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Scattered Stars: Conviction #6
Prodigal
The star system of Apollo has fallen!
Her fleets are scattered and her enemies victorious.
Apollo’s last an exile mercenary coming home at last!
Ace pilot Kira Demirci fled her home system of Apollo five years ago. Betrayed by her own government and one step ahead of enemy assassins, she smuggled a squadron of star fighters into the Outer Rim and forged a mercenary fleet of old friends and new alike.
Many of the aces of Apollo’s war against Brisingr weren’t as lucky.
Kira has a new home, but a scheme hatched by her enemies has brought her to the edge of her old stomping grounds. This close to Apollo, she’s one of the first to hear the devastating Brisingr has achieved its ultimate victory and captured her home. To take a star system should be impossible, but the reality is clear.
With family, friends and old comrades in the hands of the Brisingr Kaiserreich, Kira mobilizes her mercenary fleet to seek out the scattered remains of Apollo’s fleets and allies.
Even if she can manage the merely difficult and bring the broken factions together, the hard truth Brisingr's victory was impossible. To undo it, Kira will have to duplicate it...
Her fleets are scattered and her enemies victorious.
Apollo’s last an exile mercenary coming home at last!
Ace pilot Kira Demirci fled her home system of Apollo five years ago. Betrayed by her own government and one step ahead of enemy assassins, she smuggled a squadron of star fighters into the Outer Rim and forged a mercenary fleet of old friends and new alike.
Many of the aces of Apollo’s war against Brisingr weren’t as lucky.
Kira has a new home, but a scheme hatched by her enemies has brought her to the edge of her old stomping grounds. This close to Apollo, she’s one of the first to hear the devastating Brisingr has achieved its ultimate victory and captured her home. To take a star system should be impossible, but the reality is clear.
With family, friends and old comrades in the hands of the Brisingr Kaiserreich, Kira mobilizes her mercenary fleet to seek out the scattered remains of Apollo’s fleets and allies.
Even if she can manage the merely difficult and bring the broken factions together, the hard truth Brisingr's victory was impossible. To undo it, Kira will have to duplicate it...
436 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 18, 2023
245 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Glynn Stewart
115 books1,747 followersGlynn Stewart is the author of over 60 books, including Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible–but only because of magic.
Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.
Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Southern Ontario with his partner, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 22, 2023
Know Thy Enemy
A quick warning: Prodigal’s back cover spoils the conclusion of Huntress. My spoiler policy also dictates that previous novels are fair game, and it’s difficult to review this novel without referencing the previous. For those skimming ahead to assure themselves of the overall quality of the series, I recommend this satisfying but flawed ending.
The conclusion of the Scattered Stars series finds our hero coming full circle to face the enemy she initially fled: the star nation of Brisingr. The problem is that she travelled hundreds of light years at the start of the series, distancing our readers from this antagonist in more ways than one. When Prodigal begins, we can name a single Brisingr character, and we meet perhaps two more by the end of the series. Without multiple POVs, readers never visit the Brisingr solar system. If the author had intended for Kira to conquer her past, one would have assumed that over the course of five previous novels, the groundwork would have been better prepared.
There’s also not enough foreshadowing, as the solo POV necessarily reflects the hero’s ignorance of her enemies. Kira rallies a liberation fleet in a grand strategic narrative focused on diplomacy, logistics, and tactical combat using Nova drives. The overall campaign is massive in scope, suffers its fair share of setbacks, and builds to an inevitably epic carrier-on-carrier combat sequence. It’s very thrilling, but there’s a lack of suspense because we know nothing of the enemy; not the players, not their numbers, and certainly not their plans. For me, the main source of suspense came from knowing how many pages remained before the end of the book.
Prodigal shelves the mercenary political thriller and embraces the author’s military science-fiction niche. With such focus, it comes very close to being great. Strategically, this should be an epic worth remembering: our hero flees a foe so terrifying that her people abandon her, only for her to return as their last hope. Tactically, we should be biting our nails as our hero fights long odds in battle after bloody battle. Yet confronted by anonymous starships and nameless captains, the story never builds enough personal animosity. There’s a lack of foreshadowing and suspense at all levels.
They say one should never meet their heroes. Apparently, one needs to meet their enemies.
Recommended.
Series Overall Spoiler-Free Thoughts
★★★★☆ Conviction (Scattered Stars: Conviction #1)
★★★★☆ Deception (Scattered Stars: Conviction #2)
★★★★★ Equilibrium (Scattered Stars: Conviction #3)
★★★★☆ Fortitude (Scattered Stars: Conviction #4)
★★★☆☆ Huntress (Scattered Stars: Conviction #5)
★★★★☆ Prodigal (Scattered Stars: Conviction #6)
Better represented as two trilogies set in the same universe, Scattered Stars teeters back and forth between grand strategic military campaigns and political thrillers focused on intrigue and diplomacy. As the author has failed to blend the two genres together, the overall quality of the series will depend on how much you enjoy the ingredients individually.
