On the edge of the unknown, a new force rises and an ancient secret is revealed…
The deep space mining facility on Orion V is under attack, and their cries for help reach the only vessel in the vicinity—the Cargo Ship Argo.
Under the rubble, Captain Marquez races to find Doctor Tai before their attackers, killing all in their path, come for the mysterious alien artifact.
Jason Cassidy, deep in despair at finding no clue to his friend’s death, discovers a new purpose when the impossible is revealed far beneath the surface of the doomed mining colony.
If you enjoy gritty space adventure and tales of intrigue in the vein of Firefly and The Expanse, you’ll love Beyond Nightfall—the second book in Robert C. James’s Frontier’s Reach series.
Buy Beyond Nightfall today to continue the adventures of the Argo’s crew as they get embroiled in a mystery of galactic proportions…
Well, I should have expected this. The author told me in an email that he had purposely written these books as short-stories. They are very short. You could probably read this one in one setting if you set your mind to it. Again, I’m not crazy about short stories sold as complete books. You pay full price, but only get part of a book and I don’t think that’s good for the reader, but I’ll move on to the story now. Oh, wait, one more thing. I read white text on a black background since it’s dark in my bedroom (my choice, I know), but the text on these books is light-grey which makes reading pretty hard. I wish the author would just print the books normally, you know black text on a white background. Now on with the short story.
The Vanguard sensors pick up a fast moving object heading straight towards Orion V. The go on alert and prepare for an attack not knowing who or what this ship represents. They do know it is huge and very black. The ship continues coming at a speed that seems improbable, but does veer away from the Vanguard at a sufficient distance to preclude a defensive strike. The huge, black ship goes into stationary orbit directly over the mining facility HQ and begins to systematically bombard it to dust. All the while, it has completely ignored the Vanguard. Of course, the Vanguard can’t just sit there and let Confederation property be destroyed with some explanation and a fight if necessary. That’s when all the trouble starts.
The story does contain a lot of characters. It also feeds back and forth to what happened in the previous short book so you can pretty much keep track of what happened before and why it’s happening now. I do get confused between the two Cassidy brothers. They are always fighting and Jason doesn’t get along with his Uncle at all. Most all of the characters you read about in the first book do wind up together in this book. And of course, the story doesn’t end here. I might though!