James Review -- The Ever Expanding Universe: The World Forgot

This week I decided to review The Ever Expanding Universe: The World Forgot by Martin Leight and Isla Neal.

During the period covered by the second book in the trilogy, Elvie, the trilogy's protagonist, has discovered that she is actually an Enosi, a form of Human and Almiri hybrid widely persecuted by most Almiri, She has also discovered that Byron, an Almiri commander who was Elvie's favorite actor in a past life, is also her maternal grandfather, and that her mother Zee is alive.

Unfortunately, Zee betrays Elvie and kidnaps Elvie's daughter Olivia before fleeing to join the Jen'Kai scientist Dr. Marsden. The third book begins with Evie and her allies making their way to Almiri headquarters in hopes of convincing the Almiri leadership to ally with humanity and the Enosi against the impending invasion by Jen'Kai Devastators only to find that the headquarters has been overrun by Jen'Kai agents.

After being rescued by Byron during a battle with the forces occupying the headquarters began when Elvie tries to aid Almiri survivors from a trap, they are taken to a secret fleet Byron and his allies have prepared for the coming war. While Byron can track both Elvie and Olivia he lost Olivia's signal some where in the Rust Belt, an area of space filled with space stations and wreckage. Byron is unwilling to interrupt his war preparations to send a team to search the entire Rust Belt so Elvie and friends steal a small shuttle and set out for New Moon, a massive ozone factory and refinery.

But Elvie and the others soon realize that the governor of New Moon has allied with Dr, Marsden. After being betrayed by their first apparent ally, the team is rescued by Chloe, a young woman befriended by Cole, Elvie's ex-boyfriend and Olivia's father. But Chloe is actually a rapidly aged clone of Olivia brainwashed by Marsden and she captures the rescue party. Elvie allies with Bok Choy, who has fallen in love with Chloe and manages to turn Chloe against Marsden.

The party then escapes rescuing Britta McVicker, Elvie's high school nemesis, and a squadron of Britta clones in the process, but the escape does not come without cost. And they flee right into the middle of a battle between the combined Almiri and Human fleets and the Devastator invasion force. Upon meeting Byron's flagship, they are sent to Mars. Once inhabited but abandoned by the civilization that called it home, Byron hopes to find weaponry that can repel the Devastators in the ruins but Elvie will actually find the true history of the Almiri and the galaxy along with the ultimate secret of the Enosi...

I give this book 9.5 out of 10. It has a great since of humor and I enjoy the way they slip references to current and near-current pop culture into the story, usually through Elvie who especally is a fan of twentieth-century entertainment. I wish we had gotten to see more of the battle against the Devastator armada but what I feel hurts the story the most are a few sections I wish were expanded on in the final chapters.