★★★★☆ - Recommended
A quick warning: Prodigal’s back cover spoils the conclusion of Huntress. My spoiler policy also dictates that previous novels are fair game, and it’s difficult to review this novel without referencing the previous. For those skimming ahead to assure themselves of the overall quality of the series, I recommend this satisfying but flawed ending.
The conclusion of the Scattered Stars series finds our hero coming full circle to face the enemy she initially fled: the star nation of Brisingr. The problem is that she travelled hundreds of light years at the start of the series, distancing our readers from this antagonist in more ways than one. When Prodigal begins, we can name a single Brisingr character, and we meet perhaps two more by the end of the series. Without multiple POVs, readers never visit the Brisingr solar system. If the author had intended for Kira to conquer her past, one would have assumed that over the course of five previous novels, the groundwork would have been better prepared.
There’s also not enough foreshadowing, as the solo POV necessarily reflects the hero’s ignorance of her enemies. Kira rallies a liberation fleet in a grand strategic narrative focused on diplomacy, logistics, and tactical combat using Nova drives. The overall campaign is massive in scope, suffers its fair share of setbacks, and builds to an inevitably epic carrier-on-carrier combat sequence. It’s very thrilling, but there’s a lack of suspense because we know nothing of the enemy; not the players, not their numbers, and certainly not their plans. For me, the main source of suspense came from knowing how many pages remained before the end of the book.
Prodigal shelves the mercenary political thriller and embraces the author’s military science-fiction niche. With such focus, it comes very close to being great. Strategically, this should be an epic worth remembering: our hero flees a foe so terrifying that her people abandon her, only for her to return as their last hope. Tactically, we should be biting our nails as our hero fights long odds in battle after bloody battle. Yet confronted by anonymous starships and nameless captains, the story never builds enough personal animosity. There’s a lack of foreshadowing and suspense at all levels.
They say one should never meet their heroes. Apparently, one needs to meet their enemies.
Recommended.
Series Overall Spoiler-Free Thoughts
★★★★☆ Conviction (Scattered Stars: Conviction #1)
★★★★☆ Deception (Scattered Stars: Conviction #2)
★★★★★ Equilibrium (Scattered Stars: Conviction #3)
★★★★☆ Fortitude (Scattered Stars: Conviction #4)
★★★☆☆ Huntress (Scattered Stars: Conviction #5)
★★★★☆ Prodigal (Scattered Stars: Conviction #6)
Better represented as two trilogies set in the same universe, Scattered Stars teeters back and forth between grand strategic military campaigns and political thrillers focused on intrigue and diplomacy. As the author has failed to blend the two genres together, the overall quality of the series will depend on how much you enjoy the ingredients individually.
★★★★☆ - Recommended
June 12, 2024
Started strong, finished stronger
So, this book is not perfect. There are multiple instances of improper grammar that should really have been caught in editing, mostly involving the use of a singular when a plural was required.
For the first ~75% of the book, it was a solid continuation of the story, and I was thinking of giving it 4 stars.
So, why am I giving it 5? Because of the last 20ish percent of the book. It contained some of the best space combat descriptions we have seen from this series, but that's not all. The conclusion of this story is great. Hands down one of the best conclusions to a series I've read in the last while. I greatly wish there was more to this series because I see the potential of where it could go, but I also understand that this is a good place for it to end.
Well done Glynn, well done.
So, this book is not perfect. There are multiple instances of improper grammar that should really have been caught in editing, mostly involving the use of a singular when a plural was required.
For the first ~75% of the book, it was a solid continuation of the story, and I was thinking of giving it 4 stars.
So, why am I giving it 5? Because of the last 20ish percent of the book. It contained some of the best space combat descriptions we have seen from this series, but that's not all. The conclusion of this story is great. Hands down one of the best conclusions to a series I've read in the last while. I greatly wish there was more to this series because I see the potential of where it could go, but I also understand that this is a good place for it to end.
Well done Glynn, well done.
October 11, 2024
Brilliant ending to the series (maybe as there is so much scope to continue the story of Kira and Konrad and the rest - after all the Equilibrium Institute is still out there); the hardest test for the Memorial Fleet as Kira needs to build alliances, convince the two surviving high officers of Apollo (who deeply mistrust one another for good reasons it seems) to at least collaborate one with another even if only through her and of course when all is said and done, it is the force of arms that will decide it all; and Kaiser Reinhardt has the Equilibrium Institute on his side, whatever his nation knows or not, so while the Brisingr Navy is powerful but a known force, the Equilibrium potential fleets are a wild card as they come from the inner civilization so are considerably more advanced than anything Kira and her allies have...
