Pandora Paradox (Omega Force #12) ★★✬☆☆

September 29, 2021August 28, 2021 ~ Bookstooge ~ 16 Comments

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Pandora Paradox
Series: Omega Force #12
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 247
Words: 82K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

It started with a revolution nobody had even realized occurred…

Its cruelty sparked a rebellion that everyone refused to admit existed…

Now, the Machine—a terrifying and relentless enemy—reigns supreme in the galaxy, and the real fight is just beginning.

Omega Force keenly feels the weight of responsibility for the Machine’s arrival in the quadrant, but even with the resources of the Blazing Sun organized crime syndicate backing them, there’s only so much the small mercenary crew can do against the malevolent AI that has already usurped control of most of the government.

With the Machine now firmly in control of the ConFed’s military, they are out of time and out of options. Captain Jason Burke knows that along with the Machine, something else came back from the outer regions… something he’s kept a secret from everybody, even his own crew. He knows that he likely has the power to stop the Machine in its tracks, but it means unleashing an equally uncontrollable force. As he struggles to know what the right thing to do is, he can’t help but fear that the cure could very well be worse than the disease.

My Thoughts:

I haven’t got much to say. This book was mediocre and has made me realize that Dalzelle and I need to part ways. Not because of any big issues but simply because I don’t feel his skills as a writer are good enough to keep on giving him chance after chance. I started reading him back in ’15 with Warship, the start of his Black Fleet trilogy. It was pretty good and I enjoyed the whole thing. Sadly, the sequels ended up relying on the main character from the first trilogy because they were lifeless.

What does that have to do with his Omega Force series? Well, I started that in ’16 with Omega Rising and here we are 12 books and almost 6 years later and his skill level still appears to be the same to me. I don’t mind if an author starts off rough. Go read Elantris or Mistborn by Sanderson or Monster Hunter International by Correia to see how some authors started out. Starting out as an author is rough work and with reviewers like me it’s even harder. But I expect improvement as an author continues their craft. If they have peaked at their first book or three and then plateau, that is not good enough for me. If you read 10-12 books a year then Dalzelle might just fit your needs. Just like any old pair of black cargo pants are going to work for me when I go to work. I don’t expect them to make me look like a buff sex god, I just want them to protect my legs from briars and thorns and to hold my phone and stuff. But I expect something VERY different if I put on my suit. I have reached the stage in my life when good enough is only good enough for a few books, not long term.

Therefore this is the last Dalzelle book I’ll be reading. I hope I can remember this when he puts out another book or series and I’m tempted to “give him another chance”. No more chances, this stuff is just not good enough anymore.

All My “Omega Force” Reviews

Rebellion (Omega Force #11) ★★★☆☆

August 4, 2021August 4, 2021 ~ Bookstooge ~ 28 Comments

Title: Rebellion
Series: Omega Force #11
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 232
Words: 80K

Synopsis:

Lucky is starting to integrate into his new body but not consistently enough for Burke and the Crew to trust him with important roles on high stakes missions. However, that is taken out of their hands when the ConFed reveals its plans to wipe out the remaining fleet of the Empire it conquored in the previous book.

It’s up to Omega Force to put a stop to things and to start a galaxy wide rebellion before the Machine becomes powerful enough to rule unchallenged.

My Thoughts:

This is definitely a junkfood series. It’s light, fluffy, doesn’t fill you up, tastes good and when you’re done you wonder what you ate. And if you eat too much, you get sick. This Omega Force series is a big bag of Cheetos Puffs and 2-3 books is just the right serving. I have a feeling that 2 books is really the recommended Dr Bookstooge serving, but I’ll be finding that out next month when I read the 3^rd (new to me) book.

But on to this book. My only “real” gripe is Dalzelle’s continual pushing of his other current series, The Terran Scout Fleet. It’s in this same universe and I “think” the main character is Burke’s son (not sure though) and I even understand why Dalzelle is trying to do it, but it just grates on me. Kind of like that guy who coughs “just that way” that annoys you for no apparent reason.

