Original review posted Monday, August 13, 2012
Description: Three years after the brutal first contact encounter with the alien Kreelan Empire, the human Confederation is desperate for a victory. With over a dozen worlds under siege by legions of Kreelan warriors, President McKenna orders the Confederation military to deliver a victory to give humanity hope.
Ichiro Sato and his wife Steph, Roland Mills, Valentina Sikorsky, and the irrepressible General James Sparks are once again at the sharp end of the spear in a mission to take back the colony of Alger’s World from the alien invaders before the Kreelans have exterminated the human population.
But the overwhelming firepower that they plan to bring to bear on the Kreelans may not be enough. For leading the invasion of Alger’s World is Ku’ar-Marekh, a warrior priestess who is feared even among her own kind. With her spirit trapped between life and death, she is called Dead Soul…
Review 4 of 5 Stars
I was completely sucked in by the first two books. Though I enjoyed this one, it wasn’t quite as much of a draw for me. I wasn’t as drawn in by Ku’ar-Marekh, the Kreelan warrior priestess that was the Kreelan focus for this volume and I really don’t feel that I need to be told multiple times that she cannot feel any emotional attachment in great detail. I got it. I would have really liked to see more about Tesh Dar, the warrior priestess from the first book as she was a very interesting character and I had hoped she would be back in business by the last book in the trilogy, but we did get more time with the Empress this time and that was pretty interesting. I will say that I read the prequel series first after having read Mr. Hicks’ Foreword at the beginning of Empire from the Redemption trilogy because I wanted to read the story in chronological order so there may be more of what I’m looking for in that story line later, but I can’t say at this point as I have just begun reading Empire. Additionally, things with the main human characters all wrapped up a little too quickly in the last chapter of the book like it was an afterthought. Other than Ku’ar-Marekh and the final few pages, I enjoyed the read and continue with my recommendation of the series, but do have to say that the third book, in my opinion, wasn’t quite as good as the first two; however, that may not be the case for others. I really like Mr. Hicks’ storytelling style and think he’s a very good writer. If you enjoy an science fiction adventure of the military flavor you could certainly lose yourself in the series for a couple of days.
Author TJ Hapney 