The End of Liberty

War Eternal #2

by M.R. Forbes, Jeffrey Kafer (Narrator)

An ancient starship discovered…
An eternal enemy revealed…
An impossible mission to save humankind…

The Goliath has been discovered, the first of its secrets revealed. Now the race is on for Captain Mitchell Williams and his crew to return to Liberty and recover Origin’s lost memories before the enemy can complete their violent conquest.

It's a mission with a near-zero chance of success. A mission that only the Riggers would be crazy enough to accept, and skilled enough to survive. A mission that will test the limits of Mitchell’s mind, body, and soul, and force him to make an impossible choice that could cost the lives of millions.

This is war, and if he can’t win a battle for a single planet, how can he possibly change the outcome of a conflict that has raged beyond eternity?

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The End of Liberty is the second book in the War Eternal series.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Fiction, Time Travel, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks

Audible Audio

First published May 29, 2015

About the author

M.R. Forbes is the author of a growing number of science-fiction series including Rebellion, War Eternal, Chaos of the Covenant, Stars End, and the Forgotten novels. Having spent his childhood trying to read every sci-fi novel he could find (and write his own too), play every sci-fi video game he could get his hands on, and see every sci-fi movie that made it into the theater, he has a true love of the genre across every medium. He works hard to bring that same energy to his own stories, with a continuing goal to entertain, delight, fascinate, and surprise.

He maintains a true appreciation for his readers and is always happy to hear from them.

To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:

Visit his website:
mrforbes.com

Send him an e-mail:
michael@mrforbes.com

Check out his Facebook page:
facebook.com/mrforbes.author

Join his Facebook fan group:
facebook.com/groups/mrforbes

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instagram.com/mrforbes_author

Find him on Goodreads:
goodreads.com/mrforbes

Follow him on Bookbub:
bookbub.com/authors/m-r-forbes

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating: 1.5/5
***Minor spoilers, spoilers for book one***

At the end of the previous book, Mitchell found Goliath. Now, he must fight to save Liberty from the Tetron using it as a base. In addition, Mitchell is on the search for Christine, who he thinks will be able to help him the same way she has before. However, it's one crew versus an entire planet under the Tetron's control, and even if they can get onto Liberty, the odds of success aren't very high.

I already knew that the first book wasn't my cup of tea, but since I got the first three books for free, I figured that I might as well read them for the sake of reading them. I'm not sure if this book is just a case of second book syndrome or if what I would've enjoyed was all exhausted in the first book, but I couldn't enjoy this. It suffered from the same problems as the first book, except there were less redeeming factors about it.

My first main issue with this book was that there was so much happening and so little explanation. I honestly had no idea what was going on for most of the book. I had a basic understanding, but that isn't really enough in a science fiction novel in a made up universe. It was frustrating when the characters would talk about things but I still wouldn't know what they meant even though this is the second book. The second thing that bothered me was that it was simply boring. There wasn't as much happening with the plot, and for the most part I was just waiting for it to end. The author kept killing characters off without much feeling, and since I never really cared about them to begin with, I couldn't bring myself to care.

Overall, this was less enjoyable than the first book, and the first book was already pretty difficult to enjoy. We don't get any more explanations in this book, which was especially bothersome since more things kept being introduced. I'm probably going to end up reading the next book since I already own it, but I'm going in with pretty low expectations. I wouldn't recommend this book, and I can confidently say that there's much better sci-fi out there.

[Robert D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could say this was a good book. But while the author has an interesting concept, a plot is not enough to make a good story.

This book is all action but very light on character. Repeatedly I find myself just not caring about Mitchel or anyone else in the book. The main character's thought process is boiled down to I'm a marine and we make war and get the job done. Yet he's supposed to be the driving and uniting force for humanity? There is nothing inspiring about the characters in this work.

Tactically it has problems as well. If you're going to write science fiction military action, you need to have your tactics thought out. A single assault ship trying to land on a defended planet under complete mental control by the alien? Really, no amount of 'we have future weapons to help us' can really justify such a suicidal attack. And once the survivors of the attack get to the planet the whimsical way the alien entity engages them leaves the mind boggled. If it was as predatory and dangerous as we are lead to believe by Origin, the AI helping humanity, then there should not have been any kind of chance of victory. The author's deux machina flaw in the aliens was too stretched.

