Lunara: Gwen and Eamonn: The Lunara Series, #2

By Wyatt Davenport

In the sequel of Lunara: Seth and Chloe, Mars is in turmoil. The Martian Supremacy Authority conquered Mars through treachery and deceit, and relegated the Alliance to the lunar colony of Lunara. The Alliance's victory on Lunara was short-lived as the threat of the MSA's influence has spread across the solar system.

The MSA and their leader have turned Mars into a battle zone where the need for Metalor has the two sides racing for control of the valuable substance.

Parker McCloud and Eamonn Dalton have been charged with conducting a pair of perilous missions that will lead the Alliance one step closer to victory. Parker wrestles with his sense of honor and must decide whether he can defy his wife, the leader of the Alliance, and bring a secret, and controversial, starship to the Alliance's side, while Eamonn Dalton seeks vengeance against the MSA for their role in killing his beloved Madelyn.

Within the MSA, Gwen Arwell is caught between her loyalty to her father, her commitment to the crew of the Protector, and her love for Seth Smith. When Seth's promise to rescue her is interrupted by his need to ensure the safety of his true love Chloe Jones, Gwen must decide what is most important to her.

For the crew of the Protector, tough choices must be made in order the fight the evil that seeks to tear them apart.

www.lunaraseries.com

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wyatt Davenport
• Release date: Oct 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465784896

Wyatt Davenport

Wyatt Davenport was born in 1977 in Kingston, Ontario, and grew up in London, Ontario, and Atlanta, Georgia. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife Colleen and their two Siberian Huskies. An avid fan of science fiction and fantasy, Wyatt is inspired by authors like Timothy Zahn, Michael Crichton, Robert Aspirin, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Book preview

Lunara

Gwen and Eamonn

Wyatt Davenport

Copyright © 2011 Wyatt Davenport

All rights reserved.

Other Titles by Wyatt Davenport:

Lunara: Seth and Chloe

www.lunaraseries.com

Part I

Chapter 1

Ahead, the scout ship of the Martian Supremacy Authority (MSA) lurked somewhere on the far side of the moon. The Earth’s shadow faded its hull. At this distance, the scout’s ion drive blended with the stars, speckled across the vast blackness of space. To the port side of the Protector, toward the aft, the radiant white gray of the planet Earth blazed off the hull. Dusk approached Lunara.

Eamonn Dalton, captain of the Protector, hero of the Alliance, sat in his chair, watching the tracking screen trace the trajectory of the MSA scout. The ship’s intent was clear. Only minutes before, it had skimmed the surface of the moon, readying itself to scan the fleet of the newly formed Alliance.

Purposefully, he sat back in his chair, awaiting the next move. He would remain patient. In time, the scout would appear.

In the pilot’s chair in front of him, an antsy Shannon Buckley piloted on the assigned course.

The scout ship remained casual, even with the Protector and its starwings bearing down on it. Eamonn called up the gravity well calculations from the Lunara orbit and confirmed his previous query. The scout couldn’t engage quickdrives before the Protector would intercept it. Eamonn’s patience was warranted.

Shannon rustled in her seat again. He glanced in her direction. In the two weeks since the battle of Lunara, they had been inseparable. Using the clout gained with his victory, he had assigned her to the Protector full time, and they also chose to spend off-hours together. He was falling for her.

And yet…

Guilt pulled at his heart. Madelyn had been his only love, but she died standing up to the chancellor. With her death still fresh on his mind, he wondered if he had rushed too quickly to form such a close relationship. He shook off the thought. He hadn’t seen Madelyn for five years. He wasn’t about to let another fascinating woman slip from his fingers.

Shouldn’t we engage a little faster? Parker McCloud said over the radio. He was piloting one of the starwings. The scout is edging closer toward the edge of the moon’s gravity well.

I don’t want him to slingshot around the moon and pick up speed. As long as he is holding course, we’ll catch him before he can engage his quickdrives. Hasn’t your wife taught you patience yet?

Sarah hasn’t been around long enough to rub off yet.

I hear ya, he said, and a chuckle crackled over the radio. No sudden movements.

Nonetheless, we should send a deaf bomb, Jan Falloom radioed from the other starwing. We’ll be coming into his radio range in thirty seconds.

Already setting the target. Eamonn fingered the weapons control keys on his arm panel. He targeted a path ahead. The control panel beeped; the bomb was ready. He disengaged the safety key and pressed the discharge button.

