In Her Name: Dead Soul

Dead Soul by Michael R. Hicks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In Her Name: Dead Soul is the final book in the second cycle of stories telling of the war between the Human worlds and the Kreelan Empire. After the brutal battles on Keran and Saint Petersburg the battle is joined on a number of fronts but the time has come for the Confederation to fight back and reclaim a world if for no other reason than to give hope to the humans who are now realising this is a fight to the death, failure means the extinction of the human race.
On the agricultural Alger's World the Kreelans have attacked and the human task force comprising of the most powerful warships built engage the enemy while thousands of marines make planet fall to take on the occupying forces. As the long bloody battle commences we are drawn into the experiences of both the young survivors of the initial invasion, the recon units who have landed prior to the attempted liberation and finally the marine contingent. The biggest hurdle to overcome is the Kreelan Priestess Ku'ar-Marekh the last in her line whose soul is fractured and longs to die but will not sacrifice her life and dishonour her Empress. Whilst the story of Dead Soul follows the theme of previous books with the battles of the individuals immersed within the vast scale of global and space combat we find some nice touches when dealing with characters both human, alien and in some cases not quite fully one or the other. This all adds huge depth and enjoyment to the story and makes this a fitting end to the current cycle and despite being shorter then the previous stories the ultimate pay off from characters we've followed is most satisfying.

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