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Title: Return of the Archon
Series: Omega Force #5
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 325
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Crusher, the biggest, (almost) baddest member of Omega Force has a secret. And it catches up to him in this book.

He is the Archon. The military leader of his system, who was exiled to keep the peace between the warriors and the politicians. As usual, politicians have botched things up even more and a small select group has been tasked with bringing Crusher back so he can restore the balance. Crusher must rescue his mentor, figure out a way to stop this mess from getting any bigger and make the choice of whether he will be staying with Omega Force or not.

And there is a someone working behind the scenes with their own agenda.

My Thoughts:

My initial thought was that the Archon was some super villain from one of the characters' past. Return of the Archon just SOUNDS ominous. So imagine my surprise when it turns out Crusher is the Archon and the Archon is supposed to be one of the good guys keeping peace between various warrior factions and the politicians in his star system.

This was a cracking good adventure story filled with prison breaks, ship to ship battles and a whole warrior culture just about ready to boil over. We also get to see the aftermath of Lucky [the battle synth robot] sparring, friendly like, with some of the warriors. I hope that in future volumes Dalzelle has the skill to actually write a good one on one battle scene between 2 high powered beings. It would definitely increase my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

I was thinking of bumping this up to 3.5stars because I enjoyed it more than the Brother Cadfael book I had just finished, but when comparing it to the other Omega Force books, it was right in line with them, so my rating stayed at 3. Which isn't a bad thing. Bookstooge's Ratings Explained

The writing was the best so far. The verbal fighting between members of the OF, which I found off putting in a previous book, was still here but conveyed in such a way that it didn't come across as two people hating each other and being forced to get along. It came across as 2 team member with widely varying personalities being in the same small space. That in itself is reason enough for me to keep on reading this series. I feel like this book was better crafted than the previous ones but it is hard to tell objectively. I do know that with this book I would recommend the OF series to someone, whereas before I would have danced around the issue.

★★★☆☆ ( )