Return to Dark Earth (Phoenix Adventures #6) by Anna Hackett Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: science fiction romance
Series: Phoenix Adventures #6
Pages: 336
Published by Anna Hackett on July 21, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Goodreads
A strait-laced astro-archeologist turned treasure hunter has one weakness: his deadly, seductive rival.
Astro-archeologist Niklas Phoenix loved his job studying artifacts at the Institute of Historical Preservation…until he learned that it was all a lie. Forced out of the Institute, he joins his treasure hunter brothers, but now the Institute is trying to lure him back for the ultimate treasure hunt—a return to the planet that seeded life throughout the galaxy, Earth.
Only one thing convinces him to go—dangerous and enigmatic treasure hunter Nera Darc.
Nera escaped hell and has made a life for herself where she bows to no one. Niklas Phoenix has become her dark obsession, and now on a perilous mission, they’ll be working side by side. She’s built hard walls around her withered heart, but Niklas threatens to break them all down, and that’s a risk she can’t afford.
The dangers of Earth strip away Nik and Nera’s secrets and their simmering passion explodes. As a dark enemy closes in, they can only trust each other in a fierce battle for survival.
My Review:
There have been three HUGE questions hiding in the background of the first five books in the Phoenix Adventures series. All those stories have had their very own happy endings, but there have been a few issues hiding in plain sight – at least some of the time – from the very beginning.
First, there’s the tease – all the teasing – about rival treasure hunter Nera Darc. She’s good, she’s very good. She’s especially good at swooping in after the Phoenix brothers have done all the hard work and sprung all the traps. She’s clearly not hunting for treasure nearly as much as she’s hunting them for THEIR treasure. She’s driving all of them a bit crazy in the process, but it’s astro-archaeologist Niklas Phoenix who seems to be more than a bit obsessed with her. And possibly vice-versa.
The second question is wrapped around Nik Phoenix, every bit as much as Nik is wrapped around the axle about the reason that he resigned from a job he had worked his entire life for. He had been one of the star astro-archaeologists at the prestigious Galactic Institute, but he left under a cloud of suspicion to come home and work with his brothers as a treasure hunter. Whatever happened, he doesn’t talk about it. He doesn’t even like to think about it. So he mostly shies away from those memories, even from inside his own head.
The final question is the biggest, and it’s the question hiding in plain sight from the very beginning of At Star’s End. It’s the question about Earth. The series is clearly set in a far future, a future in which humanity was forced to escape from a dying Earth. The treasure that the Phoenix brothers are hunting in that opening story is a surviving fragment of the Mona Lisa! Clearly, something happened between our now and their then that seriously effed things up. But we only have hints about it, along with a black hole where the information should be on the condition of this planet in their now.
Those three questions; who Nera Darc is and why she’s so fixated on the Phoenix brothers – or at least one Phoenix brother in particular, the truth behind the reason that Nik resigned from the Galactic Institute, and the current condition of the effed up Mother Earth that a fleeing humanity left behind, all come barreling towards Nik Phoenix like a laser cannon at the opening of Return to Dark Earth.
That title is a big hint that Earth is believed to be dark, empty of life and destroyed beyond habitability. But the Galactic Institute is mounting a big, well-funded expedition back to humanity’s home to see if the destruction left any treasures behind. They’ve contracted with the best treasure hunters in the galaxy for the kind of treasure hunting opportunity that the dreams of both historical enquiry and avarice are made of.
Nik Phoenix wants nothing to do with the Galactic Institute or any of their schemes. Not even this one. Not until Nera Darc breaks into his ship, informs him that she’s going to be part of the mission, and steals the treasure he and his brothers just acquired on her way out.
That’s all it takes to convince Nik to do the last thing he ever intended to do – work with the Institute again. Not for the trip of a lifetime, not for seeing humanity’s home planet with his own eyes, not for the treasure. Nik’s going to watch Nera Darc’s back. Because as badass as she is – and she definitely is – he can’t stand the idea of her being in the midst of those scum without him to stand at her side. Whether she wants him there or not.
Escape Rating A-: When I read the original version of this book it seemed as if it might be the end of the Phoenix Brothers wild saga. It had that feel then, and it still does today. Even though I know now that there are four more books coming.
As it turns out, this is kind of an end. The later stories, which I’m looking forward to reading again, were just a bit ancillary to the main action, much as the two novellas that make up In A Dangerous Orbit turned out to be.
Return to Dark Earth, with the way that it answers the lingering questions set up in At Star’s End, still feels like AN ending if not quite THE ending of the saga.
That being said, it’s still a very satisfying ending, because it answers those questions. And not just that we get both Nera’s tragic backstory as well as the real reasons behind Nik’s departure from the Galactic Institute. That Earth is every bit the horrifying mess that they (and the reader) expect is not exactly a surprise, but the fight to plumb the depths of the Institute’s corruption AND the wasteland of the planet at the same time makes for a pulse-pounding adventure every step of the zombie and mutated monster infested journey.
The icing on this story cake was the way that they managed to find a bit of an oasis in the midst of the destruction AND the answer to a real-life historical treasure hunt that has never been solved. Maybe someday, a thousand or more years from now.
That last discovery certainly tied this treasure hunting saga up in a bright and very shiny golden bow – along with a happy ever after that’s been well earned over the course of the series. Leaving this reader still looking forward to just a bit more, a chance to tie up all the loose ends, and to make sure that the few still-unattached members of the Phoenix clan get their own HEA’s tied up as happily as Nik and Nera did on their Return to Dark Earth.