With a flare, giving a slight lurch to the Protector, the bomb sped out.

After a heart-stopping minute, it detonated. A green ball of light leapt out from the epicenter of the explosion. The scout ship shook gently and regained its level moments later. By the time the shock wave contacted with the Protector, only a low-pitched hum reverberated across the hull. The sound disappeared before Eamonn could focus on it.

Immediately after the green light passed over, the radar screen flared with echoes. The bomb had done its job, effectively hiding the Protector in plain sight. Out of the hundreds of radio blips on the screen, only three were real: the Protector and the starwings. The scout’s cloak still eluded their understanding.

The scout swayed away from the moon and then back, trying to locate its predator after suddenly going blind. Shannon matched pace for pace, keeping the Protector in the scout’s blind spot.

But the secondary reaction caught Shannon off guard. The scout ship twisted then dove toward the surface.

Eamonn pursed his lips, wondering why the ship cut a lot steeper and was off-angled for an attempt to slingshot the lunar gravity. Something was wrong.

Engage, he said over the squadron’s channel. Parker, don’t let that ship cut back along the surface. Keep it in front of us.

The starwing thrust ahead of the Protector. I’ll hold it, Parker replied. Adjusting speed to match.

Jan, get ahead of him, Eamonn ordered. I want to force him toward the surface. We can pick him up when he lands.

Affirmative. Jan sent her starwing angling down.

The scout continued on its deep descent.

Eamonn wondered what the scout was doing. The space in front was uneventful so there weren’t many places for it to go. The empty space away from the moon wasn’t an option. The Protector and the starwings could catch him in a matter of seconds. And aside from Lunara, the landscape of the moon itself was a monotonous expanse of craters.

They had the scout ship trapped. Finally, he muttered. This would be the first of nine scout ships they had been able to spot far enough in advance to catch. The others had escaped too easily, taking the secrets of the new Lunaran fleet.

Captain, we are out of the deaf bomb’s range, Jan radioed. Radar is back.

The scout veered toward the largest of the craters and one of the deepest, if Eamonn remembered his lunar geography correctly.

That word deepest lingered in his brain.

Wham! A jolt rocked the Protector. Eamonn’s teeth chattered, the shaking was so violent.

Suddenly, without a yelp of warning, the lurch of the ship shoved him back, pressing his organs against his ribs. He gripped the arms of his chair hard to ease the gravity pulling on him. The blood rushed from his head, causing white spots in his eyes. He groaned through gritted teeth, easing the pain and clearing his eyes long enough for him to see why the Protector dove.

Six MSA fighters streaked out of the crater, all firing toward them. The scout weaved neatly between the fighters and away from the Protector.

The Protector leveled off, and Eamonn’s head cleared. A jumble before, the myriad of alerts became recognizable. He punched on the control panel to pacify the high-pitched chirps of the engine cooling system, the drawn-out pulsing barks of the terrestrial body proximity feelers, and finally the frantic beeps of the hull stress-tolerance sensor. The only warning left was the radar system buzzing to let him know about the missiles heading toward them. Luckily, the MSA hadn’t hidden their missiles from radar or they would be a heap of space debris. Shannon’s initial maneuver had fooled the homing sensors into shooting the missiles past their position, but they already had a preliminary lock on the Protector, so the group was coming back.

Eamonn reached over to his weapons control panel, flipped through the selection of functions, and found what he had asked Parker to install only days before—the guardian flares. He sent twenty shooting out the back of the ship.

For a long moment, the flares fizzled, and suddenly, they burst into an arrayed spectrum of visible and nonvisible light, so bright their reflection glittered off the surface of the dark side of the moon.

The dozen missiles diverted their course and slammed into the pulsing light like lemmings following an ill-begotten order.

The next instant, a fireball surrounded the Protector. The yellows, reds, and oranges swept over the viewscreen, bubbling in spherical flames, blinding the Protector to everything. The creaking and cracking of the expanding hull echoed throughout the bridge.

Again, Eamonn deactivated the structural-tolerance sensors and flipped on the hull’s cooling units. He let out a long grunt, hoping the ship would hold.

And as fast as the flame consumed them, the fireball dissipated into the nothingness. The frame groaned spastically as it rapidly cooled. Eamonn grimaced and peeked toward the diagnostic screen. The hull’s sensors were within acceptable limits. His concern waned, and he refocused on the enemy.

He wiped the sweat from his brow with the cuff of his jacket. Jinx, it’s hot in here.

