Spoilers: Things I liked about 2-6 ToE

Agreed on all points, with one caveat. Mr. Marine's story...

I've noticed that Ryk, being a sci-fi fan himself, is aware of a lot of the cliches and tropes that we've come to expect and has a way of turning them a bit on their head. Not entirely, not subverting them or outright avoiding them, but tweaking them just enough that they can be a bit of a surprise. I'd wager that this particular thread won't quite go the way we're anticipating - whether it be due to Mr. Marine switching it up, Papa Scott (as you put it... quite like that) realizing and twisting it around and/or playing along (See, The Dark Knight and Gordon), or someone in the Admiral's chain of command FUBARing the op. I do know this though... the timing of the climax of that story will be right at the most inopportune time for the Aurora Club. Or not... Ryk may turn THAT on it's head as well!

I'm more curious as to how the Admiral can realistically justify everything he's done (and not done). Withholding critical intel regarding the nature of the forces that were detected in Sol sector? Ordering the assassination of his superior - a democratically elected official no less? Deliberately abandoning his allies in the PC when he has absolute knowledge of them having Jump capabilities, and the repercussions that would have within the Sol sector if they are allowed to embed in the industrial powerhouses of Takara and Corinar? It leads me more and more to think that maybe there is some deep-down programming that was done to him while he was in Jung custody. He's deliberately weakening Earth's overall strategic position.

I'd be interested to see if anyone thinks to alert the Jung that one of their rogue castes are the ones that caused the attacks on their worlds, by impersonating Jung warships and implicating them, inciting a retaliation. Redirect the bloodlust that the Jung people are sure to be feeling right now.

The Marine could either be an agent of Gillardi or of the Jung in an a dis-stablizing move. Either Gillardi wants to take out the president, distract him, or save him. The Jung would want the President and Gillardi focusing on each other or discrediting one by killing the other. Or maybe another group behind the President wants Gillardi taken out of the picture so that Scott can order the Alliance to assist their allies in the PC. but I do look forward to seeing how it plays out!

The Jung would be perfectly happy to Blame the Alliance centered on Sol for the attack, they would say that the false flag operation wasn't them, and no matter the reasoning behind it, it was the Alliance that pulled the trigger.

They may also want to take revenge out on the Dushan but I imagine they would wait until the Jump drive and various other technologies were introduced to their tech pool and adapted for use in their future strategy of expansion. And they have two options here. Look for the Jump Drive from Sol as recompense, or offer the Dushan a place in Jung Society again, then back stab.

Actually it has been a few years since we have seen what the Jung are capable of. Firstly yes their home world was heavily devastated, but apart from that We have seen that they are capable of superior constructions, and we have only seen one world of there's being attacked in the First part. the second sees a number of KKV's Launched at their construction capability, What I would argue is that we have not seen the greater part of the Jung Fleet capabilities. I imagine that there are sites that have been left Cold or have been very carefully supplied. I imagine that some of the best minds of the empire have been working on the construction of better tech and better suited ships to the modern universe we find ourselves in. I imagine that stealth and faster FTL more powerful shields and weapons on ships, better nanite tech, better troops and possibly even large scale future planning for the next Jung Expansionary war. I cannot wait to see what they bring to the table next.

Gillardi was a Power hungry person before the Jung Invaded. He saw his grand plan/delusion to save the Earth fail, get captured and upon his awakening in medical care, he found someone else had saved the World, had moved on to save many other worlds using his secret weapon to do it. The Military Leadership of the new Alliance that he found himself in was well established and working well achieving its goals. He recovered and started planning his return to power. His greed turned to hatred of those who stole his victory. He wrangled his way to the top military spot again, but it wasn't enough, how could it be, he was an unproven leader in an Alliance of proven heroes. He hated that the old leadership because they succeeded where he failed and all of those associated with that leadership. All of those who were part of the Early Alliance were side lined. The PC forces shipped home. All those how served in roles like the Aurora and the Tanna and the Jar Benekh were passed over for promotion as much as possible. The Focus of Gillardi was always Earth. He Pushed for Fort Terra. He built the new Battleships based on the old Earth Defender class ships, he cut the Falcons and introduced the new earth Reaper class ships, the super eagle he could get behind, that was and earth ship. He used his politicking to use the Tau Cetaen forces to build his own Alliance Power base, but you will notice that there is no mention of forward bases for deployment, just the Local Home Ports. The Sol Alliance under Gillardi is no more about protecting the Members of the Alliance then it is a buffer zone for Earth. The Impact of Jung Capturing Gillardi was more psychological to Gillardi in his release then capture would have been to anyone else. He needs to fight his war. He is still fighting his war against the Jung.

