Depiction is everything in this series, the story has a little weakness and that is resemblance of the scenes in war. The scum was destroyed when Marco and Addy reached their planet and took the war to their empress. Now they are repeating the thing again by going to the source from where the gray aliens get their powers.
For this they have to spy behind the enemy lines for clues because the duel was not doing any good for them. Here the war and the aliens are different but Daniel Arenson moves on the same pattern that he adopted in Earth Lost and Earth Rising.
So for most of the regular listeners of the series the book is like repeating the renewed addition of the third book. Hidden surprises develop our interest on most of the spots where we move closer to the source and get the thrilled feeling. Addition of a new character might have been perfect at this point; mostly the story revolves around the same three who are awesome no doubt but gives us a sense of repetition.
There is a silver lining for the fans too, the story shifts gear finally and moving faster than ever before. Jeffrey Kafer puts pace in his dialogue delivery too to make the listener feel that the story is finally moving forward after some breaks and delay.
Many still think that the end would resemble the war that took place with the scum but it seems that the author wants us to think in that pattern before he gives the final twist to the tale and change everything altogether.
