I’ve read two books in this series and I would bet that some people won’t be able to get past the first book, much less this one. They are not bad books, just kind of irritating! The main character, Joe Bishop, has a lot more patience and tolerance that I would ever have. Unfortunately, he has to put up with a very irritating, scatter-brain, antagonistic, and down-right rude Artificial Intelligence (AI) by the name of “Skippy”! Bishop and his crew are now aboard the “*Flying Dutchman”*, a stolen Thuranin star carrier all written about in the first book. And they are forced to put up with Skippy because he saved all of humanity!
Now Joe Bishop has to fulfill a promise he made to Skippy. That was to go back out in to the galaxy and help Skippy find an ancient comm node where he could contact his “Collective”. That Collective was something like Skippy’s civilization. He had been disconnected from it a long time ago and had been sitting in an abandoned warehouse on the plane Paradise when Joe Bishop found him. The only thing going for Skippy is that he is a highly advanced, highly intelligent AI that has helped humanity get rid of the Kristang and escape the Ruhar, both very advanced alien species that had chose to enslave humanity. Otherwise, Skippy is so arrogant and disrespectful that he should have been dumped out an air lock in deep space a long time ago. Yet, Joe Bishop, former Sergeant now Colonel, wasn’t going to do that.
Humans had no business in space. They hadn’t advanced anywhere near the technological level of even the most primitive space-faring species. That was proven when the Kristang first appeared over Earth through a wormhole that just happened to allow galactic space travel to Earth. With Skippy’s help, they managed to close that wormhole and made sure it wouldn’t be able to be opened again. But, that was done after the *Flying Dutchman* went through on their journey to help Skippy.
Colonel Joe Bishop was the Captain of the ship and commander of this expedition. He hadn’t wanted to take a large crew because Joe didn’t believe this was a round-trip. He fully assumed that once they left Earth, they would never be returning.
Yet, when they did ask for volunteers to go on the mission, he got more than he would ever need. He now had his original “Merry Band of Pirates”, a science team and five Special Forces teams. All of these people had been thoroughly vetted by Joe and his original crew and all knew that they were basically going on a suicide mission. They could not allow their ship or any human aboard to be captured by any alien species. To do so would mean that humans had moved beyond their planet and would bring a lot of unwanted evil attention to Earth. The *Dutchman* was therefore outfitted with several nuclear devices set to blow up the ship if situations warranted to prevent their capture.
The story is pretty interesting although it’s mostly dialogue between Skippy and Joe Bishop. Skippy doesn’t have a very high regard for humans or at least he doesn’t want to imply that he does. His favorite term for humans is “monkeys”! He’ll almost always refer to any human, even Joe, as a monkey with limited brain power. Yet, he wants everyone to know that he is a super intelligent AI and constantly reminds everyone aboard ship that he is “Skippy the Magnificent”. He is a very conceited AI!
The comm nodes that Skippy needs to find were built by an ancient race called the Elders. They built communication facilities on various planets and moons in the galaxy but since they have been gone a long, long time, most of these facilities have been ransacked for their valuable technology by other alien races. Skippy needs to find one that has been overlooked and one that contains the comm node that he needs.
Now once that’s done and Skippy contacts his “people”, he assumes that he will be recalled and will leave the ship. The humans and Skippy realize that the ship won’t be able to be navigated precisely enough by the humans so they can return to Earth. That’s way Joe considered this a one-way mission. Without Skippy, they aren’t coming back home!
I really didn’t care for the argumentative way Skippy’s conversations always go with the humans. There’s only so much derogatory and negative insults that a person can put up with. And Skippy will blast his conversations all over the ship through the ships PA system or via helmet comms regardless of who he’s talking to. Often times his demeaning comments are directed towards Colonel Joe Bishop and those comments get quite personal. That’s why I would have thrown Skippy out an air lock a long time ago. Yet, after two books, I guess I’m getting used to these conversations.
This series will continue in book 3, “Paradise”, which is available on Amazon now.
==[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.]==