Summary
Excerpt
Review
Renolds Osirus spent most of his life as an accountant. To his shock, his life-long dream of becoming a spaceship captain is suddenly granted, and before he can even celebrate, Earth is decimated by a race of mysterious and terrifying aliens. His new ship, the Vigilant, is transported to hostile territory.
Vigilant's first officer, Marcus Collingway, is a terrorist leader and a mass murderer. Long believed dead, he suffers the crew's wrath when he's blamed for the attack on Earth. As Renolds investigates, he exposes a complex web of secrets and lies.
Now trapped on a crippled ship, can the captain and first officer work together to save the Vigilant from alien Soulites?
The newly refurbished Vigilant is leaving for a trip around Jupiter with its new crew of miscreants and troublemakers—including a first time captain, Osiris Reynolds, who’s never commanded anything before, a genocidal resistance fighter-turned second-in-command, Marcus Collingway, and an unranked man with a Symbiot implant named Carl Davids, not to mention a band of telepaths, only one of whom is helpful, a low-level telepath named Elizabeth Dawson, and a crazy Security Chief, Telsia Silva, who shot a man her while loading the crew just because he annoyed her. At least their first mission is easy enough— just a lap around Jupiter to show off the newly refurbished Vigilant, an icon of NAVA space exploration. Or at least it was going to be that easy before they came under attack. As they watch the Earth bombarded, the Vigilant and her crew find themselves being dragged beyond the boundaries of their own Universe, and still under attack. Will this crew of reprobates be able to find their way home? And what other kinds of dangers will they find along the way?
I really liked War of the Soulites. It’s kind of a Resident Evil fused with The Matrix and Super Troopers—a gory, battle-loaded, mental overload in a way that I loved. The characters are complex and intriguing, with complex interactions that progress in a way more real-to-life than most stories adhere to (I half-expected Mark and Elizabeth to have a steamy scene or at least a sloppy kiss, but the story leaves that possibility open without jumping right into it in the whole two weeks or so in which the story takes place). The story is simple but complex-enough to fulfill everything you’d need from a less-than-two-hundred page story. I love the idea of the Soulites! They’re just so unexpected but so elegant at the same time. Ms. Bennett, please tell me there’s a sequel!
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