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Omega Force #3

Savage Homecoming

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Ever since he joined Omega Force, Captain Jason Burke has lived with the underlying fear that one day Earth would be discovered. His desire to keep Earth’s existence and location a secret has driven him to extremes, and kept him far away from his homeworld for a long time.

But now Jason’s greatest fear is realized, and a fleet of alien ships has attacked his planet.

Omega Force rushes to Earth’s defense, but the ships are like none they’ve ever encountered, and employ weapons they have no defense for. Will their lone gunship be able to slug it out with the unknown fleet holding the planet hostage? Or will this be a one-way trip for the crew of the Phoenix?

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2013

653 people are currently reading
341 people want to read

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Joshua Dalzelle

84 books1,368 followers

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5 stars
2,038 (48%)
4 stars
1,534 (36%)
3 stars
510 (12%)
2 stars
73 (1%)
1 star
8 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
Profile Image for Matthijs van Soest.
85 reviews12 followers
April 16, 2014
Compared to the previous installments this was just OK. Adding the ex-girlfriend did not work at all, those interactions seemed really forced. The storyline was OK, but there were definitely moments where like one of the other reviewers i felt the main character was really over the top and it was hard to suspend my disbelieve completely. I hope the next one is back to the level of the previous books.
236 reviews
February 29, 2024
Weak wish fulfilment military fantasy

Much worse than the first book. Even though it's a fantasy, it's just too juvenile for me to really enjoy. Too many wasted opportunities for exploring the potential strangeness and diversity of being a human amongst aliens.
Profile Image for Buzz Park.
176 reviews11 followers
February 23, 2017
This was my least favorite of the series so far, but still a fun ride and I am looking forward to the next installment,

I wish we could do half-stars, as this is a 3.5 for me.

I loved the action and the overall story, as well as the interactions with our protagonist and his team on the Phoenix.

What I didn't like was the shallowness of Taryn's character. It felt like she was inconsistent and I had a hard time believing her behavior and interactions with Jason.

I thought Jason's behavior was also fairly inconsistent in that he took uncharacteristically unnecessary risks on some occasions.

Lastly, Jason refers to Twingo as his best friend several times. However, I don't really recall their interactions developing to that high of a level. It seems to me that his interactions with Twingo are at the same level as the other members of his crew. In fact, it seems to me he spends much more time with Lucky and Crusher than Twingo, so I was a little confused by the best friend comments.

Still fun and worth the read.
Profile Image for Shane.
631 reviews19 followers
January 27, 2020
I really enjoyed the first two books of this series. This one not so much. I was put off by the juvenile attempts to inserting a love interest. Also Jason's reckless approach to action, just driving in full speed and damn the consequences seemed juvenile as well. It might have been appropriate for getting the first book started, but he isn't solo anymore. He is supposedly a leader of this rag-tag group but I don't really think many would follow such leadership without a suicide wish. This isn't a cult after all.

My biggest problem was several times in the book the author claims that Twingo is Jason's best friend. This is never backed up by even a remote example of friendship. Lucky as a best friend, sure that's supported by several examples in the story. Crusher, possibly and Doc has a decent rapport with Jason and even Kage and Jason exchange teasing banter all throughout. The ONLY member of the crew that has no relation to Jason in the story is Twingo. That was just a bridge too far for me.
Profile Image for Todd Gutschow.
337 reviews7 followers
August 14, 2015
Good Second Book in the Series

Book 3 continues with rather predictable stories. These are Firefly or Farscape style stories. If you're looking for something new and intriguing this is not it. Despite this its a decent read if you want simple fun and excitement.
Profile Image for Bruce.
383 reviews
November 13, 2020
Jason isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, at times he's rather stupid. At least the story is fun :)
Profile Image for Jonathan.
19 reviews2 followers
April 25, 2014
I've read the first 3 of the 4 books in the series now and I've enjoyed them all so far. As others have said, they're fast paced, full of action and humour. Savage Homecoming is no different to the others in this regard but does suffer slightly from two minor issues. What I enjoyed most in this book was the reintroduction of Deetz, the character responsible for catapulting Jason into space in the first place. We don't really find out why Deetz is doing what he's doing, but we are left with a mystery at the end of the story which will hopefully be explored later in the series. The action takes place all over the place, but there's a particular emphasis on Earth (hence the Homecoming) which makes things interesting and leaves plenty of room for the series to continue developing in interesting ways. Earth reacts very badly to the new knowledge that they aren't alone in the universe, and rather than coming together to fight off an alien menace the world become more divided and fractured which I think is a fairly realistic view of things. Jason of course defends his home with the help of Omega Force, but is led from place to place by Deetz who is constantly trying to outfox Jason and take back is his (in his mind anyway), the Phoenix.

