When I first started reading this series I thought it was kind of stupid. I mean a former crusty old MGySgt of Marines goes to live in a cabin in the woods until the Earth gets attacked by aliens. He’s initially asked to come to Antarctica to help secure an archaeological dig for his friend Dr. Aaron Campbell. Well, this turns into the beginning of a disaster for humanity. Dr. Campbell and his fellow scientists open a trans-dimenstional gateway which allows a very nasty alien species to come to Earth. They begin harvesting humans for food and other uses all of which MGySgt Patrick “Wic” Finnegan is decidedly against.
He gets drawn up into the defense of Earth by gathering a group of serving and ex-military around him. Most of these people have lost their units to the aliens or are just not sure what to do now. So the Master Gunnery Sergeant gets them organized and finds out that together, they can be a very effective fighting force. He eventually gets to calling his small group the “Phantoms” because they have to strike the aliens when and where they least expect it.
Along the way, and here comes the strange part, Wic finds an alien weapon that he decides he could use if he can get it to work. Well, it turns out that this weapon has an on-board Artificial Intelligence (AI) that has been pretty much stifled by his previous owner. The aliens don’t trust AIs to do much of anything so this weapon has only been providing basic information about the weapon systems to its former owner. Now that the AI has found a new owner, he discovers that Wic isn’t against using an AI for whatever it can provide. So, the two team up together and become that much more lethal to the aliens threatening Earth.
Wic and his Phantoms eventually stop the aliens from capturing humans and taking them back through a portal gateway for processing. They even go through that portal and blow up the processing facility and do a number of things that definitely get the attention of the aliens. Eventually, Wic finds there are aliens of the Androchidan species that are very much against what their Queen has been doing with humans. They are the rebel contingent led by Major Insarka Kindesh. Her Father, General Cordan leads all the “Blood Guard” against the Queen, but he is losing the resistance war. Major Kindesh eventually loses contact with the Blood Guard and joins Wic and his Phantoms. She doesn’t try to take charge knowing that Wic has a lot more war-fighting experience.
So, they manage to find where and how these alien Androchidans are coming through to Earth and blow that portal to pieces. The only problem with that is they are on the wrong side of the portal when it blows. Now they are stuck in an alien dimension with no way to get home. Still, they have a mission and that is to stop the Androchidan Queen from ever capturing and using humans and to also find and try to protect all the humans that have been captured and brought to this dimension against their will. Both parts of that mission will require a lot of fighting and a lot of exploration.
But they have a lot of help in a large part by Charles. That’s the name they give to the very intelligent AI in Wic’s rifle. He now knows that he’s not limited in what he’s allowed to do so he starts helping the Phantoms in a big way. He can connect to most all the information systems run by the Androchidans and provides that info for his team in their mission planning.
This book will cover their efforts in a final battle that will determine the end of everything. It gets very exciting at the end so if you feel you’re getting bored at the beginning, keep reading. And the biggest surprise to me is that this isn’t the end of the series. Book 7, “Legacy of the Fallen”, is now available on Amazon. It’s on my list for sure!
[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. ]