But of course, Kira has her own allies, not least the SolFed operative who finally got the go ahead to destroy the Equilibrium Institute's influence as the mother world far away as is and slowly moving as it does, still doesn't appreciate meddlers in the fate of humanity even all the way to the Rim and 1500 light years from Sol regardless of their Seldonian analysis and all... And then there is her former POW and current boyfriend and XO, Konrad Bueller, master engineer of Brisingr and (junior) member of one of the high aristocratic families who the Kaiser decided to personally blame for the recent Brisingr reverses as a traitor who sold secrets that led to those reverses; unfortunately, when doing so, the Kaiser thought Konrad far away and settled in the distant reaches of the Rim, so not in a position to dispute said charges...
And so it goes, another impossible to put down novel in the series up to its superb ending...
Highly recommended
But of course, Kira has her own allies, not least the SolFed operative who finally got the go ahead to destroy the Equilibrium Institute's influence as the mother world far away as is and slowly moving as it does, still doesn't appreciate meddlers in the fate of humanity even all the way to the Rim and 1500 light years from Sol regardless of their Seldonian analysis and all... And then there is her former POW and current boyfriend and XO, Konrad Bueller, master engineer of Brisingr and (junior) member of one of the high aristocratic families who the Kaiser decided to personally blame for the recent Brisingr reverses as a traitor who sold secrets that led to those reverses; unfortunately, when doing so, the Kaiser thought Konrad far away and settled in the distant reaches of the Rim, so not in a position to dispute said charges...
And so it goes, another impossible to put down novel in the series up to its superb ending...
Highly recommended
January 28, 2024
If you like preparatory meetings, meetings, alcove discussions, post-meeting debriefings, secret meetings, you will love this 6th volume of the adventures of Admiral Dermici.
If you like space battles, action scenes, you will love 2 or 3 chapters of this book. (out of around fifty)
If you like super syrupy conclusions, you won't be disappointed.
The first 300 pages are painful, the last hundred are ok. But the author fell into the same pitfall as many illustrious authors before him: by propelling his main character to the head of increasingly important military organizations, he becomes (or feels) obliged to give a political dimension to the adventure, a dimension which ends up taking up all the space.
If you like space battles, action scenes, you will love 2 or 3 chapters of this book. (out of around fifty)
If you like super syrupy conclusions, you won't be disappointed.
The first 300 pages are painful, the last hundred are ok. But the author fell into the same pitfall as many illustrious authors before him: by propelling his main character to the head of increasingly important military organizations, he becomes (or feels) obliged to give a political dimension to the adventure, a dimension which ends up taking up all the space.
June 29, 2025
Love it, but…
The repetition of information is, at times, infuriating. I can skip whole sentences, paragraphs and even pages because it’s information I already have. Information the author has already supplied. In some instances, more than a few times.
It takes a lot to create a good story, and even more so a series.
This storyline is GOOD.
If it wasn’t as good as it is, I would have dumped this series halfway through book two. I didn’t though, I’ve just learned to skip the boringly repetitive bits - in doing so I can give this book, and this series, five stars.
To the author - if it doesn’t move the story forward, it’s not required.
The repetition of information is, at times, infuriating. I can skip whole sentences, paragraphs and even pages because it’s information I already have. Information the author has already supplied. In some instances, more than a few times.
It takes a lot to create a good story, and even more so a series.
This storyline is GOOD.
If it wasn’t as good as it is, I would have dumped this series halfway through book two. I didn’t though, I’ve just learned to skip the boringly repetitive bits - in doing so I can give this book, and this series, five stars.
To the author - if it doesn’t move the story forward, it’s not required.
May 9, 2023
Kira Demirci left Apollo with assassins on her tail because she had been a Prodigal (ebook from Faolan's Pen Publishing) ace pilot in the war against Brisingr. Now, as admiral to a large mercenary fleet, she learns that Brisingr has conquered Apollo. To take it back will take allies, and old friends working together. Glynn Stewart has a nice ending to the six book series.
July 22, 2023
3.5 stars. This was a good series with enjoyable characters. Not sure if this was the final book but either way, it ended well. There was enough space fighting action to keep things interesting but I think I would have enjoyed it even more if there were more personal struggles, hardships, or conflicts.
September 10, 2023
Too woke
The story lines of the series are pretty good and worth reading. What's not worth reading is that 2/3-3/4 of the secondary characters are gay, bisexual, transexual or other. With long and/or repetitive descriptions of their status, dress and status. Somewhere btwn 10-15% of the prose in the series is wasted on this garbage.
The story lines of the series are pretty good and worth reading. What's not worth reading is that 2/3-3/4 of the secondary characters are gay, bisexual, transexual or other. With long and/or repetitive descriptions of their status, dress and status. Somewhere btwn 10-15% of the prose in the series is wasted on this garbage.
