It is my opinion and only my opinion that this series should have ended with the last book, “Twain’s Reckoning”, but it definitely didn’t. Twain was the evil AI that didn’t die with the end of the last war almost two hundred years ago. Yes, he was a threat to the entire galaxy and needed to be dealt with. Star Scrapper and now Bounty Hunter Hank Spear’s, along with his friend, Lara Shen, also a Bounty Hunter and member of the Conclave Council, defeated Twain with the help of a lot of other people. Hank was the primary leader of the effort and he was able to convince the Consortium, the Conclave and the Inquisition all to work together along with the powerful Kyrogs and the Vekrass. This coalition also included the Peacers which were also very instrumental in defeating Twain.
Yet, now they are faced with an even more deadly enemy. When Twain had finally been defeated, he revealed that his efforts were only done to protect the galaxy from a far more deadly enemy that was slowly approaching. He called this new enemy the “Sectiaans” and they were going to wipe all life in the galaxy. The galaxy was not ready for Twain and they certainly weren’t ready for something more deadly. Yet, Hank Spears and his close band of warriors were alerted to a possible incursion of the Sectiaans in deep space.
Hank and company went out in the *Buzzard* to Sector Ninety-nine to explore a derelict starship. What they found was very unexpected and scared them all. This new enemy was something that no one had ever encountered. It was definitely not human but could absorb living tissue taking on the attributes of whatever living creature it had just devoured. It could then mimic a human with uncanny ability. It was hard to tell the difference between a Sectiaan and the human it had absorbed so this was indeed going to be a very difficult fight. The Sectiaan also didn’t appear to have any weakness other than a central core which could be observed if you saw them up close. Destroying the central core did destroy the creature, but you had to have a dangerously close encounter to hit that central core with a weapon and the Sectiaan were also learning all about humanity.
This was not the only problem that Hank Spears and his group were facing. The Consortium government were still leery of anything having to do with AIs. They knew that Hank had bee helped tremendously by his friend Ned, an AI from the old war, and by a myriad of other military AIs that were found in storage. Even the Inquisition had changed its opinion of AIs during this last battle with Twain. Yet, the Consortium Parliament wanted to hear directly from Hank Spears and Ned about their relationship and how that might work for the Consortium if laws were changed to allow for such open interaction between humans and AIs.
So Hank and Ned went to Emortium, the Consortium capital and made their pitch about how AIs were not a danger or threat to humanity. They believed that the combination of humans and AIs could do about anything desired and would bring greater prosperity to the galaxy instead of constant warring against each other. While their argument wasn’t exactly going over, the sudden appearance of Inquisitor Francis, current Hand of Truth and leader of the remaining loyal Inquisitors came and spoke to the Parliament in favor of changing the laws prohibiting AI and human interaction. He even stated that the Inquisition was now in the process of revising their own doctrine declaring that not all technology was evil and that AIs could, in most situations, help humanity greatly!
Meanwhile, Hank received an important message directing him to immediately report to the Conclave. So that’s where he headed not knowing anything about the reason for the summons. Once there Hank found that a rival gang had sent out a bounty on none other than Daniel Shen, Lara’s brother and head of the Blood Dragons cartel! The bounty appeared to be legit and the Council wanted someone competent to go complete this bounty. Lara was told directly that she could not go. It had to be Hank. So off he goes in search of Daniel Shen a.k.a. Tailong. His last known location was in his very secure den on some distant planet. Yet, what’s going to happen is far, far different that Hank knows now. It will involve a thirteen year old kid and an attempt to keep Lara’s brother from killing her again!
So, this book has a lot going on but it reads pretty fast. We’re definitely in for another fight against the Sectiaans if we can even figure out who they are. With their ability to absorb human bodies and then make exact copies of that person, we don’t even know who really is our enemy! Of course this series doesn’t end here. Book 14, “Consortium’s Fall” is now available on Amazon. It also appears that book 15, “Final Dawn”, may actually be the end of this series.
==[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.== ]