His stomach dropped again. The Protector lurched sideways, corkscrewed, and turned backward all in the same movement. He gripped the arms of his chair like vices, attempting to clear his spotting eyes and trying to decipher what was wrong.

The Protector arched long enough to sharpen his senses and discern the beeps from the radar. A single pulse indicated one missile remained on their tail. Unfortunately, as he read the display screen, the missile closed in too close for guardian flares to obliterate it, and the Protector’s turret guns couldn’t catch the darting speed of the football-sized missile. He could do nothing but wait and rely on the talented, or maybe reckless, piloting of Shannon Buckley.

The beeping stopped. He blinked, looking at the radar blip.

Or I could rely on my old pilot for a little help.

The missile is gone! Jan shouted over the radio. Location plus ninety degrees, plus six degrees on the Z—a group of four MSA fighters trying to surprise you. Cut along my course; I will create a lane for us.

I see them now, Shannon said, jerking the control stick to the port side, angling the Protector away from the oncoming fighters. After a short thrust with the rear engines, she slammed the reverse thrusters to full, stopped the ship’s forward momentum, swiveled around behind Jan’s starwing, and reactivated the engines.

Eamonn worried about a stall, but none came. The engines fired up as expected.

To their front, the MSA fighters came into view. Eamonn double-checked the display. Indeed, the three forward ships were ordinary fighters. Unseen in his original assessment, the rear ship was a bomber. If left unattended, it was capable of a lot of damage, and it explained the barrage of missiles they had just avoided. The squadron came in a diamond formation—a protective flank, covering the bomber’s weakness. Yet the bomber provided Eamonn’s greatest anxiety as it packed a single punch capable of knocking the Protector into a million pieces.

Focus on that bomber, he said. Where is Parker?

The Protector and the starwing sped toward the diamond of MSA attackers. Both squared off; the first wrong maneuver would be a fatal one.

Aurora section of Leto quadrant now, Parker said, his voice straining. I have two fighters trying to lock onto my tail. I can’t do anything.

Jinx, Eamonn said. On radar, Aurora section was fifty thousand kilometers from them, heading in the direction where no landmarks stood out in his mind. Can you angle back toward us? We are about to complete an attack run on the other four. I can’t leave to help you.

It is all I can do not to get killed. I can’t move anywhere but to open space. They cut me off from you guys.

Then Eamonn remembered, forgetting about the changes that had happened to the lunar skyways since the Battle of Lunara. Get into the debris field.

I’m not going into there, Parker said with a tension in his tone that thinned his syllables. That would be suicide. I wouldn’t survive two minutes.

You have better chances in there than in open space. The MSA fighters have you where they want you.

Affirmati—

The trilling of his tracking system garbled the last of Parker’s transmission.

Eamonn refocused his eyes out of the viewscreen. The MSA fighters were starting their attack run toward them. He resigned himself to the fact that Parker would have to save himself.

Parker reached over his head and deactivated every thruster warning the starwing had, silencing the ear-splitting shrieks that plagued his cockpit. Sonic bullets whizzed over, missed, and then streaked into the depths of space.

The MSA fighters closed in.

He didn’t need his rear viewscreen to know. With each evasive maneuver, he extended his life by seconds.

The debris field was five hundred kilometers away. He would be there in under a minute. He rolled his starwing toward the lunar surface, skimming only meters above. The pull of gravity shook against the bottom of his ship. He angled upward to keep it level.

Glancing at the rear viewscreen, he saw that the MSA fighters had dropped back a few kilometers, apparently unaware of the gravity tricks the lunar craters played on their ships. They weaved back and forth between the larger craters, avoiding them at all costs.

He swung his starwing upward, and the MSA fighters followed like dogs chasing a rabbit. They matched every move he made.

Jinx, he muttered as he yanked the control stick from left to right and then back again. He narrowly avoided a jagged wing of an MSA cruiser floating across his flight path.

He reached the debris field.

Ducking, darting, and twisting, Parker skirted the debris scattered in front of him. He also tried to keep an eye on the MSA fighters, who undoubtedly had followed him into the former battle zone, but with the odds against him, he couldn’t locate them.

He looped around, twisting his ship upward while trying to steady his vertical axis. However, the starwing didn’t carry enough speed to skirt through the closing gap as two floating debris fields came together. As the wing clipped the metal chunk, his starwing staggered. The repulse engines fired automatically to stabilize.