[Chris Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had it's ups and downs but overall it was solid enough to make me want to read the next book. That said, enough with the words "Frig", Friggen" or any other derivation of the word...seriously!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you remember the end of Book One “Starship Eternal”, Captain Mitch Williams was now in control of the Goliath, Earth’s first FTL capable starship which was lost on it’s maiden voyage. Captain Williams or Mitch, as he prefers when not in large company, just destroyed a enemy Tetron ship and numerous Alliance ships under it’s control while in command of the Goliath. He wasn’t alone. The Goliath is inhabited by another Tetron called “Origin” who does not support his species attacks on the humans. He has aligned himself with the humans and will help them defeat the Tetron invasion, if they can. Mich was somewhat depressed that his previous ship, the Schism, Captained by Admiral Millie Narayan, was destroyed during the battle. Now he sees a small vessel approaching the Goliath and finds that it has no comm capability. So, instead of assuming it might be an enemy bomb, he allows it to dock in the landing bays. Happily, it turns out this is the remaining crew of the Schism, including Millie, his current love interest. He also finds another ship that has been drifting after the battle, but this appears to be an Alliance ship and he doesn’t know if they are still under the mind control influence of the alien Tetron. He still brings that ship onboard the Goliath and a larger crew starts to come together.

So, now that Captain or now Colonel Williams has the ship he sought, he has to decide what to do next. His plan is to go back to Liberty and rescue Major Christine Arapo, who isn’t what she appears to be. She seems to be connected to Colonel Williams, but he doesn’t understand how. She also contains some knowledge that is vital to the humans winning this war. How he knows that is because Origin has told him so. There is a complicated back-plot to this story about time incursions by the Tetrons that is the results of them trying to wipeout humanity. Mitch Williams seems to be the key to their success or failure and the only hope for humanities continued existence. He doesn’t know why, nor is this clearly explained. So, has to convince the new crew of the Goliath to go back on a suicide mission, but he’s not telling them it’s only to rescue Major Arapo; instead he’s telling them it’s to liberate Liberty which is now occupied by a gigantic Tetron partially buried deep in the capital city. The Tetron have some capability to control the minds of humans who have cybernetic implants. This means it controls just about any human in it’s vicinity since most all humans have now been implanted with these implants since a very early age. So Liberty is crawling with a zombie-like army of professional military and civilians that can and will be used in any way possible to stop Mitch Williams and his efforts. He also has the problem of finding on single woman on a planet of millions who also doesn’t want to be found since she’s hiding from the Tetron.

The story is well written although some of the scenes are not very realistic. Trying to find a single person on an entire planet is almost impossible especially if you don’t have anyone or anything on the planet to help you. And then, there’s the problem of her specifically trying not to be found. Well, this doesn’t deter Mitch Williams. Once he actually gets on the ground his forces are dwindled down so small that they should have been easily taken care of. I guess this alien Tetron isn’t very bright. He’s got an entire army on the planet yet he never sends it out after Mitch’s group even though he knows where they are and where they are going. You can only be so lucky so long and then you’re dead. Mitch and his small group should have been dead many, many times. Still, it makes for an interesting read even if hard to believe.

I don’t know where this story will go now. They didn’t succeed in rescuing Major Arapo nor did they succeed in freeing Liberty. I don’t even know if they killed this enemy Tetron or not. Still, there seems to be others that have to be found and destroyed. The Goliath might be up to the job, but there doesn’t appear to be any help from any where coming even if the enemy Tetron on Liberty was destroyed. When the Tetron was almost killed, it made the Alliance spaceship around Liberty smash into each other so they couldn’t become free and return to fight for humanity. How convenient. Still the story goes on because I’ve already found out that there’s seven books in the series and they are all already published. Like I said before, I’ve got a lot of reading to do.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak follow-up to its predecessor

I can always tell how good a book is by how readily I'm highlighting and/or making notes. Usually, the more into the story I am, the more I'm commenting on what I'm reading with extreme gusto. In this book's case, the need to offer my commentary dwindled after only reaching the 12% mark. Twelve measly percent. Everything was great up until then. I made a small handful of notes, still curious where the story would go and excited about it getting there. But after that 12%? Things weren't quite so great anymore and I stopped caring enough to comment.