Honestly, describing this series as Cheetos is the best description and I feel no need to elaborate more. But for your edification and continual seeking after Knowledge, I’ll include a valuable link only available to everyone who is reading this (so feel very special)

10 Things You Didn’t Know About ~~Omege Force~~ Cheetos!

All My “Omega Force” Reviews

Legends Never Die (Omega Force #10) ★★★☆☆

July 7, 2021February 28, 2023 ~ Bookstooge ~ 16 Comments

Title: Legends Never Die
Series: Omega Force #10
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 209
Words: 69.5K

Synopsis:

Jason Burke and Crusher, the head and muscle of Omega Force, go on a wild binge of violence to mourn the passing of their robot friend Lucky from the previous book. This leaves the rest of the crew on their own. Thankfully, they begin operating Omega Force and find some leads about restoring Lucky to a new body. Burke and Crusher are brought on to help steal a new body for Lucky, where they encounter another group stealing some synthoid bodies.

At the same time, The Machine has taken control of the ConFed and taken over another supposedly autonomous empire. This is leaving the galaxy in a whirl with nobody really knowing what is happening.

Lucky gets reactivated in his new body but it’s not working out real well so Burke reaches out to a crimelord. The same crimelord helps Burke against the ConFed and they all realize it is the AI from the Superweapon that has taken over the ConFed.

They begin to plot rebellion.

My Thoughts:

It’s been about 3 years since I last read an Omega Force book (Revolution) and I really needed that break. With that being said, Dalzelle has written 3 more Omega Force books and I’ll be reading them and catching up on the series.

Not having Lucky around to be their Deus ex Machina was a good thing for the plot and for the crew. In fact, once he does get a body, he’s as much a liability as an asset and it gives everybody a chance to reavaluate just where they all stand. Dalzelle is not real strong on writing complex characters so you take what you can get for character growth.

Burke, the head of Omega Force, is as brash, arrogant and loudmouthed as ever. I remember being sick of him by the end of book 9 and this book exemplifies why. Small doses of just a couple of books and I’m ok with it (say, 3 books?) but any more and I’d be quitting again.

A non-challenging, non-deep action pseudo-military story is what you get here. While not wanting to subsist on a diet of that, I do like it occasionally as it adds a bit of something to contrast everything else to.

All My “Omega Force” Reviews

Revolution (Omega Force #9) ★★★☆☆

February 13, 2018 ~ Bookstooge ~ 2 Comments

revolution (Custom) This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Revolution
Series: Omega Force #9
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 334
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Lucky takes on a mission that will lead him to find out where his lot-mates are, if they still exist. During that process, Omega Force becomes embroiled in a plot to take down the ConFed by a sentient AI. During the action to take down the AI, Lucky is killed and Omega Force must go on.

The book ends with Lucky’s lot-mates, the 36 surviving 700 series battlesynths, taking refuge on Terranovus, humanity’s secret second planet. It also turns out that everything was orchestrated by some shadowy, mysterious figure who has a grudge against Jason Burke and the rest of Omega Force. And to top everything off, Lucky “might” not be dead after all.

My Thoughts:

Another decent Omega Force novel. Everyone new we met in the previou book gets shunted aside and everyone new we meet in this book I’m guessing will be shunted aside in the next book. I have learned to simply accept that this is how Dalzelle operates.

Just based on the action, I was going to give this a half star bump, up to a coveted 3.5 (the crowd goes wild!) but the ending with the faux-mysterious antagonist taunting Burke and Lucky’s not-demise, well, they kind of annoyed me. So OF keeps pace at 3 stars. Honestly, that’s pretty good for an indie that churns out 1-3 books a year. Dalzelle has a good editor and it really shows because I’m never drawn out of the story by either bad grammar/punctuation/etc or really awkward “what does he mean” sentence structure.

No romantic entanglements in this book. Thank goodness. The focus is on the friendship between Lucky and the rest of Omega Force and I thought it was carried off pretty good. I found it interesting that Lucky was never meant to be a battlesynth nor how ANY of 700 series were meant to be. I am kind of hoping that we’ll see more of the 700’s in later books, but given Dalzelle’s track record, I suspect they’ll get used in 2 more books then never heard from again. He just can’t flesh out side characters enough to make them last for multiple books.

