Through the Darkness

War's Edge, Book 4

By: Ryan W. Aslesen

Narrated by: Roger Wayne

When peace is in peril, the Marine Raiders go to war.

To annihilate the Galactic Union threat once and for all, Alliance Intelligence Director Aaron Hella needs the world-destroying firepower of the Ra weapons. Aligned with a sinister cabal of synthetic humans, he dispatches his most trusted operative—his own daughter—to steal two Ra warheads from a top-secret facility in the Planetary Federation.

But the synths have other plans for the Ra weapons. To Hella's alarm, they fall into the hands of General Umez, a radical nationalist who launched a revolt against Alliance rule in the Tellus System. The insane general intends to rejoin the Planetary Federation with himself as planetary dictator.

Hella dispatches Lieutenant Mark Rizer and his team of elite Marine Raiders on the perilous mission to track down Umez and the Ra weapons. While the Marines of Rizer's old unit battle house-to-house to liberate Tellus-3, Rizer blazes a bloody trail through underworld criminals and legions of revolutionary troops to stop Umez before he can blast worlds into memories.

General Umez has his finger on the button, and time is running out.

Through the Darkness is the fourth book in the War's Edge series written by USA Today bestselling author of the Crucible series, Ryan W. Aslesen. Featuring gritty combat and realistic characters, the series is considered by many fans and critics to be the hardest military science fiction on the market. This book contains graphic violence, profanity, and sexual content. Intended for mature listeners.

Includes bonus story, "The Duel."

©2024 Ryan W. Aslesen (P)2024 Podium Audio

Non-stop action

The story is only 8hrs, but there is a short 2hr berserker tanker novella at the end, which imo is very good.

Also, while the Ryzer story continies, I feel like even though the stakes were higher than ever, the overall plot quality is declining I think because of the need to connect the character to the over global plot. You really feel the contrast against the novella which is just as good as any of the authors other works.

Still, if you have listened so far, you probably like this and won't be disappointed by the non-stop action, and the narrator continues to output brilliant work.

Looking forward to more.

Lost me with the S&M brain demons

The first three books were exceptional. The introduction of synths in the last part of book three left me very interested in the next installment. Unfortunately it's been a disappointment overall. As usual, the most interesting sections are with Rizer, which are sparse. There's no investment in any other POV except maybe the Director. That was my only real complaint with the last book, the pilot woman POV felt like filler content. Too much was introduced too fast to expand the genre and lore. Mind dives only really came up about half way through the last book. Nothing had ever been mentioned about the defense chips to protect against mind dives. There was a hard shift away from a young man looking for a new start in the marines to synths and everyone else's story. Space brain sex demons are where I lost interest, and I'm into that sort of thing.