So maybe I’ve just read too much of this series all at once because it seems to be getting a little childish. The writing just doesn’t seem to be at an adult level and that may be due to the fact the author has introduced everything good into what could have been a tragic book for humanity. I mean, here we have humans from Earth just starting to venture out into space. They have a rudimentary FTL drive capability that gets them to the nearest stars like Alpha Centauri and now New Eden, but they aren’t really prepared for difficulties that being so far away from Earth can cause. Fortunately, Alpha Centauri seems to be a relatively peaceful star system, so much so that most of the Asian Alliance have decided to move there. Meanwhile, word of the Zodarks and their terrible warfighting behavior has certainly stunned the Republic and turned New Eden from a paradise to a big problem.
But, now is the good part, Admiral Hunt is visiting Altairius, the Altairian home world. He’s thoroughly overcome by what he sees at this very advance planet. He’s also introduced to other members of the Alliance who are also members of the Galactic Empire. That last sentence is important. It seems that when the Altarians are running things, all the member civilizations are part of an Alliance, but they are also members of the Galactic Empire. Earth gets invited to join this Alliance with Admiral Hunt even getting a seat at the Alliance War Council. But, there are strings attached. The Alliance wants Earth to prove it’s warfighting skills as though they haven’t already with the capture and holding of New Eden. It seems one of the Alliance members wants to get their planets back from the Zodarks, but they aren’t fighters, so the Earth humans have been tasked to retake planet Intus. This is where Admiral Hunt starts to feel that the Altairians aren’t as sharp as they should be, but the Alliance and Altairains are dumping huge amounts of new technology on the humans and helping them build war fleets that they, Earth humans, wouldn’t have been able to build for thousands of years. So, the humans are going to have to pay for their membership in this new alliance by dying on planets for which they have no need. Not good.
Yet, back home around Earth, everyone is benefiting from this new technology. Even the Deltas are seeing new armor and new weapons, but they are running of people. Well, even thought WWIII was fought against rouge AIs built by humans to fight their wars and then completely banned from ever being used again, it’s time to change that policy. A new model of androids built specifically to fight Zodarks will now be produced and trained by the Deltas. Hopefully, these new AIs will do as they are told and not suddenly decided they don’t want to fight again! Once again, the problem of running out of people to fight a galactic war has been solved.
You’ll read where the Altairians and its Alliance has been fighting the Zodarks for thousands of years. When Admiral Hunt asks questions as to why, he’s told that the fight has to go on as is or the “Collective” will get involved. Now we get introduced to a whole new set of circumstances. The Collective seem to be supporting the Zodark and the Orbots while the Altairians and its Alliance has the backing of the Gallentines. The Gallentines is the civilization of the Emperor of the Galaxy! When Admiral Hunt presses the question as to why doesn’t the Alliance make a much greater effort to defeat the Zodarks, he gets shut down by the Alliance. They obviously don’t mind this war since they aren’t the ones losing people in it. Once again, Admiral Hunt believes something isn’t right.
Then we take a giant leap in this book when the Emperor of the Galaxy requests to speak to Admiral Hunt. Has he done something that has angered the Emperor and if he has, then he’s a dead man and doesn’t know it. Maybe the Gallentines prefer the war to continue as is so they are going to make sure these humans from Earth know their place. Except, as you’ll read, things turn out far different than we though and this is going to make book four, “Into the Chaos” very interesting. That book won’t be available until June 2021 so I can take a break from all this and I think that’s a wise thing to do.