There’s a lot going on in this book. You have your normal run-of-the-mill scavenger by the name of Davin de la Fossa, who Captain’s the scavenger ship HCC Fossa. He has a crew of three, Strange, Jabron, and Jai. You’ll eventually get to know each one although the character building is really centered around Davin. Right now he’s focused on making money, keeping alive and staying away from the authorities, more or less in that order.
He, his crew and ship have just came upon a rather large derelict ship. His mind starts to thinking about all that scrap metal he might be able to scavenge on this run. So far, he’s the only scavenger in the area so he has to work quickly to pick through the remains of what appears to have been a very fancy space yacht. He doesn’t see anything living in the junk floating around, at first. It appears that the ship had some kind of horrendous on-board explosion, but on further look, it now appears that some kind of weapon went right through the major part of this ship. Davin’s out looking for junk when one of his crewmen reports having found a preserve bag with a body inside. Now the fun really starts.
Meanwhile, were flung to another far reach of space to Triumph, the capital of the Sagittarian Regnum. Here, Kastor is in combat with Guarin. There combat is really only a contest in front of the Grand Lumis of Sagittarius. Grand Lumis, as you’ll come to understand, means something like Grand King or Great King. He controls the entire Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. Kastor and Guarin are competing to become the Grand Lumis’ Champion. You would suppose that would be something anyone would want to achieve. The Grand Lumis’ Champion will live in splendor with unimaginable wealth while answering only to the Grand Lumis. Well, someone must not have told these two about the last Grand Lumis Champion, because the price they have to pay, aside from winning this massive contest, is much, much to high, as one is about to find out.
And then finally, we’re flung back to another arm of the Milky Way galaxy to the Carina arm and it’s capital, Baha’runia. Here the Prime Minister Elan Falco has something terrible on his mind. Reports have just come in that they yacht his beautiful daughter, Sierra, was a passenger on, has been destroyed with no survivors. Gloom settles over the entire Carina arm. But, others within the close circle of the Prime Minister are vowing that someone must pay for this outrage. And, that someone is the Grand Lumis of Sagittarius. Is war coming?
Oh, yeah, the Sacred Planet. Well, come to find out we’re living on it. Seems like it’s a mecca for all religions in the Milky Way. But, don’t get excited. The Sacred Planet has a very minor part in this book. Strange that the author chose that as the title of this book. Wonder if he has something more in store for the “Sacred Planet”?
So, you got political intrigue, a couple of guys you can kind of relate to in Davin and Kastor, or maybe Guarin, a lot of land and space battles and some pretty gory scenes. Great stuff! Davin and Kastor have good character details in the book so you can really see where they are coming from. The author has also installed a unique mating arrangement for the nobles, cradle mates! Sounds very interesting. Of course, the nobles of the ruling class all have genetic enhancements which makes everyone almost perfect. Still, you get to dislike a few of these perfect people.
I thought the book was well written and edited. I stayed very interested all the way through. Most of the main character names and names for other things were pronounceable. I just hate it when I almost have to learn a new language just to read a book. Finally, this is the start of the Dominion Series and it has to be because the story certainly didn’t finish. Too many loose ends were left hanging and I will be waiting for the next book which according to the author won’t be out until Spring of 2017. Hurry, please!