We are all familiar with the Nigerian scam. An unsolicited email offers you a chance to make millions by abetting the transfer of large sums of money out of Nigeria. The premise of this story is a couple of marginally successful businessmen get caught up in the scheme, and soon find themselves in Lagos trying to broker the scheme in a way where they won't get scammed.

Unfortunately for the businessmen, Sam and Tony, there's an even bigger scam being perpetrated at the same time at a might higher level. This brings in the CIA and Mosad, as well as crossing paths with the powerful brother of one of the three men the scam would help leave the country with millions. The odd thing is that the scan could have worked, if it wasn't for this complication.

The atmosphere and tension was spot-on, particularly in Lagos. My only complaint was the author dropped one of the character storylines for some reason. The Department of Energy secretary is instrumental setting up the plot that proves to spoil the scam, but I'd have liked to have seen a few chapters from his viewpoint when his plot starts to go south. He did have his own chapters early on as that storyline was being established.

There's a lot going on here that doesn't necessarily all make sense in the end. Cara is a touchy young lady living in Washington State. By touchy, she rather freaks out when people touch her. Except when handsome Drake comes into her life...and sparks start to fly.

Cara has a bizarre family history linked to witches, one of which recently waltzed out of her life Living or dead? Who knows. We are also treated to chapters set long ago in the times of the Greek Gods, and a tale following a demi-god Draken (subtle, eh?) and Arias, a sacrifice to Aphrodite who he happens to fall for.

Then there's zombies involved, a possible trip to the underworld, and Cara is saved only to find herself sharing Arias's body 4000 years earlier. Her dreams of death appear to come through, except for Draken denying the death and the story ending in ...TO BE CONTINUED.

Maybe the sequel will help focus all that happened in the first book.

An apocalyptic thriller that replaces the viral zombies in Justin Cronin's The Passage with augmented humans, most of the criminal persuasion. In a quest to create super soldiers, a program succeeds in only a single healthy soldier while others die, most of suicide. In an effort to refine the process, tests are done on death row inmates. One of them, Kronin, seems to be a Hannibal Lechter-type. When the maximum security oil rig housing them is destroyed in a storm, these augmented criminals escape and total mayhem follows.

The damage done by this band of criminals is massive, and threatens the collapse of civilization. Tom, the one successful augmented soldier, is pressed into duty along with Karl, a CIA agent who discovers the shuttered program was still active in China. The criminals are driven toward achieving their goal of maximum destruction while the good guys are trying to stop them and save what's left. Parts of Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois go up in flames in the process.

This was an exciting story to read; fast paced although many atrocities were graphically described so be warned.

The problem with a telegraphed trilogy is nothing is resolved, so any review will be as incomplete as the story. I do wish that as a setup book, there was more thought given to establishing the premise. A girl has a cloud of steam for a hand (how is that even possible?), a boy has monster morphing inside of him. Too much is just thrown out there as if it was logical to the characters. Well, a lot is not logical to the reader, so some narration should compensate.

There are no likeable or sympathetic characters (although the boy tries to be one). I'm mildly interested in reading the rest of the story, if only as a reward for time already spent.

This trilogy comes to a close as the huldra Faline and her co-conspirator "Wild Women" finally ensure their independence with victory over the oppressive Hunters, an all-male supernatural group. Even more species of Wild Women (think various nymphs from a plethora of mythologies are brought in, adding to an already over-cast story that becomes a amalgam of bit parts. Since the novels are on the short side, most characters are under developed, even when they turn out to play key roles. The main story seems to be over now, and the ending did push credibility a little too far (and I'm not talking about the fantastical stuff). Over all, the series is just a little too rushed and shallow for my liking. I bet, however, a volume or three of short stories, focusing on characters other than Faline and better defining a particular group's activities in the modern world might make for a good side bar to this series.

