Dark Space VI: Armageddon

Armageddon by Jasper T. Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The final entry of author Jasper T. Scott’s Dark Space series opens with a list of dramatis personae that includes human clones of characters from prior entries, and thus, one can find difficult keeping track of who is the original and who is the replicant. The main events open eleven years AE (After Exodus to Dark Space), and twelve years since the original Sythian invasion of the galactic sector, with Destra Heston imprisoned alongside her daughter Atta, with a Gor named Torv aiding their escape from captivity. One month later, Farah Hale flies the spaceship Baroness, having once served as a Peacekeeper in god-figure Omnius’s fleet, when Sythians attack her.

Meanwhile, in the Null Zone, the “netherworld” of the planet Avilon, Ethan Ortane, having served as primary protagonist for most of the franchise’s predecessors, is a taxi driver, interacting with Admiral Vee, the leader of a resistance against Omnius. Back to Farah, she ultimately finds herself alongside Destra and her daughter, while Destra’s other child, Atton Ortane, makes it his intent to marry a woman named Ceyla, much to her family’s disdain. In Etheria, Strategian Hoff Heston and his companion Galan Rovik make a living attempting to prevent future crimes, among them being an attempted suicide.

One month later, Destra wakes on the birth-world of humanity, Origin, and some detail the author gives about the reproduction of the Gor species. Occasional time skips occur, with Ethan and Alara’s daughter Trinity aging several years, and certain events driving a wedge between the couple. Ethan himself becomes commander of a fleet, and loyalties constantly waver between Omnius and those who resist him. The epilogue occurs one month after the main events of the book, focusing on another life-changing event that the author indicates in his afterword leads to a sequel series.

All in all, the final Dark Space book definitely does have many things going for it, such as its decent sci-fi action and commentary on things such as human cloning and religion, although the latter subject the author somewhat takes over the edge, with the narrative centered on the replication of certain luminaries, although the question of whether the series occurs in our universe or a parallel one Scott does resolve within the latter portion of the novel. Although I did enjoy most of the earlier entries of the Dark Space series, it somewhat loses its luster later on, and I’ll definitely hesitate to read whatever prequel and sequel series the author has produced.

View all my reviews