These books are really frustrating. It seems that the author likes to write something in every book that is really absurd or dumb. He certainly does so with this book.
In the last book, Fleet Admiral Jon McCarthy and Lara Anderson, his Fleet Guide, were accompanied by a ridiculous amount of Marines in the descent into Hellios. This was a stronghold of the Korilians and it was heavily fortified. Something within this facility on Hellios was causing the humans all sorts of problems in their now thirty-three year war with the Korilians.
Thirty-three years at war! Man, that is a long, long time. I’m surprised anyone is still alive now. Most of the people now having senior leadership roles were just teenagers or barely starting out in their careers. I cannot imagine being in a war that long. Still, that’s where humanity finds itself and only during the last three years have the humans been able to actually fight back effectively. That’s when Admiral McCarthy was revealed to be Nexus Ten from the Nexus House. His abilities allow him to see into future timelines and predict with some success what will happen in battle. He used this ability while commanding all the fleets around Earth to successfully defend his home planet from a massive Korilian assault. If it wasn’t for Admiral McCarthy, humanity might have well been exterminated during that Final Stand.
Normally, Fleet Admirals are usually accompanied by a Fleet Guide from the Nexus House. These Guides use their abilities to assist the Admirals in his/her decision making during battles. Since none of the other Fleet Admirals have Jon McCarthy’s abilities, their Guides are an essential part of their battle staff. Most Fleet Guides are Nexus Nines having gone some rigorous training by Nexus House before offered up to the Navy. Lara Anderson is somewhat different. She has potential and that’s why the Nexus House has agreed to train her and try to maximize her skills. She is now a level Eight and not quite as skilled as the other Nexus House Fleet Guides, but the war is causing a terrible shortage of Fleet Guides. Lara is thrown into her position normally with Admiral McCarthy and in truth, she hasn’t done much to assist anyone!
Now back to the descent into Hellios. As you know what they found there was former Captain Elena Kapadia. She was thought to have died on Darian 3. But now they find her held as a captive by the Korilians for the last eighteen years. She had endured torture no other humans could have endured. Yet, because of her Nexus House training, she survived and actually grew her abilities to fight back against the Korilians. But, they did finally break her and through various mental means caused her to help them fight the humans. She was also able to see into the future so she was predicting the outcome of battles between the Korilians and humans and let the Korilians know which battles to avoid. The humans had noticed a marked change in the Korilians tactics but couldn’t find a reason for them to have improved as they did. It was because of Elena Kapadia and her now deranged mind.
After Admiral McCarthy rescued Elena, he took her back to human space and they had to place her in a sanatorium, Sint-Pieters, in Belgium. There she was cared for and brought back to normal health. She was very emaciated and physically very unhealthy. They didn’t know what the Korilians had feed her during captivity but it wasn’t much. Also, Elena was very much mentally unbalanced. She could not tell what was real and what wasn’t. The Korilians had used mind tricks on her so much that she lost touch with reality. Even now she was not sure if what she was experiencing now was real. Jon went to visit Elena and found her in much the same state. While they were talking, she did reveal that she was in love with Jon although their past relationship had been more of brother and sister. Jon didn’t say anything to Elena, but he knew that he was in love with Lara and did not want that relationship to stop.
Meanwhile, Fleet Nanci Fitzgerald, the Colonial Fleet Commander, order a highly secret mission that would take one of the fleets now covering Earth and go find a potential database that could direct them to the Korilian’s Home World! If they could find this planet, they might just gain some leverage to stop this war. 3rd Fleet under the command of Admiral Geoergen was assigned the mission and she would take Admiral McCarthy and Lara with her. Now here comes the stupid part. Elena Kapadia manages to show up on the command ship just before their departure. Somehow the doctors at Sint-Pieters decided she was stable enough to be released and Fleet Admiral Fitzgerald thought she’d be an asset to this mission if they ran into any Korilians!
Elena is definitely still very much deranged. She doesn’t like the idea that Lara and McCarthy are in love and together. She only agrees not to kill Lara after McCarthy tells Elena that if she did kill Lara, he’d never forgive her! Absolutely the most stupid thing I’ve ever read. This is a highly classified mission that is going deep into Korilian space yet they allow this deranged nut to just join the crowd. She does physically threaten Lara while on the ship and in front of Jon, but they do nothing about her. This kind of writing almost drives me to stop reading these books. In the previous book, Lara has a vision just before a major battle that tells her not to go in the direction they are heading because the enemy is there. Yet, instead of telling anybody about her vision, she just ignores it and goes on as nothing had happened. A large group of Marines are killed because she said nothing. Her sole purpose for being around is to have vision and tell someone about them!
Ok, I don’t really know if I’m going to continue reading these books. Book 4, “Synthec War” is not going to be out until 20 January 2026 so I’ve got a few days to decide.
==[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]==
==[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]==