Well, this wasn’t exactly a good second book to this series. I don’t know if I can explain it, but I just couldn’t get really interested in this story. It seems that the characters are all pretty dumb and do the stupidest thing when it’s not necessary. As you recall, Seth Levy is an Earth man who was actually abducted by “aliens” and transported on their ship along with other aliens. It was intended that he wind up in a zoo as that’s where these “intelligent” races of the galaxy display those beings of lesser intelligence. I won’t go into all the details of what happened to him, just say he is now on a very powerful starship along with three other former prison inmates.
They stole a Sentinel ship that was orbiting the prison planet Lakon and made their escape even with a Olarin military ship in the area. Thankfully, the sentinel ship is fully automated being ran by a highly intelligent AI. They have the codes which all them to take complete control of the ship only it does take a little time to do so. Now, Seth isn’t in charge, but neither is any of the other three. They kind of come to a mutual agreement to go someplace into deep, isolated space so they can further explore this large ship and make sure it’s under their control. They also know the Olarin military will definitely be looking for them.
Here’s where I think Seth should have stepped up and told the other three that he need to get back to Earth to warn everyone of the greater galaxy threat. The galaxy is controlled and operated by two factions, the Olarins, the military faction and the Guild, the trading faction. The Guild relies on the Olarins to protect their shipping lanes from pirates and other dangerous unknowns. The Olarins rely on the Guild to supple their home planet and colonies with much needed supplies and move all their manufactured goods about the galaxy. Neither faction trust the other. They have an agreement that the Olarins won’t engage in commerce and the Guild won’t build a military fleet. In Seth case, the Guild has and does abduct Earth humans anytime they seem to want otherwise Earth is supposed to be off-limits to either faction. Yet, the Olarins just don’t attack Earth because it doesn’t have anything it wants including humans. Still, it’s probably only a matter of time before Earth is invaded either peacefully or not.
Yet, Seth agrees to work with the three other people who have nothing in common with him other than they escaped from the prison planet. Then while hiding in deep space another ship shows up and asks the sentinel ship for help. Seth takes it upon himself to invite this ship and crew aboard his ship against the objections of the other three. He says it’s not right to just ignore their plea for help stranded in space as they are. Turns out this ship is crewed by a thirsty bunch of religious fanatics. The fight aboard the Sentinel ship almost doesn’t go very well.
Meanwhile we’re reading about an Olarin Primus who is desperately trying to cover his backside since he’s responsible for the prisoners capturing and escaping with the Sentinel ship. He needs to find it and some how capture it even though he knows that ship is much more powerful than his. So, he starts trying to figure out who was aboard the Sentinel ship. It doesn’t really matter, in my opinion, he should be looking for it some where in space waiting for it to show up looking for supplies or something.
And then we turn to the daughter of the Olarin Transportation Secretary. At the urging of her father, she attempted to entice the Guild into an illegal selling of an indentured slave to her hoping to capture the sale on video as incriminating evidence. That evidence would be used by her father in future negotiations with the Guild. Except she had no idea what she was doing. She left her high class and very wealthy environment to mingle with the desperately poor who she blamed for their own conditions no knowing that her father and his government were the cause of their deplorable conditions. Anyway, a Guild member who was to conduct the sale managed to save Reilin’s life, but her and her ship gets attacked by Olarin security. They have no recourse but to take Reilin aboard their ship and depart the planet as quickly as possible. This stupid daughter shouldn’t have ever been put in this situation. She is a wealthy debutant who is so naive that it’s terrible.
Ok, so I’ve rambled on enough about this book. I’m not particularly interested in the story. It seems kind of boring to me. None of the characters seem to be thinking very brightly and they always seem to be doing the wrong thing. I doubt that I’ll make an effort to read the next book, “Sounds of the Hunt”, but it’s out there on Amazon if you want to read it.