The only gripes I have at this point are relatively minor and have been mentioned by other reviewers. In Savage Homecoming we meet Jason's girlfriend, who is whisked away from Earth to the relative safety of The Phoenix (Jason's ship). She doesn't add much to the story; Jason and her have plenty of sex (not graphic or badly written, credit to Joshua Dalzelle), they argue, she pouts, flouts his authority as captain and eventually returns home; though may return if Earth is brought back into the series again which is likely. She's a fairly one dimensional character, she seems fairly clueless, I imagine she speaks with a valley girl inflection making everything she says a question. The story wouldn't have been hugely affected without her in it. She didn't prompt any changes in Jason's character, he supposedly was more cautious while she was aboard but you wouldn't know it from the way he goes in guns blazing during their every hostile encounter. This is the only other gripe I have; that Jason, despite being Captain of a massively powerful ship, responsible for the lives of his crew and whoever he's working to save, doesn't seem to be very good at his job and hasn't matured or developed much at all since the start of the series. He gets by with dumb luck and the support of others, without them he'd be very, very dead by now. He rushes headlong into every engagement and either breaks the ship, nearly killing everyone in the process or comes out of it badly damaged but victorious. He doesn't stop and think before acting, after 3 books it's wearing a little thin. I'd like to see him become a more mature, competent commander who relies on his crew but isn't totally dependent on them.

These are 2 little gripes which shouldn't deter you from reading this, or any of the other books in the Omega Force series, they don't get in the way of enjoying the books. They're are all excellent, well written and totally engaging. You'll get through them quite quickly and want to get the others in the series, huge kudos to Joshua Dalzelle for creating such a fun, fast paced sci-fi series. All 3 books are highly recommended reads, for YA through to OAP readers!
138 reviews4 followers
March 16, 2018
I couldn't get a quarter of the way into this book before giving up.Taryn should be in the brig not sneaking into the Captain's quarters and being apologized to
62 reviews7 followers
December 4, 2019
Pretty childish writing. The characters have zero depth (one is the main character's 'best friend', but we literally never see any evidence of this, for example). Okay popcorn reading though
Profile Image for David O'Brien.
70 reviews1 follower
November 29, 2021
I've been following this series via Audio book, they accompany me on long walks and are light enough not to demand rapt attention. I'm pretty sure some people might think I've gone a little bonkers, because while listening to this particular story, I probably swore a lot, rolled my eyes.(sic) and sighed heavily.

The whole episode just annoyed me. Jason, never a totally likeable character anyway, turns into an ugly, bad-tempered bully who demonstrates zero leadership skills, or indeed any intelligent or tactical ability. He repeatedly, knowingly, roars into situations that are clearly set-ups without any care or preparation, and constantly ignores the advice and appeals of his peers and crew.

To add to the failure of this episode in the series, Joshua Dalzelle, extremely unwisely introduces the ex-girlfriend, Teryan, (sp?) to the mix. Jason had effectively abandoned her for years, and yet their reunion quickly becomes 'romantic'. She clearly had had no life at all in the meantime. (Eye roll) In stories like these cheap and easy Mills & Boon style romance is unwelcome and simply doesn't work; especially when they're so badly done as to be cringeworthy. I don't read Sci-Fi for romance, and I especially don't read it for bad romance. Jason's 'relationship' with the Captain of the Diligent is much more acceptable, as it doesn't ruin the story, or invite juvenile and immature behaviour from the main character.

I didn't finish the book because it bored and annoyed me too much. I'll check out the next one in the series in the hope that Teryan (sp?) might have been extricated from the thread; if not I'll move on to the next author!
490 reviews25 followers
March 4, 2018
Fast, Fun Read of Bickering Merc Crew

“Omega Force: Savage Homecoming (OF3),” is a fast, fun read of a bickering merc crew, one human and five various aliens, who are stuck together, as they get on each others’ nerves, while engaging foes.

Authored by Mr. Joshua Dalzelle, the story moves quickly, while the skill level of writing is subpar. Mr. Dalzelle, chronically uses certain phrases over and over again, to the point of reader distraction do annoyance (i.e. “of course,” “rolled eyes,” and “snorted). The editor appears to have been asleep at the switch throughout the editing process, to allow the sludge of incessant errors to occur. It is all needless and undercuts the entertainment of the narrative.

“Omega Force : Savage Homecoming (OF3),” is recommended and was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
Profile Image for Michael.
Author 168 books38 followers
August 26, 2018
Before you start this book, please realize it is the third title in the series: you will need to read the first two books in the series in order to understand the back story and the characters.