He glanced over toward his broken wing and sighed. The debris peeled the metal slightly into a jagged mess, but the damage was only superficial. None of his alerts buzzed nevertheless.

He angled his starwing down through the thinning section. The bigger chucks disappeared. Still no sign of the MSA fighters.

For several minutes, he glided. The skeleton of the Alliance’s Barracuda floated over this starwing. He remembered the moment during the Battle of Lunara, inside of the transport, when the Barracuda exploded. The low point at which he thought the Alliance was doomed. With his help and the help of his friends, they had persevered and ended up taking back Lunara and their freedom. Yet, right now, he was back in the war again.

He rocked the starwing back and forth to avoid the debris streaking in front of him. This is suicide, he thought. He had to locate the MSA fighters again. It was the only way for him to know with certainty that he was safe to leave.

Sweat pooled on his forehead.

He twisted around, trying to spot their silvery hulls. The verging dark side of the moon gave no indication. His surroundings faded too much against the blackness of space to give him a clear view.

In front of him, he saw the two MSA fighters bearing down on him. Startled by their quickness, he yanked his control stick to the side. If he had had extra time to complete the roll, he knew he would have avoided the incoming fire. Instead, the bullets perforated the wing and engine mount, causing a cascade of failures. Lights flashed everywhere on his panel.

The next instant, Parker felt his entire weight pressing against the bottom of his seat. The computer ejected him.

He rushed up and away from his starwing toward the Barracuda’s jagged remains. Without time to think, he reflexively put his hands in front of his face and braced for impact.

His life pod—the cockpit of the starwing—passed through the cracked hull of the Barracuda, tumbled down an unidentifiable corridor, and after a neck-jerking jolt, rested in the total blackness of the destroyed Barracuda.

His head swam. He reached out, stretching his hand toward the control panel and activating his location beacon. At least he hoped that was it.

He fell unconscious.

The diamond formation quickly dissipated and formed into an inverted V formation. Tactically, Eamonn recognized the maneuver, but he hadn’t appreciated the agility of the MSA fighters. The outside fighters swept ahead, pinning the starwing and the Protector from banking laterally away from the oncoming bomber and paired fighter.

They would have to punch their way out. The firing angles the MSA fighters established with their formation switch gave them no room to skirt through. He targeted his turret gun’s at the bomber and fired.

The streak of bullets whizzed toward the bomber.

Disoriented by the corkscrewing maneuver, the bomber wavered as the bullets slashed across its hull. It turned into its fellow fighter. Avoiding contact at all costs, the MSA fighter slid to the side.

An opening—Eamonn anticipated—developed. Jan led, zipping her starwing through the gap and away from the MSA’s trap. More sluggish than the starwing, the Protector blasted toward the gap but the MSA fighters flanking to the side closed fast.

A salvo of bullets connected, and a resonating ping echoed down the central corridor and into the bridge. Eamonn winced.

A hull breach alert squawked and shrilled. He undid the harnesses on his safety belt and lunged for the porthole release valve. He pulled it down and sealed the bridge from the rest of the ship.

The Protector shook.

Gripping the support handles, he moved toward the atmospheric controls.

He called up the atmospheric display screen and selected each section of the ship except the bridge. He cycled past the warning screens and released the oxygen from the rear compartments into space. This leveled the pressure between outer space and the rest of the ship but left them trapped. The alternative, however, was the Protector’s hull peeling back like a tin popcorn bag and ejecting everything, including Shannon and himself, into space. He favored his chances on the sealed bridge.

He stumbled to his chair. He swiveled around. Status.

They bugged out. All of them. The scout jumped not five seconds ago.

Jinx! he shouted. Another getting away. I’m starting to hate this trend.

How were we supposed to know he had company?

We should have known. The Alliance can’t afford anything less than the total control of the moon. We can’t allow them to compromise our territory. It’s all we have now, Eamonn said, the muscles tightening along his jaw line, clearly agitated. Jan?

Here, Jan said. "The Protector has a sizable gash along the aft of the ship."

We know. I depressurized everything but the bridge.

Are you picking up Parker?

No. Annoyed, he hadn’t finished checking his display. He wasn’t angry with Jan, but his animosity toward the MSA lingered in his mind. They continually were one step ahead of the Alliance.

Suddenly, his scan for Parker completed with a faint blip and signal in the debris field. Shannon, set a course for Parker’s starwing. The MSA have won this day.

