4.5 stars ( )

Zander Anatolius has been through more than one person could ever expect to go through and survive. He was part of an experimental super-soldier program that should have killed him--and eventually did. Thanks to a few twists of fate, however, he was revived and made it back to Felix and the crew of the Chaos. But now it's time for him to return home and see his family, people he hasn't seen for years, to try to explain everything that's happened in his life. But the Anatolius family aren't the only ones waiting on Alpha and Zander's troubles are far from over. Add to that Felix's doubts about whether Zander might just be better off staying on Alpha with his family without Felix to hold him back, and Zander's got more than the Allied Earth Forces and assassination attempts to worry about.

I've been hooked on this series since book one, and that connection is still going strong. I guess I would call this light space opera where it just so happens that our protagonist is in a relationship with another man. The science fiction is the core of the story, and I love that it's all presented without any pretense or feeling like this story is any different than the space operas you might see where our hero must rescue the damsel in distress or finds a woman at every space station along the way. This is simply life for Zed, Felix, and everyone else. And why shouldn't it be?

But more than that, I love the universe that Burke and Jensen have created. While I'm definitely one who's starting to think that Zed deserves a break eventually (not to mention poor Felix), I will keep coming back for more as long as they're willing to write it.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.] ( )