War. The word spreads throughout the Confederation…the long-expected Union invasion has come. The enemy is strong, their fleets larger and more powerful than intelligence reports had predicted. They have broken through the forward defenses, sent the Confederation’s proud fleets into an ignominious retreat.
Captain Tyler Barron and the crew of the battleship Dauntless are light-years from the front lines, at Archellia, waiting for their damaged battleship to be repaired. Their ship is only just operational, but there is no time. The Confederation forces need every reinforcement they can get, and Barron and his survivors board their vessel…and rush to the battle lines.
When they get there, they encounter nothing but fleeing ships and shattered fleets. The Confederation is losing the war, falling back steadily, yielding system after system to the invaders. The Union fleets continue inexorably forward, seemingly immune to the supply constraints that have bogged down past invasions. Dauntless finds herself trapped, cut off from the rest of the fleet along with another Confed battleship and a trio of small escort vessels…deep behind the rapidly moving front lines.
Barron must make a choice. Pull back, try to find a way to get around the enemy, and rejoin the fleet. Or press on, strike deep behind the enemy advance, an almost suicidal thrust toward the Union’s main logistical supply base…and the one way Tyler Barron can think of to buy the fleet the time it needs to regroup. To survive.
The Last best hope for peace…by way of total military victory I was somewhat conflicted as to how to rate this book. Being a follow up to the first entry in the series frankly did it no favors. This is a very good military SF story, by the numbers slightly but quite compelling and interesting. However, when compared to the first entry in the series it is a step down in quality. We are back to the familiar trope of flawed but generally good USA-like democracy vs. evil super oppressive ultra totalitarian USSR-like clone, down to almost identical political…
Nice Continuation of the Series Before you pick this one up to read, please note it is book #2 of a series: you need to have read book one first or this one won’t make much sense to you.Â
Insanely entertaining! This installment shows a 5-star rating from 81 readers. That just about sums up what’s ahead for for the space opera reader who may have overlooked Jay Allan.I mean how in the galaxy can you write a review about the unreviewable dimensions that make Allan’s books so excellent. It would be like saying “Wool” is a story about climbing stairs for gosh sakes.