Sci-fi – Dark Hints Reviews

Red Hope (#1) + Blue Hope (#2), John Dreese

Karen — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 08:57:16 +0000

Rating: 3 Stars (Average over 2 books)

Publisher: Self Published

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Sci-Fi, Mars

Length: 257 +

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Retired astronaut Adam Alston can’t support his family. When NASA comes knocking for a mission leader, it’s a match made in heaven – especially since their A-list team declined the haphazard mission.

And so did their B-list. But Adam doesn’t know that. And neither does his family.

Ride along as four modern-day astronauts prepare and launch a quickly assembled adventure to discover what the Mars Curiosity Rover found right before it died. With time running out, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of four doomed travelers.

Who will make it back… and why won’t the others?

This is a review for 2 books.

Review:

Something extraordinary is discovered upon Mars. It motivates the US Administration to take the bold step of sending a manned mission to the Red Planet and everything that unfolds as a consequence to this discovery is contained within these two books by John Dreese.

The author does a good job with the world building and character development. He makes the human interactions seem quite believable and realistic, especially with the political machinations. A fair amount of research has obviously been undertaken by the author to produce these two works.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

In spite of all this, I sometimes found these two books to be frustrating reads for the following reasons;

1) Always something catastrophically going wrong sure gets damned annoying as an often-used, expedient plot development device. e.g.;

That closing door on Mars that results in Murch’s and then his partner’s death. This would never have happened to Murch’s partner, a professional, experienced astronauts, they would have wedged that rolling door open.

Before you’d jack up a car and certainly before you would crawl under it, you’d place chocks around a wheel or two and you would place something solid under it and de-tension the jack until both the solid object and the jack would be taking the weight of the vehicle – at least people who are smart would do so. We are talking about astronauts, they would be plenty smart.

2) Dog species most likely to survive and dominate with humans gone. Many people seem to feel that survivability/thrivability will be mainly a matter of strength and power. However, I believe that it will come down to more a matter of speed and hunting prowess, i.e. sight hounds, e.g. greyhounds, whippets etc.

3) RTG thermodynamics is based upon normal radioactive decay. Losing containment would not have increased the amount of heat being injected into the surrounding environment but there could be an increase in alpha radiation, you know, the one that is stopped by a sheet of paper.

4) Number one button would be “return home”. Why would old Apollo technology beat our hero back to Earth? I suppose he could have returned via Mars (pressed the wrong button initially), but, if that was the case, then it should have been explained in the story.

5) Little girl dying from pancreatic cancer. Like AIDS, the cancer doesn’t kill us, it’s organ failure/toxicity/disruptive effects upon our body’s systems that kills us – she was too far gone to have been cured by that drug’s effects upon cancerous cells, in fact, the increase in toxicity, due to the drug’s interaction, would have killed the poor little mite for sure.

There are too many coincidences, improbable accidents and lazy plot devices for my liking which affected my overall rating.

The Shadowverse, John-Clement Gallo

Karen — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 12:25:22 +0000

Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Self Published

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Action, Super Heroes, YA/NA

Length: 547 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Regarded as “captivating” and “one-of-a-kind,” The Shadowverse is a Science-Fiction Superhero thriller with hints of the Young Adult genre. It is a story of destiny—that no matter who you are, where you are, or what your past is like, you can always achieve greatness.

Johnny Sparks longs for a greater purpose. After an encounter with a mysterious stranger, he and his friends are imbued with incredible powers—at last giving his life meaning.

But this dream soon disintegrates once one of the friends is taken by an alien warlord named Titan. In a rescue effort, the remaining group is sent across the galaxy in search of the only possible aid—an ancient, immortal warrior missing for centuries.

To succeed, the team must join forces to reclaim their friend and stop a sinister scheme devised against humanity by Titan and his empire. The conflict for the soul of the universe is set in motion, but even if the group prevails, they risk losing what it means to be human.

Review:

“We Can Be Heroes Just For One Day…”

I must state that, to-date, this is the most difficult sci-fi book review I have ever had to write. The author, for one so young (only seventeen years of age), is one hell of a wordsmith. However, their lack of life experience does show through within the body of the work. So to be fair to the author, I have to try to approach this review from two angles; Firstly, as a young/new adult sci-fi reader and, secondly, as a more mature age sci-fi reader, which is what I am.

As an older teen or new/young adult sci-fi reader, especially if I was into comic books or superhero movies, I would find this story to be pretty cool. The characters are well developed, and the world building is very professionally done. The plot, whilst simplistic and uncomplicated, is filled with action and is revealed at a good pace, especially considering the book is well over five hundred pages long. The author seems to have mastered the technique of tension/pressure building and release, which in my opinion is great, as it has been my experience that a considerable number of authors in this genre seem only to know how to build tension and do not give the reader the time to de-compress during the read. Many times, to do so, I have had to just stop reading. With this author I did not have to do so.

I would easily give the book five stars based on younger me.

As a more mature age sci-fi reader, I think somewhat differently. To begin with, I found the word imagery contained within the first two pages to be feel forced and obviously designed to try to impress. Fortunately, that settled down rather quickly and the writing became more natural and the story flowed much more realistically. At 70% through the book we have the heroes visiting the US President at the Whitehouse in an attempt to “save the World.” Personally, I think that the Secretary General of the United Nations would have been the more appropriate person to have initially called upon. This was somewhat rectified later, but, more or less as an afterthought. There is a considerable amount of “facepalming” throughout the read and, towards the latter part of the story, much weeping and gnashing of teeth. IMO, the principle that best applies is, some is okay, less is better, more is much, much worse.

Overall, I found the plot to be somewhat parochial. I found the main characters’ behaviours/reactions to be simplistic and sometimes predictable. But, given that this is the Author’s first work, and also given their very early stage of development in life, that was perfectly understandable. This was nothing if not an entertaining read, and I would lean toward giving the book three stars as an older reader.

So, averaging it out between youthful and older reader, I give Shadowverse four stars overall. I’m looking forward to more of John-Clement Gallo because he shows immense promise and the scifi genre needs young writers like him.

Spindown, Andy Crawford

Karen — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 07:50:42 +0000

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Publisher: Self Published

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Sci-Fi

Length: 315 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Cyrus Konami is the Chief Inspector on the first colony vessel, Aotea, to leave Earth’s solar system. Deep within the machinery of the ship, a suspicious death upends the routine on board. Mysterious signals from deep space add to the confusion, along with a series of debilitating malfunctions.

Cy and Lieutenant Beatriz Mattoso dig into the deceased crewman’s background. The first signs point to a tragic accident. Ship scuttlebutt points to the deep-space signals — is a mysterious force trying to prevent humanity from spreading into deep space? Or are the radical pacifists and cultural separatists who funded the journey somehow involved?

With an increasingly uncooperative populace, a shocking assassination attempt, and a spaceship falling apart around them, Cy and Bea must unravel secrets that threaten the lives of thousands before it’s too late…

Review:

Oh, what a tangled web we weave…

What a “tangled web” is woven within this sci fi story, a small segment of humanity trying to create a Utopian society and seemingly having become, in the main, successful. But, unfortunately, all is never what it seems. Follow along with them in their journey in Spindown. The title of Spindown is indeed a fitting one for this work. We share their pain and disappointment, as this ‘idealistic’ society is spundown towards its own oblivion.

“Was he a good man?” asked Konami.
Mattoso raised an eyebrow.
Patil looked at him for a long time before responding. “He cared deeply about doing the right thing.”
Konami sensed something unsaid. “But…?”
She looked away. “I’m not sure that he knew what the right thing was.

The naiveté of the characters within this story is expertly portrayed by the author. The world building, too, it’s of an excellent standard. Nothing within the body of the writing is out of place and the pace of the plot development is well metered. After the abrupt start, everything within the story fits together well and flows seamlessly.

So, why did I take off half a star? Well, only once during the read did the story make me feel like I wanted to smash my Kindle upon the corner of the desk (what can I say? I’m an Earther, over fifty years of age with homicidal tendencies and prone to emotional outbursts). Also, at the very outset of the read, I experienced the feeling that I had just been dumped right into the middle of this “thing” (the story). IMO, if the author had presented the “historical” material contained within the “Appendix: Historical Timeline” as a “Prologue: Historical Timeline”, i.e. at the very start of the book instead of at the very end of the book, then the whole work would have flowed right from the very beginning and I wouldn’t have experienced that feeling at the start.

Good value at AUS$0.99 cents, Spindown is made even more appealing. A recommended read.

Extinction, Ray Hammond

Karen — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 06:59:41 +0000

Rating: 4 Stars

Publisher: Pan Publishing

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Political, Climate Change, Potential Apocalypse

Length: 608 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Only one quarter into the 21st century and our planet is displaying disturbing symptoms: storms, floods, mud-slides, tornadoes and blizzards afflict the globe’s surface, while heatwaves, droughts and deep-freeze are regular occurrences. Not to mention volcanoes and earthquakes. Many believe that mankind’s consuming lust for economic growth is fast wrecking the world, while others insist these changes are all part of the planet’s natural cycle. Whatever the truth, the most alarming factor is that the Earth is beginning to tilt on its axis … and worldwide panic is looming.

As governments, experts, corporations and disruptive forces squabble to be heard, it is up to individuals to seek a solution to the most horrifying geophysical scenario we have ever faced.

Review:

This book is about the build-up leading to, and the aftermath therefrom, an Earth climatic Armageddon. It is expertly written. The political wrangling, dirty tricks and underhanded tactics employed within the storyline of this novel are all chillingly believable. To quote Underwood, the last President Of The United States Of America;

“… My government was not only a champion of climate management, we ignored, even suppressed, the warnings we were given. ‘For that reason I now relinquish any vestige of my office that may remain. I formally resign as President of any American population or nation that may have survived. May God forgive me.”

Perhaps it would work if we substituted “fossil fuels” for “climate management” and “Trump” for “Underwood”. The author nailed conveying the sense of hopelessness and depression experienced by the World’s disadvantaged. Whilst, at the same time, conveying the good fortune experienced by the “lucky ones” and the opulent lifestyles of the under one percent of the World’s most privileged.

The author has also done an excellent job with the science underpinning the work. The climate control mechanism and its adverse volcanism effects, due to its interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field, was made to sound quite plausible. The deleterious effects to human physiology of prolonged exposure to (near) weightlessness, resulting from actual research constantly being conducted upon the ISS, was expertly woven into the book. It would have been nice, IMO, to have included a mention of either using vehicle rotation (centrifugal force) or greatly reduced transit times, to counter this effect upon humans having travelled or who would be travelling to/from Mars.

So, why only four stars? Mainly due to, IMO, the incongruous post-apocalyptic behaviours of the CEO of Ergia, namely, racked with guilt and totally suicidal. Trust me, people who become and/or remain CEO’s of extremely successful, all-encompassing multi-national corporations are capable of justifying any and all decisions deemed necessary to maintain the organisational/personal status quo. If he had lost dearly beloved family members then maybe, but he was single and apparently without children. In other words, he appeared to be a totally self-contained, along with being a self-centred individual (and please do not take this as a criticism or adverse value judgement of people who may be this way in real life, one of my closest friends, of over forty years, is such a person).

It also didn’t help, being an Aussie, a New South Welshman to boot, that I have to point out that it’s not Sidney in New South Wales, Australia, it’s Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. While Extinction is a good book, recommended reading, a few things let it slip from 5 to 4 stars.

Quantum Void (Quantum Book #2), Douglas Phillips

Karen — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 09:04:14 +0000

Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Series

Length: 355 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Eight months after the astounding discoveries made at Fermilab…

Particle physics was always an unlikely path to the stars, but with the discovery that space could be compressed, the entire galaxy had come within reach. The technology was astonishing, yet nothing compared to what humans encountered four thousand light-years from home. Now, with an invitation from a mysterious gatekeeper, the people of Earth must decide if they’re ready to participate in the galactic conversation.

The world anxiously watches as a team of four katanauts suit up to visit an alien civilization. What they learn on a watery planet hundreds of light-years away could catapult human comprehension of the natural world to new heights. But one team member must overcome crippling fear to cope with an alien gift she barely understands.

Back at Fermilab, strange instabilities are beginning to show up in experiments, leading physicists to wonder if they ever really had control over the quantum dimensions of space.

The second book of the Quantum series rejoins familiar characters and adds several more as it explores the frontiers of human knowledge and wisdom. Of course, it wouldn’t be part of the series if it didn’t have a few twists along the way!

Review:

This book is the ultimate mind trip and the story takes up eight months from where Quantum Space left off (remember that experimental program called Diastasi being conducted at Fermilab in the USA to do with the compression of three-dimensional space?) We see the return of the main characters, Daniel, Nala and Marie, and what this trio gets up to, especially the girls, will really blow your mind. I hope Schrodinger’s Cat doesn’t mind the company in that box, because, it’s just about to get a little bit crowded. And remember, every cloud has a silver lining, even when it’s one composed of toxic and noxious fumes, if you read the book, you’ll understand.

Just like in the first novel, the pace of the second novel is well measured and the science behind the story continues to be made quite believable. The world building and character development, likewise, continues to be flawless with nothing feeling either out of place or incomplete. Again, I greatly appreciated the afterword provided by the author at the end of the novel, explaining the factual vs fictional science. Included is information about data returned by space probes that lend support to some very radical theories about the structure of the universe. Trust me, the “factual” in this novel’s afterword is really, really out there, and, let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy reading about the results of a good probe every now and then?

Like Quantum Space, I found Quantum Void to be very good value and I highly recommended that you, like myself, also add this novel to your SciFi collection. To get the most out of Quantum Void I feel it’s probably best to have read Quantum Space first but, at a pinch, you don’t have to. While I enjoyed it because I believe I’m the demographic to do so, as a general warning, don’t try to fully comprehend the Quantum Physics behind the work, because, IMO, if you succeed, you run the very real risk of being mentally discombobulated.

Quantum Space (Quantum #1), Douglas Phillips

Karen — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 07:36:46 +0000

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Series

Length: 364 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

Imagine and let your intellect… soar.

High above the windswept plains of Kazakhstan, three astronauts on board a Russian Soyuz capsule begin their reentry. A strange shimmer in the atmosphere, a blinding flash of light, and the capsule vanishes in a blink as though it never existed.

On the ground, evidence points to a catastrophic failure, but a communications facility halfway around the world picks up a transmission that could be one of the astronauts. Tragedy averted, or merely delayed? A classified government project on the cutting edge of particle physics holds the clues, and with lives on the line, there is little time to waste.

Daniel Rice is a government science investigator. Marie Kendrick is a NASA operations analyst. Together, they must track down the cause of the most bizarre event in the history of human spaceflight. They draw on scientific strengths as they plunge into the strange world of quantum physics, with impacts not only to the missing astronauts, but to the entire human race.

Review:

The story is set in present day and involves the developments of an experimental program called Diastasi being conducted at Fermi National Laboratory, or Fermilab, in the USA. The program revolves around the “theory” that the distance between two points within three-dimensional space can be compressed by the use of a beam of coherent neutrinos which convert a specific volume of three dimensional space to an equivalent volume of four dimensional space.

The pace of the story is well measured and the science behind the story made to be quite believable. This is due to the fact that most of the science contained within the story is factual, with the remainder being fictional. I was greatly appreciative of an afterword being provided, at the end of the novel, explaining, in considerable detail, where the factual finished and the fictional commenced.

