This is a very good series. It’s very interesting and written where you like the main character very much. He’s human and trying to be a tough guy, but he’s not all that tough, just when he needs to be. Cade Korbin recently found out that he’s a Father and his Daughter, Rama has been kind of following in his footsteps. Cade is a Bounty Hunter, one of the best, and his Daughter is right there close to his proficiency even though she hasn’t been a Bounty Hunt anywhere near as long as Cade. Cade and Rama, along with an Cyborg/Human named Aurora, have been through a very serious episode that involved some revenge from something Cade did in his past. You’ll want to read the first book, “The Bounty Hunter”, to get all the details on that story.
Now Cade and his Daugher, Rama, have decided to take a break from Bounty Hunting and are going on a mission to rescue some scientist that are stuck on a Class 5 planet. A Class 5 planet is one that is very, very dangerous to humans and should be avoided. Cade also wants to return Aurora’s ship to her and try to square things with her so she won’t kill him outright. She did miss out on a six-million dollar bounty by not killing Cade when she first saw him. Anyway, they are in Rama’s starship heading for Auroras ship when they are highjacked by what appears to be a Coalition military ship. Commanding that ship is Captain Davin Greaves, a former commander of Cade’s. He tells them that he has a need for their services and if they want to go anywhere near the planet that the scientist are on, they’ll have to go with him and his crew. That planet is strictly prohibited for civilians.
So, Cade is very confused as to why his former Commander would need a dishonored former Paladin to help on a mission, especially after he finds out that aboard this Coalition ship is an entire team of Paladins lead by a Chief Forge. He finds out that this team has been going on very unsuccessful mission to the mysterious planet already and need something that wasn’t available until now. Cade, Rama and Aurora are all three drafted to go on the next mission to the planet. This planet, called Nexus, has some kind of intelligence guarding it. It also has some very vicious native wild-life which has been tearing up the Paladin team every time they have landed. Cade and his team are subjected to repetitive mission sims in which they find out just how dangerous this planet really is. They have never had a successful simulated mission yet. Still, they are going down to the planet.
There seems to be some kind of artifact on the planet that is controlled from there that makes this planet doubly dangerous. The ring around the planet was built by the “Priors”, an advanced ancient civilization, now extinct. That ring will shoot down any large shuttle or starship attempting a landing. So the combined team from the Coalition starship go down quickly in a small shuttle. What happens now is hard to believe. Still it involves something totally unexpected. Why Cade and Rama have to be involved does finally come to light, but it’s a hard thing to swallow if it’s even true.
The story is very well written and the story line from the first book fits even though they are not the same story. Each has it’s own scenes and works very well. This is somewhat surprising since previous Jasper T. Scott books have sometimes been very confusing and highly technical. I will continue read the series and look forward to Book 3, “Paragon”.