This was just a big, convoluted mess in almost every way, which was so disappointing considering the strength of book one. I expect complicated scenarios from M.R. Forbes and usually embrace the imaginativeness of them. Not this time, though. This time I was just way too lost in the overly detailed complexities of a mission that seemed so simple. What made it even more annoying was this book's very title being pretty much a spoiler, which in turn made all the jumbled mess of events feel even more pointless. Pointless and confusing are not good combos.

What made a complicated story even WORSE was the sheer overabundance of side characters, some with more staying power than others, but all of them simple fodder. Unfortunately, several of these characters were introduced so late in the book at some random point of time that I found myself often wondering, "Now who they hell is this guy?" It's not even accurate to say they were introduced; it was more like they were just mentioned. I swear, it almost seemed like Forbes had legit lost track of his characters, or perhaps changed up some names in the middle of a draft and had forgotten to catch them all. It was downright irritating.

I only gave the extra star because, despite being so ridiculously lost most of the way through, I loved quite a few moments in the story. The scenes with the mechs were among the most exciting and fun to visualize. I just wish I can remember where exactly in the huge mess they even came into the picture. I'm sure their introduction was there, but....ugh. Just so buried in HUH?! for me to properly remember. Will I still continue this series? I'd like to. Every series is allowed a dud, and I'm hoping this one was it. Honestly, I'm still intrigued and wonder how humanity will fare against the Tetron. Still, despite a desire to continue on, I'm now officially in no rush to do so.

I'll be back in time.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good!

When i started off reading this series I was very put off by the ridiculous amount of women throwing themselves at the main character , however this has now fortunately stopped !

This book is action packed from the beginning, and it is very well written. It builds on the story of the first substantially and adds newer elements to deal with. Apart from one individual, who you might be able to guess, you actually learn to like the "best of the broken".

There's not much I didn't like about this book, the only downside is that Mitch seems to be in love with someone he's never met, hopefully this will be explained... And the standard author mistake about military rank being so easy to gain and the higher up you GI the more " badass" you are, both points being the inverse of the truth. However this is common in all books written by people who weren't soldiers therefore you can't hold it against the book.

Overall great and it has firmly pulled me into the series now.

[Anders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came back to the War Eternal series after reading a few of the books in the later series Chaos of the Covenant by the same author. I have to say that Chaos of the Covenant is much better with a strong female protagonist instead of a stereotypical alfa male with no depth. He lose people, but no battles. He can finght and understand things. He loses people, but not fights. Girls are attracted to him and he is attracted to then unless they are on the masculine side.

Ok I had to whine a bit, but the only real problem is that his later works are much better. I liked the book. Fairly fast-paced and lots of good descriptions of the worlds, ships and mechs. A TV series would be more like Battlestar Galactica than Star Trek. I would enjoy it a lot. The game exists in a dozen variants. I enjoy them too.

[Gavin Wask · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mitchell and what is left of The Riggers are on their way to Liberty to retrieve Origin's lost memories and for Ares, he wants to save Christine, who he is feeling a very strong pull towards.

To do this, he has to take a Unit to the ground and to leave The Goliath and Millie behind. He also has to unite The Riggers with Major Long and his crew.

Luckily Mitchell has Shanks and Cormac along for the ride and some new help in Zed and Perseus.

Expect the Tetron to throw everything and everyone at them, humanity is in trouble but Liberty is on its last legs.

I love M.R.Forbes writing and I love the action and the fact you never know who is going to make it. I also like the fact these series are very long, seven in this one, you get a whole universe and whole set of characters to get invested in (well for the short term for a lot of them!). Roll on The Knife's Edge.

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book 2 of Eternal War was better than book 1 - 9/10

Wow, some of the most painful scenes I have ever read in sci-fi. M.R. Forbes has with The End of Liberty, surpassed the brilliantly conceived and executed story that started this series in book 1 - War Eternal. I have wanted to see many favourite books made into film or TV series in the past, as well as now in the present. This film story would be up there with Avatar and Titanic. Combining a mix of my all-time favourite sci-fi subject matters - Time, Love, Humour, War and Resistance to make an endearing example of what makes feelgood fiction, where some make you feel so angry, sad or depressed, it actually evolves to leave you happy and contented upon reflection after it is over.

