The fourth book in the Phoenix series, this one continues the story right where it left off in the Phoenix Crisis. As I've stated in reviews of previous books in the series, this is not bringing anything novel to the science fiction genre; this is basically Star Trek like military sci-fi, so don't be expecting to be blown away or to have this address any big philosophical questions.

In general I thought this particular book plodded along a bit slow in the beginning. There was too much description of what was going on inside characters heads instead of doing character development through actual scenes. And some of the continued character development just keeps rehashing the same old stuff we already know about the characters from previous scenes or dialog. The real action in the book doesn't start until you're near the end and then leaves you on a cliffhanger just like the last book. Mr. Sanders could do with learning how to space the action better in between non-action scenes.

At some point I would think it's time for Mr. Sanders to finally wrap this story up and move on to his next project; I'm just not convinced there is much more to do with this story, and it's not really doing a great job exciting me about the next one. As of now I'm just continuing to read the series for closure; I really hate leaving a story unfinished.

The writing has been improving some from one book to the next, but the author could really do with investing in a real editor. I suspect the series could be polished into a much better read with a good editor/publisher.

For something that is a cheap e-book read it may still be worth following this series if this type of sci-fi is your thing. ( )