With Shattered Spear, the world of Midway draws to a close as Iceni and Drakon work their hardest to create a unified and cohesive power base to protect their system. Many of the loose strings (Morgan, the child, Iceni’s former assistant, etc.) are tied up and the book comes to an appropriate and interesting conclusion for the series.
Story: When an Enigma warship appears and then disappears near a Syndic colony, Drakon and Iceni fear the Enigma can use alternate routes to plan an attack than the known jump gates. In order to shore up an alliance to deal with the problem, they will have to work with a pirate -one with an axe to grind with Iceni. At the same time, they might have a clue as to a location where prisoners of war are being held and hidden by the Enigma. As they plan a daring rescue, can they really count on their allies to back them – or will they turn and betray Midway in order to gain control of that powerful system? Meanwhile, it’s becoming clear that someone very powerful wants Drakon dead – and if he doesn’t do something about it soon, he may not be so lucky after the next attempt.
There is, as always, some great action to be found in Shattered Spear. And Campbell does an excellent job of providing several twists – including the true sabateur trying to kill Drakon. The ending of the book isn’t clean – expect some deaths of major characters. But at the same time, I was glad that the melodrama of the previous books had been eschewed for clear action and the big picture again. We’re always rooting for Drakon and Iceni but at the same time all the personal assistants doing their own thing for the sake of their leader was telling the story of the ‘screwed up Syndics’ a bit too heavily.
I have greatly enjoyed every single Campbell book and I am sad this is ending. But I also look forward to the new series set in the beginning of the Alliance period. Note: I listened to the Audible version and the narrator did a good job with the book.
