Rated R for violence, language
Going through the series was an up and down road. It started off strong and most if the first half of the books were good to very good but as we got to the later part, the quality of the story began to suffer with
a couple of books that felt like fillers, rushed and or inconsistent.
A couple of examples/rant (Spoilers) which illustrate in general ways the story atruggled:
Not that I am a huge romantic or looking for a sappy love story in my Sci-Fi but for multiple books there was a huge buildup of this amazing connection that Mitch had to Kate over time and space before ever meeting her and how hard it was on him when Katherine did not reciprocate those feelings. When he finally meets Kate, the spark is there but then cut scene, they are together. A wham , bam, thank you ma’am. Then after they are together, it continues to remind us how much he cares for her. All build up but no emotional payoff of how they actually connected and why he actually fell in love with the real person in front of him versus being fated to only.
The most painful one is how badly executed this last story was written. As much progress that Mitch, Origin and all of the protagonist had made ro get to this recursion and bring together a huge alliance (up to raise point the story was good and promising) then Mitch and the author completely blow it. In previous books, when it was just Origin and they were limited on time and resources, they had been able to upgrade a handful of ships that were accompanying them with improved shields and weapons to the point that these ships could last longer in a battle and be a threat to the Tetron ships, at least when not in a one to one encounter. Also, the story earlier in the series made a big deal about Mitch learning that he did not have to single handedly do everything, including passing on command of coordinating the ship battles and he could focus on his strengths. For this huge, all the marbles and last recursion, battle where Mitch had Origin, T-Gin significant resources and time, he doesn’t upgrade any ship or fighters. They barely upgraded some of their own guns with limited ammo when in the previous book he had nearly limitless ammo. Needless to way, once the the ambush he sets begins, all of his allied ships are being shredded in seconds and Mitch is surprised.
As that was not bad enough and shiws how he has actually not grown as a leader, he rushes to attack Watson at his heavily fortified home base with less than 1% of the fleet he had at the ambush, no definite plan other than a hope he can get a prisoner to make a virus in a few days while in transit. Then the big finale is even worse, these few ships somehow manage to get Mitch through to land on the planet when the planet literally has so many “ships” that it looked like fog from a distance and he and his Riggers end up using their guns as clubs as they are overrun by enemy spiders and constructs on the surface. Then they win and he is brought back in some magical way with no memories of the war to a perfect life. The end.
Disappointing book to what could have been a redeeming ending to an overall good series.
There were also at least two times were the narration repeats itself. Not the narrator’s fault but un keeping to what felt like a rushed product.