The second novel from Lobster Calypso author David J. Andrews, Endeavour's Legacy, begins with Captain James Cook’s voyage initiated by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1769, which led to a discovery that would change the world. Sadly, Cook was betrayed and a very important document was lost just before he succumbed to illness.

Descendents of those involved with Cook’s last voyage are battling each other, totally unaware more advanced forces are desperate to solve the great riddle. Generations later, Richard Revesby is pulled into the scene when he is hired to do a small job for a well-connected man. Richard is ignorant of the historical connection, although it is obvious to him that he is being used as a puppet in this game. As he scrambles to stay alive, Richard discovers two hidden and highly secret societies, the Huldra and the Valkyrie, where females are seen as more likely to create a safe world.

The list of characters is huge, from the Emperor of Taiwan, the last Kaiser of Germany, the Emperor of Austria to members of the Bourbon family, Nazis, and more. All of this is interwoven with several safely guarded scrolls that could alter family legacies forever.

This printing contains some serious errors, the most obvious being that some paragraphs are indented while others are not, as if the author - or publisher - couldn’t decide of which format to use. Typos can be located on nearly every page, from minor glitches to use of the wrong word. I highly suspect that proofreading and editing processes were skipped on this book.

Lengthy and sometimes tiring dialogue is strategically used to explain mysteries, but no mystery is fully revealed until the end of the novel. At times, it feels like the story is just never going to end.

However, Andrews writes with a certain kind of intelligence that requires readers to pay attention rather than passively drifting into fantasy. The author seems to possess incredible, but yet unseasoned, talent, ably taking on the difficult task of a highly complicated storyline.

Endeavour's Legacy's 346 pages include two pages of historical references and a short (seven-sentence) author biography at the very end. I found it quite interesting that the Norwegian Hudlra woman warriors and the Valkyrie maidens actually existed in ancient times. The last Kaiser of Germany truly took his holidays as depicted in the book, and the author chose to use bits of truth from Cook’s voyages and real family history.