He had planned to be captured, he had planned loose guerrilla style warfare on earth with a vague recognition that someone would be able to use that those initial seeds to form a resistance and then a rebellion and grow to take back the planet and kick back the Jung. The fact that all of that happened and more any by others, kills him.

Its funny but thinking about it, Gillardi was actually one of the most important people in the EDF, becuase of what he set in motion we had the Alliance and won the Battle for the Sol Sector. He set up the Scout ships or at least the hide in plain sight protocol. He set in motion the Jump Project as apposed to a linear FTL drive. He set up a loose underground network. He planned to be captured to feed false information to the enemy. He helped spread miss-information to the world to slow up the Jung invasion. Its unfortunate that history will remember him as the man who started the Second Jung War (Third Jung War?)

Liked #6 so much I've read it twice already. Here are some thoughts, story threads and analysis that I found interesting.

1. Dusahn - The Alliance is up against the Varsity of the Jung Empire. The Dusahn have developed thorough and very effective jump drive battle tactics. While their ships may be of older design they have superior shields, plasma weapons, they employ joint/supporting fires tactics (ex: they deploy their heavy fighters and gunboats in hunter/killer numbers), they analyze the tactical situation looking for tactical advantages and will retreat if that is the best option (live to fight another day). They have also developed highly efficient space to ground insertion techniques and their Zen Anor troops are capable of going toe-to-toe with the Ghatazhak. That said, their false flag operation in the SOL quadrant, while strategically brilliant, comes across as rather stupid from an execution stand point. There was no need to stay and engage the SOL sector defenses when they had ample time upon warning to go into FTL, then jump away when they had lost the EDF forces tracking them. The Dusahn have a limited number of ships and losing 6-8 in the SOL sector (and their experienced crew) didn't make sense to me. Still, this is going to be a much harder fight then either the Takaran or Jung conflicts.

2. Rakuen/Gunyoki fighters - To get the Rakuens to support the Karazari is a no brainer. The Karazari fighter fleet was decimated with the complete loss of all the surviving Takaran fighters from the Avendahl and the Aurora airwing (Super Eagles/Reapers) limited by number of assets and pilots. Nathan had to get the Gunyoki fighters and their pilots to provide the depth and breath of operations (hit & run/close air support to the Ghatazhak/Corinari resistance etc) the Karazari must employ to disrupt the Dusahn plans to use the PC industrial capacity to build an enormous fleet. As evidence from the battle over Rankuen, the Gunyoki fighters (GF) are going to have to be outfitted with jump drives (can you say "stealth"), shields and tactics developed before being thrown into battle. I foresee 150-200 GF providing fleet defense, filling out the Auroras airwing, being assigned to a couple of armed freighters (aka Atlantic Conveyor with Harriers in the Falklands War), recon and CAS (direct support for any Ghatazhak operations). Ranni industries on Rankuen will start producing them along with the shuttles.

3. Nathan - He is becoming more cognizant of his "evolved" brain/mental capacity due to his cloning. This was evident in his ability to learn to fly a complex fighter and anticipate maneuvers/tactics during the race after a very limited time to train (although I agree with Gary above - he'd lost a straight up race). It will be interesting to see where Ryk takes this thread (hopefully nothing outrageous like Muad'Dib-Dune or Neo-Matrix).

4. Corinari Resistance - We've been re-introduced to Michael Willard but he is not leading the Corinari resistance. An obvious leader would have been Adm Dumar but he was killed getting Connor Tuplo off Corinair. Doran Montrose would be a long shot but he is off Corinair and is not trained in insurgency operations.

5. Suvan Navarro - How he steals the Teyentah will be a very interesting story line. Haven't figured out how he's going to pull that off in such a short time but there have got to be some pissed off jump drive ship crew that have been beached by the Dusahn confiscating their ships.

6. Adm. Galiardi - Ok I mentioned it before but I'm becoming more convinced that Galiardi was reprogrammed when he was in Jung captivity. His actions (assassination plot on Pres. Scott), command decisions escalating a manageable situation (unwarranted KKV strike) and political ambitions (rousing the populace with disinformation) all point to a "Manchurian Candidate". So I agree with Jay above.

7. Stealth Jump drive(s) - Now that the Seiiki has proven Abby's stealth jump drive technology its time to retrofit all Karazari assets from Cobra's to the smallest shuttle. May take some more engineering for the fleets larger ships but I'd get it installed on the Aurora ASAP. Also could use some new weapon tech that can bring down the Dusahn's shields a whole lot faster. The Aurora or 2 wolf-packs of Cobra's going head to head with Battleships is a recipe for disaster.

As always looking forward to the next book.