Closing The Cosmic Eye [Mass Market Paperback]

This was a good book with a so so begining. Too much about how Bates got into the situation he was in, was left out. Where did he get a ship that could travel that far?

This latest Outlanders adventure - Closing the Cosmic Eye - is the most hardcore sci-fi-ish storyline to date.

Written by the illustrious co-author Victor Milan, Closing the Cosmic Eye has a fantastic start with explosive action/adventure with the ever cool Team Phoenix battling against two warring factions, now joined by their own version of little Domi, a dark-haired teen tribal girl who has been adopted by the team. Now beset by nearby marauders, as well as being betrayed by their newfound allies they had just freed in their last adventure a couple of books ago, they are soon rescued by their new friends of Cerberus in a climatic battle that was fun to read.

Then about 75 pages into this pretty much streamlined storyline, it all of the sudden goes into major cosmic hardcore science fiction proportions. Which is real cool on one hand, but much too rushed and sometimes hard to follow on the other. It all of the sudden turned into a Star Wars kind've story instead of Outlanders. Which is fine if things were more clearer and not seemingly rushed to a quick conclusion. This really needed to be a duology or trilogy to flesh it all out.

But, still in all, there were tidbits of greatness throughout this galactic adventure. Tons of alien species warring amongst one another. (Too many, perhaps...?) Like a couple of other Victor Milan's novels and storylines, the overall storyline ideas and concepts are awesome and triple cool, but some of the executions seemed either hard to follow or just plain rushed for completion.

Victor Milan's new book has created a new cosmic threat so large that it makes Mark Ellis's main alien bad guys - the overlords - look like mere pests that could be easily destroyed like stepping on a bug. Only the keenest of readers could detect these hints of this upcoming alien threat in his past books, starting with Uluru Destiny and Lords of the Deep.

I loved the teaming up of the Cerberus warriors with Team Phoenix. They clash sometimes, and have tensions, but still manage to show respect for one another in a number of ways. And the idea of having two groups of warriors coming from past and future earth is just very neat. I wish Team Phoenix would have their own series. Like in his past 80's postholocaust Guardian series, without aliens or muties, Victor Milan has grown as a writer, becoming more of a hardcore fantasy/sci-fi writer than a straightforward adventure writer. But when he does this, he seems to cram too much in one book to swallow. Therein lies the rub.

The main two alien warring factions were gigantic in size and scope, and was sometimes hard to follow and picture in my mind. Sometimes I was picturing something between a cross of Outlanders with Aliens movie and tie-in novels. Nothing wrong with that. Just needed some more cultivation, fleshing out and details.

As in a couple of other Outlander Milan novels, the ending was too abrupt and Closing the Cosmic Eye felt rather rushed. By the ideas of having the Cerberus crew and Team phoenix stuck in a far away galaxy, exiled from earth, made me want to continue turning the page. Having Lakesh and Philboyd finally finding a way to get the two groups to come back home to earth, with Team phoenix deciding to stay and fight in a bigger war for the galaxy, makes me wish Gold Eagle would develop a series of Team Phoenix battling alien overlords throughout the galaxy with these myriad mixed alien races. Now THAT would be a great, fresh and exciting series to read!

But giving this a 3.5 star review is just my personal chioce. Readers who love the more Star Wars and Star Trek type novels, will surely enjoy this even more than I. C'mon Milan, write another Deathlands novel. Give us a more hardy sci-fi-ish adventure in that series.

Or just another gem of raw survival with brains like you did in Deathlands: Vengeance Trail. It really needs it.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars