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Rise of Mankind #1–10 omnibus

Rise of Mankind: The Complete Series

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On the eve of Humanity’s first great journey beyond our solar system, tragedy strikes. Hostile ships arrive, attacking the fledgling fleet and decimating it with ease. Only the intervention of strangers, benevolent aliens prevents the total annihilation of not only the starships, but the planet itself.

Offering the means to defend themselves in the form of shared technology and a liaison, humanity prepares to fight back. They refit the Behemoth, the only surviving ship from the initial attack and embark on a quest to join their saviors. A war is brewing against a zealous enemy, one with a single minded notion to destroy every colony, every world, all civilizations.

As humanity works to prove themselves to their highly advanced allies, they travel to the far reaches of the galaxy. Every test pushes them toward their ultimate confrontation, a final match with those who attacked them in the very beginning. But will their preparation be enough to defeat a culture literally designed for war?

Box set includes:
Behemoth: Rise Of Mankind Book 1
Warfare: Rise Of Mankind Book 2
Raid: Rise Of Mankind Book 3
Conflict: Rise Of Mankind Book 4
Pursuit: Rise Of Mankind Book 5
Artifact: Rise Of Mankind Book 6
Rebellion: Rise Of Mankind Book 7
Extinction: Rise Of Mankind Book 8
Offensive: Rise Of Mankind Book 9
Showdown: Rise Of Mankind Book 10

1771 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2019

2250 people are currently reading
310 people want to read

About the author

John Walker

94 books1 follower
Actor, philologist, and lexicographer.

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5 stars
1,184 (56%)
4 stars
622 (29%)
3 stars
198 (9%)
2 stars
43 (2%)
1 star
32 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews
Profile Image for Billy Young.
Author 9 books146 followers
September 30, 2019
Some grammatical problems here and there through out the ten books. But this doesn't really detract from the over all stories. Some great characters make this a great bargain plus an enjoyable read.
124 reviews2 followers
September 3, 2020
Very entertaining!

Join Capt Gray Atwell on Earth's last remaining starship - The Behemoth, after a devastating attack on Earth, which was only won with the help of a previously unknown race - the Krielans, who anchor the large alliance fighting these attackers. Earth is new to knowledge of aliens, and though new to space-based war, the Behemoth becomes a source of prestige and honour for humanity as they join the alliance. Lots of good character development, space and infantry fighting, brilliant engineering and adventure in this series. WELL DONE!!
23 reviews1 follower
June 3, 2020
Interesting view of how Mankind will respond to other aliens in this galaxy. Real people and situations with a great connection to humanity and Humanity.

Wow! Get immersed in a vibrant society and alien cultures and you will not be able to put the books down. The story pulls you through the story lines and all the books to give you satisfaction that humanity will win out in the end.
266 reviews1 follower
October 9, 2020
I prefer Burbon

I kept looking for something redeeming about this series. The only thing I found was that the story was interesting in a mindless sort of way. It's the usual about an earth ship that survives an invasion. Earth would have lost but for the assistance of a couple of alliance ships that beat off the enemy. (N.B., two ships one enemy). So with the assistance of the alliance, we upgrade the Behemoth into a Juggernaut. It's so big and has so much steel, that it's actually better than the alliance standard battleship. So it goes a few places where it does battle with the enemy (still just one, but then we find a revolutionary so actually we have two enemies. They did have more than one ship, but they were still just one enemy. So they fight some ships, but they weren't crafts because we weren't making decorations. They did have a few craft, however.) This goes on to the big battle over the enemy world. The battle is a real donnybrook. We're pitching bombs into the middle of a flight of enemy craft then blowing up the bombs expecting the blast wave to knock out the enemy ships (plural), or we'd overload the power plant to affect close by ships with the blast wave. Amazingly, we have our fighters equipped with afterburners so we can put on a burst of speed. I wonder what we're afterburning. There was no explanation of how the engines worked. There was a need to refuel, but the craft seemed to run forever without refueling, and then there's the afterburners(???). What was the overloading power plant doing when it wasn't overloading? Oh yes, and the battleship that rocked on to its side when hit with a shock wave. Oh, and the wrong words or the misused words or the why was that word used words. All I can say is it provided escapism to take my mind off of the troubles of these interesting times. Everybody please play safe, wear your mask (yes, you don't have to do it, but get real), and wash your hands. Let the force be with you, and don't let what you do cause a disturbance In the force. It's already in enough turmoil already.
Profile Image for Herman Chelette.
5 reviews
October 29, 2020
Rise of Mankind: The Complete Series

My final response to this set of 10 "books" in one volume is difficult to verbalize. Lots of "On the one hand ..." and "... but on the other hand ...".

