The Sunforged Prophet

Zack Lancestrom #3

by D.J. Bodden

A hidden enemy. A legacy born. A path through fire.

Zack fled his homeworld to escape his inheritance and wound up the governor of a star system anyway. After three years leading the Venturi Nebula, Zack Lancestrom is on the verge of pulling the whole star cluster together into a grand alliance, a feat even his father couldn't achieve. But he's also made enemies, and as the day of the summit approaches, saboteurs and assassins move into position, ready to strike.

Soon, problems are cropping up all over the nebula. On Merton Creed, an agitator called the Kyrenian is inciting the dockworkers to violence, and food supplies are running low. On Asphodel, above the barren world of Duat, old resentments have spawned a murderous conspiracy, and starships prepare for combat. Are these isolated incidents or part of a greater plot? And can Zack and his team uncover the real force behind the conflict before the system descends into civil war?

His enemies may have Zack's number, but they've underestimated the courage of his people and how far he'll go to protect them.

From D.J. Bodden, bestselling author of Viridian Gate Online: The Illusionist and the Black Year Series, comes a brand new science fiction adventure series set in the massive and ever-expanding FiveFold Universe.

452 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2021

About the author

D.J. Bodden is a tech-startup COO who writes books because words are magic. He's an avid reader of science-fiction and fantasy, a gamer, a former pilot and coffee trader who's been to every continent but Antarctica. He's been woken up by gunfire, jumped out of helicopters, and climbed medium-sized hills in scorching weather; He likes to make people laugh for the wrong reasons; He tries to sell people grimoires disguised as fiction; He is scared of spiders, and only recently learned to ride a bike.

D.J. lives in Switzerland with his wife and thinks it's important that they should someday be adopted by a fox.

Reviews

[John Stonebraker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Content ratings: Language - PG13; Violence - PG13; Other - PG13

This book seemed to get bogged down in political and social issues and was very light on the action until about 70% through. I’ll keep reading the series, but I hope the author reverts to the feel of the first two books.

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zack and Anya are working tirelessly to bring about the first trade summit into effect, making sure all heads of the star system would be safe whilst on Gemini Rho however there where those who did not want this trade alliance to succeed. Zack as the Venturi Nebula governor was also intent on bringing about a star system alliance but just when he thought he was succeeding in doing the impossible all hell is set loose. A man known as the Kyrenian, Isaac Nazarian has been paid by rich people looking out for their own interests to kill Lancestrom, but that had been two years ago, now many of them had changed their mind but the Kyrenian was on his own agenda and sowing chaos on the other stations. Zack and Anya's lives are endangered time and time again and Clavicus almost loses his! Riots are sprouting all over the star system and some stations have fallen. The farms which provided food were tampered with thus causing hardship on the poorer people of the stations, drugs had started appearing once again even though Zach had tried to put a stop to their use and and murders were being committed all going towards making Zack's governorship seem unstable, turning the people against him when all he cared about was the wellbeing of all his people. I really love the character of Zach and I think this book was a real challenge to his ideals but love the way he handles his problems in his very pragmatic way and I look forward to his and Anya's next adventure with Kissh'ik and Ark 11 of course.

[Noodle The Naughty Night Owl]

1/10: Couldn't get past the first few chapters; not for me.

[Simon Ferguson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too political for a space opera. Dry discussions about the responsibilities of the government to its citizens and vice-versa.