Cloaked (Age of Expansion: The Ascension Myth #7)

The story of Molly and her crew has finally reached Book 7. This is part of the age of expansion series and is set in the Kurtherian Gambit universe created by Michael Anderle. You don’t really have to read any of the KG books to enjoy this one but reading some of the earlier books in this series might help.
As plots go this isn’t very subtle but it is a fun military/sci-fi novel. There are hints at a broader story arc but Ell Leigh Clarke seems to have fallen into the broader KG habit of having too many ideas which are just left hanging and which may, or may not, be resolved in future episodes. The main story is a fun piece of space opera about smuggling and kidnapping. This then ties back to Molly’s team and so on. Clarke seems to write for speed and events and character development and emotional depth are quite lacking. This is a fairly common KG trait but some of the authors seem to overcome it (Natalie Gray and even Craig Martelle) so maybe ELC should change Yodas.
This book seems to have surfaced a bit from the KG universe and has more of its own character than some of the recent books. It lacks the vim, vigour and humour of the first couple of books but regains its own character. These books aren’t really about Molly any more but at least in this case she’s present and involved. It’s going to be interesting to see how “Super-Molly” evolves.
So this is good fun space opera and much better from coming out of the shadows of the Federation and regaining its own characters and settings.
It was great to see Neechie (Nietzche) the cat actually appear in more than one sentence and I hope there’s lots more of the sphinx to come.

I always find something to love about the writings of Ms Clarke, there are always tiny little gems hidden away in her books that makes them unique, always endearing and very worthwhile the time spent reading them. This book was no different. Molly continues to evolve into something greater than herself, and Ms Clarke clearly has an emotional connection to Molly that comes through the rest of the story in a very rewarding way. To say that her books are character based is missing the point, her characters are the best and perhaps the only reason to read her books. What is really good in this book is Molly’s progression into the Etheric, her continued emotional development, the cat, Paige and Brock, and the author notes. The adventure along the way is becoming more and more background noise to the real reason for these books, which is Molly.

With only two 2-star and three 3-star reviews, I don’t think that Ms. Clarke has a great deal to be worried about regarding this series. The two-star reviews looked like they came from wanna-be literary critics that have no clue how a critical review should be done and honestly just read like a case of never realized, frustrated, and failed authors. The three-star comments were even less substantive other than the one post whining about left-leaning politics and threatening to drop the series if it continued. Frankly, I think that Ell Leigh Clarke has a smash hit with the fan base to sustain it and its continued growth. I’m looking forward to the further adventures of Molly and the Sanguine Squadron!
Keep up the great work Ms. Clarke and D*&! the butt-hurt minority! Those of us that count ourselves as fans have your back… (think Joel and Sean got your back for context.).
Please keep rocking the Etheric with your marvelous stories!!!

On their latest assignment for the Federation Molly sends some of her team on a recon and rescue mission aboard a freighter bound for a distant planet experiencing unusual seismic activity. While Pieter and Page handle mission over watch duty Molly continues her project to start an education program for future leaders and finds that not everyone is happy about someone trying to change the system.
Ell manages to keep two main storylines going in her usual fast paced manner that are both entertaining and informative if you are paying attention.
Just when one project seems to be working out the other suddenly goes sideways causing Molly to have to step in to rescue her rescuers. Along the way she finds that she is not the same broke girl that she was in the past.
The character development has progressed throughout this series to the point that they seem real and you can’t help hoping they succeed. Ell Clarke is truly coming into her own as an accomplished author of Science Fiction.
Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

This was a quick read for me comparatively speaking. But the evolution of Molly and her team brings hope to the future of Sark. I missed the depiction of the different Alien cultures a bit, even knowing that the focus was mostly on the team this time. Sean seemed to lose a bit of his macho. Wonder if that was just this mission or is he changing? Not a lot here like the Bitches but still very positive missions. I really look forward to more realm jumping and the resolution of the talismans. And of course a direct connection to BA!!!! Hooray for the university. And all of the controversy that will bring. Another good one!

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