I am an avid follower of the first two books. The stories, while TNE, are what I consider to be classic Traveller. I have read those books at least five times, so, when I found out that the final book in the trilogy was out, I picked it up immediately.

I feel that the new author has not been faithful to the characters, the existing story line or to the TNE canon.

Instead of a sector recovering from Virus, we suddenly have huge battle fleets reminiscent of David Weber's Honorverse. The tech bible is not only disregarded, it was not read and was probably used to start fires.

The characters are wooden, not true to their pre-existing nature and generally act only in stereotypes. Part of what made them worth following was that they grew in the first two books. After reading the third book, I felt like the cover art should be a huge graphic that says, "Incredibly loosely based on Traveller: the New Era and the works of...".

It saddens me immensely, but, I cannot in good conscience, recommend this book.

From the four TNE Novels this is by far the most complex. It takes up where the second Paul Burnette Novel (To dream of chaos) ends and shows the future fate of the Hornet and her crew. The characters get a lot of further development and some interesting twists, Traveller fans will "meet" a lot of well known NPCs and see some interesting developments within the Reformation Coalation.

The book has some fast paced and interesting space and ground action that "feels right" to a Traveller fan yet can be easily read and understood by those who are not knee-deep into the Traveller universe or rules set. The same is true for the planets visited - the author gives enough information for the non-TNE fan to make the worlds come alive but at the same time manages to add new odds and ends for long time fans.

The novels pacing is good, the bad guys are diverse ranging from the stupid megalomaniac to the smart but honorable enemy. While it is always clear who are the good guys, the bad guys are not pure stereotypes. With some scenes Mr. Carson even manages to instill the same feelings that Jerry Pournelle manages in "King of Sparta" when the King is killed or in WarWorld when Piet van Reenan fights the Sauron Cyborg in "The Kings that die for the people", really making you feel for, cheer for the Coalation.

This version of "The Backward Mask" has nothing in common with the Burnette manuscript also offered here. Having read both I consider this a good thing since the Burnette version is a major change in pace and events from the original two novels, taking the "Backward" part literally as the "rearward/Oriflamme Area of Operations" and dealing heavily with Virus.