Earth’s First StarFighter Volume 4 by Han Yang and Michael Angel

Darius Rutledge and a young humanity face off against the much more powerful and established Iglax Star Empire.

Pros

  • Engaging continuation of the exciting adventures
  • Galaxy in the story feels alive and dynamic
  • Fairly satisfying conclusion

Cons

  • Too short with the Afterword feeling a bit rushed even if it’s an afterword

Earth’s First StarFighter Volume 4 Review

Earth’s First StarFighter Volume 4 by Han Yang and Michael Angel brings to a conclusion one of my recent favorite space opera science fiction series. The series has that right mixture of action, sense of adventure, and wonder that a lot of military science fiction stories tend to forget in favor of strict action.

In this final (perhaps?) book to the series, Darius and humanity’s allies, who are few, fight against the Iglax Star Empire, an extremely powerful alien species when compared to the human newcomers on the galactic stage.

But instead of sitting around and waiting for the Iglax to prepare and invade, Darius takes the fight to them, netting himself some interesting captures. For science fiction fans who enjoy space simulation games like X4 Foundations or space sims where players can capture ships or components, this series has that same sense of excitement that was first expressed through the first book in terms of bounties.

The pacing of the story is great because as the story unravels, readers are introduced to more aliens and technology. In this book, readers learn a bit more about the alien tree species as well as their terraforming technologies. A bit of galactic history is introduced as well, giving fans a sense of the breadth of the history or story universe that exists.

The one drawback, perhaps forgivable, is how much information is dumped onto fans in the Afterword—the gap in time can be a bit disconcerting even if the resolution to the series is satisfactory and leaves one with a sense of wonder.

Earth’s First StarFighter Volume 4 by Han Yang and Michael Angel brings to a conclusion a fantastic science fiction adventure that sees humanity’s entrance and establishment on a crowded galactic stage filled with aliens who seek to exploit naive species. This book and this series is a story of how one plucky alien species fights back.

Read reviews of other books in the series.