Storm of Vengeance

Crimson Worlds Refugees, Book 5

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

The refugees fight on....

Earth Two is a world beset by dangers, inside and out. Its genetic groupings, the cloned “Tanks”, the “Natural Borns”, and the hybrid “Mules” exist uneasily, each wary of the others, even as they rally to face the deadly threat of the First Imperium’s robot warriors.

President Max Harmon and his inner circle have played an elaborate game of chess for 12 years, a deadly battle of wits with the genocidal alien intelligence known as the Regent. They have moved fleets, spread deceptions, built decoy planets...all to hide Earth Two’s location, to protect it from the deadly onslaught of the enemy.

But sitting and waiting is a losing game. The Regent’s resources are just too powerful, its technology too advanced. It will find Earth Two eventually...and when it does, it will consign the planet to the apocalypse of antimatter devastation. Harmon knows his people must do something...and when a scouting fleet sends back word that it has found the enemy’s antimatter production site, it seems almost too good to be true.

Harmon suspects it is all a trap designed to lure his fleet to its destruction. But, more than one side can lay a trap, or turn one around, and the elimination of the Regent’s antimatter production will go a long way to evening the two sides, and setting the stage for a final showdown the humans can win.

©2018 Jay Allan Books Inc. (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Great series

great job.can't wait for next one.when is next book out?Soon I hope. One of my faviort authors.

Too much political correctness

I once told Jay Allan, an undoubtedly gifted author and one of my favorites, that I hoped he didn’t make a habit of showcasing homosexual romances. Apparently, he has decided to do just that . I am now debating on whether or not I want to continue reading his paean to the LGBTQ+ agenda. To someone like me who believes what God has said about homosexuality, it feels like a slap in the face and frankly, it turns my stomach. And it also saddens me that this is the first time I have ever felt it necessary to give one of Jay’s books a negative review.

Running out of steam

Jay Allan's Storm of Vengeance is the 5th installment in the Crimson World Refugee series. The first trilogy dealt with the flight to a new world as they battled the Imperium's Regent that was eventually dispatched, but there was backup version that has taken up the fight in the second trilogy. Book 5 opens decades later as Max Harmon has become a veritable dictator, but without much background. The natural born humans, tanks and mules are in a power struggle, while the tanks are dying of a mysterious disease and the mules are needed to maintain a tech balance with the Imperium. A scouting party discovers an Imperium antimatter production facility and an elaborate plan is hatched to strike a fatal blow to the Imperium's tech advantage. At the same, the Regent has concocted his own plan to learn the location of the human planet.

There is little new in terms of science or tech, other than that the mules develop a cure for the tank disease, but plan on using this tech as a basis for their power grab. The story is weakened by the continual ruminations of all the major characters as they lament all their past actions, but feel they had no other choices. Even the minions of the Regent get into the act, 2nd guessing their boss, but carrying out his orders. The mules, with their Greek and Roman names carry this too far and their conversations with each other come off as a philosophical discussion between Socrates and Pliny the Elder. Lastly the decision to gamble everything on the antimatter facility seems a bit questionable as they have no way to ascertain if they are kicking the Regent's butt or merely pricking a boil on the Regent's butt. Hopefully, this trilogy will not end with a 3rd Regent taking up the mantle of the Imperium.

The narration is decent, but unremarkable.