I remember when I was young and wished I had the looks, charm and charisma to bed every girl of my choosing. Meet Francis King. He is living that dream. I suppose the underlying moral of the story is about young people searching for permanency in a shallow sea of instant gratification -- but that would be overthinking. Frances gets laid, a lot. Some quasi-attachments form, but implode when the next shiny-new comes by and resistance is futile.

A couple of things don't quite resonate, though. The book is set in modern times, but the unchecked level of promiscuity hearkens back to the late-70s/early 80's (think Studio 54). Also, every single person in this book smokes cigarettes. Again, that would be habitual during ancient times (when I was young) but it's not the case today.

Dakota is the captain of her ship and part of a 2-creature scavenging crew. She happens upon the find of the century, at the same as thugs hired by the galaxy's most renown collector, Pizlow. Her only escape is to blow up the find, and the thugs with it. But she does get away with a gizmo that dates back to before human space travel..

The gizmo turns out to be a time-traveling, insta-wormhole device. Dakota, who appears to have the intellectual wherewithal of your typical trade show model, is shown how to use it. It comes with a side effect though, for a time, it leaves one's brains scrambled (in most cases with Dakota, that equates to no noticeable effect. Try to save not only her hide but that of her Kzin-like companion Tolby and 3 others of his race (the last of the race). Jumping forward and backwards, opening wormholes into the unknown, it's like an interdimesional chase scene, and it comes off as confusing as it sounds.

Biggest problem with the book though is Dakota isn't as smart as someone doing what she does ought to be.

Elves (don't call them vampires!) are an immortal race dating back to the days when pantheon's ruled. Except this race kind of ticked off The Furies, who imposed a multi-level curse, requiring them to sustain by drinking blood and banished to the dark, sunlight being toxic to them. It seems though that elves also got unique super powers. The main protagonist was also a banshee, and when she slipped into banshee mode she was a killing machine, ruling over battle fields much of her life.

The elves were also a promiscuous bunch. They turned humans into servants who could do their bidding by day and gaining immortality. Offspring of elves and humans (elves couldn't mate among themselves) could be turned into full-blown elves by an elaborate ceremony, one becoming deadly as percentages of elven blood in the population dissipated.

There are multiple plots in this book. One is to try to reason with the Furies to at least lift the daylight curse. The other involves research and experiments to continue the elven race. This book could have used a little more editing, cut out some of the casual affairs and tighten the story line. I would read the next one, though, it was a pretty entertaining romp.

The idea of parallel worlds that certain people are able to travel between is not a new one. My favorite in this ilk is the Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony, but there's other good ones out there. Whereas a lot of these kind of books tend to have epic scopes, this has a much smaller, intimate one.

One day, Jack and his father are visiting his grandmother in a nursing home. She has dementia, and on this particular day she appears to be lucid. When his dad leaves them alone to run an errand, she describes, then shows him how to access a parallel world, something certain family members are able to do. In the coming years until her death, the grandmother warns him about the existence of a "bad Jack" on the other side. Everyone who can cross, it seems, have radically different opposites.

In the course of the story, Jack of course runs afoul of Bad Jack, but not before a run-in with one of Bad Jack's former cell mates. A second encounter nearly leaves Jack dead, but in desperation Jack is able to drag him into "his" world, leaving the assailant, George, stunned. Jack finds out what mischief Bad Jack has planned, and it he's the cause of his otherwise idyllic relationship falling to pieces.

There's a few twists and turns, along the way. Nothing deep about the story, quick read by not an unpleasant one.

If you liked the movie Eyes Wide Shut, you'll like this book. On a flight from London, Talia meets Philip, an interesting character indeed. Talia is currently in a complicated stage in her life, having left her husband, living with a son who's become disengaged, and seemingly looking for purpose. Philip turns her on to a food passion, and a subculture that is, at times, literally as well as figuratively pornographical.

