Well, this is another 4 in 1 book. I’m not really a fan of cramming four books into one; it doesn’t seem like you’re getting your money’s worth when you read them like this. I’d prefer single books so I could finish one and then write a review for it and then read the next one or some other book. But, since I’ve got this one started, I’ll just review them as I finish them. Hopefully they’ll be short reviews!
Lucky Universe
This is a strange book. There wasn’t much introduction to the story even though there was a Prologue at the beginning. Lance Corporal Lucky Lee Savage is our main character. He’s an Empire Frontier Marine doing what he’s told as any good Marine should. Yet, I don’t think you could qualify Lucky as a “good” Marine. He’s been in way too much trouble for that label to stick. He’s also been in a lot of hypersleep cycles which is how Frontier Marines get from one mission to the next. Only Lucky was not long ago in hypersleep for some fifty-one years! That was extraordinarily too long and should not have happened. It’s a miracle that he survived and is also the reason for his first name “Lucky”.
He and the squad of Frontier Marines have landed on a small moon owed by the Union. The Empire and the Union have a semi-peace going on, but for some unknown reason, all the Union planets have gone silent. It is hoped that Lucky and his squad of Marines can find out why. His problems start out right away in that a peaceful landing on this moon didn’t go as planned. It seems there is something going on with the few Union soldiers and Miners stationed here. They seem to have been taken over by something and they also have weapons much more advanced that those of the Empire. These weapons are deadly. They can slice through about anything, including dropping Frontier Marines. While Lucky manages to get himself safely down, his Sergeant didn’t make it and now Lance Corporal Lucky Savage is in charge. That’s a job he doesn’t want to consider he comes face to face with the same things that captured him before.
Lucky’s Legacy
Well, the story doesn’t really get much better for the Marines. You’d think that after their first mission, they’d be given some time off for rest and relaxation, but not in the Empires’ Marine Corps! Lucky and his squad, now lead by Sergeant Adria Nuchik, they were assigned to maintain order on a planet that was about to be torn apart due to its proximity to the Great Corridor. Now this wasn’t just some ordinary home world; no it was the home world of the Empire’s former enemy, the Union.
So why was a squad of Empire Marines sent down to this planet to maintain order. Well, I don’t really know. Let’s just say that they did because that’s what happens in this book. Once on the ground, the inevitable happens; they get attacked not by the Union, but apparently by the Da’hune wearing Union uniforms. These were actually genetically altered Union soldiers using Da’hune genes and now equipped with powerful Da’hune weapons. Lucky’s Empire Marines were no match for them.
They fell back to the Evacuation Center, which was a very large structure protected by a force field dome. Still, the Da’hune cannon firing at them wasn’t having any kind of problem with the force field. Also, for some reason, all the Union soldiers have just up and left. Upon exploring the Evac Center, they discovered a secret cavern deep at the bottom of the building. Inside were thousands of stasis pods apparently incubating Union super-soldiers infected with Da’hune genes. If they woke up, it was going to be serious trouble for Lucky’s Marines.
Of course they did, but fortunately there was also a small Corridor leading to some Empire laboratory which orbited about the Emperors moon. Yes, instead of residing on the home world of the Empire, the Emperor lived on a small moon that was well guarded or at least it was supposed to be. Anyway, the story has Lucky’s Marines trying to save the Emperor and still defeat the Da’hune created army. They weren’t exactly all that successful.
This story is still hard to understand. I don’t know what makes me say that, but there’s something about these stories that just don’t work for me. I think I’ve finished reading all I’m going to in this series. I hope you have a better time of it, but these stories are just not interesting enough for me.