Scattered Stars: Conviction: Deception

An entire star system goes dark.
One of Redwards most advanced destroyers is missing.
A Kaiserreich heavy cruiser, the single most powerful ship in the Cluster, appears in Ypres on a survey mission as Ypres plunges into civil war.
Six Kaiserreich Death Marks, still uncollected.

Aboard the mercenary carrier, Conviction, Commander Kira Demirci leads her Nova fighter group on a search and rescue mission for the missing destroyer and to unravel the mystery around an entire star system going dark. On a humanitarian mission to the Ypres System, Kira runs into a former enemy combatant she saved during the war. When the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, Queen Sonia enlists Kira to lead a desperate mission to neutralize the Kaiserreich heavy destroyer. A mission based on deception.

A very entertaining read with the strong characters, engaging storyline and plot twists weve come to appreciate in Glynns stories.

For Milanis fans, they get more page time in this story. For those that dont remember Milani, they are that terrifying (fill in the blank) in the dragon armor.

I received an ARC for my review and purchased my own copy

Disclaimer – I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for this review.

The 2nd novel in a new series by Glynn Stewart Deception further expands on the story of exiled fighter pilots building a new life for themselves as mercenaries. The author does his usual commendable job of world building with complex characters, deftly written action sequences in a sci fi setting that while not exactly ‘hard science’ it is sufficiently believable and logically consistent ‘in world’ as to enhance the tale.

Without delving too deeply into the plot this installment expands on the issues uncovered in the first book – a shadowy organization that is attempting to shape the development of human controlled star systems -( a shoutout apparently to the Foundation series by Asimov) and the efforts of the mercenaries and their employer to stop them while establishing a stable agreement and free trade pact among a group of star systems.

The bottom line – another good novel by an author who routinely turns out quality reads. Worth investing your precious dollars – the Shattered Stars series is a must have for any fan of the genre.

A strong second entry for this new series begins with our favorite mercenaries seeking to find out what happened to a missing star destroyer. Upon arrival in the designated system they encounter widespread destruction and an urgent rescue mission, but it does not extend the destroyer which seems to be totally obliterated. To save lives they carry the injured to a gateway world to yet another world and discover even more modern hardware coming into the cluster under the direction of their Shadow Enemy. How to fulfill their contracts and live through it is the focus of this book.

Another great combination of character development and action sees plenty of action on all levels and a fast paced story. How could you not love having Asimov-like psychohistorians as the great villains of the tale.

The second book in the Scattered Stars series definitely ups the stakes, with the still shadowy villain making another attempt to push their philosophy into the cluster that Kira has already started to call home. Here she ends up out of her interceptor more than she’s in it, but the action scenes are good and the “slow” sections still manage to hang a lot of emotional tension into the scenes. Kira and her friends are against a ticking clock and they know it.

There’s still a lack of good character development outside of Kira here. But the plot and the slowly increasing tension make sure that this is a solid tale that truly deserves the appelation “Space Opera”. Another 4 star work.

This is a great book, IF you have read Conviction, the first book in this series. I think you could probably still figure out what is going on if you started here, but you would lose all the information about the characters that makes for some of the humor and what back-story there is to most of the people who are the main players in this book. For those of you who read Conviction, this is a worthy successor, and will hold your interest all the way through the book. Probably, it is no surprise to anyone, based on how the titling of the 2 books has been done, there is going to more in this series, as the ending clearly indicates all kinds of events in the near future for the characters that we are not privy to as yet. I will be on the look-out for the next installment.