The book is told first person through Talia. Becomes a teacher like her father was, and connects with a former student she met while subbing for her dad decades earlier. Both were in the same life-situation, but ultimately weren't the solution for each other's needs. She encounters a too-young prostitute. She encounters a religious cult. And this magnificently bizarre establishment called "Prongs" that featured everything from dining on endangered species, "human bacon", and Romanesque orgies. Talia discovers a zest and wonderment of the life she never knew existed.

Alas, this epiphany would be short lived, from ultimate highs come unspeakably terrible lows.

Reading this at the time the Corona virus outbreak was just getting noticed in China, it really makes one wonder. This is a story of plague, ancient and modern. What became known as Black Death wasn't Bubonic Plague as we know it today and presumed was the case earlier in history, but a hemorrhagic fever with a similar, but more viral pathology refined more than 1000 years ago by an Islamic scientist working for what was known to be a cult of assassins. Not only did the scientist create a stable medium to distribute the virus, but also a solution (both derived from monkeys known to a particular African tribe) that served as an immunization. This was millennia before the anyone knew of viruses or vaccines.

The story bounces back from the story of dedicated scientist to modern times, where Homeland Security catches wind of something going on. An agent imposes himself on a Islamic studies researcher at an east coast university; she and a newspaper reported get dragged into an international adventure by none other than the lead terrorist himself. And the Homeland Security guy...at one point a knight in shining armor reveals himself to be a doomsday cultist expecting this impending calamity to bring forth the rapture.

This was a very good historical/action novel marred, unfortunately, by long passages of painful, clumsy romance. The novel would be much tighter without, or at least with the sexual tension being far less invasive. Still, this was a very interesting read, show more especially considering what was happening in the news. show less

This trilogy comes to a close as the huldra Faline and her co-conspirator "Wild Women" finally ensure their independence with victory over the oppressive Hunters, an all-male supernatural group. Even more species of Wild Women (think various nymphs from a plethora of mythologies are brought in, adding to an already over-cast story that becomes a amalgam of bit parts. Since the novels are on the short side, most characters are under developed, even when they turn out to play key roles. The main story seems to be over now, and the ending did push credibility a little too far (and I'm not talking about the fantastical stuff). Over all, the series is just a little too rushed and shallow for my liking. I bet, however, a volume or three of short stories, focusing on characters other than Faline and better defining a particular group's activities in the modern world might make for a good side bar to this series.

Old gods never die, they just continue doing what they do in spite of what goes on in the mortal world. That is, until they find themselves in the mortal world, and discover they are no longer immortal.

The premise is all pantheons that ever existed are alive and well in their various godly domains. Gods of good are locked into a thousands-year struggle with gods of dark to obtain a gate that allows transit to the earth. They Egyptian god Horus turns the tables on both sides though, and grabs this device for the Egyptians only. Meanwhile, beginning with Apollo, gods are to earth, some to die.

The earthly part feels more like American Gods where things play out in the San Francisco area. Gods do not retain their powers, but still have their talents - Apollo is an incredible musician, Freyja a skilled warrior, Bacchus a party animal, etc. Artemis takes on her Roman analog's name Diana and becomes a homicide cop. A native American god Coyote creates all sorts of havoc (a trickster god akin to Loki).

Several gods do not survive the drama playing out on Earth. In the heavens, gods and their minions are constantly resurrected, but death on Earth is permanent. Among the plot lines is the unexplained absence of Zeus, unresolved this book and left as a cliff-hanger to entice one to read the next. And I think I shall, this was pretty fun in a brain candy sort of way.

Nicole Anderson interjects a lot of historical flavor into this introductory novel about an Egyptian insurrection that occurred late in the reign of Ptolemy IV. A king from Upper Egypt, Hugronophor, begins a civil war, with his three sons playing varying roles. The book is mostly about the sons (one of which succeeds Hugronophor, but the actual history of these two seem poorly documented). There is a fair amount of mysticism thrown in, but thematically so; I didn't have a problem with it being too much of a distraction in the narrative. Otherwise, the novel seems like a plausible tale set during this period.. I look forward to the next book.

