Wrath of the Gods

Star Crusades Nexus #8

by Michael G. Thomas

Wrath of the Gods is the eighth book in the epic 'Nexus' series, part of the growing Star Crusades universe that chronicles humanity's first steps away from Alpha Centauri and beyond.


The opening battles of the bloodiest war in human history have been fought, and now the enemy spreads from world to world, exterminating all before them. This is no war for territory or resources, it is one of genocide. The valiant efforts of the Alliance, Helions, and Khreenk make the Biomechs pay a terrible price, yet still they continue onwards. Each of these massive assaults is being conducted from deep inside their fortified Arks, the command centers of the Biomech campaign. These vast behemoths combine the capabilities and firepower of battleships with the size and resources of entire space stations.


With trouble brewing between the Anicinàbe and Byotai, there are few remaining allies to counter this bloodthirsty invasion. Two more Biomech fleets make their way to the planets of Micaya and Libuscha, and the remnants of the assault force around Eos turn their attention on the dormant Black Rift. It falls to the heroes of the Great Uprising to rally forces from Mars to Hades to meet this challenge. Admiral Anderson and General Rivers assemble every combat unit they can find to fight the war. At the same time, Spartan and Teresa Morato solicit the aid of an ancient race, one that has even greater reason to bring down their old foe. Together they hope to assemble a mighty host in T’Karan, one that can unleash a counterattack and eradicate the enemy once and for all.
The 15-book Star Crusades series
STAR CRUSADES UPRISING
Siege of Titan (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 1)
Tears of Kerberos (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 2)
Fires of Prometheus (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 3)
Battle for Proxima (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 4)
Fall of Terra Nova (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 5)
Slaves of Hyperion (Star Crusades Uprising, Book 6)


STAR CRUSADES NEXUS
Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1)
Machine Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 2)
Heroes of Helios (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 3)
The Great Betrayal (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 4)
Prophecy of Fire (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 5)
Call to Arms (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 6)
Battle for Helios (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 7)
Wrath of the Gods (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 8)
The Black Rift (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 9)


These titles are also available as combined trilogies
STAR CRUSADES THE FIRST TRILOGY
STAR CRUSADES THE SECOND TRILOGY
STAR CRUSADES THE FIRST TRILOGY
STAR CRUSADES THE SECOND TRILOGY
STAR CRUSADES THE THIRD TRILOGY


For more information visit the official Star Crusades website. Keyword Starcrusader.

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2014

About the author

Michael G. Thomas, is a writer, martial artist and military historian. He has written books on European martial arts and military history as well as Zombie Survival books and fiction. He is the co-founder of the prestigious Academy of Historical Fencing that teaches traditional armed and unarmed European martial arts. His specialist subject areas are teaching the use of the medieval two handed longsword and the German long knife in both the UK and other parts of Europe.

His academic background is as varied as his writing with degrees in Computing, Classical Studies and Machine Learning. In recent years he has undertaken substantial research in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence as well as Ancient Greek and Byzantine military history.

Michael is currently completing his Champions of the Apocalypse Series and Star Crusades science fiction series.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is interesting but really, really confusing! There is so much going on that I can hardly tell who or what side I should be cheering for! I know the Alliance is the good guys but I can't tell where they are coming from or where they are going. I must have lost something along the way because it sure is confusing! Exciting, but certainly confusing.

Spartan seems to be back near Terra Nova (?) waiting to get into the fight. He's got Teresa with him which is rare and Khan is also at his side. I'm not sure exactly what's going on at New Terra, but it seems as if they do not want to get into the fighting and commit more starships and troops.

Meanwhile, Spartan has found and allied with a former Biomech who is a rebel against his own kind. He and seven others like him want to fight for the Alliance if they'll have them. He, Teresa, Khan, and the Machines manage to capture a core which has the control programming for an army of Thegns. What these things are is a mystery to me, but they seem to be fighting for the Biomechs against their will. With the core program shut off, the Thegns now have freewill and they also choose to fight against the Biomechs.

Spartan now has an army but he's not even in the Marines any more but he wants to take his army directly to the Biomechs homeworld and destroy it while the Biomechs are out destroying everything else.

Read the book to find out how Spartan gets deep into the fighting and whether or not Spartan still suffers from his previous captivity!

[Per Gunnar · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual with this book series this book is combat, combat and then some more combat. The Biomechs are attacking on a grand scale and there is fighting in space and fighting on the planets. There is really not much more to this book than combat.

Of course there is a thread involving Spartan and a plan to “end the Biomech threat once and for all” but this is more something that is lurking in the shadows compared to all the action in the book. The action is well written as usual so it is enjoyable reading but I have to say that sometimes it gets a bit repetitive.

Unfortunately dumbass politicians pops up in the middle of the book and makes a valiant effort to screw everyone with their shortsightedness and strife for personal political gains. That was a bit of a downer but luckily the military commanders had a bit more backbone than said politicians. Not that this would be very difficult of course.

The book ended in a huge cliffhanger and I really think it is a shame when authors feel they have to resort to this. Some loose ends to keep the interest going is fine but cliffhanger a’la cheap TV-show is not something that I find very enjoyable.

I was hesitating quite a bit when it came to rate this book. It is a good book but personally I feel it falls short of being a really great book. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads but I could have given half stars I would probably have given it 3 1/2 stars.

[phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of action

Good story, a lot of cliff hangers and plot twists. l like when Terresa went himself own direction.....sorry was just an example of one of many errors, Mr Thomas, your stories are getting too good to be riddled with spelling errors. send me the next story to read before release and ill gladly highlight all I see.phillip

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

by this time I think Mike is pushing the whole theme too much. Its like he's beating a dead horse. Time to move on.