A review by trish204
Out of the Black by Evan Currie

4.0

So this is the end of at least this first story arch in the Odyssey universe. Fortunately I know that there will be more to come (first a stand-alone novel at the end of this month that is set in the same universe and at least has one appearance by Cpt. Weston - so let's hope that there will be more in the not-so-distant future).

Careful! Spoilers ahead!

I have to say that it was a real treat to see Cpt. Eric Weston showing that he deserved all the respect he got in the previous books by demonstrating just how good a tactician and even a Marine he is. Also, for the reader it was a somewhat nice change from the space battles. Nevertheless, I found myself missing them in more than the first half of the book since I really like how the author describes them. But the battles on the ground were gripping as well and the characters again were very likable (except for Shioban).

Like the others before it, this book also was action-filled and kept me on edge until the very end (and with that I even mean throughout the epilogue)! And hey, at least Earth lived to fight another day, even if badly scarred, right?!
Of course, I will probably never stop mourning the wonderful "Odyssey" since she was the first and I, personally, preferred many of her weapons over those of the "Odysseus". But I got used to the Archangels piloting the big ships now so maybe I'll get used to no-more-stealth / no-more-underdog as well?

The only part I didn't like too much and for which I deducted one star even, was the sheer incredible scale of some of the weapons (fifty mega-ton warheads, the "space-cannon" they fired from Earth to help Weston) as well as the fact that Weston could simply call old war friends and they would appear almost out of thin air to help him although they hadn't had contact in such a long time. It just felt slightly wrong somehow. And for some reason I would have preferred it if the Terrans had found a way to deal with the Drasin force themselves instead of 16 Priminae ships saving the day (by the way: what made them go against Central's order?). But I guess I should be mighty glad they did!

Anyway, I'm very curious now about the entity in the "Odysseus" (actually, about all the entities), as well as the connection between Terrans, Priminae, Drasin and the Empire and their historical background, respectively.