The world building and character development are flawless with nothing feeling either out of place or incomplete.

Given all the above, why did I reduce the rating by half a star? Whilst all the science contained within the novel is very realistic, the politics of how things tend to work within the Washington DC Beltway, IMO, is not. It was with very good reason that people within positions of high political authority, like Eisenhower, feared the influence held by the US Industrial/Military Complex. The full political ramifications, both domestic and foreign, of the technology, IMO, have not been fully or realistically reported/explored within the novel. The person who was set up to take the fall would usually take the fall, and that’s where I’ll leave it so as not to ruin the story.

Quantum Space is something harder to find in the sci-fi genre now and I’ll be reading the next in the series.

Earth Warden (Book #1), Tony James Slater

Karen — Fri, 18 Jan 2019 12:22:50 +0000

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Publisher: Various Things

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Action

Length: 398 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

For centuries, the Wardens have guarded our planet.
Their sacred duty: to protect humanity from itself…
and from everything else.

Lord Anakreon, Warden of the First Circle, has a problem.
He’s been forced to kill another apprentice, and he’s rapidly running out of candidates.
In fact, there is precisely one left… On Earth, Tristan Andrews is in trouble.
He has been ever since the day his dad left for work – and never came home.
Seven years later, living with one foot on the street, Tristan is struggling to survive.
Until a tough old man with a scarred face breaks into his house. He claims to have the answers Tristan seeks…
But there’s a price.

Review:

The first third of the book is brilliant. Plot development is on track. Character developed is supported with mature writing and I found them to be very engaging and incredibly easy to relate to. The book was holding my interest and promised so much. I thought at the time that this was a potential five star read.

In the middle third of the book, unfortunately, my overall opinion of the book started to change. The character interaction had begun to become repetitious and the plot devices were becoming somewhat predictable.

When Tristan is first seconded into the apprenticeship with the Warden, he shows a certain potential when put into a dangerous situation. When he focused and shot two people right between the eyes under pressure I thought that this guy had latent skills. He was cool and automatically did what he did like a trained assassin but that just evaporated. That was the only time it occurred, and he devolved. As a heroic character he was a failure to launch.

By the beginning of the last third of the book, things had become quite cliché. Tristan, had become, to me, excessively whingey and whiney, to the point where I expected him at any moment to burst into song, “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go and eat worms”. But, I persisted.

Spoiler alert: If you are thinking of reading the book, then finish reading the review here.

At the end of the book, my opinion of the work was that it had been reduced to your standard, predictable, churn’em out, boring read – where the hyper-evil bad dudes all escaped the climatic death scene unscathed (to further engage in their dastardly deeds), the heroes kept ditheringly falling over themselves and, as fighters for truth, justice and the old Warden way, had become as useless as “tits on a bull”. The ending set up so as to whet the reader’s appetite for the obvious sequel. Well, this reader has been left with no desire to proceed with this series.

The Dust of Dawn, Eloise J. Knapp

Karen — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 14:21:26 +0000

Rating: 5 Stars

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Sci-fi

Tags: Sci-fi, Apocalyptic/Dystopian, Graphic Content

Length: 273 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon.com

Synopsis:

Zabat’s Comet promises a stunning astronomical display as it narrowly passes our planet. Then a solar flare nudges it hurtling toward Earth. Humanity crumbles during the countdown to Doomsday.

But Zabat is more than just a comet. The impact brings not swift extinction but a massive cloud of dust that appears to have a mind of its own. A sinister intelligence. A force that Zabat’s Comet promises a stunning astronomical display as it narrowly passes our planet. Then a solar flare nudges it hurtling toward Earth. Humanity crumbles during the countdown to Doomsday.

But Zabat is more than just a comet. The impact brings not swift extinction but a massive cloud of dust that appears to have a mind of its own. A sinister intelligence. A force that threatens to change what’s left of humanity.

