “Earth Rising”, might have more information on how Earth gets involve in all this fighting.