I was satisfied with this read and plan on continuing the Omega Force series as it gets released. I have caught up to what Dalzelle has written, so no more backlog to go through.

★★★☆☆

Previous Omega Force Reviews

The Human Factor (Omega Force #8) ★★★☆☆

December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 2 Comments

humanfactor (Custom) This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Human Factor
Series: Omega Force #8
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 250
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Jason and Omega Force are back and on track. Only to get pushed off a cliff when they find out that human bounty hunters are looking for Jason.

Humanity has allied itself with a little known species and has been given the slipdrive and a new planet. All the aliens want in return is the old drive from the ship that Burke destroyed in Savage Homecoming. This is all being done in secret with only a select few knowing about the wheeling and dealing. One of those select few cuts her own deal with the aliens, takes over the colony planet and strongarms Earth into making her its ruler.

Now it is up to Jason, with no help, to save Earth again. Of course, one of the girls saves his bacon. But is it the former military captain who is now an Admiral, or the Pretty Pretty Princess? The mystery, the enchantment, the romance of it all!

By the end of the book Earth and everyone on it now knows they are a 1bit player on a very large stage.

My Thoughts:

The Galactic Princess girl from the previous book is pretty much dismissed. Kellea saves Earth but only because Lucky writes her a note telling her that Jason still loves her. Come on, a fracking battle robot has better relationship skills than these 2 humanoids? I don’t like relational drama in my books. Jason is still acting like an 18 year old boy instead of the man he is. For all that the Princess was the focus of the previous book, I also didn’t like how she was just shelved when it wasn’t convenient for her to be around. It felt VERY heavy handed by the author especially after how she was so played up before.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the rest of the book. Probably one of the best Omega Force books so far. There is so much potential here and it’s really only limited by the author’s imagination. I hope he’s up to the task of thinking of new, cool storylines and doesn’t fumble and turn this into one of those “it’s obvious the author has no idea what to write so he just threw some stuff onto the wall to see what sticks” kind of things.

Writing relationships is definitely not Dalzelle’s strongpoint and I hope that he either does a lot of practice and gets better or just leaves it alone in future books. If he can avoid making “relationships” a prop in his stories, he’ll probably be ok.

★★★☆☆

Redemption (Omega Force #7) ★★★☆☆

October 12, 2017December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 2 Comments

redemption (Custom)

^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Tumblr by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Redemption
Series: Omega Force #7
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 304
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Taking place 3 years after the previous book, Omega Force has fallen apart due to Cristoff abandoning one of the Omega Force members when they can’t fulfill one of his missions. Jason tries to keep the team together but when he can’t, he gives up, moves to a beach front world, becomes a delivery boy with Lucky the robot and pretty much lets himself go. He also completely burns his bridges with Kallea when rescuing Crusher.

When the princess for another galaxy spanning Empire, rivaling that of the ConFed, is kidnapped, it appears that war is going to happen and billions could die. The princess’s handmaid escapes, on Jason’s old delivery ship, he’s involved whether he wants to be or not. The only way to rescue the princess and prevent interstellar war is to get the gang back together. But when one Super Power wants you dead and a clique within the other is plotting to take over, things might be harder than expected.

But Omega Force always gets the job done. And with this job, they have the thanks of the King of an Empire, with “mysterious” problems along its other borders. And a princess that has the hots for Cap’n Jason. * wolf whistle *

Almost like Dalzelle is setting up future story installments.

My Thoughts:

This starts off with a barely functioning Jason, drunk as a skunk getting helped along by Lucky. It was rather disconcerting, as we don’t get WHY Omega Force fell apart until some time later.

In many ways, this felt like Dalzelle ran out of ideas for within the ConFed and so kind of rebooted the whole Omega Force thingamajig. I didn’t feel that it was handled real well, especially with how things with Kallea went down. Relationships, even fake ones in books, shouldn’t get treated like a drama prop.

