SURROUNDED BY DEATH, THE SECRET OF IMMORTALITY IS WITHIN REACH.
A new novel of space exploration and alien contact from Chain of Command author Frank Chadwick.
Sam Bitka, a naval reserve officer, is recalled to wartime service and soon earns a reputation for aggressive tactics and insufficient deference to his academy-graduated superiors.
His latest run-in with authority earns him a transfer to command of an armed transport, USS Cam Ranh Bay.
When a mysterious alien probe materializes from Jump Space and remotely reprograms The Bay's star drive, Sam and his crew begin an involuntary voyage that takes them three thousand light years out of known space, across the galactic rift to the Sagittarius Spiral Arm, and into the heart of an ancient, previously unknown civilization--the first encountered by Humans and the other five races of the Cottohazz--Stellar Commonwealth--in over a century.
The genetically altered immortals known as The Guardians, a race so old they do not remember their own origins, soon turn murderously violent.
Now Sam and his crew must elude capture by the Guardians, find some means of reprogramming their own star drive, and then return to the Cottohazz with the news of a powerful new civilization bent on their destruction.
But they may also be carrying the secrets of the origin of their own star drive and of the path to immortality.
Praise for Chain of Command Chadwick's heavy hitter succeeds at teeth-gritting action scenes, deep psychological portraits of diverse characters and societies, and abundant puzzles and mysteries.
mixed in seamlessly with the vivid tragedies of war and balanced with dark humor.
--Publishers Weekly, starred review .
strong characterization and the briskness of the plot should please.
Fans of military sf and of Chadwick, in particular, should give it a look.
--Booklist Chain of Command is very smartly put together .
Chadwick gets the details right, whether he's talking about the effects of prolonged wei.