For instance, on the one hand the battle scenes were intense and detailed, but on the other were in many ways just rubbish. As a retired fighter pilot I appreciated the flow of action, but was unable to suspend disbelief when propulsion systems designed for use in vacuum were augmented by "afterburners" which imply a stream of liquid fuel being oxidized to propel the craft. If that were the case, their mission duration would have been cut significantly from the apparently endless ones related.

Not to mention complete and total command of a common language by every character in the book. Really? No misunderstandings or discord due to cultural interpretations. Really?

With a couple of notable exceptions, all of the "alliance" characters were noble, pure, heroic figures; there were no "feet of clay". While unreal, this is not necessarily out of the question in shorter works, but in this extended context it felt almost pathetically naïve. Human nature, and one must assume, the nature of almost clone, allied aliens, spans a range of frailty from Jesus to Donald J Trump. Depicting so many of them as Jesus-like is just not on.

With all that said, and because I have little patience with poor literature, I was surprised that I read the entire set from start to finish, albeit interspersed with a fantasy series to provide some more realistic human nature.

So ... not all bad. ... but, you know, "on the other hand" ...

26 reviews
July 28, 2025
ok plot riddled with errors

The plot is fine.
The military speak is awful. A clear lack of military speak understanding is obvious.
There are typos, grammar, syntax and incorrect word choice throughout. ‘The protocol seven’, with the word the added on every time for no reason.

It’s like the author heard a phrase then used a word that sounds similar but is just wrong in their repetition of it. Which breaks me out of the flow of reading and I re-read it like 5 times to work out what I’m not understanding, then I realise the writer just go the phrase wrong. An example “I’m not wetted to it”, instead of “I’m not wedded to it”.

If you don’t understand a turn of phrase in common use look it up. There is one where the word used is pressure and the common phrase uses present.

It’s just jarring.

Read book1 and much of book 2 in this omnibus, then I had to stop. Sci Fi books shouldn’t make me cranky, about grammar, spelling, syntax and phraseology.

Hard work being an author, I get that, so get an editor with teeth to help.

Entire series could use a good editor.
37 reviews
January 24, 2023
I bought the box set so cheap that I expected it to be just so so but I has surprised me because I found it quite entertaining and full of action. Another thing I liked about it is that all the books have aproximately the same length unlike other series in which each book in the series is longer than the previous. In fact there are facts that have been omited (for example a talk between Gray and Clea between books 8 and 9 if I remember well) and could have been easily fit inside the series. Also some additional details at the end would have been welcomed by me. Overall, I recommend this series.
20 reviews
March 21, 2020
Outstanding book

An outstandingly enjoyable series of books. The story line is notable and totally immersive; you get lost in the reading. I often become bored with a series after 3 or 4 books, but this held my interest the whole way. So why only 4 stars? The entire set needs to be run past an editor. Numerous spelling and word errors distracted me from the reading experience. Do I recommend this book? Yes, but only if you have the ability to ignore the errors.
98 reviews
July 21, 2020
Fantastic series and a steal at this price!

I truly loved this series and couldn’t believe the price for the entire set! I really enjoy reading sprawling sagas that read like a well-oiled machine. Everything fit together, the story never sagged, and as long as it was I was very sad when it ended. I immediately looked for other books/series by this author!

Buy it! Read it! Tell your friends to do the same! Now!
8 reviews
July 24, 2020
Poor Proof reading

The storyline and following books were excellent they way the story unfolded and continuation of characters really enhanced the books. The only spoiler was poor proof reading incorrect spellings whilst not huge, annoyed me, because of the nature of the simple spellings that were incorrect
Now my moan is over I would reccomend this series to all who like a good storyline
20 reviews
December 15, 2020
Space not Ocean

ships in space with artificial gravity no listing, no upside down no change in up down unless gravity fails then weightlessness and inertia take over. Not much in the way of shockwaves either. No.air to support them. High speed debris of course. And if very close expending gas could be a shock wave but in a vacuum would dissipate very quickly. How do all these men and women not have sexual relations when in space for months?
128 reviews3 followers
January 26, 2021
Kinda a buzzkill at the end

Little spoiler warning: While i understand some of the sacrifices in the end, but other like wing commander Megan had to die felt it was kinda bullshit that escape pods couldn’t handle atmospheric entry or she could have gotten her maneuverability thruster working, but say she disintegrated in the atmosphere was a bad way to end her character in my opinion.
96 reviews3 followers
January 28, 2021
Great story telling

The series is well cast, characters developed with emotions, feeling and compassion. I liked how that was done. Really good job.
Didn't like the poor proofreading. Really jerks a reader out of the story and can be confusing, frustrating and just weak. Almost scored the series a three or four because of it. Hope the writer gets better, committed support team. I believe your story telling deserves much better.
10 reviews
May 25, 2020
Great story, but lots of distractions

Really good storytelling without too much philosophical influence. Would have rated it higher, but the grammar and wrong word usage (a group is a contingent, nor a contingency, for example) seriously detracts. Whatever proofreading was done was poor quality.
1 review
June 8, 2020
This was a well thought out story line with a lot of character development to allow you to connect with the players. A good book series and it would have rated 5 stars, but the grammatical errors detract from the story.