Other than that, this was exactly the same in tone as all the previous Omega Force books. If I was in a cranky mood like I was when I read Dark Matter I’d probably rip into this more. But I don’t expect much from these, so I don’t have to give much in a review. These are like Forgotten Realms for Science Fiction.

★★★☆☆

Secret of the Phoenix (Omega Force #6) ★★★☆ ½

August 1, 2017December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 7 Comments

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^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Secret of the Phoenix
Series: Omega Force #6
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 295
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Jason Burke and the crew of the Serenity, dang it, the Phoenix, are hired by an archeologist to transport her to her former dig site and provide protection. She seems very familiar with the team and ship, provides very little concrete information about herself and at every stop Jason and Crew stumble onto other beings trying to kill them.

Turns out the archeologist’s father Indiana [ha, just kidding] was the former captain of the Phoenix and he knew it’s secret: that it was carrying 1 of the keys for a gigantic star destroying weapon. Now Omega Force has all 3 keys. They decide to go to the Death St…..errr, Super Weapon and destroy it.

The problem with that plan is two-fold. One, the ConFed want the key and the weapon and are chasing after Omega Force with a whole bloody fleet. The second problem is that the Super Weapon is actually a sentient AI and it doesn’t WANT to be destroyed.

But the A-Team, no, no, no, OMEGA FORCE is nothing if not resourceful and it’ll take more than Skynet…errr, the Sentient AI and a war fleet to prevent them from carrying out their mission.

As you can tell, I got this mixed up with a LOT of other stories.

My Thoughts:

For all of my snide asides above, I still enjoyed this quite a bit. Probably the most of the series so far in fact.

I did have a big issue though, so lets get that out of the way. If you have a key that is split into 3 parts and only those 3 parts can give access to a Super Weapon, WHY THE PHRACK DO YOU BRING ALL THREE KEYS TOGETHER? I would think that destroying the key/s you have would do the job of keeping the Super Weapon out of everyone’s hands? Why risk someone recovering the most valuable resource in the quadrant/sector/galaxy/universe/whatever or stealing it from you? It just made zero sense to me.

Now, it did make for a great story. So I give Dalzelle that. This was thoroughly fun with plenty of space fighting as well as individuals on the ground. I prefer a good ground pounder battle myself to space ships zipping around going “pew, pew, pew”, so the Galvetic Marine battles were nice.

This was definitely the ending of one chapter for Omega Force. With Book 9, Revolution, having come out recently, I know that there will be at least a second chapter to this series. While not original or mind blowing, it is good escapist fun in space.

On an unrelated note, I know that Crusher and the other Galvetic warriors don’t look like this, but this is what I always picture them as:

★★★☆ ½

Return of the Archon (Omega Force #5) ★★★☆☆

June 11, 2017December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 3 Comments

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^{This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission}
Title: Return of the Archon
Series: Omega Force #5
Author: Joshua Dalzelle
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 325
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Crusher, the biggest, (almost) baddest member of Omega Force has a secret. And it catches up to him in this book.

He is the Archon. The military leader of his system, who was exiled to keep the peace between the warriors and the politicians. As usual, politicians have botched things up even more and a small select group has been tasked with bringing Crusher back so he can restore the balance. Crusher must rescue his mentor, figure out a way to stop this mess from getting any bigger and make the choice of whether he will be staying with Omega Force or not.

And there is a someone working behind the scenes with their own agenda.

My Thoughts:

My initial thought was that the Archon was some super villain from one of the characters’ past. Return of the Archon just SOUNDS ominous. So imagine my surprise when it turns out Crusher is the Archon and the Archon is supposed to be one of the good guys keeping peace between various warrior factions and the politicians in his star system.

