Another one of John Walker’s numerous books in a series that started out pretty good. But now it’s kind of gone downhill in my opinion. I liked the idea of starting with a 76-year old guy (like me) and changing him into a 20-something young man whose helping an alien woman of about the same age save her civilization. That was a noble mission they both set out to accomplish. They have fought some hard battles to do the things necessary to secure the technology lost by Sorsha Ritaktha’s Kultarin civilization. Now they are very close to accomplishing their goals and saving that society from total decay, but they have to make one more trip back to Earth.
This is where Sorsha first met Raymond (Flip) Kinnely, who happened to be working as a janitor for the VasCorp. Sorsha had no knowledge about Earth and how dangerous it could be for a naive young alien even though she arrived in a very advanced spacecraft. Actually, Sorsha managed to crash her spacecraft and that’s what got her captured by the government and turned over to VasCorp for further study. Fortunately, Flip managed to help her get away from the place they were holding her spacecraft and then helped her attempt to acquire an ancient sarcophagus, a.k.a., Resurrection Box, from a local museum. I say “attempt”, because Shorsha and Flip didn’t manage to get the sarcophagus on his ship before they had to leave the planet. But, Flip did manage to use the Resurrection Box when he got conveniently shot and fell into it. The Box worked and he came out of it as a young man, but that depleted the power cell used by the Box.
So, off Sorsha and Flip went looking for more power cells so they when they did come back to Earth, they would be able to charge the Box back up and use it for her people’s benefit back on her home planet. This is where the Hostel and the Mahshi come into the book. The Hostel is a peaceful trading post planet where Flip and Sorsha hoped to be able to rest and recover from some of their adventures. They were being pursued by the evil Mahshi who were also looking for Kultarin technology, but they wanted to use it to dominate the galaxy! It was hoped by Sorsha and Flip that they could hide-out for a while at the Hostel and the Mahshi wouldn’t find them. That didn’t work for long.
While Flip and Sorsha were at the Collector World they received word that the Mahshi had in fact found the Hostel and were now holding it and the people of that planet hostage until Flip and Sorsha returned with her Kultarin spaceship and surrendered it. That spaceship was about the most advanced starship in the galaxy and the Mahshi had to get their hands on it. But, Flip comes up with a plan that might prevent that from happening. His plan comes with risks, lots of risks and has to have the help of his new found allies.
Once they handle the situation on the Hostel, Flip and Sorsha plan to return to Earth and again try and pick up the sarcophagus. They don’t know exactly who has it, but they figure the VasCorp will be involved and they are certainly right about that. The CEO of the VasCorp., Mr. Terrence Morley, had secured the sarcophagus in an underground laboratory and had secured numerous scientists to discover how the box worked and what it actually did. Mr. Morley is a murderous psychopath that won’t allow anyone to touch the Box until he finds out what it does. He considers everyone working in the underground facility expendable if or when anyone were to try and take the Box away from that facility.
So, Flip and Sorsha are going to have a big problem obtaining the sarcophagus this time around. And things make it worse with Flip’s reluctance to want to kill anyone getting in his way. He knows most of the guards and probably all the civilian scientists are just working for a salary doing what they are told and don’t know the importance of the sarcophagus to the Kultarin civilization. His reluctance to kill anyone in his way almost costs him his life as well as the sarcophagus. That was kind of a stupid part of the book, because Flip and Sorsha have the chance to get away with everything until Flip tries to save the life of one scientist. Dumb more on his part.
This book doesn’t end the series. No, book 6, “Lost Haven”, is out now on Amazon. I’m going to continue to read it but I’m not in a big hurry!
==[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. ]==