Usually I'm disappointed reading erotic stories, like porn movies, the bulk of them tend to have weak characters, weaker stories (if any at all) and tiresome sex scenes. While Ms. Lloyd (the author, not the book character) could use a little more ingenuity in the sex scene part, I thought she did a fine job putting together an interesting cast of characters, an interesting story line, and, most importantly, plausible interactions with the characters.

Newly divorced Amber is given quite an offer - a fabulous apartment, all paid, a generous monthly stipend, and pretty much any material thing she could want for agreeing to service 5 guys, all part of a contract. The guys all have issues, from sexual dysfunction to hyper-sexed. The main protagonist, Steve, doesn't ever even have a quickie with her. Meanwhile, Amber takes her job seriously and strives to address these issues in her patrons; consulting doctors and the like. The "contract" comes crashing down when one of the signers spills the beans to his wife, but the elusive Steve pretty much sets her up for life, and for the second novel in the series. For once in this genre I'm looking forward to the next one.

The imagery of this story is reminiscent of Fritz Lang's Metropolis combined with "Lucy in the Skies With Diamonds" while animations from a Pink Floyd video play out on the screen. And while those are each very good things, it's like trying to make a one-pot meal out of corned beef, chocolate cake, and root beer. It just doesn't create a coherent whole.

The two characters that get any sort of development die well before the end of the story. It what appears to be a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Earth becomes something more fantastical as mutant creatures become involved and a group eventually leaves to seek their destiny in the stars. There is a witch. There's a robotic overlord. They all seem to have some alluded to agenda that is never fully explained. The book is short, but took a lot longer to read than it should because it lacked any sort of story-driven flow to drive turning the virtual page.

A storyfied version of the events leading up "the shot heard 'round the world." Taking place mostly in Boston and London, this novel touches events such as the Stamp Act and the Boston Tea Party, the building of the resistance, and the British refusal to consider their actions were driving the Americans to war. Now, this is a novel so the author is not bound to follow a historical course for his characters, but I think development the characters a little more -- better explaining the motivations how they got to the point of planning rebellion at the novel's outside, would have made this a much more compelling (and readable) story. I suppose one might consider that politicians of average skill imposing their will on average people of no great means or ability can nevertheless spark events that would drive the creation of a new nation - but the characters as presented are just too pedestrian see such a grandiose outcome to their actions.

Set in the future, the National Time Service does more than simply maintain the official time clocks. They also possess technology that allows them to jump back in time to observe (and record) anything from recent murders to what happened with Hitler's body after his alleged suicide in the bunker and what really happened to Lindbergh's baby. The travelers appear to be physically invisible within their pods, but apparently can not only throw things outside of the pods, but can be touched and heard as well, so the missions are carefully planned and executed within a limited time span. This premise alone could fill volumes of interesting stories, as none of the missions covered in this book went quite the way history has recorded.

For some inexplicable reason, however, the author spends half the book on pulp romance garbage, with two of the NTS team members getting it on, as well as a brother of one and a friend of another. This part of the book was painfully bad, and I really wanted to just skip it to get back to the missions. It adds nothing to the main plot and dilutes an otherwise intriguing sci-fi novel.

Ever since George Romero brought us "the living dead" nightmare, zombies have been a phenomenon all their own. Stories tend to boil down to the same thing - visceral battles where the living try to stay alive and attempts to somehow outwit the witless. An effective zombie story passes the terror to the reader through effective development of the characters. Dialog between the characters is an essential tool for this sort of character development and here is where Merritt fails. The story is almost entirely a narrative, such as something composed by an omniscient observer writing well after the events took place. The endless descriptions of battles with the zombies are reminiscent of observations made of someone playing a video game killing zombies. There is no sense of terror, no sense of doom. When characters die, it's almost a welcome break from the routine zombie bashing.

