Jack Commer, Supreme Commander

Book Two in the Jack Commer series begins with a promising if not challenging journey into the enemy territory of Alpha Centauri to end the war with the United System Space Force...or so Book One left us happily thinking.

All is not right with the crew of the Typhoon II. Space travel is getting to them, particularly Jack Commer, the newly appointed Supreme Commander of the USSF. He has issues, and many question whether he is qualified for his new title, let alone a mission to make peace with a hateful, fanatical empire. He questions himself. He has alienated his beautiful new wife Amav. The cracks are showing, driving everyone into isolated cesspools of personal angst, nasty little secrets and idiosyncrasies artfully reflected through show more diary entries and interactions with the Martian crew members, who are both fascinated and bemused by human behavior.

Things further deteriorate when they rescue a group of refugees who claim to have escaped Alpha Centauri clutches but are in fact being controlled by a hive mentality that forbids individuality, brainwashes its members into glassy-eyed submission, and punishes any digression from the self-proclaimed divine will of a megalomaniacal Emperor. A well-done and disturbing development happens when the crew begins to convert. This brings them down into the depths of human depravity and delusion, including the only three who have not succumbed: Jack, Amav, and a twelve-year-old refugee named Bobby whose mind has cracked.

When they are all captured by the Alpha Centaurians and sentenced to brutal torture and death, all seems lost. Here, this story triumphs through what I thought was not only an intense, visceral description of slimy aliens, messed up belief systems, and shocking threats but also a brilliantly executed series of plot twists that kept me turning the pages, none the wiser, until the end when love, cleverness, and fortitude save the day. With the help of some unexpected protagonists, Jack Commer once again shines through his opaque atmosphere of personal issues to become worthy of his stature. It's a great tale about the value of love and the universal need of living things to be conscious and free. I'll be looking forward to Book Three, Nonprofit Chronowar. show less