Well, this book was exciting but, in my opinion, full a gross strategic and tactical errors from the start. Yes, the Karacknid civil war is over and most all of the Karacknids are aligned with Tanaka-Ian, a ruthless warlord and once Grand Admiral of the Fleet. Now he is Imperator and has vowed to make war on the Human Empire as soon as possible. But first he sets out to track down those who would call themselves the “Free Karacknids”. He vows to destroy every man, woman and child of these traitors and then set his sites directly on the Human Empire’s home planet.
Back on Earth, Emperor James Somerville, with the approval of his wife, Christine, Empress of the Human Empire, decides it’s time to invade Karacknid space and let Imperator Tanaka-Ian know that his conquest of the Human Empire won’t be easy. Now, the Human Empire has had twenty-five years to study and watch the actions of the Karacknids while supposedly building up their own empire along with all the allies they have garnered. Yet, it doesn’t appear that was happening within the Human Empire. The Emperor and Empress are still afraid of another Karacknid war. You would think with all the time they had to be ships and improve their capabilities while the Karacknids were fighting and killing each other, the Human Empire should have a substantial advantage in any coming war. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem the case and I can’t understand why.
To make matters worse, Emperor Somerville has decided to seen a large fleet with his best Admiral to the back half of the Karacknid Empire to try and cause a “distraction” such that Imperator Tanaka-Ian will delay his invasion while the Human Empire gets ready for war. Admiral Becket is to go into Karacknid territory and begin attacking and destroying any supply depots and forts along the Karacknid – Human Empire border. She is not to get significantly engaged because the Human Empire cannot afford the loss of so many ships. You would think that the Human Empire would have built enough ships during the twenty-five years of peace that they would have more than enough to send this fleet out without concern as to losses. Additionally, Emperor Somerville and the Human Empire is starting this war not the Karacknids. James has no concrete evidence that Tanaka-Ian is immediately ready to begin his conquest even though he should have had piles of intelligence reports from his Kalassai allies who have been tracking activities of the Karacknids inside Karacknid territory for the last twenty-five years. They have not indicated that Tanaka-Ian is immediately ready to cross the border, so why is Somerville wanting to start a war. Will his allies consider this a wise move. He doesn’t seem to have coordinated these actions fully with the Varanni.
Another thing, the Kalassai should have clearly reported to Somerville that Tanaka-Ian has left his homeworld of Galyla in search of the Free Karacknids. Why doesn’t Somerville see this as an another opportunity to strike deep into the heart of the Karacknid Empire and destroy their homeworld before the war ever gets going. Such a defeat would surely throw Tanaka-Ian off his thrown or at least be the beginning of another Karacknid civil war. Yet, he’s wasting his fleets to destroy unimportant supply depots that Tanaka-Ian has no use for anyway.
Then, his son and heir to the thrown, Jonathan, who has been promoted to Commodore has been given a mission in the wilds to protect a large engineering fleet that come to reinforce and build up one of the Human Empires strategic forts along the Human-Karacknid border. Yet, he doesn’t do what he’s ordered because a group of Free Karacknids have asked for his help in getting out of Karacknid territory. That is not Commodore Somerville’s mission and never should have been. He wildly runs off entering Karacknid space without a sufficient force to do the kind of fighting he might encounter. He basically starts the next Human Empire-Karacknid war all his own and without the approval of his father, whom he doesn’t even notify of his actions! This is just stupid and not something that would have occurred in past books.
Jonathan Somerville actions will result in the capture of a significant player in the Human Empire’s fleet. It’s the result of his careless regard for his standing orders and his misplaced duty to Karacknids who say they no longer wish to follow Tanaka-Ian. Jonathan should never have left on this idiotic mission.
Then finally, at least Edward, the next oldest son of James and Christine, has something positive turn out. He’s an intelligence guy that is attempting to track down the illusive snake-like alien that have caused problems with several civilizations over the past years. If he’s successful, this might be the break they need to find out who these aliens are and why they are trying to cause such chaos between the Human Empire and its allies.
So, I found this book very disturbing because of the many strategic and tactical blunders that were obvious even to me. Hopefully some of this can be corrected in the next book, but, surprisingly, that book hasn’t been identified yet. I wonder if the author has gotten himself in a nasty bind with this story and isn’t sure how to resolve it?