Darrien's Daggers, the tri-galaxies' most famous band of freelance freedom fighters are doing what they do best: fighting for freedom alongside a rebel force.
The First Neo-Imperialists and the Krishodi have banded together, and the whole galaxy will be affected if the Daggers and rebels fail to stop them in time.
Lyndsey Kavaliro, Dagger swordswoman and fighter pilot, chances into a meeting with her long lost cousin. Soon the pair are fighting side-by-side for their lives and the freedom of dozens of worlds. Their first adventure in this saga of rebellion against the invading tyrants is to recover the legendary Crown of Eldrete, a sacred artifact of the Marohni which had been entrusted to Taliza Kavaliro's Faeshild temple. With it and other stolen treasures, the Krishodi believe they can gain the power to conquer all of Galfarra. Whether the ritual will work or not, they must be stopped before their terrible rule spreads too far to be stopped.
I had a chuckle when I read the first page of this book—it is a FULL page of copyright notices and legal disclaimers. At first I thought I had the wrong book, that it was a legal document! Never seen anything like it.
Then I came to the first page of the book itself and found footnotes! Okay, this is a science fiction novel right? Not a textbook? Example (page 1 line 1): faeshir- Faeshir are priests of Faeshir, the dominant Human faith in Galfarra...
I have to say footnotes in a fiction novel are never a good idea. As an author I avoid using made up words that mean nothing. What's the point? Does it add anything to the story or especially—the reader's enjoyment?
Next I will come right out and say I just don't get this type of story. It's purported to be science fiction—with no science. All the characters use swords. There's not a hint of anything advanced except the plot involves several worlds. Again, what's the point? Why not just base it in Medieval times (where this should have been) and make the worlds countries instead? I mean even in Star Wars with its knights and guilds, they still used light sabers and robots and spaceships.
Finally, the story is so generic I thought I read it before and will not remember a single word from it when I finish typing this review. Is there actually a market for this stuff? If so more power to the authors.
Give me something like Iain Banks' Surface Detail which will forever haunt me with his virtual hells.
The main two characters in this story are Lindsey and Taliza, who fight for... actually, I'm not sure. There's a battle right at the beginning, where the two are fighting side by side, and discover that they're cousins. Then there's a whole slew of world-building, with dozens of names of planets, power factions, races, and cultural terms. I got lost in this book, not knowing why Lindsey was taking on all these fights. Sure, Lindsey is a kick-ass heroine, who can fight well, but placing a character as fearless and skilled isn't enough... we take it for granted that the main heroine will be such. I wasn't sure what the mission was. There was some vague reference to the Crown of Eldrete at the beginning, but why Lindsey wants it badly... or even if she wants to find it... was not clear to me. The mention of this Crown doesn't happen again for a good half of the book, in the middle.
This book is seriously compromised by the lack of plotting, as to what the mission is all about. Sometimes I feel it's me, the reader, who didn't read carefully enough. But after checking it, I've decided that this book needs more clarification, and that there are just too many unfamiliar terms, concepts, and worlds to comprehend and know who is who, and what everyone wants. The gist I got out of this book is that Lindsey is supremely confident, likes to swear, and can defeat almost anyone, but that's about it. Sorry about that.