The Castle in Cassiopeia

August 1, 2017
In the first Dead Enders novel (this is the third in the series), Nathan Pretorius and his team of specialists broke into a heavily guarded alien fortress, kidnapped one of the enemy's most powerful military leaders, and replaced him with a clone who was sympathetic to the human cause. But now the clone has gone rogue, throwing his brilliant military mind and insider knowledge of humanity behind an alien race that's determined to take over the galaxy. So once again Pretorius' band of misfits must penetrate deep into enemy territory and pull off a miracle. The Dead Enders novels have numerous things to recommend them, including colorful characters and smartly constructed caper stories, but perhaps their most endearing quality is the way the author approaches the SF environment. This is space opera, where somebody jumps into a spaceship and flies from one planet to another the way we hop into our cars and drive to the mall. Like George Lucas did in Star Wars, Resnick has created a universe that feels lived in and endlessly fascinating.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)