Sunday, September 07, 2025
Book Review - Interstellar: The Berkelium Effect
Book 3 of Douglas Talbott's The Berkelium Effect, in my opinion, was the best of the three-book series. Humans have gone farther into space than at any time in history. They have a big mystery to solve, and I can't wait to see how he fleshes out solving the mystery.
This series was Doug's first self-published book. He mentioned that he is currently going back and reediting it. He is a new author with an extensive Sci-Fi library of other authors.
This is the second book in Douglas Talbott's series. I thought the story was better in this book and less technical than the first book. I felt that some parts were explained later in the book, which closed out storylines that should have been resolved near the beginning of the book, as it left me wondering what happened to those characters. Also, he has one chapter that repeats itself only a couple of pages apart. I thought my Kindle had swiped left when I moved.
This book by Doug Talbott is a fascinating concept. A person creates an AI Digital assistant with whom they partner to develop a new type of power source, a perpetual motion power generator, and a reactionless space drive, enabling space flight. The story starts pretty techy, so some readers may get lost on what is being covered, but it settles down later in the book. There were some things indicated in the story that I had to research to validate if they could even exist as we know them now.
The final chapter of this 12-book Space Opera. The final Battle against the ultimate evil, The Darkening. Daniel has assembled his team, comprising his pack of Super soldiers. Also, he has new allies who have fought the Darkening in the past at significant cost, Earth's Artifact Guardians who have gone insane, and creatures of old mythology, to take the war to end the threat against the galaxy. The battle comes at a high cost. Not everyone is going to survive. 
This is book 11 of the 12-book Space Opera series Forsaken Mercenary. Daniel and his team of super soldiers, Aliens, and Regular humans continue the battle against the ultimate evil, the Darkening, who has plans to take over the universe with the help of other humans who are conspiring against their kind. The challenge now is that Daniel and his team must also contend with a rogue leader who has turned the very government they are trying to protect against them.