The author picks up right where he left off with book two of the series. While this isn’t a hard science fiction tale or over complex from my usual science fiction reading stack it was enjoyable, has a lot of smart-alecky characters; without having a spoiler, there are a few scenes where you want to call “bull” on it, but it was a good story regardless. I picked this up for 99 cents during a Kindle promotion vs. the normal price of $2.99, and I believe I received more than $2.99 worth of entertainment value out of it: if you enjoyed the first book of this series I am confident you will like this one, also.
7 reviews
March 15, 2025
Currently about 2/3 of the way through. Really enjoyed the first two books but this one has become a slog. Inserting the love interest is, frankly pretty awful. Author tries to shoehorn her into the story but she clearly doesn’t belong.

Also I can’t stand how stupid Jason is in this book. If it was the first half of book 1 I could excuse it as immaturity. But he’s supposed to have been a captain for YEARS at this point. No crew, let alone supposed military, could act so over the top when he doesn’t get his way and still hold the respect of his crew. Honestly he’s acting like a whiny little b*tch.

Also the motivations of the antagonist haven’t manifest yet. Not that “it’s a mystery” more like “I have no idea what the author is trying to create”.

Hoping it gets better. I’ll update when and if I finish it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
1 review
February 18, 2018
I liked the series so far, and this book as a bit of character development.

It's frustrating that for an ex-military member, the character's grasp of tactics is woefully bad. My suspension of disbelief was blown away faster than the opponents' ships, because there's no way that anyone is just going to floor the engines and head straight at the opposition. They do this multiple times, and it's stupid every time.

It's passable Sci Fi, but very bad military Sci Fi. Dalzelle really need to learn how to write the military side of his series better - tactics, concealment, misdirection, patience and stealth would all make a difference to his writing.

(Maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe Jason is just an idiot, in which case I should stop reading).
Profile Image for Darrell.
36 reviews2 followers
March 24, 2021
I had to drop this one to three stars of not 2.5. I felt like I was reading a book with teenagers with the behavior of some though mainly the main character, Jason. I would think he's old enough to not have an actual tantrum but he throws more than one along with some braindead actions.

Add to it a character is further introduced that you feel simply no attachment to. You're supposed to feel what Jason feels in their regard or at least sympathize with his feelings in that direction but it just isn't there at all. Almost like they are being pressed upon you though they too take on juvenile actions of their own.

All in all it was still a decent book and entertaining though of a read for me to keep going with the series.
Profile Image for Noodle The Naughty Night Owl.
2,328 reviews38 followers
January 27, 2019
8/10: Excellent read, well written, fell right into the fictional world created.

“Tough night, huh? You’ll be fine… you just need to learn some manners.”

This gets better with each instalment. Captain Burke is really coming into his own and I'm becoming more and more attached to each of the characters.

I liked the inclusion of Taryn in this one (probably 'cause I'm a girl). And I liked the tension between Burke & Kellea (again...girl). But revisiting Earth and the danger there made the storyline hum.

Deetz made an excellent villain also. I can't wait to read more.
59 reviews
September 22, 2024
I have really enjoyed this series- a group of unconventional friends doing good works- A Team style- in space. But, man- this book was ROUGH. Jason's ex-girlfriend (hasn't seen her in 2 years) suddenly needs help. She's shallow, irrational, and erratic. He's pouty, uncommunicative, and entitled (he's going to make decisions about what's best for her!!!). Neither are an adult. Neither character has a growth arc. Both are just as terrible at the end of the story as they were at the beginning. I have been led to believe that ex-girlfriend is not a recurring character....so I'm heading on to book #4.
Profile Image for Dennis.
26 reviews1 follower
April 1, 2018
Omega Force does it again.

This time we got earth involved, resolved some of the issues and lived to fight for good another day. I find myself attracted to this book series. It still reminds me for a television series like Hawaii 5 Oh, but in space full of galactic good guys and bad guys. Of course the space ships are fast, the technology is beyond belief, but the story is the good guys (omega force) is trying to stop the bad guys. I enjoyed the book and Joshua Dalzelle's writing. Want a good space cops and robbers? This is it.
Profile Image for Paul.
437 reviews
November 9, 2020
Good Story

The Omega Force series has been fun and entertaining, book three, Savage Homecoming fell short of the first two books, not bad by any means, just not up to the high standards established in book one and two.
The good, is that the same cast of characters are at it again and an old adversary is pivotal in this adventure. Also, two female characters are established and there’s opportunities there.
This series is just what I’m looking for right now and will continue to read.
263 reviews1 follower
February 2, 2022
A Force of Will.

