Every once in a while, I run into a military science fiction series that I just can’t put down. Fortunately for me, the books in the series have already been published and I’m late to the original release. But, that’s oh so great for me in that I can get all the books in the series read one after the other. I love doing that and that’s exactly what I’m doing with this Black Fleet Trilogy. I have never read a Joshua Dalzelle book, but that’s about to change. I’m now aware of his Omega series and I’ll definitely be checking it out and soon.
If you remember the latter part of the first book, Captain Jackson Wolfe (man, why couldn’t I have been given a name like that?) is being his normal disbelieving self as he’s recovering from his last battle with the Phage Alpha. If you remember in the last book, he has just rammed the Blue Jacket into a huge hole blown out of the Alpha ship near Xa’in. Of course that took care of both ships and save the planet, for the time-being.
Believe it or not, he survived that smash-up although he was certain it wasn’t going to be the last thing he ever did. The Command module he was in, was blasted clear to the final explosion and then tracked down by the recovery teams. Captain Wolfe spent two months in the hospital understanding that he lost a good part of one leg and maybe his career. Then, the most satisfying thing happened. The CIS came in and arrested Admiral Alyson Winters during the hearing for both Captain Wolfe and Commander Wright. She was sure she had them and was going to drum both out of the service. Except she now finds herself in prison! Very satisfying.
Captain Wolfe is now a Senior Captain. He was going to be promoted to Admiral, but couldn’t stand the thought of being behind a desk, so he fought vigorously to have that not happen. He then was given a brand new ship with the most advance capabilities ever produced by the Tsuyo Corporation. He also found that he was now in command of five Wolfe-class starship, the Black Fleet, Ninth Squadron!
So, he immediately takes his squadron back into the fight. He’s back a Xi’an where he finds the Phage has completely taken over the planet and is now producing more Alphas. Two Alphas are arising from the surface of Xi’an. He knows that his squadron will be tested to the limit, but they must destroy these two Alphas before they can begin destroying other planets in human space. And, that’s about what happens all during this book. Captain Wolfe and his new ship, the Ares, find themselves constantly going into battle. He also lost his XO, Commander Wright, who is now in command of one of the new starships, the Icarus. Starship officers that have battle experience are few and far between, so she had to go command her own ship and now was the time.
This book also revels a lot of political back-fighting between the politicians on Haven and the rest of the Confederacy. Most of the Alliances that make up the Confederacy have decided they do not want to fight in this war. They haven’t been at war in over 200 years and they are not threatened now, so they’re not willing to give up their respective fleets that have habitually protected their Alliances. And, then Captain Wolfe finds out that he’s been abandoned by his own Chief of Staff and the President of the Confederation.
There is so much going on in this book. But, it is very exciting. I could hardly put the books down. I think you’ll find them just as good. So far, the author hasn’t left anything hanging and what should happen, does eventually happen. Still, Captain Wolfe and his squadron of 5 new starships can hardly defeat the entire Phage armada, ok can they?