Well, after reading two of the books in this series, I think I’m going to give it up. This is just me and my impression so don’t be doing anything like this if you really enjoy these books. I’m not a religious person, never have subscribed to anyone religion so I don’t like reading about someone else’s religion and it being thrown around in a military-type science fiction story. Again, that’s just me and just know that I’ve been in situations where I’ve prayed to come out alive, but it didn’t help some of those around me who were doing the same thing.
Enough said about all that.
Lieutenant Arthur Hanson has taken command of the *CDF Margaret Thatcher* when his Captain was killed in a previous surprise attack by what is now known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Orion Spur (PFLOS). These ships came out of know where and attacked a CDF space station without warning. The *Thatcher* fought hard and was damaged herself, but managed to disable a large PFLOS ship and drive away the rest of the PFLOS fleet or they just left after doing the damage they wanted to do. Now ship’s Captain Hanson has to get his ship back in order to defend against further incursions by this PFLOS.
While he’s doing that and figuring on going to war again for a long period of time, the word of the attack has gotten back to Lawrence City on Canaan, the capital city of the Terran Coalition. General David Cohen is prepared to receive his marching orders to throw the entire might of the CDF at this new enemy. But, he’s stunned when President Rachel Robbins says she does not want another war, therefore the Terran Coalition will do nothing about this incident. In fact, she direct General Cohen to withdraw all CDF forces within the Orion Spur which means she’s willing to give it up entirely. That means all the colonies and Terran Coalitions citizens are now on their own against the PFLOS! Of course, General Cohen can’t believe what he’s hearing, but he’s summarily dismissed from further political discussions and told to do as ordered!
Meanwhile, the PFLOS has been busy attacking outer Terran Coalition assets. They are raiding defenseless freighters and even cruise liners, taking capture any and all citizens. They are ruthless in their treatment of Terran citizens even going so far as to public execute a kindergarten teacher on public TV. They eventually announce that they have well over 2,000 captives and demand that the Terran Coalition ceded the Orion Spur to them or they will eliminate all these civilians.
General Cohen has done as ordered but Captain Hanson believes that he must do something. He directs that the orders from CDF HQ were garbled while he also tells his people that they must find the location of where these Terran Coalition citizens are being held. If necessary, he’ll take the *CDF Margaret Thatcher* in alone to free their citizens.
Even with the news of the capture of a large number of her citizens, President Robbins still insist that they will do nothing but follow whatever the PFLOS is telling them to do. She apparently doesn’t care much about here citizens but is more concerned in maintaining her political power.
So how is General Cohen and Captain Arthur Hanson going to handle all this? Well, that’s what the book is about. There are a number of space battles involving quite a few ships, mostly very few on the CDF side, but Hanson has found he does have some support from a very secretive source. Can they pull off a rescue? Read and find out.
As I mentioned initially, this book has a lot of religious connotations from all sorts of religion. They even have an alien Saurian (lizard-like people) as part of their coalition. I don’t care for the way these books are written, but that’s just mean. You might find them very enjoyable. So, in that light, the next book in the series is, “Counterstrike”, now available on Amazon.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==