Parker, saved most of Earth’s population from going into the Sun. He also managed to kill an entire race of aliens that needed killing. He got all the colony ships headed for the Sun turned around and managed to get almost everyone back to Earth. But, Earth’s population is and was quite large and there were a lot of deaths. Most by the hands of other humans who went kind of crazy when they were all stuffed into giant alien colony ships. Dean couldn’t help that nor could he do anything about those that were already weak, old and helpless before the aliens took them. Those people died right off the bat. So now Earth’s population is considerably smaller, but things are moving slowly back to normal.
Dean still has Mary with him and of course Carey, his adopted dog. Mary came to him by the way of his previous wife’s Brother. Janine, Dean’s deceased wife, died before “The Event”. Unknown to Dean, she was actually a hybrid alien who was bred by the Kraski whose intent was to have these hybrid humans take the Earth population and drive colony ships into the Sun. That would free up Earth and the Solar System for the Kraski. Unfortunately, the Kraski, themselves were wiped out by the Bhlat, another hostile alien race, so the Deltra stepped in and helped the hybrid humans continue the destruction of Earth’s population. Dean managed to find an alien machine that once coded to a races specific DNA, destroyed that race if it was anywhere near it. So anyway, Mary was Janine’s Brother’s wife! Got all that. Janine’s Brother was also a hybrid. Both of the hybrids gave their spouses a green emerald, a ring for Mary and a necklace pendant for Dean which allowed them to escape the traction beam that pulled all the humans from Earth into the colony ships.
There were only a dozen of humans that did escape the beam like Dean. He was also left instructions that told him to go to Peru and turn off a shield that was preventing Earth from getting help from a supposedly benevolent alien race. Dean and the others struggled mightily to reach the alien machine only to find out that turning it off wasn’t what they should be doing. Ok, so all that was in book one. You don’t actually need to read it, but I suggest you do. It’s a pretty good story, although it is kid of far fetched. From upstate New York to Peru is quite a trip and Dean made it in record time and while finding Mary along the way.
Now that Earth knows there are bad aliens out there, they are trying to get themselves ready for the encounter. They have a lot of advanced technology they are reverse engineering from the capture colony ships. President Patrice Dalhousie has asked for Dean and Mary, plus a few other Heroes of Earth to attend a meeting with her and her closest staff. She appoints Dean and Mary and the rest as members of the new Earth Defense Force, complete with uniforms and other stuff. Their first assignment is to find out if there is wide-spread unrest with the captured hybrids who are being held on an island somewhere around New York. There hundreds if not thousands of these hybrid humans. Some realize that the purpose for which they were grown and programmed was wrong and greatly regret their involvement. They believe they didn’t have a choice and only wish to be integrated into human society. Then there are the others who believe they must fulfill their programming. They must somehow destroy all humanity. Dean and Mary need to stop this.
Ok, so this book is pretty short or it reads so easy that I just zipped right through it. The story is well written and is kind of a “who-done-it” more than anything else. Dean is sure one reluctant hero. He’s the kind of guy that says, “I don’t know anything about that.”, and then goes on to explain everything about “that” anyway. He’s a good guy, but very reluctant to take charge. Mary is an ex-Air Force so she fits right in to the Earth Defense Forces. I think there’s going to be a number of new books now that they have something to write about.
In fact, the next book, “New World”, book three, is already out and I have it. I’ll let you know if it’s a good one soon.