Make a high-speed run of Septimus, the Borwyn home planet, but the Malibor have a different idea about where the battle will be fought.
Who is the predator and who is the prey?
The Borwyn find their new friends can be both a hindrance and helpful.
Liberate Septimus and free the Borwyn.
It takes all of Jaq’s willpower to focus the crew on their singular goal.
***No part of this book was written by AI – a human author continues to fight the good fight.
This is the second book in the Starship Lost Military Sci-Fi Series from Military Sci-Fi Dragon Award Finalist and Amazon International Bestselling author Craig Martelle. It's perfect for fans of Rick Partlow, JN Chaney, and Joshua Dalzelle. Read it today.
Visit Craig's web page, craigmartelle.com for the latest posts and updates or find him on Facebook, Author Craig Martelle. Send an email to craig@craigmartelle.com to join his mailing list for the latest on new releases, information on old releases, and anything related to his books.
I see my other lives, a career in the Marines, those damn hand-written tests in law school, a business consultant, as if they're stories from a book. I see my books as if I lived there, as if I were friends with the characters. All things we remember are behind us, only those we imagine lie before.
I'm not sure which place I prefer, but I don't have to choose. They live together in my mind. My books have some award nominations, they have bestseller tags across multiple countries. I write about justice, honor, and loyalty because that's what I care about. My stories are mostly set within worlds that haven't been, but could be. We have to be ready for when those times come.
No matter where I went, I always had a book with me. Thanks to 21st Century technology, I now have hundreds of books loaded on my phone and always with me. This breakthrough allows me to binge read my favorites. How many books would I have read on deployments had I not had to have a physical book with me? I paced myself so I wouldn't finish too quickly.
We aren't encumbered like that now. I love the works of Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, JRR Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and so many more. I have been compared to Andre Norton and that is humbling - she was an incredible author with a huge list of novels to her credit. With every new book, I aspire to live up to those that you, the readers, have compared me to.
Through a bizarre series of events, I ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska. I never expected to retire to a place where golf courses are only open for four months out of the year. But that's the way it is. It is off the beaten path. My wife and I get to watch the northern lights from our driveway. Our dog has lots of room to run. And temperatures reach fifty below zero. We have from three and a half hours of daylight in the winter to twenty-four hours in the summer.
It's all part of the give and take of life. If we didn't have those extremes, then everyone would live in the sub-arctic.
The second instalment sees the crew of the Starship Chrysalis in contact with their own people who now live in a hidden planet. Some of these people are "Originals", the generation who actually experienced the invasion. They have found a food source that kept them physically young but is now a pacifist society with no inclination to take on their enemy.
What we also learned is that in the last decades, the enemies have been fighting civil wars within themselves and that's why their technology has stagnated. But the crew of Chrysalis have been brought up with the belief that their destiny is to free their home planet from the invaders, they are determined to continue with their mission to defeat their enemies.
More space battles ensued and so far Chrysalis comes through victorious, but with substantial damage and loss of lives. They have been able to reduce the size of the enemy fleet so far but I do wonder how one ship can effectively win a whole war? Let's see....
In this case, it’s a whole cargo ship full of goods, and that’s as close to a spoiler as I’m willing to get. Instead I will wax elegiac and extoll the virtues of Mr. Martelle and his unique style of writing.
Craig has a love of detail that would bore an auditor, but he has also clearly made a lifelong study of the human character. When you combine these two traits what you get is an absorbing and compelling narrative with which one can simply not help but be engaged.
I’ve no idea how many stories this makes that he’s written, and I differentiate books from stories since a single story may take several books. But as he has continued to bring forth new stories each of them has substantially improved upon the last to the point that I referred to his writing in my review of the first book, as “elegant.“ That opinion not only stands, but is unarguably verified in this book.
Two of his most popular characters, TH Walton and Rivka have justifiably occupied center stage across a wide swath of stories, and an even larger spread of books. However, they are nonetheless almost slapstick or cartoonish in their representation. This isn’t a bad thing, per se, it merely reflects an evolution in Craig’s style of writing. In his earliest books, which are undeniably worth reading, and I would encourage you to do so, no matter what the cost (but you might want to wait for them to go on sale as Craig is often quite generous), Craig was a bit “ham-handed“ in his humor, and no matter how much his writing may evolve, do you change it in those stories, would do a disservice to the nature of the characters as we’ve come to love them.
The humor in this series is far more subtle and far more potent as a result. Without a doubt, this is Craig writing at his very best. I assure you, you are going to love it!
The Chrysalis has returned and the Malibor are not expecting that!
Overwhelming speed and agility matched the Chrysalis and its crew high above the Malibor gunships and cruisers. But it was one ship against a fleet. Can the Borwyn crew successfully combat half of the Malibor ships at once? The Malibor aren't aware of the rebuilt and rearmed Chrysalis has returned. They think that the 4th civil war had begun! The characters have had 50 years to prepare for their return to Septimus and continue the war they'd lost. Their ship, the Chrysalis, had been rebuilt and modified with an Ion drive of their own design. Their speed was amazing and was a significant factor in the battles to come. They were coming and they were angry! This will be a battle like none before. With a storyline that defies fatigue and sleeplessness, the master storyteller kept me up! This is a great read and a series that I'm already loving.
Craig Martelle has again written another great book in "The Return" in his series (STARSHIP LOST). If you enjoy Sci-Fi as well as an action-packed book, you will want to read this book and series about a group of second generation survivors from a 50 year war that their ancestors lost the first battle and have returned to win the war to take back their home world and home star stem with the goal of defeating their enemies so they can both live in a peaceful existence. I have really enjoyed both the first book as well as the second and can't wait to read book three when it comes out. I hope you enjoy this book as well as I have.
This was the second book of this series, and I thought it was even better than the first book. The characters are more developed, and the plot is expanding, to create more possibilities. My only complaint is that there are some grammatical errors which I found mildly distracting. That being said, I'm avidly awaiting the next book!
Craig usually writes a good story, this one seems to have been written by and for a 13-year-old. I don’t know why some of these characters do what they do. For example, they go down into the atmosphere to hide from a gun ship, and then they come out of it and blow it up. Really? I’ll continue the series cause I’m not a quitter.
I started this series to kill time before the next Backyard Starship book was released...oops I'm hooked on this one too! Great characters, intriguing backstory and although I'm writing this on book 2, I'm actually starting the final book....please don't let anything happen to Jaq and Brad, they need to end up together lol....maybe keep this series going too. Gotta run, I have a book to read! 💗
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I love that the Chrysalis is being run by the new generation, & their drive to survive! These characters are fun, complex, & intense. Thank you for showing the genius, & the downsides of autism.
A fast paced high action space series. An intriguing concept skilfully fleshed out and made believable. Great character development and interactions with a few surprises tossed in.