Well, this book is turning out much different than I expected. Our main character through the other four books has really taken a second place to a lot of other characters. He’s also kind of acting dumb in this book. Just when everyone needs him, he turns into a by-the-book stodgy do-nothing guy! I mean, he won’t even consider rescuing his daughter after she’s been arrested by the people she’s supposed to be working for!
The crew of the ultra advanced starship Pytheas was now docked with the EDF fleet while Commander Gareth Weston checked in. He contacted Captain Harold Kensington who immediately asked for him to come aboard the fleet flagship. Then Gareth found out that Admiral Gaston had been stabbed to death in his quarters. Captain Kensington hadn’t released this information fleet wide because he actually didn’t know what to do. Gareth knew of Captain Kensington, but he was a junior officer when Gareth was on active duty. Now, Gareth seemingly just accepts that this Captain is in charge and they start talking about Gareth and the Pytheas’ next mission. All the while, Chelsea Weston sits in a jail cell aboard the JTF station.
Commander Weston knew something was wrong about the arrest and confinement of his daughter by the people she had been working for. They were charging her with desertion and treason, which was ridiculous and he knew it. But, instead of staying with his daughter and trying to find out what was going on, he took his ship and crew to meet up with the remaining EDF fleet. That right there doesn’t make sense. Additionally, for Weston to find out that he wasn’t going to really have much of a say in his missions for the EDF, he should have told Captain Kensington that he needed to go back to the JTF station and find out what was going on with his daughter. Yet, he didn’t and he even refused to allow his crew to do this logical thing. Don’t know what happened to our hero-main character, but he’s turned pretty gutless and stupid! Oh, when he does get into a position to rescue Chelsea, the passes out!
There are a lot of other threads going on in this book. The Ambassadorial effort to enlist Zitha as an ally doesn’t go so well. The XO of the EDF ship sent to carry the Earth Ambassadors and escort the Zitha back to the EDF fleet is very biased against the EDF having anything to do with the Zitha. He’s even dangerously bigoted and his Captain, who has know him for fifteen years, doesn’t pay attention to his XO’s mindset and this results in some deadly consequences. This part of the story is also kind of stupid. There seems to be no security of any king any of these EDF ships.
The other thread has the “fake” Ambassador and his ship are heading out to meet the Raldor. Only they run into something they can’t identify. In fact, it appears to be a black hole, but it’s not acting like on although it is dragging them into it. Where they will come out, if at all, is unknown.
Ok, so every thing in book 5 does nothing to get Earth back on track to defeat the Veldons. It is increasingly apparent that humanity can’t stop fighting among themselves long enough to save their own civilization. It seems that the Veldon are so powerful that nothing can stop them from wiping out every civilization in the galaxy. This is kind or depressing. After five books, I’m tired of all this internal squabbling, a main character turning dumb, and no apparent end to the Veldon’s superiority. I didn’t see anything in this book that even remotely looked like a “Turing Point”. So, I think I’m done with this series.
If you want to continue, then book 6, “Cost of Hate” is available on Amazon now. Good luck!