Nostalgia-minded readers who yearn for the days of “Doc” Smith's Lensman books will enjoy the third installment (after 2006's Wolf Star
) of Meluch's barely modernized space opera series. When the Palatine Empire's home world of Roma Nova almost falls to the voracious, nigh-invulnerable Hive, which travels between the stars in search of organic matter to consume, Caesar Magnus reluctantly subjugates the empire's forces to Capt. John Farragut and the U.S.S. Merrimack
. This marriage of convenience is strained when the Legate voices suspicions that the Americans are trying to steal technology developed by long-dead Roman genius Constantine. As Farragut and the Roman cyborg Augustus (who plays a combination of Spock and McCoy to Farragut's Kirk) investigate the Hive infestation, they come to suspect Constantine might be not only alive but in possession of the secret to defeat the Hive. Assassinations, the threat of civil war and a canonically evil villain all keep things hopping in this fast-paced space adventure. (Nov.)