Chapter 2

Lunara has new security regulations, Ty said, scratching the back of his head. We’ll send out two Asterfighters to escort you back into the colony.

I understand, Seth replied, trying to act as if Ty’s request didn’t hurt him. A lump formed in his throat. Ty had been a father to him for most of his life, and the fact that Ty thought it was necessary to send out an escort was disheartening to him.

Chloe put her arm around his shoulder.

Minister Cortez ordered all ships to be escorted into Lunara…as I said, new procedures. All your friends will be welcoming you when you arrive.

Minister Cortez? He died at the Mars Two-Hundred-Year Gala.

Minister Sarah Cortez is the new minister of the Alliance.

Sarah! Chloe exclaimed. So she did escape. Her location at the gala was in question. We’ll give you a full report when we land.

Okay.

One more thing, Ty. I’ve been dying to tell Jan and you the good news.

Good news. I haven’t had much in the past month.

Seth and I are engaged, and we committed our love.

That is wonderful. I expected it long ago.

Don’t tell Jan, Chloe said. I want to surprise her.

I wouldn’t dare tell her about this. You know how she gets when it comes to committing before marriage.

She’ll get over it. We are in love.

Yes. She’ll be happy after you get your lecture, Ty said with a smirk. I’ll see you when you arrive. Lunara Command out.

The screen darkened and Ty’s face disappeared.

Why did you have to tell him? Seth said. You know how Jan gets.

I don’t care how Jan gets, she said, cutting off his words. I’m telling everyone about us. This is the best moment of my life.

I can’t disagree. A tiny grimace pulled the lines of his face as the moon emerged. I’m worried about how we’ll be received. Ty said our friends would welcome us. But Roche isn’t here anymore, and Gwen is with her father. How can anyone trust us? We are from Zephyria originally, we are good friends with the chancellor’s daughter, and we are arriving in a Zephyrian ship. This is not the return I envisioned.

I’m more worried they’ll unjustly hate Gwen. She didn’t do any of it. They’ll condemn her before she even has a chance to vindicate herself. Chloe crossed her arms. Why did this become so complicated?

Two Aethpisian Asterfighters escorted the Zephyrian transport ship as it swung around to the near side of the moon. Seth guided it into the confined set of coordinates given to them by Lunara’s navigation control center.

In contrast to his initial thoughts, he realized that the reason they weren’t escorted was not because of a lack of trust but because the debris and muddled traffic around the colony made traveling difficult. His eyes darted along his course, spying out clusters aimed at harming the ship. Gwen wasn’t lying when she said a huge battle took place over Lunara. I hope the colony isn’t as mangled as the remains of the battlefield.

Why would Gwen lie?

It was a figure of speech, he said. Don’t practice your defense of her on me. I’m on your side.

Chloe grimaced and her face turned pale.

What is it? Seth said.

My headaches have grown stronger. I can block the pain for the most part, but I have to concentrate on it.

You should see a doctor.

I will on Lunara, she said.

Did Bauer do something to you?

No, she replied. It was starting before him. I hoped that he would help it with his experiments.

A sort of a benefit to the torture?

Something like that. He and Dakota never mentioned anything, so I think they missed it. But the headaches are so strong now. Lunaran doctors will find something.

What can I do to help?

Nothing! she said sharply. I meant—look! She pointed toward Lunara. The new hanger is completely gone, and the old tower is missing.

The other hangars survived. The north section is Swiss cheese, but most of the holes are patched. During the battle…it must have been hit with a massive amount of firepower. The blast pattern sweeps across like the wind hitting the rock formations on Mars.

Chloe nodded in confirmation. Scanning the station, her stomach tightened. She crossed her arms and hugged herself. I’m frightened. How will they ever forgive us? She lowered her head and began to cry. The destruction… she mumbled over the lump in her throat. …I don’t want to face them. They’ll be so angry.

He shrugged. It was not our fault.

But we’re the ones who told Mars that Aethpis was the enemy—

He cut her words off. Lunara Control, this is the Zephyria transport…I never caught the name. Where do you want us to land?

The radio crackled, and a familiar voice spoke: "Seth, this is Atalo. We were worried about you. Your transport’s name is registered as Hope’s Revenge. I reserved a spot for you beside the Protector."

Grove! Glad you are here. We’ll need the hangar doors opened for landing. And thanks.

No problem, my friend. Tell Chloe I missed her, too.

I will.

Thanks. Lunara out.

He turned to Chloe. I told you everyone would be happy to see us. Everyone forgives us.

