I just don’t know about this series. At times it seems real childish, then it turns very exciting. There’s really too much that clearly shows Jake Fox is out of his element, but then he does something entirely competent and impossible for a normal human from a distant Earth. He also wise-cracks a little too much for my taste and most of the aliens around him have no clue what he’s talking about. Still, Jake Fox is the Star Blade and he’s becoming the leader of the Order of the Star Blade if he can fight off three other previously unknown Star Blade holders.
Jake has managed to get a lot of help from Viceroy Katrina Mar-talori and Emperor Cayn Veguar XXVIII to free Earth of the Srack infestation. Jake managed to kill the Srack Overlord Xaneeth so he’s proven he can fight and survive as a Star Blade. Still, he’s just learning the trade and has a lot of surprises coming. One surprise is that he’s not the only Star Blade holder in this part of the galaxy and there are more than just a few star blades lying around various planets. He needs to collect them in order to bring more Star Blade acolytes to his banner.
He first finds a young woman named Paulo who was brandishing a star blade called Talison. She had rescued it from a sacred temple before some mercenaries could steal it. She seemed to be in control of the star blade which was a starting point for anyone destined to be a Star Blade. Then, not long after, Jake met a Motokin mercenary named Sogen-ta Steev. He was leading a band of mercenaries that had gotten tired of working for the wrong people. Steev offered his services to Jake if he would allow him to become an apprentice in the Order of the Star Blade. So now and very quickly, Jake had two apprentices and was probably going to need more.
Talison had mentioned that he knew of two possible star blades that needed to be found. One was not far, on the west coast of what used to be the USA. So that’s where Jake, Paylo, and Steev headed by blade travel. Steev was allowed to come since he was without a star blade and desired to obtain one as soon as possible regardless of the danger.
Lucky, Jake’s starship, would bring Cornia, the Calden, who also had a small contingent of fellow countrymen now working with Jake. Cornia had no desire to be a Star Blade, but she liked Jake and was willing to help him as long as he was willing to try and free her home planet from the Srack just as Earth was being helped. In addition to this group, there were several Trenteen soldiers that had tagged along and were willing to help out Jake the Star Blade.
Upon arriving in the red wood forest, Jake found a gathering of Jalin mystics. Interesting enough, the Jalin’s did possess a star blade named Kakiilson. They detested the thing since it wouldn’t talk with them, so they were glad to give it up to Jake. He in turn offered it to Steev only as a temporary measure since there might be other star blades that would be more compatible with Steev. Still, the union of Kakiilson and Steev seemed to work right from the start.
Then was told about a lady who had two star blades in her care down near the Panama Canal. So, they traveled down to that location. The lady there said she did have possession but the star blade Bodeson had thrown itself into the sea to protect another star blade, Casemon. Jake, using a borrowed submarine and crew managed to retrieve both star blades of for the first time the Order of the Star Blade had more blades than they had apprentices. Additionally, Jake knew they all needed better swordsman training before any of them could actually skillfully employ their star blades. Jake had just been lucky for a long time and needed to change that luck into skill.
So they headed to the planet where the Sword Masters all seemed to come from and that was Ulniir. Here they found a less than welcomed arrival. Only after passing their test would any of the three, Jake, Paylo or Steev, be considered for training or even allowed to leave the planet! So, they had challenges ahead.
From this point on, Jake finds out that he also has other challenges from three other Star Blades, one a Sword Master from Ulniir and two others that had been Star Blades for a long time. Jake didn’t think all the training in the world was going to prepare him to face any one of these three foes. All were definitely against Jake establishing a new Order of the Star Blade and had no intentions of helping him.
The series continues in book 4, “Dangerous Heroes”, which is now available on Amazon. I’ll probably continue reading the series even though I’m not thrilled about swords a primary weapons. And all this magic/mystic stuff is just fantasy and not my kind of story.
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==