Once again this is one of my most favorite authors. I have probably read more of his books than any other author probably because he writes more books than anyone! Still all his books are great. This one is no exception, in fact, I like it very much since the humans got to kick some butt instead of being some aliens doormat as usual.
Fleet Admiral Kurt Vickers is in charge of the human space force which just went out and found the lost civilization known as the Glaymons. This is a highly advanced civilization that once colonized the entire galaxy. They are so far advanced that now they live in a Dyson sphere capable of holding ten thousand Earth-like planets. Of course, those planets are not all populated, but the Glaymons have been giving refuge to other races that are fleeing the Vorn eradication. The only problem with this setup is that the Glaymons are pacifist. They believe they have evolved beyond war fighting to solve their problems and since each Glaymon lives 1200 years, they have a rather long-term plan for eradicating the Vorn. They believe in two million years, they will have the necessary technology to throw the Vorn back to the dimension from which they came. Of course, in the here and now, the Vorn are turning the galaxies civilizations into food; destroying every living thing on every planet they touch.
Fortunately, there is a group of Glaymons who don’t agree with the larger population. These are the Aggressive and they are willing to fight along side the humans and other aliens against the Vorn. They also have some highly capable disk ships that can and do destroy Vorn ships. They have released their advances in weapons and shielding as well as power plant improvements to the humans and others willing to fight the Vorn. The Lakiam Fleet under the guidance of Fleet Commodore Dreen have been forming the Lakiam Alliance Protectorate. They with the help of Fleet Admiral Vickers and the Glaymons were successful in defeating a large Vorn fleet for the very first time in recorded history. They also captured a Vorn mothership which had never been done before and are learning some very valuable secrets about the Vorn’s operations.
So, now that the Vorn have temporarily withdrawn to recover from their defeat, the humans and other galaxy aliens are busy implementing all the new Glaymon technology and building ships like never before. They know the Vorn will be back and in numbers too large to almost comprehend. They believe the Vorn have ships numbering in the millions but have a limited FTL capability to get them to our galaxy. They have established a staging area within the galaxy and it’s location was part of the secrets contained in the captured mothership. If the humans, Glaymons and the Lakiam Alliance could attack and destroy a large part of that staging area, it would set back the Vorn several years and allow the galaxy to better prepare.
Additionally, the Glaymons have thousands of advanced ships back in their Dyson Sphere. If only there was some way they could convince the Glaymon Council to release those ships and totally commit to the war against the Vorn, the humans and aliens along with the Glaymons could possibly totally defeat the Vorn and exterminate them forever. But, it doesn’t look like the Glaymon Council will every chose that path, or will they.
Oh, yeah, about the humans finally kicking some butt. It was fun to read about Admiral Kurt Vickers’ visit to Kubitz after the human diplomatic compound was destroyed. With the Glaymon technology now integrated into his fleet of starships, he’s not kowtowing to anyone, especially the Controllers on Kubitz. He teaches them a lesson in welding power. That was a very fun and satisfying part of this book.
I’m looking forward to the next book in this series, “Star Cross: The Vorn!”, which should be out soon. I’m sure it will come to a very satisfying end of the Vorn!