Don’t pretend with me. You’re as worried as I am, but it was nice to hear Atalo in such good spirits. Although he is normally in a good mood.

He smirked and moved the ship into a position at the entryway to the hangar.

The transport shuttle floated five meters off the deck, moving slowly toward the pad as Seth searched out the center, which was marked off with thick yellow lights encircled by red lights. The Protector rested twenty meters to their port side; scaffolding and restraining harnesses held it in place.

From Chloe’s angle, she saw the extensive superficial damage along the side and the empty hole where his starwing once docked. The maintenance crew scuttled about repairing it.

The transport touched down gently, with only a slight grinding of the landing struts. The stark lights lit the hangar dimly. The red warning lights morphed shadows against the walls. The main overheads were disabled.

Chloe twisted her head when the rumbling of the door closed behind them. It shut with a booming halt. She relaxed her muscles as the transport stopped shaking. She had been in this hangar thousands of times, but it had never been so alien to her and would never be the same as it had before. They unstrapped their flight harnesses and made their way to the back of the ship.

At least we don’t have to unpack, she said dryly.

Seth said nothing in reply. He stared unwaveringly out the portal toward the access door to the hangar bay. He tried to hide his growing guilt and shame from her searching mind. But he couldn’t. Not with the amount of raw emotion eating at his heart.

Don’t worry too much.

If you say so, he said with a limp smirk.

The hatchway hissed and the shutter door opened as the ramp extended to the ground. He allowed her to step down first.

She was home. And then she noticed the guards to his left—home, yet not welcome.

Chapter 3

Gwen Arwell roused herself from her sleep. She pulled off the bedsheet as the chill of the room brushed her bare body. Grabbing her robe from the nightstand, she wrapped it tightly around herself and cinched it at her waist.

In the bathroom, she splashed warm water on her face. The past week’s events were drawn as long lines and sags along her cheeks. Once again, her father had put her in solitude for hours, and she didn’t expect Samantha would ever talk to her again. She did what she did for Seth. How had she fallen in love with him and forsaken her family? They had been friends for three years, and she respected Seth and Chloe’s relationship, but her feelings had changed on her return to Mars. Why? She slammed her fist against the sink.

Gwen, jinx yourself, she muttered. This all went wrong for you when you took the blame for Samantha. Two years ago, if she hadn’t pleaded guilty, she could have kept a closer eye on her father. He wouldn’t have been able to form the MSA under her nose. Samantha would have been expelled from the school and couldn’t have helped him. Best and worst of all, she wouldn’t have met Seth, and her heart wouldn’t ache for him.

Don’t be stupid. Fate brought you to this point for a reason. Find it, she said to the mirror.

She wondered why the crew hadn’t made contact with her again. Seth had promised that he would return, but she was having her doubts about that now. The crew

Reviews for Lunara

[Graham Downs · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I read the first book in this series over two years ago. I remember giving it two stars on Goodreads, and saying that I wouldn't mind reading the second one to see if it got better.

When I found the second one on Scribd, I figured that I would pick it up, since it was free with my subscription. I couldn't remember much about the first one, but I figured that was okay since any decent series should be able to refresh the reader's memory pretty quickly.

I was wrong about that: I was lost from the first page, and it didn't get any better. Characters and events were referred to, and it was just assumed that I would know exactly who they were and what they were about. No time whatsoever was given to any kind of recap. I gave up trying to remember what had happened last time, and tried to enjoy the story as a new experience.

But that proved extremely difficult too, because those events that were referred to, but that I couldn't remember, were crucial to my enjoyment of the story. That, coupled with the fact that the book in general is written in a very confusing way, meant that I still don't know exactly what the book was about.

There are too many characters here, for one, and they're never re-introduced. I will read about a character, and then he's not mentioned again for twenty chapters, (which is over a week of real-time for me, because I don't get a lot of time to read) and then I'm expected to remember exactly who he is and where he fits into the story. For another thing, certain diametrically opposed characters have very similar names, which adds to the confusion. And the names are not very inventive either: Seth Smith? Chloe Jones? Parker? Just regular old American teenager names, seemingly picked at random, with no thought to whether the names actually fit the character.

Finally, the book has some serious POV problems, as sometimes when there are three or four people in one scene (nay, in one PARAGRAPH), perspective shifts between them with no warning.

So, I'm done trying this series. Free or not, I don't think I'm going to bother with the next one.