I think this novel is closer to becoming a satire of the zombie genre than a ground-breaking participant. Characters in the story even admit that tactics learned from zombie movies appear to be effective here, there is no real attempt at originality. Fast zombies or slow zombies? Hell, why not both?

The end of the book might not seem so odd if the second book was readily available to continue the story. The narrative would alternately follow several groups of survivors, and the end of this novel felt like the author wrote a bunch of chapters and just decided to cut the story at an arbitrary point show more without crafting a proper ending that gets readers intrigued for the next book. show less

It takes a special kind of crazy to live in a remote polar station, and this is an underlying theme of this book. Oddly though, conditions that can drive a sane person crazy would seem that a psych eval is in order for anyone choosing to endure polar winters with six months of no aid from the rest of the world. When a scientist is found dead in the library, the librarian becomes the immediate suspect only because she owned a gun (never mind it wasn't the gun used in the killing) and the personnel recruiter who allowed her to have it (Dylan, the main character in the story). The murder becomes an international incident, the scientist was Israeli, the librarian, Muslim, and the United States wants to unilaterally take possession of the international station because of an interest by one of the richest, post powerful people.

The story and plot worked well enough, but the character development seemed off. Dylan was prone to crazy nightmares and often questioned his own sanity. He took accusations of culpability much too nonchalantly. He was caught and escaped several times...despite there being literally no place to run. The supporting cast of characters are largely 2-dimensional, and the villains resemble something out of a James Bond story. Still, Hoss got the atmospherics right (at least as well as I can judge them to be after reading a blog by a friend's father who was recruited for a particular task in Antarctica). If you want a nice chill on hot summer day, this could show more do it for you. show less

The first book of the series introduced us to a bevy of mythical nymphs: huldra, russalkas, mermaids, succubi, and harpies. Pudelek adds a few more in this second volume, the Negin, She' and Echidna; culling from Egyptian, Chinese and Cretan (and all incidentally some form of human/snake hybrid) mythologies. The war against the Hunters - large men tasked with oppressing these "wild women" escalates and for the first time we see some "wild men" - the Incubus, male counterpart to the Succubus.

Most of the story chaotically moves toward the epic show-down. The wild women are not a trained combat force and some have only recently began to exercise their supernatural talents. Good thing for them the Hunters still don't respect them enough to do a better job planning their own strategies. We aren't party to the Hunter's planning or what they were thinking, but that the wild women prevail in the end certainly says much about their lack of competence.

With an expanding number of mythical creatures, there is less opportunity for most of them to stand out, with the exception of the Huldra, the main protagonist's breed. I'd like to see the battles better orchestrated with each tribe of wild women playing a unique and important role. What Pudelek does give us, to her credit, is probably precisely what would happen if unique tribes assembled for a war without a commander fit for the role; but authenticity doesn't always make for a good story.

Living mid-way between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, I'm well aware of the battles that have on-going to keep Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. Andrew Reeves gives us a history of this problem dating back to when it was thought introducing ravenous species for aquatic weed control was a good idea. Why it happened. how it happened, the arrogance of those who thought they could control a foreign species in large numbers is all documented in this fascinating book.

Reeves explores all facets of this complex issue. How flooded ponds allowed contained fish to escape into the wild, eventually reaching the Mississippi. He discusses the engineering marvels that reversed the flow of the Chicago River and shipping canals that connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi via numerous waterways (including the heavily-infested Illinois River). Lawsuits from states fighting to preserve natural resources vs. states trying to protect industry and jobs. Even international efforts from the Canadian side of the Great Lakes receives a chapter.

Asian carp are a destructive species predicted to wreak great havoc on the ecosystem of the great lakes. Tons of fish are removed from waterways every year, and no containment solution has proven to be 100% effective. Some insist the only way is physical separation of the watersheds which would involve the removal of several locks used for transport along the Chicago River and Sanitary and Ship Canal. Although shipping industry is in a long show more decline, there are still a lot of jobs at stake and great resistance to this change.

