Synopsis:
THE WAR COMES HOME.
A Regime on the Brink. An Infiltrator in the Heart of Power. A Rebellion That Will Burn the World.
The last human civil war ended with Earth’s defeat. Now Chancellor Arnold Philby is trying to rebuild an empire on fear, propaganda, and a military he no longer fully controls.
For the first time in over a decade, Mark Franklin returns to Earth.
Berlin is the new capital. The streets are tense. The government is cracking. And by morning, a single banner hangs over the Brandenburg Gate: ARNOLD PHILBY, YOUR TIME IS OVER.
As unrest spreads from Proxima to Mars, Franklin gambles everything on one impossible plan. Captain Zoe Fuerte of the UTCS Gibraltar undergoes a full identity rewrite and goes undercover inside the Ministry of Defence, leaking secrets from the heart of the regime while the galaxy edges toward open war.
When Proxima declares independence, fleets begin to choose sides. Riots rip through Earth’s cities. Paris burns. And as the rebel fleet moves to blockade the homeworld, Franklin climbs into an old fighter to face new weapons designed to slaughter ships—and end wars—in seconds.
Victory could tear humanity apart. Defeat will leave it in chains and in the shadows, forces far worse than Philby are already preparing to strike.
Book 5 of the McMurdo Rift series delivers political intrigue, covert missions, and all-out space warfare as the conflict finally reaches Earth.
Perfect for fans of The Expanse, The Mandalorian, and high-stakes military space opera where every victory comes at a terrible cost.
Review:
I will confess that space opera is my guilty pleasure. Not the rip-roaring, blood-drenched, ooh-rah space marine type of science fiction. But the style that takes me back to my youth, when heroes were heroes and antagonists died, but their deaths were rarely over-bloody, and you were rooting for your favourite characters all along, knowing that they would come good in the end. Is Flash Gordon one of my favourite films? Yeah, sorry. And did I love the old black and white series too? Did I mourn the loss of Gil Gerad, with Buck Rogers as one of my all-time favourite sci-fi TV shows? I did. You get the picture.
Yeah – very unlike my own writing (which apart from the ooh-rah is kind of off-the-wall, very personal, character-driven military sci-fi with a conscience, meets galactic empire with more than a little blood at times)
So, when I heard about the fifth book in this series, I jumped at an ARC copy, because in Mark Franklin we have that hero. Okay, his life is a mess, his cat is not always the best-behaved, and his friends are kind of oddballs, but at least his ex-wife is back and they’re nearly getting on.
See. You like him already. Check out my Goodreads review of book 1 of the series here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61185486-the-mcmurdo-rift.
Anyway, I have followed Franklin from his bar aboard a star liner to the rescue of the Chancellor of the UTC, who was once his boss but now, after four books, has ended up as the puppet head of Earth and its colonies. Franklin has seen the despicable behaviour of his ex-boss and the Blue Planet party, from hard-line lawmaking to outright murder, and has had enough. Couple that with the bombardment of the colonies as they threaten to break away, and it’s time for a revolution.
Yes, you know what’s coming, and you’re up for it.
From this point we have a brave spy with an improbable change in appearance (it’s space opera) and Franklin’s oversight of a blockade that turns into a straight-up fight. Who wins? Who loses, you’ll have to find out.
As a series, this has been fun. Taking the reluctant hero trope and throwing into the mix mysterious goings-on, alien races who may or may not be the enemy, strange wormholes and an ominous threat that hangs over the whole proceedings. This book was short and sweet, and I missed the background characters that made the other books a little more layered ‒ that added level of richness ‒ the familiar interaction that breaks up the more serious moments. However, I’m promised they’ll be back, and this book clearly sets up a grand finale, and I can’t wait.
I’ve had my space opera fix and am ready for more.
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