Conflagration: A Military Archaeological Space Adventure by Craig Martelle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The fifth installment of Craig Martelle and Brad R. Torgersen’s Zenophobia series opens with machines completing the construction of an artificial disc world. When the main chapters begin, Sankar the Tigroid seeks to rescue his love interest, Ausha, who seeks to destroy the Overseer. His fellow Tigroid Junak intends to destroy the adversarial vessel Direwolf as Akoni the Ursoid wants to discover the origins of the zenos. The enemy Tigroid Arbai yearns to provide nuclear power for the Golongans, yearning to enslave them also. Meanwhile, Sankar wants to show Qlovys evidence of the machine world, reaffirming his wish to rescue Ausha.
The crew of the Direwolf continues to provide the Combine with improved reactors while fearing that the Bilkinmore could match their unified forces. Arbai assists Commissioner Sachim’s Golongan forces, yearning to eradicate the Golongan People’s Revolution. Given a forthcoming revelation of the origins of life in the universe, the Oteran religious and institutional paradigms face endangerment. Arbai and her companion Yangis pilot the Blood Moon and prepare for battle with the Four-Claw while Akoni assists the Golongans in routing their communications. Sankar altercates with his former Goroid employer, Maglor, who urges him to resolve the situation on Golongal.
The Golongans continue to fight among themselves, while Sankar encounters Combine ships headed to the war-torn planet. Commissioner Sachim fears the enslavement of the Golongans, with the brush war upon the Cho-Ma risking eruption into a planetary crisis if the Golongan People’s Revolution receives zeno armaments. The Bilkinmore arrives, battling the Direwolf and Blood Moon, with each side alternating between getting the upper hand. Meanwhile, Ausha continues to explore the reaches of the universe, discovering from an Earthling that justice exists among Earth’s colonies. The fourth book ends with Sankar negotiating an alliance with the Earthmen.
Ultimately, while I have previously enjoyed fantasy and science-fiction literature featuring anthropomorphic characters, the fifth entry of the Zenophobia series, like its predecessors, didn’t completely click with me, given the absence of eBook quality-of-life features such as the Kindle X-Ray feature and no synopses of previous books or a clarifying list of dramatis personae. Other issues include little reminders of character races, the constant shift of perspectives within chapters, unexplained acronyms, and vague settings. I will read the sixth and final book in the omnibus collection I borrowed through Kindle Unlimited, but I won’t set my hopes high.
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