Secrets Past

Infinity's End

De: Eric Warren

Narrado por: Larry Gorman

Beyond the edge things get weird.

Having barely survived their encounter with the mysterious race known only as Andromeda, the crew of the USCS Tempest now must find a way to repair the ship if they ever want to get back to the Coalition to warn them of what’s coming. Their comms are down, their engines are shot and unless the god Kor himself makes an appearance, they’ll have to rely on local help if they want a way out of this mess.

But finding friendly species in an uncharted region of space is easier said than done. They’ve already captured one pirate attempting to take advantage of their ship and have spent the last few weeks fending off even more. If this doesn’t let up soon, there won’t be anything left of the Tempest to save.

However, their new prisoner offers a solution. He knows where to find exactly what they need, if they’re willing to let him out. If that weren’t enough, he knows where they can find out more about Andromeda before returning to the Coalition. The catch is they have to put their trust in a bunch of strangers they know nothing about.

©2019 Eric Warren Author, LLC (P)2020 Eric Warren Author, LLC

Intrigue, Thrills, and Exceptional Characters

Secrets Past picks up almost immediately after the end of Journey’s Edge, in which the Tempest has been struck by multiple mines left by the Andromeda ships. This has resulted in critical damage to Tempest, not only damaging the engines, but damaging them so badly, that Zenfor’s modifications will no longer work, and even if they manage to get back to an undercurrent, the trip will now take them 200 days, instead of just the 5 it took to get back to the ‘edge’ of Coalition space.
With limited supplies, and a depleted crew from both injury and deceased crew members, not to mention that the Captain of the ship, Captain Greene is in a critical condition and may not live, and is certainly not in any condition to command, the Tempest is in a very serious situation, especially given their mission.
The only good news is that Evie seems to have recovered from her hallucinations, having received help for Sester with a mind-link.
At the start of Secrets Past, the Tempest finds a strange alien stealing from their ship (even though he calls it ‘Borrowing’ – you know, he borrows it now, and then they can ‘borrow’ something from someone down the line, everyone is happy….).
As well as this, the ship is being constantly attacked by these other strange alien ships, that come in and strafe the ship, causing damage, before being chased off, leaving the Tempest with even more damage.
As a result, the ship sits, floating through the void of space, barely being held together by forcefields and the strength of will of Sester and Tyler, who are operating from different locations as engineering had to be evacuated.
Secret’s Past sees the turning point in this series. Without giving away spoilers, the series up until now, has mainly been a fairly strict Coalition Crew, following all the rules, regulations, etc of the Coalition, with the exception of Caspian, who was allegedly once a criminal, until it was proven that he was actually wrongly accused, and he had really done the right thing, again, upholding the high morale code of the Coalition.
As we have moved towards this middle point of the series, some of the cracks have started to show, Rutledge and probably several others high up in the Coalition deliberately conspired to commit acts of War against the Sil and cover it up, going so far as to be responsible for the deaths of multiple people, both Sil and Coalition.
And this is one of the really fascinating, and absolutely brilliant parts of this book, and series, the political intrigue, and the mystery surrounding the threat of Andromeda, as well as the introduction of Caspian, and the Sil Consul, and how all of these factors are having such an interesting, and rather distinct impact on each and every member of the crew. As this story has progressed, there have been subtle changes to all of the main characters, as well as to the perception of how we see the major Factions within the Galaxy.
The “Galaxy” or ‘World’ building in this series is just extraordinary, with such a rich and complex tapestry of interwoven Characters, each that are so comprehensively detailed, so that we really feel that we know each and every member of this crew, alien and human alike. There is such a wonderful range of aliens in this series as well, and Warren has made an exemplary effort to try and develop his aliens in a way that they are exotic, astonishing, thrilling, but most of all, different – they are not 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 headed creatures, with vaguely different skin colour, and the one or two species that might appear like that, he has everyone pondering the question of how this happened, as it is so unlikely in the great game of genetic monopoly. From the spider like Xax, to the starfish like Sester, there are some stunning aliens, and he has gone into great depth about each of the species, making it a fascinating read on xenobiology.
The really impressive and engaging part of this story though, are the actual Characters, each of whom are just enthralling. From the seriously damaged Caspian, but even though he is a total narcissist, Caspian does seem to care for both Box and Evie, going out of his way to help Evie on multiple occasions. Evie is easily one of the best characters in the series, with her complex, multi-faceted personality, and multiple storylines attached to her, there is still a lot we have not uncovered about the Acting Captain of the Tempest.
And of course, there is Box, one of the best characters I have ever read in any sci-fi series ever. His consistent obsession with all things relationship, genital, and anything that annoys Cas is just hilarious, and his ability to say the most inappropriate thing, at the most inappropriate time, is just brilliant. It’s funny, I sit, writing about Box almost as if he is a ‘real’ entity, (the timing of his comments), but that is just how exceptional the Authors writing is, that you view these people as real people when you read about them.
The outstanding Character work, and Aliens, is only extenuated by the captivating technology that the Author has developed for this series. Whilst some of it, is regulation (guns, communicators), Warren has given some of the weapons his own unique style, and then had a lot of fun in designing the ships, and other aspects of the tech. This again lends to the incredible depth that has gone into the world building.
This series does have a very real ‘Star Trek/Orville’ type feel to it, in that there is a crew aboard a ship, working for a collective of space faring sentient species, with the vast majority of them aiming to do the right thing, and being bound by a set of rules that dictates these values. Of course, whenever Sentient species get together, they invariably can’t play nicely together, one always wants what the other one has – look at every series of Star Trek – Khan, The Cardassians (Not to be confused with the Kardashians – same level of arrogance, just without the neck ridges), The Klingons, The Romulans, and so on and so on….
Warren has not just replicated it though, he has created something that is similar, but in which his crew, although similar to a ‘StarFleet’ crew, are unique in their own way, making this such a fun read, especially if you are a fan of Trek.
Overall, this is a fascinating continuation to the story, and sees Cas, Box, Evie and the crew in a dire situation. But as they struggle to continue their mission, it seems that no matter how fast Zenfor makes the ship, their individual pasts continue to catch up with them. As each of them battle with these demons of what has haunted them for so long, they realise that the only way they are going to be able to stand up to the problems that they now face, is to face up to their demons, and that is what makes for such a Masterful read this book!!
If you have read the other books, you will Love this one, and if you haven’t picked up any of the series yet, get into it, because this is one of the best Mil Sci-Fi, Space Operas, I have ever read, it is exceptional.
As with each of the other books, Larry Gorman has done a good job as Narrator, he does a great job with Caspian and Box’s voice. He has fully immersed himself into this role now, and is a lot better at doing the individual voices of Male and Female characters, providing distinct, individual voices (Something that I noted was a little difficult to understand in book 1). He has a clear and concise voice, that you can easily understand.
Gorman does a fantastic job as the Narrator, and this was a great audiobook to listen to!!

Harlequin Romance in space

Okay so the headline is an exaggeration, a little. The story has potential, I just don't know if I can get past all the romance. Maybe it's more like the Love Boat in space... I'm going to try and finish or not.