The Dark Foundations (The Lamb Among the Stars Book 2)

The Dark Foundations continues the epic story begun in The Shadow and Night. Far beyond the tranquility of the Assembly worlds, Nezhuala, Lord-Emperor of the Dominion, is preparing a merciless and crushing attack on Farholme as a prelude to an onslaught on the Assembly. Back on Farholme, Commander Merral D?Avanos recovers from his wounds after the battle at Fallambet where the intruders were destroyed. Yet even as Merral dreams of a return to peace, he receives a warning of imminent war on a massive scale he cannot ignore. Amid the urgent preparations for battle, Merral and his friends realize the inadequacy of their defenses. Then, with weeks to spare before the predicted eve of ware, Merral receives an offer of assistance from the strangest of sources. But can it be trusted? As the wave of war finally crashes over Farholme, Merral must find the answer to other questions in the heat of battle: Can Farholme survive the growing internal strains? Who will pay the price for victory? Will his own weaknesses undo both him and his world? Review With The Shadow and Night, we barely saw the beginnings of Chris Walley's epic Lamb Among the Stars series. Evil returned to the Assembly Worlds after thousands of years of peace and contentment. Then-Forester Merral D'Avanos discovered the intrusion on the distant planet of Farholme, but before he and his friends could warn the rest of the Assembly, their space Gate was destroyed, cutting off communication and swift travel between their planets. The Dark Foundations wastes no time in expanding the story immensely by revealing the two opposing forces in this interstellar struggle-both the Assembly and the Dominion of Lord-Emperor Nezhuala. While Farholme is the central battle in this struggle, the forces in play stretch across the galaxy with consequences for trillions of people. Nezhuala seeks nothing less than total conquest of the Assembly, and Farholme is but his first beachhead. A group of diplomats arrive first, attempting to convince Farholme to join the Dominion peaceably. Merral, now Commander of Farholme's fledgling defense force, and his friends are faced with evil and deception unlike anything they've faced in their lives... even as the corruption of sin spreads throughout their own society. While Walley broadens the scope and scale of this sci-fi epic, he manages to return the focus to his core characters (and a few new ones) for the majority of the volume. Merral, Vero, et al, who became real to readers in the first part of this series, continue their development, in many ways. Merral himself faces struggles both personal and spiritual, leading to a beautiful climax between good and evil. At the same time, Walley develops some of the unique sci-fi/spiritual concepts he introduced earlier, such as Below-Space and the Dominion's demonic connections, as well as introducing new and even more fascinating concepts (such as a sci-fi equivalent to the Tower of Babel). Despite its length, this entire series doesn't feel too long-in fact, it feels too short so far. There's so much more that can happen, and I'm very anxious to see the next volume. Highly Recommended About the Author Born in Wales, Chris Walley grew up in northern England. He studied earth sciences at university and has a doctorate in geology. He taught at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon from 1980 to 1984 and then returned to Wales and spent ten years as a consultant with the oil industry. He began writing in the late eighties and had two novels, Heart of Stone and Rock of Refuge, published under the pseudonym of John Haworth. In 1994, along with his family, Chris returned to Lebanon to teach again at AUB. In 1998, he came back to Wales and began writing again. He is currently fitting his writing in between teaching geology, environmental science, and geography at a local college. Chris and his wife live in an old cottage on the edge of Swansea.