I really enjoyed the Frontlines military sci-fi series and I was a bit sad when it came to a close. I commented in my review of the series finale that I hoped that the main story arc would be picked back up with a new generation of characters, since it was not resolved to my satisfaction. This book doesn't exactly extend the main story arc, but it does take place in the same universe and perhaps it sets the stage for exactly that. This is a story about Alex Archer, a dog handler on the planet Scorpio, which was taken over by the Lankies 8 years ago. Since then, the few remaining humans have lived underground, venturing out of their bunker only for scavenging runs to pick up supplies. These runs are extremely dangerous and their numbers continue to dwindle. Alex, and her dog Ash, accompany the military patrols on these runs because Ash is an early warning system capable of detecting Lankies before they can be seen. This book tells the tale of what might be the final scavenging run ever after it all goes catastrophically wrong...

This one is a compilation of original short stories about everyone's favorite ex-cop, Joe Ledger, written by some of Jonathan Maberry’s "friends in the industry." Anthologies like this are never a good place to start a series and are mostly for fans that just want to spend more time with their favorite characters, and that certainly applies to me and Joe Ledger. This collection of authors is extensive and a few of them offer up crossover stories with Joe interacting with characters from their own series, which is extra fun if you already know those other characters. These authors are all clearly fans of Joe Ledger, but as expected, some of them bring Joe to life better than others. While each story is not a winner, overall I feel this was a good pick up and certainly worth a read, or a listen, while we wait on the next official story from Jonathan Maberry.

Rae's sister is obsessed with a fantasy series involving a Cinderella style heroine loved by all. In this series, both the spoiled king and his loyal best friend fall for her, creating an angst ridden love triangle before she's assassinated. With his queen dead, the king takes up his prophesied role as Emperor with vicious ruthlessness. Rae and her sister argue over which of the two guys are ultimately the better character, but her sister always gets annoyed with Rae because even though she is only 20 years old, she is dying of cancer and often doesn't remember the character names and plot points. No one else visits Rae anymore though, until a stranger offers her the chance to enter the fantasy world in the series to get the Flower of Life and Death to save herself. She doesn't really believe it, until she wakes up pain free in a character's body. Too bad the body belongs to the heroine's evil step-sister, scheduled to be executed in horrible fairy-tale style the next day. There are so many directions this plot could go, but it skips over most of the obvious to create a bazaar and oddly serious look at literary tropes and real human emotions.

I picked up Jespa The Space Trader because it is a stand alone story about a small crew on a trading vessel trying to make ends meet. Now that I am done, I am hoping it is the start of a series because I enjoyed it enough to want more. There isn't anything new here to fans of the genre, but it is an excellent blend of world building, slice of life, and character development, with your standard fare of sci-fi mixed in for good measure. The main character is Captain Albert Mead, a retired banker who liquidated his assets to buy the trading vessel, Jespa, because he wanted to turn it into a home in space for him and his 3 kids. Unfortunately, only one of those kids remains with him, Monica, who has reached womanhood aboard the ship and now wants to be a captain herself. Join Captain Mead, Monica, and a handful of others as they do their best to prosper in a solar system that is preparing for war.

I continued going after the first book of Defiance and the series keeps getting better. The writing has improved a bit but the real reason I keep going is that the further Zac progresses and learns about his unique heritage the deeper the story gets. The initial story of a thirty year old marketing exec being inducted into a System run universe and fighting alone to overcome an alien demon incursion isn't remarkable for the genre but we like rooting for the mortal underdog as he blunders his way along. Except it quickly becomes clear that Zac isn't exactly the underdog when it comes to his amazing luck and hints that his mother wasn't from Earth. His background is truly unique and it gradually appears that his cultivation and advancement will effect the entire multi-verse. Nope, no spoilers here, if you want an idea of what's going on you have to read book two.