Jack, Colleen, Lara, and Dan survived the violent chaos of the countdown. They survived the threat of extinction. Now they’re about to find out that after Doomsday, there are horrors even worse than death.

Review:

The most disturbing aspect of this novel is how realistic it is, not for it’s apocalyptic plot, no, but for they way it predicts the likely behaviours of individual humans if/when law and order breaks down.

The tale is set in present day and involves the developments in the lives of a group of individuals following the discovery of a three mile wide “comet” that has it’s trajectory altered to intercept Earth and the aftermath of that interception.

The world building is excellent and at times quite chilling. The character development, likewise, is also excellent and it, at times, can be quite graphic. For example, here’s a couple of snippets regarding a sociopathic character in the book called Dan.

Dan moved away from the window and collapsed on the bed. Beside him, Chrissy’s body remained motionless. She’d been dead a while. He wasn’t sure if he fucked her to death or if she’d finally starved. Either way, he was pretty hungry himself and was considering whether or not he could eat her. She was a skinny bitch, but he was sure she still had some meat on her.

– and then a little bit further on in the same chapter;

He shoved Chrissy off the bed. Her body hit the ground with a loud thud. The movement sent a wave of pungent odor off her.
She’d shat and pissed herself. Hopefully the meat was still good.

As I read, I continually kept hoping that the author would have this hungry charmer “eating a bullet” or three.

About the editing, the book’s continuity is generally excellent, the grammar, however, not quite so. I found only a couple of errors. Towards the end of chapter 23 (Craig) the author wrote, “… Except for you for guys”, where I believe they meant to write, “… Except for you four guys.”. Two-thirds of the way through chapter 24 (Jack) the author wrote, “… could be the different between life and death”, instead of “… could be the difference between life and death”. Given the length of the novel it’s forgivable but they’re simple things that shouldn’t happen and they disturbed the enjoyment of my reading.

Overall, The Dust of Dawn is an excellent read and promises to have an interesting follow on, The Dust Of Day, due out in 2019. I found it to be very good value at just over AUS$1.00 and I highly recommended you give the book a go, but, only if you don’t mind reading things that are on the dark and gritty side of human behaviour.

Mercury Blade, James David Victor

Karen — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 17:12:45 +0000

Rating: 3 Stars

Publisher: Fairfield Publishing

Genre: Sci-Fi

Length: 168 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon.com

Synopsis:

On the run with a stolen alien artifact that could ultimately destroy humanity. Chased by the most powerful military force in the galaxy and the most notorious criminal overlord in the sector. No problem for the fastest ship in the known universe.

A far-future space opera series from #1 Bestselling author James David Victor

Eliard Martin is captain of the Mercury Blade, the fastest ship in the galaxy. With his small crew, he travels the stars looking for adventure and profit. When he tries to pull one over on a dangerous criminal overlord, he soon finds himself on a mission that will lead to more danger than he has ever faced before. With the help of a mysterious stranger, who is clearly more than she appears, they will fight to stay one step ahead of the most powerful forces in the galaxy. Can the crew of the Mercury Blade fly their way to freedom or will they be crushed by the opposing forces seeking their demise?

Mercury Blade is the first book in the exciting Valyien Far Future Space Opera series. If you like fast paced space adventure, the rogue crew of the Mercury Blade will keep you entertained for hours.

Review:

As you may have been able to guess from the rating, this book, the first of the Valyien Far Future Space Opera series, didn’t really grab my interest. I could best describe it as a passable read.

The tale is set in the thirty-first millennium (no reference is provided to align with current Earth time) and concerns the exploits of a renegade spaceship captain, Eliard Martin, and the crew of the Mercury Blade, a sleek, super fast, Marcionne built starship, being pitted against despotic regimes in a race to obtain an extinct race’s advanced tech. I found the plot overall to be a bit Star Wars/Han Solo/Millennium Falcon’ish, quite a common theme in sci-fi.

