The Others by Jay AllanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Others make their presence known to the Hegemony while Admiral Tyler Barron acting as emissary for the Rim worlds visits the capital of his enemy to ratify their words in terms of the threat the Others represent. What he sees and what he experiences convinces him that even together the entire military of the human race in this region of the galaxy may not be able to defeat the Others. Meanwhile the Confederation Senate (rebuilt despite millions being homeless and ongoing food shortages) are complacent to the threat leaving Admiral Winters, Gary Holsten and Andi Lafarge to force their cooperation and to sell the people that after only a year of "peace" the war machine has to once more spin up despite the ongoing problems. The union under Gaston Villieneuve is still in turmoil and the Alliance like the Confederation desperate to rebuild their military but there is no time, the Others are real, they are a threat and they make the Hegemony conflict look like a childs scuffle.
The latest installment from the Blood on the Stars series by Jay Allan adds a major new player to the galactic mix. The Others who have been mentioned regularly as a motivating factor for the existence and drive of the Hegemony have returned at yes their military capabilities eclipse anything we have seen so far. The question of their genesis has yet to be answered but at this point it would not be difficult to imagine an offshoot of the former galactic empire going down the eugenic/augmentation route and with more retained knowledge of the empire tech being generations ahead of even the Hegemony. I have to say I took no pleasure from the Union aspect of this novel, perhaps just bored with Gaston Villieneuve and that culture but the Others are significantly different to keep me interested overall.
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