Deetz returns to Earth in an attempt to trick Jason and take control of the Phoenix.
Through inter-planetary chases, mass destruction and the extermination of a complete planetary colony Deetz continues to lead Jason.
Ultimately, Jason and his assault crew and Deetz and his mercenaries fight it out on Earth.
A wonderful continuation of the saga. Characters are fleshed out more and more and we understand more about the protagonists.
An excellent read fully recommended.
Profile Image for Trish R..
1,772 reviews58 followers
March 8, 2022
I really like Jason Burke and his crew of aliens, who traverse the galaxy saving aliens that can't save themselves. But this time they had to take a time-out to do battle with a battlesynth that Jason let go free one time only to have him come after Jason and the ship, Phoenix. Deetz, the battlesynth, was doing all kinds if killing while he led Jason and his crew around by their noses. It was very exciting.

A couple of kisses as far as romance went. And the F-bomb was used 1 time.

As for the narration: Paul Heitsch does a fantastic job narrating this series.
Profile Image for Jon.
283 reviews3 followers
March 13, 2023
In a long series like Omega Force, it's hard to identify any one or two things to call out. However, this story gives you a brief snapshot at the origin of the "Marine" storyline. Dalzelle tells fun stories that are full of action and captures the esprit de corps of close friends who've seen combat. With the way that Jason constantly tries to annoy Twingo and that someone as scary as Crusher still can be friends with someone like Cage.

I definately recommend to anyone who likes military science fiction.
201 reviews3 followers
August 8, 2018
Savage Homecoming (Omega Force, #3) by Joshua Dalzelle continues the antics of the Omega Force as they sweep across the galaxy righting misdeeds and flattening evil doers. At times you just need a great fun read that doesn't require solving convoluted plot twists and flat out makes you feel good reading it. Joshua Dalzelle has done that in spades with this series. Do yourself a favor and read this series. I thoroughly enjoy it!
1 review
June 27, 2020
Grade A adventure story

This is the third book I've read in a multi-book series by this author. Good story teller. Lots of action, adventure, humor, mystery and plot twists. Characters you can come to love. Really good fill for idle time. Leaves you with scenes, comments and plots that will give you something to chew on mentally after the book is finished. I look forward to the next in the series.
Profile Image for James Thomas.
416 reviews1 follower
September 21, 2022
I use ratings to decide which books I am going to buy, and I recently decided I am partially
responsible for inflating the ratings on books. Either they were 5 star or 1 star. I decided to use
the star rating more objectively as follows:
★★★★★ Great book! Can’t wait to read it again (and I will).
★★★★☆ Good book. I am glad I read this.
★★★☆☆ OK book. Nothing special but not bad.
★★☆☆☆ Not good. Why did I waste my time?
★☆☆☆☆ Lousy. I didn’t finish
Profile Image for Derek.
10 reviews16 followers
November 14, 2023
I'm quitting here, just started the 3rd one. A love triangle has been shoehorned down the readers throat and even an alien admiral-type lady got overtly catty upon laying eyes on the lady that, along with her shoe horn, is still stuck in my throat. And McDonalds put fucking 3 times more chocolate than a chocolate shake needs. It was fucking undrinkable and no amount of milk would make it palatable. FUCK!
Profile Image for Keith.
2,144 reviews6 followers
September 29, 2024
Intense

A complicated storyline, with more collateral damages than is typical for a story with an Earth born hero. Losses among the group of protagonists are limited, as is typical, but there is more death and destruction to those in the affected worlds and communities than usual. Mostly positive theme, with identifiable right and wrong parties. Ends with the current story threads resolved, and a new one opened to usher in the next book.
Profile Image for Mary.
123 reviews2 followers
January 19, 2025
an interesting read

I’ve dropped a couple of stars because I feel the dialogue main characters is a bit off. More like they are saying things by rote rather than from the heart and I felt no deep emotional commitment/friendship to each other. I found the girlfriend immensely tedious and the relationship formulaic. I do not like having a useless, screaming female who needs to be always guarded. But still the storyline is good and I will persist to see if it improves
1,184 reviews17 followers
August 20, 2018
Another good book in the series.

Excellent third book of the series, I enjoyed all the characters omega force is six and six it should always be Berks girlfriend did not fit in with the crew. Plenty of action plenty of adventure anybody like space combat ground combat will enjoy this book.
Profile Image for Nanette Mitchell.
376 reviews
November 9, 2023
amazing action including romance

Loved that Jason was able to reconnect with his old love but it took the Earth being attacked by another race and Deere to get him back. Really enjoyed the pacing of the story and hope Jason and the captain of Diligent can get together as they would make a great team!
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