John

Empire was a direct continuation from Battle Station although it's not really until this book the battle station is formed and used. I'm not sure that makes sense but it's where this one in the series starts (and points out the misnomer of the last book).

Here, the story seems to devolve back to a point when the main protagonist revisits an old plot; ironing out differences and fighting over grievances with former arch enemies (Crowe) and former conquerors-turned-overloards-turned-enemies-turned-conquerors-turned-allies (the Macros). What I would like to see is what "Pandora's Star" and other books in that series had too much of: some drama in the interludes and character building. I'd have liked to see one less battle or the same number of battles in a longer book.

Starting with the 3rd book in this series, it became clear to me that these books are brilliant; they get me to purchase a book with a full credit and in return i get half a book with lots of battles and no characters I can fully understand or believe in (less Marvin and and Kyle Riggs). The relationships between the characters could be very compelling. But the glue to hold all that together and take my mind off each battle is lacking.

I would recommend people start with the first 2 books in the series. If they understand it will be more or less the same for the next 4 books (and these are SHORT books), then yes, by all means continue. Otherwise, I recommend to read a more far reaching tale such as the Pandora series (that said, this series is by far more "cleaner" if you're squeamish about such things).I would recommend to the author to combine every 2 books into a series of novellas IMHO. 1-2, 3-4, 5-6..end with 7. But that's my opinion.

An awesome reader. Not quite the American version of Jim Dale but I find his performance to be excellent.

Uh..this is the never ending story of space battles. I'm hoping the author can wrap up the relationship between the originating 2 antagonists (Crowe Vs. Riggs) but, honestly, I think the outcome is predictable.