I still think this series is more for young adults than for an old guy like me. It is good military science fiction, but not on a par with some of Mr. Chaney’s other books. Most of the characters or “Slingers” as they are called are young, say in their early to mid-20s. Well, that’s the humans anyway. I have no idea about some of the aliens but some of their antics would put them in that age group or younger. Now, that’s not to say they don’t do some very serious things, because they do. They are starship fighter pilots after all and involved in a very dangerous war. I guess when you come right down to it, all our warriors start out very young, some too young and never get older!
This time the Slingers are back at Rylos Station helping to put it back together. It was attacked by the evil Clint Martin who when crazy and became a traitor to the Kin Federation. This was back in the days when Mark Allen’s Father was a Slinger and they were fighting their own war. Seems like the Kin Federation is always in one war or another. Clint Martin in one of the biggest reasons that the Kin do not recruit humans as Slinger pilots although they made an exception in Mark’s case because of his Father’s excellent service.
Mark and the rest of the Slingers in the Rylos Squadron have been resting up knowing that they will soon have to go find Clint Martin to end him and his evil ways. It seems that Clint can capture other entities, human and aliens, and take control of their minds making them mindless droids to do his bidding. He also can clone himself which is another big problem for the Kin Federation. They are currently fighting Clint Martin and the Ascendancy, a Hive-mind alien species, with Clint taking control of Ascendancy assets along with other species he comes into contact with. Martin is building a huge army and is attacking everything including the Kin Federation and the Ascendancy.
So this next mission is going to be very critical to the Kin Federation and the Slingers especially. Clint Martin has kidnapped a prominent scientist, the very same one that created the Nova starships. His capture could lead Clint to gaining “Slide” technology which would be another disaster. Slide technology is only employed by the Slingers to go quickly from place to place throughout the galaxy without having to travel via FTL or Tannhauser Gates. Even the Ascendancy does have this Slide technology. So recover/rescue of this scientist is of paramount importance. They will start at his last know location, a secret research and technology facility called Fahjum. So that’s where Rylos Squadron set off to.
What they find when they get there is really going to demonstrate how crazy and dangerous Clint Marin has become. Mark had already had a run-in with Clint back in book 2 & 3. He knows just how insane Clint has become when he alluded to the fact that he was working for the *Eternal Mother*! In this context it sounds like this “Eternal Mother” is a god of some kind and in Clint’s mind, she is his god! So, if you’re religious, this book may sound some what sacrilegious because there is also an “Eternal Father” that will show later in the story.
And as you can figure, if Clint has the *Eternal Mother* on his side, the Kin and the Council needs to get the *Eternal Father* on their side if that’s even possible. Now just how do you get in contact with a god? That’s going to be a problem that may fall into the hands of Mark Allen!
Of course this isn’t the end of the series. I think it’s actually just getting started so there will be more in book 5, “Let There Be Light”, coming on/about 8 November 2026. We got a few months to wait!
==[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. ]==