I find myself not wanting to read another one of these books until I reach the end of each one. Most of the action takes place in the final few chapters. So the rest of the book can get pretty boring. But, the end of these books is what keeps me reading. They contain a lot of action with results that are not always expected. And not everything turns out perfect for the humans flying around a very hostile galaxy.
The *Flying Dutchman* and its band of Merry Pirates have returned to Earth. They have gone through some extensive and thorough de-briefings with Skippy, the arrogant Elder AI, usually involved. He is backing up most of their stories by telling the humans, who think they are in-charge, what they need to know and what they should understand about the universe at large. Most humans have only a small glimpse of what’s going on out there in deep space. The crew of the *Dutchman* have been there and done that and they don’t need self-important humans to tell them anything, according to Skippy.
Colonel Joe Bishop is now definitely aboard the *Dutchman* and he remains in command. He’s been successful in stopping any alien visit to Earth, or so it’s believed, so Earth should be safe for a while. But, there’s always the chance that some alien species will show up in Earth’s skies like the Kristang did not long ago. Joe is of the opinion that Earth needs another site, an Alpha site, to ensure humanity stays alive in the universe. This site needs to be far enough way that it’s not easily accessible by hostile aliens, which would include just about every alien species in the galaxy.
So, Colonel Bishop and Skippy have convinced the powers that be, that a new mission for the *Flying Dutchman* should be to go out and find this “Alpha” site. The ship will have a large crew of scientists aboard as well as beefed up security personnel most of which will remain at the Alpha site to ensure it is suitable for human habitation. The security detail will be there to protect the scientist from whatever may be dangerous. The *Dutchman* takes on a lot of new cargo after having been extensively refitted at the direction of Skippy, although there are just some things that humanity can’t fix because we’re still “ignorant monkeys”!
This mission should be only about six months. Yeah, right! Joe and Skippy really, really want this to be a short mission and to be able to return to Earth having accomplished at least one task without almost getting killed. Everything is going according to plan, even most but not all of the original band of Merry Pirates are coming aboard the *Dutchman* for this mission. Most importantly to Joe Bishop is that Gunnery Sergeant Margaret Adams will be part of this mission. Joe, because he is a strict military man, and something of an idiot, doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s fallen in love with Margaret. Joe is sticking to the idea that he’s her commanding officer and a relationship between an officer and enlisted is strictly agains military regulations. Joe is such an idiot. He’s about the only person aboard his ship who is following this regulation to the letter. But, that’s Joe for you.
Of course the mission starts off just fine. They do eventually find a suitable Alpha site and send down the scientific and security teams to start exploring this new planet they have named Avalon. Having some time still left on the mission clock, Joe decides it wouldn’t hurt to go looking for an additional Beta site just in case this Alpha site doesn’t work out. So, he goes back out into deep space making sure they stop close to a communication relay station and find out what all the hostile aliens are doing.
At the relay station, Skippy downloads some information that is going to cause Joe Bishop and Skippy along with the rest his crew some terrible, terrible problems. It seems that all their efforts to stop any of these hostile alien species from coming to Earth is getting messed with by everyone. Even the stranded humans on Paradise get into the act and by so doing are threatening Earth’s very existence. Joe and his crew managed to destroy two Maxohlx starships in the last book preventing them from coming to Earth. Now it appears that the Maxohlx took this as an affront to their pride so they are going to send two armored flotillas to just checkout the wormhole gateway leading to Earth. They will probably also go look at Earth to see what’s going on with this primitive species and just might scour the planet so humans won’t be a problem in the future.
So now Joe and Skippy have an even more deadly problem. This will be the bulk of this story. How to prevent a senior, highly advanced species from coming anywhere near Earth while at the same time, not allowing anyone to know they are flying in space. They, rather Skippy, has done a number of things to various wormholes that have raised the interest of the Maxohlx, but that’s definitely not a good thing to do. So, what’s the plan?
As usual, there isn’t one. Joe and Skippy continue their idiotic banter all the way through this book until the very last few chapters. Some of this is really boring in my opinion. There’s a lot of scientific stuff going on that somewhat gets explained but as Skippy continues to say, we’re just ignorant monkeys so why does he bother explaining anything.
I’m going to continue reading this series just because of the last few chapters in this book. Also, there could be something about a new ship and that might help. So, book 9, “Valkyrie”, is out now on Amazon. It should be good reading.
==[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. ]==