Review: The story continues
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2013
I received this book free to read and review.Using many of the same characters from the previous series “Plague Wars” this is part 2 of the “Stellar Conquest” series. If anyone like me could not find part 1 it is in a compendium called “Planetary Assault” and this is worth reading first.Although the characters are continued from the previous series this one stands more on its own. Earth is now retaliating against the invaders who caused the initial “plague” and this time it is more of a pure space based science fiction as the characters are far enough away from Earth to have no contact or even know if Earth still exists.I liked the way that new aliens were introduced and the difficulties encountered communicating between different races with no common basis to work from. I also particularly liked how the relationship between the humans, the Ryss (a bird like race) and a rogue artificial intelligence worked.There are number of sub plots which help to develop the characters further particularly Jill and Spooky, both from the original series.Not a slow moving story but one with a lot of action. Perhaps as it relies so much on the original characters from the other series if you want to know more about their background it would be best to read the other series first. Particularly “Reapers Run” which is an aside from the main series but gives a very good background to one of the main characters.A very enjoyable book if you like this type of science fiction, I would probably categorise it as a “first contact” story, I do and am looking forward to reading the next in the series.