The world building is okay, whilst the character development is so-so. To be frank, I really didn’t get that invested with the characters. The author could have spent more time rounding them out, permitting the reader to become more invested. The potential, to flesh the characters out, was there, but, the author failed to do so.

The book editing was reasonable, with one glaring exception, on page three, the plural of millennium is millennia, not millenniums. I would also like to mention that on the same page, when describing colours, the author wrote blues become pregnant purples. I thought, what!, did the author just have a brain fart? Don’t they realise that generally the readers of action based sci-fi are not the type of people who are inclined towards wanting to read flowery prose? Fortunately, it was the only time that it occurred within the work.

When it’s all said and done, would I buy Alpha Rises, the next book in the series? Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn’t.

If I was pushed for an answer, I probably wouldn’t. At AUS $3.99 for only two hundred odd Kindle pages, if they are of the same overall quality as this read, then, for me, it would be a bit too pricey.

Forerunner (Book #1), Isaac Hooke

Karen — Sun, 13 Jan 2019 15:12:17 +0000

Rating: 3 Stars

Publisher: Indie

Genre: Sci-Fi

Tags: Military

Length: 340 Pages

Reviewer: John

Purchase At: amazon

Synopsis:

A fleet of warships operated by the digitized minds of former humans. An unknown enemy lurking in the dark of space. The one man who hopes to conquer them both.

Jain was the lieutenant commander of an elite SEAL team. He was accustomed to order and discipline, which he used to give the men under his command that particular brand of killer instinct his unit was known for. But one day that semi-comfortable, ordered life ended when he opened his eyes to find his body replaced by a starship. His mind had become its AI core. He is somewhere in deep space. Most of his systems are badly damaged. He has no memory of how he got here, or what his mission is. Evidence points to an attack by an unknown entity. He finds other damaged vessels in the vicinity and reactivates them. They, too, have no memory of the events leading up to their current situation. Jain, thrust into a leadership role, soon learns that commanding a fleet of starships isn’t all that different from leading a platoon of SEALs. It helps that his database is chock-full of tactics and military strategies gleaned from every space battle humanity has ever fought. As he and his fleet explore their surroundings and slowly piece together what happened to them, they realize their attacker is not from any human system.

And that any misstep means not only the loss of his fleet, but potentially the destruction of humanity itself.

Review:

Who wants to be a fire engine?

My quote above is partially derived from the scene in the movie Crazy People where Dudley Moore’s character asks all those present to put up their hands if they want to be a fire engine. What I found, as I read this novel, was that I couldn’t completely get past that feeling of disconnect with the main characters being “spaceships” instead of being human(oid machines). Even with the plot devices, where they could be human within VR or inhabiting robotic machines, I just couldn’t shake that in-ability to relate feeling.

The tale is set in the future within a (reasonably) distant solar system of our galaxy and concerns the exploits of a group of “mind refurbs”, real humans who have had their minds scanned, stored and eventually uploaded into computer cores of military spaceships.

Jain became conscious.
He stared at the infinitude of stars before him. He seemed to be floating in deep space.
He had no body.

He joins with his other “mind refurbs” and together they play a game of cat & mouse with an extremely capable alien warship.

“No, we were attacked. And whatever did the attacking is still lying in wait out there, somewhere. Either in this system, or one nearby.”

The world building and character development are of a consistently high quality. The book editing and story continuity is polished, with no discernible mistakes nor discontinuities. But when you combine my disconnect around the characters being spaceships with a repetitious plot and action sequences, it ended up dampening my joy of reading this book and hence the three star rating. Do I believe the writer to be more than capable? I certainly do, but I just felt 100% wasn’t given, especially when it came to the alien vehicle doing the same things when attacking.

Would I buy Devastator, the next book in the series? At this stage, I’m undecided, but, if pushed for an answer, I probably would.

At AUS$4.99 for just a bit over four hundred Kindle pages, if it is of the same overall quality as this work, then, for me, it would be probably be worth it to buy and continue reading.