Natural yogurt.

Raidan is the model commander of the Phoenix starship doing his job keeping the Empire safe. He is well respected when suddenly he attacks and destroys some Rotham starships. This is totally out of character and he is arrested. No body knows why Raidan became a rogue commander and Calvin Cross decides to find out why he did it.

Okay, this novel is science fiction but I do enjoy all conspiracies. It is set in the future but the problems of races and cultures is very contemporary. The battles and challenges raging through these galaxies are no different to the present day land wars and conflicts going on every day in our world. This novel gets off to a great start because you do not know why a celebrated starship commander put his whole life on the line. It does not make sense but you travel with Calvin Cross to discover the truth.

Along the way there is a good range of characters who help Calvin in his quest. Not all the characters are human...

Three aliens stood up briefly and then sat down again on the only other platform. They were rotham, humanoid in appearance except for their golden eyes, scaly-crimson skin, and generally smaller physiques. They could also grow tails but most had them removed right after birth. All three present were male and wore the lavender uniforms of Rotham Military Command. Their hair was as black as oil, common for rotham, but braided—a style symbolizing status in their culture...

and...

"A human, actually." He tapped his console. "Err... now I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean, not sure?"
"It's a modified human, sir."
A chill traced Calvin's spine, rippling through his body while flashes of buried memories came to mind, images from his deepest, darkest nightmares.
"What kind of modified human?"
"Database lists it as a type three remorii."

...The plot develops at a good pace and you feel that something dodgy is going on. Characters say strange things to Calvin and you suspect members of his crew may have a hidden agenda. On one outstation people are after Calvin and are trying to kill him, so the heat is on. Maybe Raidan was right to attack the Rotham starships and the Empire is corrupt. Sadly around 80% through this novel the conspiracy angle drops to zero and it is boyish battle in outer space between aliens and humans. After this battle Calvin does find out why Raidan destroyed the Rotham starships and this leads the way to a sequel.

The Phoenix Conspiracy is available as a free Amazon Kindle eBook of 1404 KB and was published in 2011. Richard Sanders is only 25 years old and I hope his writing will improve as he gets older. This novel is okay as a freebie but as a conspiracy it fails because it lacks depth of deception. The conspiracy is shallow and rather far fetched. The Phoenix Conspiracy starts off as a great mystery, develops well but then runs out of steam and begins to disappoint. There was potential for The Phoenix Conspiracy to be a great novel but the lack of hidden workings let it down. It does provide escapism and is an easy every day read that I will vote 3 stars on Good Reads because it is simply Okay.

If you want to read a good conspiracy, then there is one that I can really recommend, Body of Lies by David Ignatius and I think Richard Sanders could learn a lot from it too.