I just finally got around to reading Uluru Destiny, and I really feel like I needn't have bothered. On a positive note, I have to say that Victor Milan is generally a good writer. The story set up was interesting, and there were some very good action sequences along the way. What ruined the book for me, however, was all of the continuity and character errors.

Yes, Domi is back to being a psyco slut again. Her relationship with Lakesh is completely missing; suddenly her empathy for the hybrids is gone as she gleefully slaughters them; suddenly she knows more about missiles and piloting an aircraft than Kane.

The barons are depicted completely out of character, made much more human and much less intelligent than they have ever been portrayed in any other book in the series.

Once again, it is guest characters that do all of the heavy lifting and save the day while Kane and Grant stand by as also-rans.

On the one hand, I liked the overall story more in this book than I have with Milan's other OL contributions, but the total disregard for established character just ruins the book. I look forward to more books from him in the DL series, but I am cringing at the thought of his next OL book.

I’ll start by saying I wanted to like Uluru Destiny. The prologue and first couple of chapters grabbed my interest but it didn’t take long before the same disease that ruined Milan’s other two OL books killed this one, too—slapdash series research, major inconsistencies and ridiculous changes in the main characters which are probably for this book only.

Kane with gray hair and a beard? Lakesh old and weak again? DeFore with dreadlocks? Brigid Baptiste a doctor? Domi acting like she doesn’t even know Lakesh, much less be in relationship with him?

I can’t be sure, but I have the feeling none of that junk will show up in Evil Abyss by Mark Ellis.

The plot in of itself is interesting but like Sun Lord, it gets bogged down in what seems like a bunch of details that just seem thrown in. The connection between Mt Uluru in Australia and the Dewa Raja on the island of Tamimbar wasn’t real clear.

Also, the whole deal with the Dewa being one of the baronial hierarchy made no sense, especially when Baron Thulia and Erica Van Sloan were dragged into it.

Also, the barons have very weak immune systems that’s one reason they’re so isolated and need yearly medical treatments to stay alive. According to Uluru Destiny, they actually have very STRONG immune systems. Huh?!?

That’s only a sample of the kind of errors I kept coming across and which kept me from enjoying the book on its own merits. Every few pages I found myself saying “What?”, “Huh?” “Since when?” and other phrases I won’t spell out.

I could go on and on about all the mistakes which ruined this book for me but that’s been covered in other reviews. I just think it’s a shame that the Gold Eagle editors and Milan don’t give a damn about maintaining the integrity and quality of a series that’s been published for so many years and has such a strong fan following.

Five stars out of ten and I'm being generous only because I liked the characters of the Crew.

I didn't think much of Victor Milan's first two OL books, Awakening and Sun Lord, but Uluru Destiny is by far the weakest of the three.

The continuity errors are distractions and the characterization is off almost through the whole thing. Even the characters Milan created like Vladek and the Dewa Raja are weak and one-dimensional.

The material with Domi flying stealth craft similar to the Aurora was ridiculous.

Much of this book was ridiculous and often very slow. I didn't find Domi being turned back into a slut as objectionable as I did before, but it's very interesting how Milan put Brigid in the back seat again while introducing a new archivist character, Sally Wright who contributes nothing at all to the story.

I'm starting to wonder if Milan isn't out to ruin the OL series with the approval of Gold Eagle. Even if that's not the case, Uluru Destiny certainly didn't seem to be edited, otherwise the very dead character of Neukirk wouldn't have shown up back up.

This was a very weak book, worse in my opinion that the worst of the worst, Sargasso Blunder.

Aside from the horrible story, the group of new characters that make the Cerebus crew look like amateurs (Awakenings flashback?), and the plot inconsistencies, this book was still bad. There are three things that are wrong with this book and usually any Victon Milan OL novel.

1) Poor grammar: "Since then outright baronial eccentricities had been driven into the open: the megalomania of Baron Cobalt, the odd obseession with enjoying carnal knowledge of apekin women that consumed Baron Ragnar, Baron Sharpe's delusion of immortality." (92)

Technically, this should read: Since then, outright baronial eccentricities had been driven into the open: the megalomania of Baron Cobalt, the odd obseession with enjoying carnal knowledge of apekin women that consumed Baron Ragnar, and the delusion of immortality held by Baron Sharpe." We need the comma after the intro, the inclusion of "and" at the end of a series, and parallelism.

2) "Cute" comments: ""All right, let's make like seagulls and get the flock out of here," Kane said. "I don't believe I said that."" (268)

Neither do I. More importantly, I can't believe Milan wrote that. It's not cute and it's not funny--it's degrading to Kane's character.