This was a cracking good adventure story filled with prison breaks, ship to ship battles and a whole warrior culture just about ready to boil over. We also get to see the aftermath of Lucky [the battle synth robot] sparring, friendly like, with some of the warriors. I hope that in future volumes Dalzelle has the skill to actually write a good one on one battle scene between 2 high powered beings. It would definitely increase my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

I was thinking of bumping this up to 3.5stars because I enjoyed it more than the Brother Cadfael book I had just finished, but when comparing it to the other Omega Force books, it was right in line with them, so my rating stayed at 3. Which isn’t a bad thing. Bookstooge’s Ratings Explained

The writing was the best so far. The verbal fighting between members of the OF, which I found off putting in a previous book, was still here but conveyed in such a way that it didn’t come across as two people hating each other and being forced to get along. It came across as 2 team member with widely varying personalities being in the same small space. That in itself is reason enough for me to keep on reading this series. I feel like this book was better crafted than the previous ones but it is hard to tell objectively. I do know that with this book I would recommend the OF series to someone, whereas before I would have danced around the issue.

★★★☆☆

The Enemy Within (Omega Force #4) ★★★☆☆

April 6, 2017December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 11 Comments

Title:       The Enemy Within
Series:     Omega Force #4
Author:   Joshua Dalzelle
Rating:    3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:      279
Format:   Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Omega Force has parted ways from their secret covert ops with a small star system government. When violence breaks out across several systems and the Confederacy begins taking over the systems in the name of stability, and Omega Force’s liasion is accused of fomenting said rebellions, Captain Burke springs into action.

Rescuing a beautiful starship captain, infiltrating a secret ConFed military prison, hijacking a broken starship destroyer, Jason and Crew are kept rather busy. Of course, when your enemy turns out to be the son of your former patron, things get sticky. Throw in rogue politicians who want an Empire and you have action out the wazoo.

But no worries! Jason Burke, Captain Extaordinaire, is in charge. He gets things done.

My Thoughts:

Not a bad Military Science Fiction story. The writing is as rough as ever, but not quite as blocky in the writing as previous books. I don’t know how to describe it any better than that.

The romance here, between Burke and the starship captain, isn’t well done. It is there, but it feels as artificial as the writing describing it. I’d probably complain (maybe) if there was NO romance, but honestly, I’d rather do without this in this kind of story. It just shows that Dalzelle has a lot of growing as an author to do before he can write a character based story. Hopefully he’ll do that growing.

★★★☆☆

Savage Homecoming (Omega Force #3)

January 18, 2017December 20, 2017 ~ Bookstooge ~ 7 Comments

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Title: Savage Homecoming

Series: Omega Force #3

Author: Joshua Dalzelle

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars

Genre: SFF

Pages: 261

Format: Kindle Digital Edition

Synopsis:

The synth that initially found Jason on Earth, who was all set to betray, backstab and sellout Jason, is back. With a vengeance. The synth knows where Earth is, knows who to mess with to manipulate Jason and its got some new allies. Big hitters that can wipe out the tech of a whole planet.

So Jason has to save Earth, save the girl, save his new connection with the alien government who is funding Omega Force and come to terms that he can never go back to Earth again. That is a lot to put on one man’s shoulders.

My Thoughts:

The odd thing with these Omega Force books is that I tend to enjoy them overall but not in bits. In other words, I liked Savage Homecoming taken in its entirety and the idea, but if you were to ask me when I was reading Chapter Q if I liked it, I’d probably be “meh”.

Earth is menaced and even while Jason single handedly saves them, he’s now a wanted man because he gets blamed for bringing the aliens to Earth in the first place. That sounds just like the humanity I know and hate, doesn’t it?

The woman “mysteriously” referred to in previous books shows up and my goodness, I did not like her. It is now wonder she and Jason are ex’s. She does what she wants without thinking of the consequences or about what she is trying to accomplish and Jason just goes along with it. Thankfully, she gets relocated back to earth and we won’t, hopefully, have to deal with her in future books. This sets things up for Jason to hook up with the alien Captain instead, at least she acts like a mature adult.

The various battles were pretty good but Omega Force had a lot of petty word fighting amongst it’s members. Not banter, but spiteful little girl style spats. It really seemed out of character and I’m not sure exactly what Dalzelle was trying to accomplish with it.