Out of the Black by Evan C. Currie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The grand majority of this book doesn't really qualify as a space opera, but the end definitely squeaks it in. What do I mean? I mean this book just put me through the hell of watching the Earth get slowly destroyed by a war it simply had no right to think it could win, despite all the stockpiled weapons and munitions, the high tech drones or kinetic slingshots or nukes, and despite even the help of a few alien friends.

The scale and scope of this conflict is immense and overwhelming, and all we could do was watch Eric and all the earthbound heroes triage, burn, and regroup as all the cities fell. I can honestly say that this is probably one of the best Earth Conflict novels I've ever read, at least when it came to straight war, war, and more war. Gannon came close, but this one beats it by timing, likeable characters, and spot-on fortune reversals.

Was the omnipresent intelligence a bit off-putting or odd? Well, yeah, a little bit, but I expect to know more about her in future books. This is NOT the end. :) Was the last-minute bacon-pulling unbelievable? Nah. As a series of books, it contains a very nice symmetry. I mean, turnabout *is* fair play, and let's be honest, things had really, really gone to shit.

Am I happy that book 5 is coming out in half a month? Hell yes.

Am I going to read King of Thieves with great anticipation, now that I'm a firm fanboy of the author? Yes. :)

Do I *really* *really* want to turn on my game console and play Mass Effect 3 right now, to savor the feeling and much more than the greater experience of this novel to feed off of each other, with delight? Yes. Yes I do. :)

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