Second Flight

Uplink Squadron, Book 2

By: J.N. Chaney, Chris Kennedy

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

The ultimate fusion of pilot and machine is back!

Lieutenants Lance Baker and Sofia Jimenez saved Earth in the fateful battle against the aliens who’d been intent on its destruction. But there’s a problem: One of the enemy carriers got away.

Not only that, but it jumped to a star that’s out of reach of Terran jump technology, and it’s probably going for reinforcements. The final battle to save Earth resulted in the destruction of most of Terra’s defensive forces, and Lance and Sofia still have no idea what’s waiting for them among the stars.

Except that whatever’s out there, it doesn’t like them very much. And they’ve got nothing to stop it.

Lance and Sofia will have to reconstitute Uplink Squadron and lead it back to the stars to find out about the aliens that have attacked—who they are and where they’re hiding—and they may have to do it without Irina and Daiyu, who the Russians and Chinese want back. The alien home world must be found in order to prevent a devastating war. It’s time to plug back in and save the world. Again. Before it's too late.

©2022 Variant Publications (P)2022 Variant Publications

Second Flight

It was a very good book, well written with drama by the main characters! The system characters are amusing!

good sequel

this was such a good sequel, I really liked it. I'll for sure be getting book 2, I honestly think this was it was better than book 1, and I also think this is where this series really blossomed. it was very enjoyable. its for sure a top tier sci-fi series.


this review isn't gonna be long, but let's get into it.

Luke Daniel's does good, really good infact. he's one of my favorite narrators, he performs all his books with upmost quality, and this book is no different. I loved his performance so much, the narration is for sure a 5 star.

The characters i feel have more depth and I feel more of a connection with them in this book, the plot also got better. I do like the world building, it's definitely one of my favorites. I feel like alot of the stuff in book 1 got better in book 2, but I do also think some stuff was bad compared to book 1. like I said, I do like the characters, but some of them get on my nerves, the plot also felt kinda lackluster in some parts, and in other parts it was awesome!. this book wasn't really inconsistent, but it did have its flaws.


With all that said, I really like this series. I recommend this book to anyone who got book 1 (of course), and also if you want more action and awesomeness!. J.N. Chaney did so good with this book it's crazy, Luke Daniel's gave us an astonishing performance, overall it think this book is a 5 star.

Enjoyable 2nd entry

With some of the characters deceased from the first book (Dog boy), Luke's voice work was much improved. With that said, I found myself enjoying this book. I'm intrigued to find out more about the Sunshine system, lizard looking aliens, and the Overlords. Now, is it the best writing? No, the Sophia and Lance crush went nowhere and felt forced. The Russian A.I. flexing her muscles with her peers should have been explored a bit more. For most of the book, I thought one of the 3 nations was going to stab the other in the back. I expected more from Chinese pilots trying to call Baker a coward, but that didn't happen. Again, I enjoyed this book and giving it a good rating, but it has flaws. Great main story with a handful of incomplete ideas and forced rivalry that went nowhere. 4.25 out of 5!

An excellent 2nd book to this series

I often worry about the second book in a series. Sometimes they suffer from a sophomore slump. This book did not. It took off right from the beginning with the training of the new squadron. Then moved onto geopolitical matters, and finally the space battles. As the first book, I found the Synthetic Intelligences to the the most interesting part. They add a level of character depth for all the other characters to play off of. And from a military aspect, it was nice to see Space Marines trying to operate on a foreign planet. In all, the book was witty and interesting with a good bit of scify to bring out the military aspects. 5 stars.

S Kaye

Really like this uplink series! It’s true that some of us humans seem to love conflict. Showing the political side and military side is realistic.
Luke is great! Thanks.

Finally

Finally, in a military sci-fi book series, somebody mentioned the Seabees, which is so awesome. Since I am a former Seabee, I've always wondered why nobody ever talks about them. Like they talk about all the special forces and all other types of specialized ratings, but I've never heard anybody even talk about the Seabees, so that was very, very satisfying. Thank you.

A real treat!

This is a SOLID series and if you’ve enjoyed any space sci-fi or other military adventure series, you won’t be disappointed! Great story line, well put together with vary few - if any - portions that might otherwise be thought of as “filler” or just not necessary. And the narration is top-shelf as always. Each character is brought to light in a unique way to instill particular mannerisms that otherwise could be drowned out. This could be an epic series in the making!

A lot more to this!

The 2nd installment is a good down payment on what more needs to come in this series. Looking forward to what comes next!

Great story!

Very entertaining and fast action with many special surprises I didn't see coming. you will enjoy this book.

solid stoey, good character development from book 1

I enjoy the story, but question the choice of the narrator. His narration voice is fine, his technical skills are good. However, his character voices sound more like caricatures rather than actual personas. To me it makes the story sound like a book for children rather than adults. The book is still overall enjoyable and worth it, but could have been better.