Ninety years have passed and Dan's settlement in Italy is thriving, while his son Samuel has risen through the ranks of the new space fleet. The alien Daimones call our planet Eridu, and have established a watching station out past Neptune in case other spaceships from unfriendly races come calling. The social consequences of some humans having longer lives, while their family members do not, have been saddening, and by now all children are of the adapted race. Dan is still healthy, though mentally older and sadder than most.

Deciding that the time is right to move, Dan and his friend Manfred organise a movement to round up and hold thousands of Daimones walking around on Eridu. A long-held suspicion that the aliens beings are exploiting humans for their own purposes is about to be tested. The next move is to try taking over the space fleet... if the humans dare.

I was interested by the concept of filing a complaint with alien races in a Confederation which has already killed off almost all human life on our planet. The scale of this third instalment is much grander, with a wormhole allowing traffic across the galaxy and into our system. Battlecruisers, neurotransmitters and tractor beams are among the familiar SF jargon, but bioscience is represented too as the humans conspire to spread a nasty disease among their alien managers. As with many space war stories almost all characters are male, but I was pleased to meet a competent Marine called Amy who provides a fine balance.

Horror fans will most readily enjoy THE RISE OF THE PHOENIX as some aspects are unpleasant, while the military action and floating speaking globes tend to depersonalise characters. Massimo Marino has given us a sliding-scale trilogy reminiscent of Battlefield Earth while keeping his main character Dan as someone for us to identify with and cheer for throughout the hardships of his life.

Book Summary