October 9, 2024
What a great ending to an incredible series
Looking for a very light read from an author who I have read before and enjoyed the whole starmaged ship mage series. This 6book series was just fabulous. Simple, straightforward, full of surprises really great. Swashbuckling space Western.
Looking for a very light read from an author who I have read before and enjoyed the whole starmaged ship mage series. This 6book series was just fabulous. Simple, straightforward, full of surprises really great. Swashbuckling space Western.
April 19, 2023
What a fitting ending for the series!
Prodigal has everything you expect -space battles, intrigue and tying up various threads.
Highly recommend this series be read in order to get the most out of the universe and character building.
Prodigal has everything you expect -space battles, intrigue and tying up various threads.
Highly recommend this series be read in order to get the most out of the universe and character building.
June 1, 2023
I love this series
Takes me completely out of my day and my life as I live it
Oh how I long for a life in the stars … even though I’d probably be a spacers shipyard mechanic or a lowly ship hand in the cantina ha
Hey I’d be in space !!!
Takes me completely out of my day and my life as I live it
Oh how I long for a life in the stars … even though I’d probably be a spacers shipyard mechanic or a lowly ship hand in the cantina ha
Hey I’d be in space !!!
June 15, 2023
Excellent
Even though I needed to scan through all the political and other posturing nonsense (gadzooks how does an author get into all those personalities without going crazy!) I'm glad I was able to hang in there to a happy ending.
Even though I needed to scan through all the political and other posturing nonsense (gadzooks how does an author get into all those personalities without going crazy!) I'm glad I was able to hang in there to a happy ending.
February 29, 2024
Great step forward for the series
Book 6 was an exciting and natural extension of the series. The buildup to the stirring finish was well crafted and logical. The action sequences were strong and satisfying. The ending was surprising and could lead to another twist for the characters. I will be happy to read a Book 7!
Book 6 was an exciting and natural extension of the series. The buildup to the stirring finish was well crafted and logical. The action sequences were strong and satisfying. The ending was surprising and could lead to another twist for the characters. I will be happy to read a Book 7!
April 19, 2023
78 chuckles.
April 20, 2023
Another fine entry in one of Mr. Stewarts best series. Can't wait to see what life decision the MC makes to start the next volume.
April 22, 2023
Great ending.
April 23, 2023
Great book for this series
Enjoyed both the space battles and the science behind them. Good book for this 6 book series and enjoyed the writing style of this author
Enjoyed both the space battles and the science behind them. Good book for this 6 book series and enjoyed the writing style of this author
April 25, 2023
good ending
Great ending with so much crammed into one book. It ended about one line short, without the answer. So many things left without an outcome.
Great ending with so much crammed into one book. It ended about one line short, without the answer. So many things left without an outcome.
April 27, 2023
Great ending to a good series
May 3, 2023
the end
I’m sad to see this series ending, but I’ve enjoyed every book.
I’d like to recommend this series & all Glynn Stewart novels. I haven’t read a bad one yet.
I’m sad to see this series ending, but I’ve enjoyed every book.
I’d like to recommend this series & all Glynn Stewart novels. I haven’t read a bad one yet.
May 4, 2023
Good read....
I really enjoyed all the books in this series. I like the main character. I can't wait for the next book to come out.
I really enjoyed all the books in this series. I like the main character. I can't wait for the next book to come out.
May 7, 2023
A good climax to the series
This was a good climax to the series. The actions and thoughts of the main characters made this book very enjoyable to read.
This was a good climax to the series. The actions and thoughts of the main characters made this book very enjoyable to read.
May 14, 2023
Wow
A really nice series ending. Every question answered, every plot tidied up, and yet there is some potential for a sequel series!
A really nice series ending. Every question answered, every plot tidied up, and yet there is some potential for a sequel series!
Read
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June 11, 2023
Great series. Would like to see Kira and Konrad continue the adventure in a follow up series.
July 17, 2023
Rousing action
All the pieces come together. Has the last battle been fought? Will The Equilibrium Institute continue to be a factor in the sector?
All the pieces come together. Has the last battle been fought? Will The Equilibrium Institute continue to be a factor in the sector?
July 29, 2023
Thank you narrator and Glynn Stewart for this phenomenal story.
August 4, 2023
I have read some different series by this author and have enjoyed them all. I get involved with the characters and the story line both. He pulls me in and keeps me turning pages.
August 10, 2023
I enjoyed this entire series, had great plotlines to keep you hooked, and while it was sort of predictable at times, it was very enjoyable.
March 21, 2025
El ultimo de la serie y el mejor de todos. Batallas imposibles de ganar, alianzas extrañas y reveses constantes. Hasta que al final acaba muy bien (excepto por la ultima frase). Pero gran final. A
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