The Pool of Fire

With information gathered in the previous two books, our heroes now take the fight to the invaders! Unfortunately, this is no more plausible today than it was when first written. It concludes the series well, but flaws abound.

Among those is the lack of female characters. Book 2 and 3 both suffer from this, while the first book didn't. The overly simplistic description of the "pool of fire" (or is it an atomic pile?) can be forgiven. More major than those are how implausible a civilization, years in the future and yet reduced to a technology of the middle ages, is able to recreate some of the lost science in less than three years to defeat the interstellar reinforcements. The game "Sphere Chase" was invented in book 2, and really never comes up again.

The main character, flawed with rashness, hasn't improved much in the last two books. This counts against him often, and he regrets it. Our pessimistic author concludes with a few paragraphs displacing a one-world government with the squabbling factions similar to the world when he wrote it - although Russia and a cold war are conspicuously absent.

The series as a whole rates 3 stars, and was ahead of its time in some ways. Having read all three (and the prequel). I would say that skipping books 2 and 3 would not be a bad thing. I am more likely to try the Zx Spectrum game than to seek out the TV series based on these books.