Void Wraith Origins is a prequel series to the popular six book long Void Wraith Saga series, which is highly rated and well reviewed, so I figured why not start from the chronological beginning? The first book in this series, Dryker's Folly, details the event that starts a war that will put humanity on the brink of extinction. A strange signal originates from Pluto and the closest ship is a mining vessel under the command of a washed up ex-military man, Captain Dryker. But before he can even get there, a fleet of alien ships arrives in our solar system, The Tigris, show up because they are also interested in the signal from Pluto. They appear near our sun because they possess a technology that allows them to use stars like wormholes. Of course our space fleets jump them, but they are militarily superior to anything we can muster. Except, of course, conveniently for the discoveries being made by Dryker on Pluto, which might hold the key to victory against these Tigris invaders. Very few would pick Captain Dryker to be the one human to be in a position to defend us against the Tigris, but he might just turn out to be the right man for the job.

Zac is camping with some friends when Earth gets inducted by the Multiverse System. Since Earth doesn't meet the Multiverse standard, it is fused with three other worlds to create one larger planet composed of random pieces of terrain from all four worlds to create a D-grade world. This is theoretically a great opportunity for potential Cultivators, since most worlds are inducted as F-grade. The first thing that happens is that one third of the populations are deemed potential Cultivators, i.e. they can naturally absorb enough cosmic energy to efficiently improve themselves, and are teleported to Tutorial Villages. Sadly for Zac, he's in the other 66%. All he got was the message about the induction and then a message that he's in the exact spot where something else is supposed to materialize and the System can't merge them. Since two beings can't occupy the same spot they have to roll for it, with Zac rolling 1-100 and the "Herald" rolling 1-100,000 because of its level. Who said the Apocalypse would be fair?

Demir Grappo is a powerful glassdancer and a successful military leader, even at his young age. Despite these innate talents and abilities, he has a solid moral compass and he shows unusual compassion to the rebellious factions that he is sent to put down. Such talent and promise breeds jealousy, and when a political rival maneuvers to turn his greatest military victory into a bloody massacre caused by his own troops, he mentally breaks. The emotional toll of what happened under his command is just too much to bear and Demir walks away from everything, including his eventual inheritance, to live out his life as a grifter. That is until his mother, a powerful political figure and head of his family, is murdered on the city streets. Demir returns from exile to use the resources of his family to uncover the truth about his mother's murder, and of course things get complicated very quickly.

Unholy Island, the mostly forgotten neighbor of Holy Island, is a strange place that everyone quickly forgets, except the few granted sanctuary there. Esme Gray escaped an abusive marriage and found her way to the island because their previous Ward Witch had died, and ridiculous as it seems, it's now her job to run the guesthouse while she maintains the island's protections. Luke Taylor has been searching over a year for his missing twin brother and follows a rumor that leads him to Unholy Island, where a suspicious murder leaves the island in need of a Book Keeper, which he finds a strange term for someone who runs a bookshop. Then there is the kindly old mayor Tobias who was the island's first resident so long ago he barely recalls his true nature. All three of them are weaker than they should be, but together they form a tenuous bulwark against the end of the Earth.

The planet Anjiin may have human inhabitants, but fossil and DNA records reveal that humans are not native to the planet. How they got there, though, is information that has been lost over time. None of that matters when the Carryx arrive, instantly killing 1 out of every 8 humans, and then subjugating the brightest and best humans into service within their hive-like society. The invading force is comprised of a hierarchical structure of multiple alien races, and unfortunately, all of them are physically superior to humans. The story follows a group of researchers who have recently made some important discoveries just before the Carryx arrive. Their skills are valuable to the Carryx, so they are taken to another planet and tasked with doing some research work that is not outside their expertise. The Carryx society has been built over centuries entirely on the backs of enslaved alien species, so they know how to subjugate a race. Resistance is truly futile. Carryx culture is also so different from human society that the researchers don't actually know what is actually expected of them. What is clear though, is the price of failure is extinction for humanity.