Human pioneers fleeing Earth for the promised land of New Eden found hell instead, falling prey to the reptilian Kresh. But street-savvy Cyrus Gant escaped the aliens, rescued master telepath Klane, and began a desperate journey to head off the impending Kresh invasion of Earth.
When the insectile Chirr and human cyborgs join the war, Cyrus suddenly faces a triple threat. Only by absorbing the powerful consciousness of the mortally wounded Klane does he stand a chance against the deadly enemies surrounding him. But when a malevolent alien entity invades his mind, Cyrus must do battle in both outer and inner space to save his soul and his sanity.
In the thrilling sequel to Alien Honor and Alien Shores, Cyrus rolls the dice to win the biggest prize anyone has ever chased: the future of humanity.
I was born in Canada and remember as a small boy crawling in my snow-fort. I closed my eyes, and when I tried to open them, they were frozen shut. I didn't panic, but wiped away the ice crystals, unglued my eyes and kept on building my tunnel. Those were great days! I moved to Central California before seventh grade and couldn't believe I lived in a land where oranges grew on trees and you could pick grapes from the vine.
I used to wonder what I wanted to do with my life, what kind of work specifically. I was miserable not knowing and bordering on desperate. Then one day a friend gave me his typewriter. I began working on a novel. A different person told me it was much easier on a computer, so I bought one and began getting up at 4:30 A.M. each morning before work, writing for three hours. My eyes were unglued once again as the pang of misery left my gut. I knew exactly what I wanted to do: write. So now that's what I do, I write, and write, and write, and I love it.
Well, Heppner manages to tie up the series nicely. This entire series reminded me of 50's scifi, and more specifically, Jack Williamson, who never let character development or thoughtful technology slow a story down. The Fenris system and humanity is now facing four threats-- some sort of alien psi-being, the insect like Chirr, the reptilian Kresh, and now, the return of the human cyborgs. Humans remain enslaved to the Kresh, but now the Kresh face a two sided war (Chirr and cyborgs) and the odds are long. It seems each side, if victorious, will wipe out the humans. Can our hero Cyrus Gant save the day, and with it, humanity itself? 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.
Parts of the story were disappointing, yet in its entirety, the final episodes and the series came off well. Of course, the happy ending was somewhat questionable even if it made sense.
Reading this book is like watching a bad B-movie. It is filled with all stereotypes of sci-fi without any connecting dot. The plot is formulaic and the character is paper thin. If the action sequence is orchestrated well, it might still be a watchable B-movie. Otherwise, it is just a total waste of your reading time. Thank God I get this book for free from netgalley, so at least no money is wasted.
The author seems just pool everything that he knows about sci-fi (which are not very much) into this novel. You have human colony, saurian and bug aliens, cyborgs, mind control, teleport, lasers. All in all, nothing new. The story line is also nothing new, a rebellion of an oppressed race. In the end you have a deus ex machina plot with super human, logical saurians with only its reptile brain functioning, omniscience cyborg with flawed and not-funny-at-all AI, and the worst of all the inner psyche battle that took place inside the brain but using physical world law. And gratuitous scene, just like any good B-movie.
The only reason I give it a 2 stars instead of 1 is the final battle. Even though it is far from perfect, I still can enjoy is as a good fighting sequence, while turning off some part of my critical brain.
Final verdict, avoid it like a plaque (this book and its series, and possibly all books from this author). Unless you are a big fan of pulp fiction and action oriented sci-fi B-movie, and willing to turn off some parts of your brain.
Alien Wars, the third book in Vaughn Heppner's Fenris series, hero Cyrus Gant has overcome the odds. He's outsmarted the Kresh, avoided the Chirr through Klane's mind jump and now he's got time for a breather, right? Hardly. Heppner throws a bizarre mind worm alien into the mix. This guy turns out to be the cause of all the Fenris system's troubles. Turns out this mind worm is trapped on the planet for some unknown reason and has stirred up this entire mess just to get his ship back. Heppner introduces a space mining team that digs up the ancient vessel on an ice-bearing asteroid. Then they get nailed by the invading cyborgs, who want nothing more than entire destruction of everything not cyborg. Mostly this final novel is a series of mind games. The cyborgs are ruled by a super intelligence that is mostly male and ego-centric. Thus, he's vulnerable. He gets his in an interesting way. Then there's the mind worm. Heppner goes all Dr. Strange as Cyrus tries to overcome the psi-parasite. Interesting concepts. Not his best but still worth reading. The overriding concept is that your mind is your own and you have to take charge no matter what the cost. Or at least that's my take. Heppner always has something to say. And it's usually a good lesson. He ties this one up nicely.
I’m still into this series but I’m not a fan of cerebral trips of any kind. All the characters including Skar, the Berserkers, and the human psionic mentalist get deep into not only trying to survive but save all the races in that parts of space for now and future. There is a sexual attraction between two aliens that was interesting and giggle-filled in a good way. The female characters were all strong whether good or bad, that was refreshing. The crescendo was fast and cohesive. That means after three installments I was satisfied with the ending. I’ll be honest, these were not perfect books but they were fun and just right for an engaging summer read.
Cyborgs, chirr, kresh, and humans all wanting the same thing. What will Cyrus Gant do to instil confidence in the Kresh that an alliance is better than destruction? Then there is the underlying influence if Eich.. Can things get more complicated? Cyrus Gant gets the knowledg of psi powers of multitudes of seekers along with the "Anointed One" powers to accomplish the task at hand. Great read. What will I ever do if I run out of this author's books?
In this final chapter of Cyrus Gant quest, many revelations were made and the story goes well until the last chapter where the author closed the book in a rush. This was a bad ending for a superb beginning. Anyway, it was an enjoying series.
While there were some places in this book that I seemed to bog down, overall the book was a good read. The Fennris series is a good continuation of the Doom Star series. This was a good read.