3) Kane constantly being trumped: ""What the glowing nuke shit's a Maverick?" Kane demanded, squinting at the legend beneath it. "Air-to-surface missile," Domi said. "AGM-65G Maverick, if you read the rest of it. Electro-optical and infrared real-time operator guidance and a three-hundred-pound delayed-fuse penetrator warhead." (272)

Why does Domi know this and Kane doesn't? I would think that Kane's time spent as a magistrate would give him better knowledge of weaponry than Domi.

I finished this book with a sigh. "Unimpressive" is the word that fits this book best. I eagerly look forward to Evil Abyss.

This novel was below average, for me. The characters seemed a bit off. What I find really strange is that the Uluru ship wasn't associated with the Annunaki ans co. Surely they would have encountered the ship before or at least knew of it's existance.

The main failing is that it is totally unmemorable. Aside from the ship, but that just seemed a bit dumb.

Uluru Destiny, the third OL book by Victor Milan is very disappointing for a lot of reasons, the main one being that it started out very good and about the first quarter had a lot of promise. It doesn’t have the sheer volume of continuity errors, mischaracterizations and misunderstandings of his first two but it had enough. That and a confusing, rushed ending turned the book into a disappointment.

The basic plot is good, but once again a little confusing. A previously unknown member of the baronial hierarchy has set up an empire in the South Seas and is preparing an invasion of Australia. At the same time, a group of aborigines who have super-powers start materializing in the Admin Monoliths of various villes looking for an ancient relic.

Their quest is connected to Mount Uluru in Australia, and they ask for Cerberus help to find the relic. The book jumps back and forth with one group accompanied by Kane and Domi going to the Dewa Raja’s island empire which seems inspired by the Arabian Nights and the other part of the aborginies group teamed up with Brigid and Grant—even though that team disappears from the book about halfway through and doesn’t show up again until the last chapter.

Although there is some good stuff in the book and the Raja’s kingdom is colorful I had a hard time buying into it. The whole thing about him being a rejected part of the baronial hierarchy wasn’t explained very well and if he was, he didn’t seem to worry much about hygene. The barons have been described as having very weak immune systems, but the Dewa Raja didn’t seem to care about living in what seems like a filthy third world country. He also doesn’t seem very smart.

Austrailia as a setting was already featured in Far Empire and though the events of that book is mentioned, once again we have a Milan OL book that doesn’t have even a glimpse of Quavell, even though there’s a really strange scene with Brewster Philboyd, characterized completely differently than he ever has been before.

Milan also introduces a new and useless archivist character, Sally Wright who for an unexplained reason calls Brigid “Dr. Baptiste.” I’ve read every OL book, a few more than once, and except for the parallel casement Brigid from Outer Darkness, that’s the first time she’s ever been called that. When did she receive her Ph.d? From what insitution? Night school? Also, there’s another Sally character in the book and I got the two confused a couple of times.

Yet another Cobaltville Mag with a grudge against Kane is dragged out, one we never heard of before but Milan tries to tell us this guy, Vladek was the worst one yet. He was a cheap, one-dimensoinal character, a rip-off of Pollard, pulled out of Milan’s butt with no thought.

If Vladek was that evil, that much of a big bad dude how come he wasn’t chosen by Salvo to go on the raid in Mesa Verde Canyon way back in Exile to Hell, how come he wasn’t around in Omega Path when Kane, Grant, DeFore and Domi invaded Cobaltville to rescue Lakesh? There are several books where the Cobaltville Mags are featured where he should have shown up if he was all that much of a super bad-ass.

Speaking of Domi and Lakesh once again its those two characters who suffer the most damage on their characters. Their relationship isn’t even hinted at, its ignored so Milan can have Domi act like a ‘ho again. And also, Lakesh is suddenly a spindly old man who needs his glasses, looks like Gandhi and now talks like Apu from the Kwikie Mart. HUH?!?

There’s a confusing comment about Lakesh’s nanites malfunctioning but it makes no sense. Maybe its nanites that raised Neukirk from his grave on Mars and had him hanging around the redoubt after Maccan killed him in Mad God’s Wrath. Wow, it sure would be nice if these books were actually edited every once in while wouldn’t it?

Milan introduces another female Pit Boss, Maureen Orion who is such a rip-off of Boss Klaw from Doomstar Relic I don’t why Milan bothered coming up with a new name for her.