[Mike Kauspedas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Action packed and a quick read, perfect little sci fi series to binge on. No heady topics, no intricate military strategy and long winded explanations. Killer robots have come to destroy humanity, with time travel, and there's one hero to save us all. There's sex too, it really just gets in the way of the story and fortunately this isn't 50 shades of titanium carbonate. It amounts to a couple sentences eg; "then they sexed" and we move on. The bad part is that it doesn't matter except that our hero can only seem to care about the opposite sex if they're sexing. I did get this for free from the kindle library, but had I paid $4 I wouldn't have been disappointed.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please note this is the second book of a series: you will need to have read the first one or this one won’t make much sense to you.

The story picks right up where book one left off and was enjoyable. There were parts that were a little slow in the middle where I wish the pace would pick up, but overall I liked it and think those who enjoyed book one will, also. I’m off to start book three. I picked this up for free using my Kindle Unlimited borrow vs. the normal price of $4.99: I certainly received more than $4.99 worth of entertainment value out of this one.

[Sebastian Mordziol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book was good, but this one lost me with all the over-detailed mech ground battles. The main plot became sluggish because of them, and lost its purpose. It ended up being one battle after the other, which was quite tedious. There are only so many ways that you can shoot down enemy drones, even if some were quite creative. I was missing more reveals, or at least more interesting interludes between the fighting.

[Scott Raphael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately not quite up to the standards of book one. It’s an intense and action-packed ride, but too much so. The book is all action and complex justifications of messy time-loops and maybe not-quite-well-enough-explained relationships (personal, temporal, and mechanical), going beyond mystery and bordering on messy. I’ll continue with the series but I’m hopeful that this one was more of a setup for the rest of the series than the model on which it’s based.

[Keith Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Future past immersion diversion!

Good future military immersion scifi. Great premise with the " future past" scenario. I like the characters, I feel so well involved with them I feel afraid for their future...Something I thought a book couldn't do to me anymore.. I look forward to the next one

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It got better. But not much. So I got the whole series for a few bucks and I'll continue, because its an easy read and the story is okaish.

My main issue is that the characters are mostly stereotypes that I don't care about. Mostly its all just a stage to show how awesome, important and special the main character is.

[Gary Pigott · Rating 2 out of 5]

It rolls along at a good pace, but am I the only one who has an issue with the Tetron being eliminated by a peripheral character (Christine) who never at any stage interacts with the main protagonist? Mitch fails in his attempt to defeat the enemy, only for Christine to swoop in and do it on her own. Mitch could have died in chapter one and everything would still have happened as it did anyway.

[Tufty McTavish · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know when you play a video game like Halo and you run around, shooting things, having a good time, but the plot remains opaque and mystifying? That's how I felt as I reached the conclusion - fair enjoyed the action, no clue what's going on.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end is just the beginning

The story brought us closer to understanding the characters, including Christine. This story goes through hell (and back?) in its fight for survival. Readers willing to go on this journey will not be disappointed.

[Craig Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much better book as the constant action finally leaves less time for the author to shoehorn cringy voyeurism into the plot. It does ride a fine line between intriguing mystery and pretension, and it doesn’t always manage to stay on it. Notwithstanding, it’s worth persevering with.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second episode of the War Eternal series. The characters are interesting, but not compelling. The plot is interesting but not compelling. The science is interesting, but you get the gist. I enjoyed the story for a couple of novels.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

4 Unfortunately, despite having read the first book, the first couple of chapters left me bewildered and the number of characters made me lose all hold on the plot. Unable to recommend to the normal crew.

[Cody Stansel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. This one is more focused on ground action rather than space combat but it's well done. It doesn't go much into the technical aspects like a lot of Sci fi books do but it kept my attention throughout the entire book.

[Barbara Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Very intense!

Amazing story, especially for a second in the series. A lot of explanation in this one. No idea what to expect next!

[Volpot · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Lot's of unrealistic situations. Plus, not sure I really like any of the characters. Not sure I'll continue

[gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

Constantly building to climax. Great characters. Well paced story, with all the ups and downs of of a hard fight. Starting the third instalment now.

[derek croston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another great book. Now into book 3


I like this author. Keep up the good work Mr Forbes. Now reading book 3 in the series and ready to download book 4

[Bruce finlayson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sequel

A good sequel after reading the first in the series I tried series next one and was pleased to.see.it.was.a.good follow up.

[Mark Cohran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read. I enjoyed it.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got about half way through and finally lost interest. The antagonist aliens are just so vague and nebulous and there is little story building.

[Joseph Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

The End

Not really but just a start to the real story as a new character comes aboard. Come on Knife! Next????!!!