Perhaps of greatest interest was the evolution of technology over the years. Now, rather than searching for elusive populations outside of the containment area, rather than fish or shock areas randomly, a technique called eDNA can detect DNA from target fish in the environment. Once a positive ID is made, more intrusive methods can follow. While the current barriers aren't 100% effective, using eDNA to search for escaped populations can help track the numbers of fish (and whether or not the fish are sterile in the first place - another containment method). So far, critical mass numbers have not been found beyond the current barriers.

All of this technology, planning, engineering and research might be for naught as the programs mentioned in this book are under onslaught by Trump's War Against the Environment. Budgets have been slashed upwards of 90% when increases are necessary to have a tangible effect. Whether we can make it a few more years before tragedy strikes the Great Lakes is anyone's guess. show less

Names have been changed to protect the guilty. This tale of despondency and redemption could only be written by someone who has experienced it -- depictions of actual events were too vivid to be otherwise. This is at once fascinating and disturbing; and while this book exists because the author prevailed, it is abundantly clear that so many will try and fail, or worse, not even try at all. The system in place to help such individuals is rife with indifference and inflexibility, ensuring many in rehab are churned back into deadly environment from whence they came.

Once in a while, LibraryThing Early Reviewers presents me with a story (or collection of stories) of real-life horror, and this is one of them. They are almost always unsettling, yet they are also the most impactful and stay vivid in my mind for years to come.

Dotty Davis is what I supposed is called a "functional alcoholic" in that she drinks excessively, but still by and large thinks like a detective and can still accomplish things like staying alive when others around her are dropping like flies. There's nothing particularly funny about the story, however, and Dotty is not a very endearing character. And it's hard to like any story if the characters are not likable.

The use of the word "Perversity" in the title is really suggestive of something this short story collection is not. There are some colorful characters to be sure, but few I would call out as "perverse."

Some of these stories are really short, and most of the plots are familiar and ordinary. The stories had a tendency to abruptly end...too abruptly as they feel rather unfinished. It seemed more like I was reading Mr. Caruso's notes on plots for stories rather than completed stories themselves. A good short story can be a difficult thing to pull off -- and he does ok on occasion. Mr. Caruso just misses more than he hits and in those stories, the reader is left hanging with no sense of closure.

The Gideon Crew series has become more unreal with each volume. Now in it's 5th, Preston and Child are gonna have some 'splaining to do if they plan to trot him out for #6.

The company he was working for was suddenly shuttered when the owner reached his ultimate goal at the end of the last book. Disgruntled and still dying, Crew and fellow agent Manuel Garza discover a computer running a decryption routine on an ancient relic (running for 5 years) had completed successfully. Determined to find out what is actually at the location uncovered and agreed to split any financial windfall equally, they set out to the Egyptian desert. Guides refused to take them where they want to go, telling them that nobody ever returns. Of course, that doesn't stop our intrepid heroes who go on to stumble upon an ancient Egyptian tribe still very much following middle Kingdom traditions. And that includes enslaving our heroes for a rousing month of tomb building.

I liked the premise well enough - underground research to clone famous people from history. David Greenberg, however, is a rather unlikely action hero and seems awfully reliant on dumb luck to stay alive than an innate talent for heroism. He is also oddly ambivalent about his fate - maybe it's a Jewish thing, but I found it to be an interesting part of his persona. This appears to be the first book in a series - it'll be interesting to see if the author expands on the premise mentioned above or whether something altogether different.

Unless you are a meticulous diarist, recalling events 50 years after the fact with anything approaching a cohesive narrative is problematic. It seems the author really wishes to honor the memory of her husband, Merk, killed as a civilian pilot working for the government during the Vietnam War. Instead of a story building up Merk's character as a thrill-seeker confident in the immortality of youth before tragically being cut short, we instead get anecdotes that skip around the time line, sometimes confusing the reader as whether a particular memory was before or after his death.

