For More Than Glory (Legion of the Damned Series #5) Book

Note on significant alien races in this book:
Ramanthians: insect like aliens about to experience a population explosion when 5 billion
eggs hatch.
Hudathan: xenophobic genocidal aliens defeated twice but now limited confederate
members b/c of help given to address the Thracki/Sheen threat.
Thraki: xenophobic genocidal aliens who were chased by Sheen for centuries until
resolution in prior book.
Sheen: xenophobic genocidal alien robots chasing Thraki for centuries until central
computer was shut down in prior book. It appears their 12,000 or so drifting
will be a prime story line going forward.

Starts out with confederate troops attacking a hideout of confederate mutineers- presumably setting up some kind of space pirate story line. Focus, however, then immediately shifts to the Ramanthians. This story line is STUPID. Advance space traveling society that experiences a birth explosion can't plan sufficiently ahead so as to deal with the new population in a way that won't create a war? How about building space habitats or looking for worlds that aren't already claimed by the genocidal Hudathan? The author doesn't explain. Not only that but then the author goes on to have the Ramanthians steel Sheen ships because they don't have enough to transport the eggs to the new planets. Why? Because of the all the ships the Ramanthians supposedly lost in the prior conflict. I just finished the prior book and I don't remember the Ramanthians losing a single ship. Also the author seems to forget that the Ramanthians are participating in interstellar commerce- there should be loads of transport ships for them to hire or buy, not to mention their own civilian ships that could be pressed into service. No, it appears with the Ramanthian story line the author simply mapped out the story he wanted to tell and ignored the glaring holes. The biggest hole of them all is why? Why are the Ramanthians acting in a way certain to sooner or later cause war with the Hudathan and likely to cause war with the confederacy in the short term when, if they just made their needs known they would receive confederate aid in solving the problem without war. AND YET IT GETS WORSE. Unable to think of a better plan the Ramanthians decide to place a bomb on the ship that serves as the capital of the confederation as a distraction for the taking of the sheen ships. HOW COULD ANY REMOTELY INTELLIGENT BEING EXPECT THAT NOT TO BE NOTICED AND NOT TO RESULT IN WAR????
AND YET IT GETS WORSE, because who is chasing the mutineers? A reasonable person? No, its the head of all confederate forces AND HIS FAMOUS WIFE. The excuse for this? She had a ship he could use to impersonate a disreputable trader (because the head of all military forces couldn't arrange for such a thing with a phone call????) She, of course gets recognized, DUH! Shit like this gets overlooked on Star Trek because it is a tv show and constantly hiring and firing a slew of actors for that extra level of realism isn't financially possible. But here? Especially when the main story line centers on a lieutenant we've not previously heard of? Why not be reasonable and simply have the COMMANDER OF ALL CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS assign the tasks to properly trained personnel?

Interestingly enough, the main story line of Confederate bases on newly discovered planet with an intelligent species of pre-steam age technology is pretty well written. The book would have halfway good if it weren't for the ridiculously moronic additional story lines. Story lines that author apparently has to re-write the internal history of his books to justify. I'm reading this series one book after another and there have been many places a Ramanthian/Hudathan war should have been mentioned but wasn't (like when a Ramanthian challenged a Hudathan to a dual in the prior book). Now the author has created one to explain why the Ramanthians need to steel Sheen ships, except he put it 50 years in the past. SO WHAT HAVE THE RAMANTHIANS BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 50 YEARS SINCE THEY CLEARLY WEREN'T BUILDING THE SHIPS THEY KNEW THEY WOULD NEED. UGH! SO MUCH UNNECESSARY STUPIDITY.

AND IT STILL GETS WORSE- What would you do with an automated battle fleet arrayed outside of the ship you use for a capital? Let it sit there and hope some subroutine doesn't kick in and bring it back to life OR MOVE IT AND NOT TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU ARE MOVING IT TO?????

At this point I don't care about spoilers so the bomb succeeds but the good guys find out about it so the ship is evacuated BUT WITH APPARENTLY SUCH SHITTY SURVIVAL PODS THAT THE PRESIDENT, WHO KNOW ABOUT THE RAMANTHIAN PLAN TO STEEL SHEEN SHIPS ORDERS THE NAVY SHIPS GUARDING THE SHEEN SHIPS TO COME IN AND PICK UP SURVIVORS. So the Ramanthians succeed and UNLIKE THE REST OF THE FUCKING MORONIC CONFEDERACY, use the highly automated status of the Sheen ships to steel something like half of them. Why not steel all of them? Good question, I can only assume the answer is that the author didn't want to write that book. After all, the confederacy will need their half of the ships for the next book.

In short, the entire Ramanthian story line exists apparently to fill pages as it is incredibly stupid and even inconsistent with stories that have gone before.