Overall, the problems with Uluru Destiny are about the same as they were for Sun Lord and Awakening—for every scene you like, there are two that you don’t and at least one you hate.

For example--Milan has Kane telling Grant about half a dozen times, “She’s got you there, partner” or some variation of that. Since when have either one of these tough, professional men ever refered to each other as “partner” unless it was in Sargasso Blunder by Mel Odom?

Speaking of Kane he’s described as having a pepper and salt beard and he’s really badly off his game in this book. Maybe he has nanites that are malfunctioning too. He acts like a doofus, gets tricked, insulted and victimized all over the place, even though his “big, scarred hands” are mentioned to the point where you roll your eyes every time you come across it.

The ending of the book is rushed and confusing and actually happens over a TV screen, with the Cerberus warriors watching from a distance. But by then, I’d stopped caring.

In some ways, Uluru Destiny was more disappointing than Milan’s other two OL books because it started out so promisingly and I hoped the third would be the charm. But large chunks of it are slow and even boring, some scenes make no real sense and when he favors ‘Slut Domi” again while giving Brigid Baptiste very short shrift for the third time, that was it for me.

As far as I’m concerned, Uluru Destiny is another parallel casement, “out of continuity” OL story, not really having happened in the real timeline.

Victor Milan's newest Outlander's installment was definately a wild ride.
This 3rd novel of his just may be his best to date. It was definately better than his last - SUN LORD.
Uluru Destiny takes us back to Australia, where a previous Mark Ellis tale had taken our reluctant heroes. This time around, a colorful and unexpected group of people, christened the Crew, or crewsters, who are systematically appearing in various baronies raising hell, using powerful weaponry as they look for an artifact.
This leads Kane, (who for some reason has a beard now), and his compatriots to go there, finding a weird island nation being ruled now by a god-king.
This god-king is sent baron Thulia and his henchman Mag named Vladek by Erica Van Sloan, there to help them for the upcoming invasion. I liked how Milan portrayed Thulia and this new god-king. And Tanimbar itself was clorfully illustrated in a barbaric splendour that I found very enjoyable.
Granted, Milan created a new Mag bad guy from Kane's past we've never heard about, but I thought it was fun to read their interactions.
Since Mag Salvo, I don't think there has been a more ruthless Mag badass bad guy. (Hmm, perhaps Pollard?)
The outlanders split up, and as Kane is captured by this ruthless Mag fron his past, Brigid and Grant go on a quest to find the Crew's ancient and powerful artifact.
Milan draws upon some of Ellis's mythos, but also adds his own uniqueness to it.
The Crew was nothing like I thought they would be, and the surprise - along with the ever-growing revelation of who and what they are - was well worth the read to me.
Milan knows how to write adventurous stories with cool, interesting characters - both good and evil - making me eagerly turning the pages late into the night.
I was never bored while reading this issue, but Milan has a knack for sometimes confusing the reader in the storyline. Some things I just wasn't sure of, insofar as explanations and other things are concerned. I felt the same vaguness a times in SUN LORD. He has a good grasp of the English language, but sometimes the vagueness is like a foreign language.
But despite these quirks, ranfing from what I just mentioned - along with continuity and character traits - Milan still delivers his own brand of action/adventure.
Now no one writes this series like its creator. That's a no-brainer.
But if you can just set those differences aside for the differing authors opinions and perhaps tastes, and just like to read an exciting tale, knowing that the original author will come back and save the day - then you should enjoy this on some level.
But the ending, for me, was very unique and unexpected. From a titanic battle sequence to a sci-fi/fantasy type magical ending that left me wanting more.
Milan left this newest storyline open for further adventures with the surviving Crew members, along with an even larger threat looming on the horizon for the Outlander cadre. A threat hinted at that is even larger than the barons, Archons, hybrids, and every other alien threat they have thus far encountered.
I for one am looking forward to meeting this newest threat.
Now I really can't wait to see how this excellent action/adventure writer portrays Deathlands.
As well as what he will come up with in his next Outlanders installment.
But more importantly, Mark Ellis returns in the next issue with Evil Abyss.
Another Outlanders yarn that is sure to knock one right out of the ballpark.

This book was the worst thing I have ever read. Since when does Domi know anything about flying aircraft and Kane acting like he is the worlds stupidest person. And don't get me started on the grammar and the rest of the crew.

I originally wasn't going to write a review because I didn't think that it was worth even giving a vote of 1, but when I seen that others had given higher ratings I was very surprised and figured a 1 was better than nothing.