Dark Space II: The Invisisble War

The Invisible War by Jasper T. Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second installment of author Jasper T. Scott’s Dark Space series does not immediately continue its predecessor’s events, but rather begins a decade before the franchise’s “present” with the villainous Sythians attacking Roka City and its population evacuating, among them being Destra Ortane, whose son Atton he allows her uncle Captain Reichland to take care of. There are many intermediary sections within the text following the adventures of Destra, who joins a man and woman named Digger and Lessie, along with their son Dean, and takes care of a wounded officer, their events ending on a planet paradoxically hot and cold.

The “current” events open ten years After Exodus (AE), with the antagonistic Alec Brondi listening to enemy transmissions, vowing vengeance against those who had stolen the Kavarath, with the Defiant lost as well, further surprised that a nearby Dark Gate is working, and quickly implodes. The forces of good, spearheaded by protagonist Ethan Ortane, recently reunited with his son Atton, seek alliance with enemies of the Sythians, the Gors, one named Tova seeking her mate Roan, who sporadically wreaks havoc aboard the Valiant. Throughout the book, the forces of the Imperium seek contact with Obsidian Station, from which Tova can contact other Gors.

Meanwhile, Ethan continues to mend his relationship with Alara, who still thinks her name is Angel due to intervention by Brondi, and she simultaneously makes an effort to become a star pilot, doing well in training, also dealing with her parents Dr. Kurlin and Darla, who also seek to rekindle her true memories. The use of holoskins to impersonate certain luminaries serves as a lynchpin in the major plot twists of the story, with Ethan and Kurlin ultimately receiving repercussion for their actions in the first book and partway through the second.

The mystery of what awaits the forces of good at Obsidian Station serves as a driving point throughout the story, which is overall a satisfactory read, being generally straightforward and consequentially easy to follow, the backstory on Destra Ortane keeping the narrative fresh and providing good backstory to the “present” events of the series. The division of the chapters into subchapters, however, would have been welcome to both clearly indicate a change of perspective regards to location and characters and make the book readable in smaller bursts. Regardless, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this story to those who enjoyed its precursor.

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