Forge of God

The book I bought first, "Anvil of Stars", turned out to be the second book in this series, but when I purchased it there was nothing on the book cover, front or back as far as I can remember, that led me to believe it was anything other than a standalone novel by an author I had previously read books by.

As I progressed through the novel, I started to have suspicions that it may be a sequel to a prior novel, but it could just as easily have been laying the groundwork for a prequel novel, such was the style of the writing.

It was only when I bought and read "The Forge of God" a few years later that I realised that I had purchased and read these in the wrong order. However, I don’t think that affected my enjoyment of the story, if anything it might have enhanced it.

The premise of the storyline is that there are two factions of advanced aliens, the first seek out and destroy all budding technological societies so that they never become a threat, they do this by intercepting transmissions from these cultures and then following them back to their source and destroying the planet.

The other faction of aliens tries to stop the first faction, but when they fail they provide aid to any survivors.