This is a very interesting story that uses some very questionable abilities by its main characters. Those abilities are called prescient which is in layman’s terms the ability to predict the future. There is an entire sect of this society that has grown up with the sole purpose of developing latent talent in those who seem to have prescient.
Nexus House now stands as the only major house with their leader, Nexus One, as a top their level Ten. There is one other Ten but he is currently on loan to the Colonial Defense Force (CDF) Navy. It is most likely that Admiral Jon McCarthy will stay with the Navy since humanity is in a long-term war with the Korilians. He played a significant role in the first book, “Final Stand”, where he in command of the Earth’s forces, defeated a major Korilian armada bent on capturing Earth and enslaving all humanity.
Admiral McCarthy used his considerable prescient abilities to predict where and when his enemy would attack and where they were most weakest. This is why he proved so successful and he’s now considered a vital asset to the war effort. Along with most Fleet Commanders will be a Nexus House representative known as a Nexus Guide. Lara Anderson, has been Admiral McCarthy’s Nexus Guide during Final Stand and while she isn’t fully trained and only Level Eight, she did provide him with some insightful help during the battle. As a Level Eight, she also could see glimpses of the future, but could not expand her view beyond the prime timeline. A Ten could follow the prime timeline and even explore alternate branches to that prime line influencing decision so the best one would eventually be followed.
Lara had recently received a vision involving an Army Major Elena Kapadia. In this vision, the Major was apparently sending a last desperate message to CDF HQ telling them to do something. Lara could only listen to part of the message as the rest seemed to be garbled. Lara wasn’t sure about who the person sending the message was, where it had come from or its significance. Fortunately, she told of her vision to Admiral McCarthy who was able to fill her in on who this person was.
Admiral McCarthy stated that the Elena was a Nexus House Ten some eighteen years ago when she had sent that message from a planet called Darian 3. That planet had been overrun by the Korilians and Major Kapadia killed. CDF HQ didn’t have a record of the message since it was part of the Army archives and even when going through the archives, the message was still garbled. In it, the Major said the CDF must destroy a Korilian facility on the fourth planet.., but it didn’t specify what facility, the planet or even what star system it might be in. Yet, Admiral McCarthy knew this message was critical to the war effort.
He asked and was granted permission by the CDF Fleet Admiral to go back to Darian 3 and find Major Kapadia’s hidden command bunker to see if the complete message was stored in that device which it should have been although this was eighteen years ago. He was allowed to take Lara Anderson with him. McCarthy and Lara were developing a relationship beyond just professional. He also told Lara that at one time he and Elena were lovers and he felt very deeply about going back to find this message.
So, they take a fairly large contingent of Naval forces and a special platoon of Marines to safe guard both Admiral McCarthy and Lara. They do recover the full message, but it points to a planet far inside Korilian borders that might be impossible to even get to. For some strange reason, Admiral McCarthy cannot foresee the future of this new mission to that planet. All he can see is his landing on the planet, but then his vision stops. Lara also cannot see anything about this mission even though she is brought along.
The book is very interesting, but no one at Nexus House nor McCarthy or Lara have a premonition about this mission. Their abilities seem to be blocked. But, Lara does have a vision at a critical time during the mission, but for some stupid and idiotic, reason she says nothing to McCarthy or the Marines desperately guarding her. If she had said something, that mission would have stopped and a lot of Marines would have lived, but she didn’t and that’s just a really dumb part of the book. If you have a vision involving those around you, wouldn’t you say something?
Additionally, I don’t know why Lara is even along on this mission. She hasn’t contributed anything to anyone and kind of just stands around. She’s not a trained combatant, doesn’t have a weapon, nor does she know how to even defend herself yet she’s given to a bunch of highly skilled Marines who have to babysit her all the way through a very difficult mission! Not very realistic.
Ok, so the book was interesting, but really dumb in parts. The Korilian War hasn’t ended so this series will continue in book 3, “The End of Time”, now available on Amazon.
==[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.]==