Ok, so finally, just maybe, Hank Spears and his band of rebels will take the fight to their universal enemy TWAIN, the evil AI. This AI survived from the Old War fought over two-hundred years ago and has now built up his forces strong enough to take over every human and alien civilization in the galaxy. He’s slowing been doing that by capturing humans and inserting chips into their brains thereby controlling their actions. He’s done this to an untold number of people throughout the galaxy with most of the acting as sleeper agents for when Twain needs them to uprise and take over civilization.
Twain believes that humanity and aliens must be controlled so they will stop internal squabbles and quit wasting valuable energy and resources fighting each other. Yet, humanity and most aliens don’t want to be controlled by anyone much less a super smart AI. Yet, humanity set about after the end of the Old War, banishing all other AIs that could have helped them develop a better understanding of human and AI relationships. That action may have doomed the galaxy if it wasn’t for one very smart ancestor and of course Hank Spears with his AI companion, Ned.
Hank has surprisingly met with the various factions in the galaxy and has managed to come to some agreement that they need to band together to defeat Twain. This wasn’t easy. The Inquisition was dead set on allowing any kind of AI to exist in this world, but through Hanks work even they have had a change to their thinking. Now he’s working with Imogen’s Uncle and Triumvirate Vince Delfina to get the Consortium to join his organization. Then Hank and others realize that what Hank is actually doing is creating a newer and better Consortium of all the various entities in the galaxy. He needs everyone to work together to defeat Twain so that’s what they are now trying to do.
The necessity for this combined strength is immediately shown when Twain’s forces attack the hidden stronghold Suniuo Relay Station ran by Libby, another very friendly AI. While Twain’s forces are formidable, they are predictable and Hanks forces are not. He’s relying on his idea that freedom of choice will lead his forces to victory in this battle and eventually to the defeat of Twain.
Hank is now making some smart decisions. While he’s not officially or formally been designated as the head of this new consortium, he’s leading them as they need to be led. He’s even figured out that the one race that could probably determine where Twain’s HQ is, would be the often ignored Vekrass. These Vekrass are on every planet, moon, and inhabited space station in the know galaxy. Although they are known to be of come questionable character, usually stealing everything that’s not nailed down, he’s found Clynt Nameless, his Vekrass friend to have his own code of conduct which has helped Hank on numerous occasions. So, he’s off to see if the usually neutral Vekrass will provide vital intelligence that might lead to Twain’s hiding place.
The Hank also comes into some information that someone back at the end of the Old War was very smart and didn’t go along with the normal crowd. That person was Imogen Hush’s Great Grandmother Eleanor Hush, who was also one of the first Triumvirates. While there had been a galaxy wide ban on anything having to do with AI, she felt differently. Even though AIs had helped humanity win this last war, they were to be hunted down and destroyed. That’s where Eleanor Hush had stepped in and created Operation Sentinel.
So, there are a lot of moving parts in this story. Even Lara comes back from the Conclave and is once again at Hank Spear’s side as she should be. Will this finally be the end of Twain. It sounds like it from the book title, but there may be more to this story than we actually know.
There is a book 13, “Second Contact”, and it should be a real eye-opener considering what we found out about how Twain came to be in the last part of Twain’s Reckoning. It’s available on Amazon right now.
==[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.== ]