When last we saw Zac he was still working on his upgrade to Late Hegemony as he and the others with access were whisked away for the trial event at the Left Imperial Palace. Zac gained his first seal for the event several years ago so the history and competition of the event has been building for several books. This is only the fifth such event to occur over hundreds of millions of years with the grand prize authority over one of the nine peaks of the Dao. Although Zac has maintained that he intends to leave the grand prize to others willing to die for it, we all expect him to get pulled into the thick of it since the fate of Earth's sector of space hangs in the balance. Not to mention he always ends up at the center of events so it was with great anticipation I started reading.

Michael Truesday, aka Stone Tactical - an Earther super, is continuing his fight against the pedophiles aiming for world domination known as The Society. Now that he's found his father, it's time to take on the corrupt trustees of his two billion dollar inheritance from his mother, but The Society isn't about to let go of that money without a fight. They seem to think a thirteen year old from the Baltimore foster system and a Native American lawyer from Montana can't be a threat, which is just fine with the boy genius and former Delta Force soldier. It would be simpler for Mike to take out the men who abused his mother with his superpowers from a distance, but he prefers to tear them apart financially, socially, and politically so he can watch them suffer for decades.

Alex Archer never really settled into life on Earth after being rescued from Scorpio, her former home that was occupied by the Lankies for the last 8 years. Her restlessness caused her to join the NAC Defense Corps and this book details her training and her first assignment, an emergency combat deployment. That's a rather ominous start to a military career for someone who spent years living in a bunker hiding from the Lankies, because even though she did not fit in on Earth, she has no desire to find herself back on a Lanky occupied world. But an allied warship has gone missing in the Alpha Corvi system and the NAC is deploying to investigate why. It's pretty obvious to Alex "why" - and her very first deployment has her heading right back into her worst nightmare.

With people from the Undercity joining the Raylicon track and field team, Bhajaan has added assistant coach to her work as a private investigator and her unofficial role as the government's liaison with the Undercity. Competing in the Interstellar Games alongside other teams from their own Skolian Imperialate, Earth's planets, and the horrible Euban empire (aka The Traders) highlights new characters and fresh storylines. In the background Bhaj is investigating a corporate takeover for Vaj Majda. At first it seems unimportant but then Bhaj starts uncovering startling secrets that once again emphasize that the Undercity, City of Cries, and the noble houses of Raylicon are all deeply intertwined no matter how much they all deny it.

In the future, the megacorps rule the Earth. When emissaries of the galactic community come to evaluate humans for membership, they are appalled that the corps not only tried to bribe them for a favorable review but by the corruption and repression of the population. They embargoed Earth, but also left behind a gift. A game played while sleeping called Tower of Somnus, where players advance and weakened versions of their skills can then be used in their real lives. The true purpose of the game is to promote community and cultural understanding among the varied races, but naturally humans see it only as a way to gain a bit more power. Kat is just finishing her mandatory schooling at 18, but despite her high scores, she couldn't afford to go to college even if the slots didn't all go to the children of managers. In her spare time she is a runner for an information broker hoping to save up enough credits to someday pay off her corporate debt. Everything changes when a friend offers her a subscription to the Tower if she helps him advance. Kat loves it, but Arnold is a terrible player and constantly risking their "lives". If you die it's game over, and you have to acquire another subscription, which neither can afford. Her new skills come just in time to help her in real life, because someone is out to get her.

The fighting at the US government level is over, but at the local level it has just begun. Los Angeles is now controlled by various crime factions, the local government and police are mostly corrupt, and those who try to adhere to a code of ethics are at a big disadvantage. The Morretti crime family has a big advantage because the Mayor is in their pocket,along with the police, but they are still stretched thin dealing with adversaries. Their drug supplier is becoming unreliable, the rival gangs are getting bolder, and old enemies back in Italy also need some attention. Meanwhile, the LAPD has a similar set of issues, but none bigger than the corruption that runs rampant throughout their ranks. It is hard to fight back against the crime families when you can't trust your fellow officers to have your back. It is within these multiple levels of chaos on both sides of the battle that the main characters fight to come out on top, or die trying.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the king of apocalyptic story telling, with a portfolio of series that range from realistic to fantastic. This one definitely falls on the realistic side of the scale, so much so that classifying it as science fiction isn't exactly accurate. Ten years ago it might have felt pretty fictional, but in the current tribal political climate in the US it now feels way too possible. The US National Guard is rebranded as the American Military Patriots (AMP) and these federal troops are used to invade various states that are branded as rebels. The US Marines are blamed for some of the chaos going on in the country and before we know it, we have US troops fighting against each other on American soil. With infrastructure crumbling, the environment is ripe for gangs and crime families to prosper, and within this turmoil the Moretti family sets its sights on taking over the city of Los Angeles. With good cops fighting corrupt ones, Latino gangs fighting the mafia, and the marines fighting against AMP, Los Angeles becomes the battleground of an apocalyptic future.

In a Fleet full of "throw-backs", gifted descendants of genetically enhanced soldiers, none are more valued than those who can pilot a ship through the shunt of hyperspace. It takes special vision to see the golden light of the shunt and skill to find the thin blue lines leading to an exit. Dan was the best pilot in the Fleet until he refused to sleep with a Colonel and they used his addiction to the drug Haze as an excuse to kick him out. Now the Fleet wants him back to pilot a covert mission investigating rumors that the shunts are collapsing. In addition to a regular supply of Haze, they offer him the only other thing he wants, to be back in the shunt riding the blue. It's a risky mission. Not only is someone causing panic by spreading rumors about the shunts, but there's a hate group trying to discredit the throw-backs and the Fleet so many of them serve. Is it one of the four alien races not part of their alliance? How is a shipping company and its investors involved? But most importantly, what is Dan's connection to the pilot who recorded the only collapse of a shunt 180 years ago?

This is a long series, and sometimes it gets bogged down in details about cultivation and/or blow by blow action scenes. However, every once in a while Zac learns a bit more about his origins and his connections to both the ancient Limitless Empire, which created the System, and the Technocrats, that would prefer to destroy it. This fifteenth book in the series spends much less time on cultivation and instead makes major advances in both the main plot as well as secondary characters and sub-plots, which has reignited my interest in this series, especially after book fourteen wasn't as exciting as I had hoped it would be.

Rhino: The Rise of a Warrior tells the story of the Cazador soldier Rhino, from his childhood through his rise in the ranks, right up until the start of the main Hell Divers series. For me, the deck was certainly stacked against this book even though it is a spin off from a series that I really enjoyed. I rarely like side stories that focus on one of the supporting characters in a series, and I absolutely hate it when when an audiobook series changes narrators. However, Ray Porter is an excellent narrator, and the main PoV character of the original series is not in this book at all, so I decided to give it a shot.. The ratings on this one are pretty high, and I have to say, they are completely justified.