If you have to stop to re-read a line because of grammar errors, it takes you out of the moment.
6 reviews
October 29, 2020
Excellent story and great characters.

I have never seen so many typos.
The story is very well written and obviously well developed. The characters felt like real people. Mostly military. Intense conflicts. Losses and victories. I would feel comfortable recommending this to anyone who enjoys reading about space and different cultures interacting. Thank you Mr Walker.
1 review3 followers
January 7, 2021
Editing Needed Desperately

This is a mildly entertaining series, although it soon turns formulaic. Mainly, though, it could really use some editing. The improper syntax and punctuation are distracting, as are the many malapropisms. One particular favorite was the use of "yolk" rather than "yoke". At least that one was amusing.
1 review
June 11, 2021
Pretty good but not great

Okay story, but I was distracted almost to the point of quitting by the huge number of times the word "they" or "he" was used with only a hint of WHICH "they" or "he" was referenced. Also, not sure how a ship in free space can list... Which way is upright?
5 reviews
October 13, 2021
Absolutely captivating

A fantastic futurist series which has me captivated from page 1. Really great plots which didn't hurt my head trying to think about anything too convoluted, yet managed to keep me guessing what was going to come next.
Really loved it, from start to end.
Thanks for this one
105 reviews
January 10, 2022
Epic space opera with implacable enemies and incredible human resilience and bravery

Humans join the Galactic neighborhood with a bang. Their new allies are constantly surprised by the ingenuity and sheer fortitude. Friendships are firmly established as humans earn the respect of the other species.
8 reviews
October 2, 2023
Great story some questional language

Story line well done as well as chracter development . The cursing was unnecessary and did not add to the story line but for me broke up the flow. I understand that many think the military uses this kind of language and many may do but I know many that do not. In essence it does not add to or enhamce the story line but rather disrupts it.
3 reviews
October 27, 2023
Rise of mankind books 1-10.

The storyline was on spot and kept me reading for more. Relational interactions were balanced with military actions and both were captivating. Unfortunately the proof reading of the books was exceptionally poor. Constant typos and incorrect syntaxes were abundantly obvious to the point that they were annoying.
27 reviews1 follower
August 28, 2025
Sorry for the rating but!

The book (or books) suck. Not the story the story is 5 stars but the book is not even 1 star. Reading it is painful. It is difficult to find a page where the print makes sense. I would guess this has been compiled from audio tapes and compiled into print by a dyslexic AI who's having a bad day. I am pretty sure this has never been read by anyone who has 4th grade English or better before going into "print" if we still call it that in the age of e-books.
3 reviews
March 26, 2020
I really enjoyed this series.

Never let a few mistakes get in the way of a cracking read. Less than a week to read the whole lot.
Great storyline well told loved it, thank you for brightening my week.
2 reviews1 follower
April 2, 2020
Very good series!! The fighting scenes are top notch! Many times my lunch breaks were just a little longer than necessary doo I could finish an epic battle scene. I highly reccomend everyone to pick this series up (I scored a very good deal) and read it immediately.
Profile Image for John F. Wells Jr..
190 reviews1 follower
November 4, 2020
Space is wonderful.

This us a very busy book, very few pauses or slow parts. It's like a prize fight from start to finish, good character strength and a very emotional rollercoaster ride. Great sci-fi for the reader of classic space the final frontier stuff.
254 reviews
November 25, 2020
Robert's Review and Comments

Finished up in fine order against a tough and determined enemy. Losses were high, but a long war came to an climatic end. Can peace prevail in the future, only time will tell. Thanks for a GoodRead.
10 reviews
March 1, 2021
Mankind leaps into the Galactic scene full bore

YouThis is a series that will keep you on the edge of your seat. As mankind discovers the rest of the galaxy is not empty, they fight to be able to take their place at the table with all of the other species that are out there.
14 reviews
June 20, 2021
Recommended Good Read

To many times stories begin and then leave you hanging and disappointed with no resolution.
It kept my interest peaked wanting to read more.
Hats off to author of this series.
I would read them more.
11 reviews
August 3, 2021
Quite a journey.

The story of planet earth entering the full-fledged space community with all of its good and bad is quite a journey. The unfolding saga is rife with earthlings and alien races joining forces and engaging other alien enemies in the galaxy.

Displaying 1 - 30 of 135 reviews

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