The author mentions a few times that since her husband was not active military during the war, his name was not etched upon the Vietnam War Memorial. Probably Merk's memory would have been better served in a larger discussion of the war's forgotten casualties. At the end of the book, I pondered what kind of story could have been created from what I just read. I'm not entirely sure that between Kay and Merk there's enough there that would make for a compelling read given the material presented in this book.

This action-packed story has it all: first contact with another sentient species, skirmish with said species, government cover-up because, well, oil is involved and that rules all. What it doesn't have is more pages: a relationship between two of the main human characters went from "nice to meet you" to "let's make lots of babies" in no time at all. Protagonists came and went too quickly and suffered from underdevelopment. The back story for the aliens was very well done and hopefully forms the basis for additional stories. The aliens themselves could have used a little more character development as well -- we got to know two of them well enough, but it's hard to say how representative they are of the species.

That aside, the story is compelling -- the chain of events and actions of peripheral characters who don't have a complete picture of what's going on are spot-on plausible. There were probably a few more dots that could be connected in a longer story (a World War 3 scenario would be nearly inevitable given the state of affairs at the end of the story); hopefully the abrupt ending is an indication of more to come.

Who to blame for this mess? The author? The editor? Both? Beware, spoilers abound below.

Soldiers and Secrets is set sometime in the future when interstellar travel is possible. Captain Damascus, a lesbian (because that is apparently important) has a run-in with a drunk in a bar and winds up busted two ranks and shipped off to another unit where she falls for two more lesbians subordinate to her for a happy threesome. Her CO simply advises to tone it down in public, no one thinks it odd for an officer to be involved with subordinates in such away. Meanwhile, they guys in the unit must all be suffering from terminal blue balls as they repeatedly hit on (and are spurned by) the lesbian trio. This is supposed to be the future, mind you...maybe it's the long term result of Trump and his cohorts pretending sexual harassment isn't a thing? Unwanted advances continue to crop up in the most unlikely situations - such as during a firefight with an alien adversary with demonstrably superior weapons and tactics.

The author's obsession with sexual tension in this book causes him to lose focus on the plot. Or I should say plots, as they seem to change. Here is where it seems like totally random editing occurred. Damascus and her girlfriends are assigned to a recovery mission at an alien planet. There is one survivor, who happens to be the only character with a superpower (he can create stasis with his mind). Everyone else was killed by precision shots by drones. Where the drones come show more from nobody knows, but there is a mysterious ship nearby with no apparent entrances. One of Damascus' squeezes gets shot and Mr. Amazing Stasis Guy freezes her at the moment her heart is pierced, about a half-instant before death. So with a few stim packs to keep him awake and focused, Mr. Amazing and the squeeze await the departure and return of the rest of the squad, along with a bevy of surgeons to repair the damage before the stasis is released. Are you rolling your eyes yet?

During the mission (of which Damascus regains her captaincy on an interim basis) a crewman is killed by another attack of the drones. As a result, Damascus must face a tribunal. In this case, it was a meeting with a top military guy. Who then tries to kill her. Who really isn't a guy at all, but an alien. Damascus kills him, and is arrested for killing a superior officer. She is released when it is found there are no laws against killing alien impostors and her captaincy is confirmed. She is assigned a new company, her mission to return to the planet and recover the strange alien ship. Instead, at a ceremony commemorating her reinstatement of rank, Damascus and her old squad are attacked by an unknown assailant. In the process of an investigation where just about everyone dies (including her former CO and both squeezes), Damascus finds out the attacker is a woman who believes she is the daughter of the alien creature Damascus killed earlier. Damascus prevails, and at the end, after visiting her former captain's grave, she meets his cute daughter. Who is...wait for it....also a lesbian.

If you're paying attention, you'll notice that (1) the strange alien ship was never retrieved and (2) the revelation that an alien achieved high status in the military seemed to elicit a collective shrug. It's almost like entire chapters were lost. show less