Review: This series is like crack, I am already having withdrawls!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 7, 2013
This was once again a solid bit of space opera that I consumed quickly (I would say in a day) as with the rest of the authors works.I will get onto the one thing in this series that annoys me to no end but first I will go over what it is that I liked and even loved about this, the fifth instalment of the Spineward Sectors series;The first thing I loved, (as is my way as some of you may or may not know already) is the cover! Yeah, the cover, why the cover? Well it is my well placed belief that with the immense selection of books that the kindle store has to offer you either have to have lots of time to go through every single book present if you would like to go by the old "Don't judge a book by its cover" and most people do not have said time so we can only judge a book by its cover well, the first thing I notice is the large image of the cover anyway.This cover is striking in its use of colours and imagery. The scene taking place is hectic and really does the content of the pages held within justice! The titling is good and clear, the fontography is spot on for the genre and all in all it looks like more thought was put into it than quite a fair few of its competitors. So in conclusion of this first point, the cover works at catching my eye, it would have been short listed (I.e. opened in a new tab) even if I had never read any of the others in the series. A+The next thing is the writing, not the content, the actual use of words to get a message across, yeah, I found one or two things that were a little off, mostly typos and I wish I had marked them down so I could pass them on but I was too involved in the story to stop. Maybe next time I will remember (Like I keep telling myself I would but, well, let's just say I am usually too involved to stopped... so I will probably forget next time as well...)The writing is top notch, it draws you in and gives you enough details as to not leave you wondering what the hell is going on but not too much too make you feel like you have missed something. This is one of the authors strong suits, both he and his brother are almost masters of this.I love the way that Joshua tells a story, he has a great ability to grab you by the neck and drag you through the mud while you thank him profusely for the ride!A+And now for the important part, the story, how did I find the actual story, you might ask, well, to put it bluntly, I loved the story... I am a major fan of Joshua's universe, I have been since I read "Admiral Who?" it's a quirky story that never lets you rest, well, not until you feel you have run a marathon and only ever a short rest so the story never gets stale and you never want for more action. It's a perfect blend in my honest opinion. The space battles are gripping, the on ship battles are exciting and the off duty parts are riveting. I can't get enough of this universe and quite frankly, I don't want to. I will be the first to admit, there will one day be a final flight for the admiral, the last story and I will welcome that with open arms when it comes, as long as it's not too soon.A+And so now you might be wondering what it is that would be annoying me. Well, sadly it's one of the things I like about this series, well, it involves the people I like to read about in this series to be more to the point. Akantha, Don't get me wrong, I am all for strong women and I love that quality about her but there is a point that no matter who you are, what you are afraid of, there is only so much shit anyone can put up with, especially if it is endangering your entire fleet. Jason has shown time and time again that he can face anyone be it in battle of fists, ships, guns or words, he doesn't back down ever no matter the odds, no matter how deep in the shit he is, he always stands up for what's right (Or at least what he perceives is right) everyone one of his crew and some that are not all even mention how good Jason is at his unwanted job. The only person who breaks these two things is Akantha, every single time. She can go on and on about how Jason is the warlord and her protector and how strong he is but yet she still keeps crossing him. It's infuriating that he has never snapped at her and told her how on her home world, sure, she is the all-knowing, all commanding go to person. But this is not her small little world, this is the world of space craft powerful enough to destroy everything she holds close. That things are mighty different and if she doesn't quit her crap, she is going to end up killing everyone (Like she almost does in this very book)Admittedly, there was a single moment of clarity that Jason had near the very end and he put her into place but then he goes off and lets her treat him like he is just a little boy playing space captain again at the end. Shouldn't there be some degree of respect given to her protector, a might amount of trust that seeing as this is his world, that he knows what he is doing and she is in over her head? Hell, her mother showed these traits to her protector from one of the earlier novels when it came to Jason and meeting the missus's parents for the first time so shouldn't this be something distilled into Akantha as well? Let the men handle the shit work and have the women lead? I guess what I am trying to say is sure, Akantha wouldn't have trusted Jason at the start, yeah, I get that, but after all that has happened, all that Jason has sacrificed and gone through with and for her, that she should at least show some sort of trust that when he says he didn't actually know about something, that he probably didn't know about it?So yeah, in closing of this long ass review I would just like to reiterate what I stated at the start, this is another solid bit of space opera and I personally recommend the whole series to everyone who will listen. I can't wait for Invincible and I really can't wait for Caleb's next Akantha novella (I think I remember it being the brother who was going to write it...) and after all is said and done, I just can't wait for more of this universe!- Kitten