Wow! What a space battle! I couldn’t put the latter part of this book down to save my life! Thousands of starships engaged in a massive battle with Earth as the prize. The writer describes all the critical actions very clearly and does a wonderful job of still surprising the reader to the end.
Earth has been at war for thirty years! At war for thirty years; I can’t imagine that kind of war. The Korilians just appeared out of deep space attacking one of Earth’s fledgling colonies. Earth had sent forces to stop the attack but it didn’t help. The fleet was overmatched and out-gunned from the start. The Korilians then sent ground troops to the surface and destroyed every human still alive. The did not take prisoners. The colonies meager resistance allowed the humans to get their first glimpse of what this new enemy looked like and it wasn’t pretty. Korilians were ten-feet tall, black insect-like creatures. They had “six limbs with razor-sharp edges that sliced through human flesh and bone with ease.” 1 They began attacking every single Earth colony methodically destroying any Earth fleet responses and then sending in their ground forces.
1st Fleet Admiral Jon McCarthy was on his flag ship commanding this latest engagement trying to protect the colony planet Ritalis. Beside him was Regina Caine, a Nexus Guide whose job was to see potential future events during battle and alert the commander to what she sees in her visions. Yeah, this is kind of farfetched, but I guess there were or are people in this version of history that can see into the future. Some have limited insight of only a few minutes and then they don’t actually know what they saw. Yet, Nexus Guides stood next to every fleet commander during battle and did what they could. Admiral McCarthy and Regina had been together for five years of the war and were quite the team. Admiral McCarthy, although very young for an Admiral, had proven himself a strategic and tactical genius throughout this war. Many thought that if not for Admiral McCarthy, Earth would have already fallen.
Yet, this battle over Ritalis isn’t going as planned which wasn’t that unusual. Then Regina had a vision and it was red. As she told this to the Admiral he commanded the bridge shield doors be closed at once. But, it was too late. Four Korilian dreadnoughts had fired their pulse cannons at the same time and place with the command ship the target. The bridge couldn’t withstand that much firepower and shrapnel went flying everywhere. Admiral McCarthy felt the pain in his chest immediately, but he looked over to Regina and saw a huge piece of Kevlar sticking out of her stomach. He reached behind her to support or body and felt the other end of the shard. Regina died in his arms.
So this story is really about finding Admiral Jon McCarthy a new Nexus Guide. These Guides came from House Nexus which was currently ruled by The One. She was a Placidia Nexus Level Ten, the highest level attainable. She had been leading House Nexus this entire war starting when she was only seventeen. Like everything else, the war had cost House Nexus a lot. The Colonial Council had demanded that House Nexus produce more Level Tens to help in the war, therefore The One had put all available Level Nines to the “Test”. Most had failed which left them locked in a reality not of this world. Other Nexi were not in agreement with The One following the edicts of the Colonial Council.
But that wasn’t The One’s problem today. She had to find a Guide to replace Regina and assist Admiral McCarthy. The Korilians were amassing a huge armada that was heading straight for Earth. If McCarthy survived his latest wounds, which it appeared he would, then he’d need a fully trained and ready Nexus Guide. House Nexus had none! But they did know of a young lady on Ritalis who possessed some very significant talent. Maybe she could be taught and taught quickly to aid Admiral McCarthy. That is if she wasn’t already dead. She hadn’t been on any of the last evacuation shuttles that the fleet had sent to Ritalis. Someone was going to have to go rescue her and right now!
I enjoyed this book very, very much. It was easy to read and although this House Nexus stuff is kind of far out there, it was easy to understand. I like that most all the important characters were given backgrounds so you can understand where they are coming from. And again, the battle for Earth was written in a very descriptive manner that made me want to read until the very early hours of the morning and I started reading at 11:30 pm that night!
You can bet I’m going to continue reading this series. Book 2, “Descent into Hellios”, is not out yet, but should be available on Amazon by 15 July 2024. I’ll be waiting!
—
1. Rick Campbell – “The Final Stand: A Colonial Fleet Novel (Nexus House Book 1)”
==[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.]==