Descent into Darkness

Blood on the Stars, Book 17

By: Jay Allan

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

Victory or death. 

Tyler Barron and his associates are divided, split between two courses of action. Barron doesn't believe in the desperate plan to eradicate the Highborn, the strange virus that has been created for that purpose, but may or may not be the exact formula used by the empire 300 years ago. There are too many possible problems...a small difference in the virus, a cure created by the enemy...for him to accept the plan. Barron commits instead to a traditional defense, even though he knows the chances of ultimate success are almost zero. 

Many of Barron’s cohorts are on his side, but not all. The leader of the other party is none other than Andi Lafarge, Barron’s wife. If the odds were any less gruesome, either one would have given in to the other. But Andi wants nothing less than the extinction of the Highborn, and she believes the virus will work. She will do anything to see it used. Anything. 

The two work together, somewhat at least, and apart as well, striving to end the conflict in any way possible, with millions of spacers fighting...and facing probable doom either way. It is the last stand of free humans on the Rim, the final chance to evade slavery...or worse.

Descent into Darkness is the penultimate book of the Blood on the Stars series, leading up to the smashing conclusion, Empire Reborn.

©2020 Jay Allan Books (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

Good series, Book has a lot of Fluff.

Love the story, but just seemed to have way too many fillers. seems the whole book could have been like 12 chapters of you removed all the fluff. I really hope the next one is better, more about the story line than revisiting everything through out the book series.... I may not buy it. I found myself in this book hitting forward and bypassing chapters.. Not a good sign...

repetitive

a great storyline but literally just repeats the same thing over and over again. continuously redescribes the character their goals their objectives in every single scene. The rest of the books in the series have had this problem but it has gotten progressively worse with every new book. this series should be about 6 books rather than 17 plus.

Really disappointing

The narration in the book was fantastic, Jeffrey Kafer always does a good job. I’ve been following the series since the beginning and sadly this is the weakest book so far. The book could literally be condensed into two chapters at the beginning of the next book and you would never miss what was taken out.

Decent story but...

... but there’s an awful lot of internal monologue. It seems like the internal monologues become more frequent the farther we get into the series. I get it- decisions are hard, bravery is important, etc... but the oscillation in every decision gets tedious.

The performance is what I’ve come to expect from Jeffrey Kafer. Good performer, but the different voices do run a little close together.

There could have been one more run through an editor or one more proof. Names kept getting mixed up. Names of ships and names of characters. Is it Andi or Atara? Constellation or Excalibur? Are we looking for Masters or Highborn? Cassidy or Cassi / Cassiopeia? And why would Redge seem to be jealous of Jake- that seems uncharacteristic.

Overall less than Jay Allen’s best. Hopeful that there’s more meat and potatoes and less internal monologue in following entries.

What happened to the Fighters

I have listened to all the Blood on The Stars books and every main battle there were always fighters. Book 17, both main battles had no mention of fighters/bomber engagements. What happened?

Needs proof reading

I agree with other review, way too much repeating of internal dialogue. How many times do I need to hear it might work or it might not or that Andy wants them all dead, ect. Also the amount of names that get mixed up is crazy, it happens nearly once a chapter or more.

Also what happened to fighter combat, they have a big Jake and Redge part about feeling but no mention of combat.

Also...they know the enemy is coming through certain transit points but no X-Ray laser mines or anything at the point. They've done mines before in the series,so why none for a battle you were waiting months for.

Also why is it battle or virus? To me it's the collars, their fleet is slave run. They should find a way to disable all the collars, have their own people beat them. Some electrical pulse weapon or computer virus that disables them. That is a true hope research into disabling the implants.

Also where are the fall back points in case they lose , places in the dark on moons in empty systems, research bases and secret colonys that are looking for ways to improve the virus or remove the collars, build new fleets. Ways to free humans if they lose. An all or nothing plan is stupid.

More fluff than content

Sometimes you run across a book that seems to be more concerned with word count than plot. This is one of those. A lot of second-guesses and then third gases and then fourth gases Etc. Probably the most used word in the entire book is the word but. I did like the plot so I gave the book 3 stars.

Only made it half way then I gave up

As a few other reviews have said, the series ya getting worse and worse. It reminds me of watching a telenovela with all the internal monologue and repetitive statements. The characters literally say the same thing in the same chapter over and over.

Way too wordy

I struggled with this book. Too many times the same thing said over and over.... and over.

was this rushed, many continuity mistakes.

someone didn't proofread this book or edit it. characters were referred to by the wrong name.

Boring

First boring book by Jay Allan. Kafer even sounded bored reading it and he can make anything sound exciting. Really disappointed and think this series has gone on for too long...

Do someone proofread the book?

The story is good and interesting. But the book seams rushed, several times in this book are craters swapped out for others. For example is Andy swapped out several times during the delivery of the virus. When they hunt high born, they say that they are hunting masters and so on. The book would be a five of five if these errors were corrected, it is sad to se a good book lose so much because someone didn't proofreaded it.

Banal sci-fi packed with clichés.

Mediocre sci-fi of the space opera genre. Full of clichés and banalities. An easy read, with action movie style entertainment value, but overall I wasn’t impressed, and the story is not wrapped up properly, leaving the reader to have to buy the next book in this endlessly long series. You can find better quality sci fi.

You have to listen to it

A book loved the story great narration 5 stars I highly recommend listening to this book 👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️