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Tag Archives: scifi adventure

Stars Beyond (Stars Uncharted, #2) by S.K. Dunstall – Review

22 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by WWMB in Book Review

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Tags

5 stars, aliens, Book Review, first contact, S. K. Dunstall, sci fi, scifi adventure, seris


About Stars Beyond by S.K. Dunstall

The crew of Another Road are back, closer than ever to the biggest score in the galaxy. . . if they can stay a step ahead of the Justice Department agents and Company men tracking them.

An engineer with a fondness for weapons. A captain with no memory. An obsessive genemodder who loves to tinker. Meet the crew of Another Road.

Josune, Roystan, and Nika have escaped the company thugs trying to kill them. They’ve gotten a new spaceship to replace The Road (after it was blown up underneath them). And their new ship is armed to the teeth with dangerous weapons, courtesy of Josune. All that’s left to do before they head out to find the legendary lode of transurides is to restore Roystan’s memory. To do that, they need to collect the genemod machine Nika has ordered.

But first, they have to shake off the Justice Department agent and the Companies tracking them.

It should be easy. They’ve done it before. What could possibly go wrong?

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Review of Stars Beyond

If you like your fiction to be character-driven, you have come to the right place.  Stars Beyond is full of great characters that, individually have potentially great stories.  Together, the intermeshed greatness is vivid and glowing.  Even the chapters are named after the character who’s point of view is exposed in the chapter.  So to review this book, I will review a few characters.  Warning, there may be spoilers if you have not read Stars Uncharted.

Hammond Roystan – the quiet hero with the mysterious forgotten past.  Despite, the fact that he never even gets his own chapter, Hammond is critical to the story, more than any other character.  You have read Stars Uncharted, you get the idea.  But keep paying attention to Roystan.

Alistair Laughton – is the intriguing new character.  Asked to take leave from the Justice Department, he is back again – at their request.  But while he was on leave, his adventures were most intersting….

Nika Rik Terri – the body modder.  A really good, in demand body modder.  That is until someone tried to frame her for murder and kill her.  Somehow she ended up with Roystan and his ragtag crew.  And for some reason, Laughton is looking for her.  These characters are so interconnected it must be fate that links them.  Or maybe Roystan.  See there he is again.

Bertram Snowshoe – well if it weren’t for Snow, we would not get to hang out with the evil mercenary Captain Oliver Norris.  And he is.  Evil.  Nasty.  Norris, not Snow.  Snow is the modder apprentice, but manages to be a pretty good gunner too.  Snow, like most of the ragtag crew, has many talents.

What is it  about the term ragtag that automatically gets my attention?

Jacques Saloman – chef and cargo master.  Mostly chef.  You gotta love a man who thinks food, good food, is the solution for everything.  And on Another Road, it pretty much is.

Leonard Wickmore – bad guy.  Wickmore got the first chapter in Stars Beyond, where we learn he is after Rik Terri.  He is a thoroughly despicable character that did not deserve to live past book one.  I prefer my villains to evolve and grow just as much as the protagonists and if not, they need to be eliminated….somehow.  But Dunstall thought he was needed in this story.  Okay, if you need someone to boo and hiss at, Wickmore is your man.

The Ort.  First contact species with a need for a special body modder.   Everybody seems to want Rik Terri.

The Vortex.  While not technically a character, the spaceship-ripping Vortex is an astronomical phenomenon that happens to be very close to the center of all that is important.  Beware the Vortex.  Roystan does.

These motley characters are combined with a story line that gallivants enough to throw in a few surprises.  (Surprises are good.)  Beware the Vortex cannot be said enough.

Through Netgalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Redshirts by John Scalzi – Review

09 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by WWMB in Book Review

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

4 stars, Adventure, Book Review, John Scalzi, satire, scifi, scifi adventure, scifi TV, series, space opera, Star Trek, Tabitha Lord


About Redshirts by John Scalzi

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.
Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that:

(1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces
(2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations
(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

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Review of Redshirts

I’m just going to start out by saying that if you are not a Star Trek TOS fan, you are probably not going to get Redshirts. Well, maybe you will, but only if you read the entire book! If you a fan of the original series, you will immediately grasp the way of things.

TOS fans will latch onto the plotplot very soon into the book. I just made that compound word up: plotplot. It needed to be coined. Kind of like a plot within a plot, but more like a plot that is made up of a plot. Hmmph. Yeah, that did not make sense to me as I typed it, but it does make sense to me in terms of the story of Redshirts. All I can say is, read it. And feel free to use my new word.

Redshirts have a rep. I know it. You know it. Unless you are a chief, if you wear a red shirt, your life is on the line every time you step onto that transporter pad. Ensign Dahl is a redshirt. Or as they are called in the book – ensign.

Dahl quickly learns that other crew members are somewhat aware of their very precarious place on the Intrepid and have devised a system to make life just a little bit safer. This inspires the intrepid ensign to take his scientific curiosity and apply it to his life on (and off) the Intrepid.

As a nearly life-long fan of Star Trek, I loved the references to the characters, ships, missions and monsters of TOS. Finding and anticipating the parallels became a game, to see if I was right about who was who and what was what.

The ending postludes were amusing, but I actually think I could have done without them. Rather than add to the story, they actually told different stories – which were marginally interesting.

Star Trek TOS is both revered and ridiculed by fans all over. Redshirts is like a TOS fan, reverent of the show, but also poking much fun at the series. Mostly, poking fun. Can fans who only love and adore TOS appreciate this book? Doubtful. If you read Redshirts, bring your ability to laugh at this sacred icon of science fiction television.

My review copy came from the local public library.  I had to give it back after two weeks.  This review is my honest opinion.

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Abaddon Rising (Deg’Nara series) by P.L. Parker – Review

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by WWMB in Book Review

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

4 stars, aliens, gladiators, intergalactic war, P.L. Parker, romance, scifi, scifi adventure, series

About Abaddon Rising by P.L. Parker

One of a million statistics in the intergalactic war, Jocelyn St. Germaine is captured, sold as a slave and then forced to fight in the Deg’Nara gladiator games.  She’s slated to lose when Kanaan, the most feared warrior of all, claims her as his own. With his help, Joss’s chances of survival increase, but is it enough?

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Review of Abaddon Rising

The Deg’Nara series takes place in a part of the galaxy where there is a really nasty alien race, the Deg’Nara, that wants to enslave or obliterate all other races and worlds out there. Why? There is not a lot of reasoning given, except, like I said, they are really nasty.

The good guys are either slaves of the Deg’Nara or part of the onging fight against them. Or both. This common background is ripe for drama and action and romance.

Abaddon Rising focuses on two gladiator-like slaves of the Deg’Nara. Joss is a human woman who was ‘accidentally’ kidnapped by the Chiagan-Se and brought to this part of the galaxy (See The Chalice). The battles between the Chiagan-Se and the Deg’Nara resulted in Joss being captured and made a slave.

Kanaan is the local boy. Part Chiagan-Se and part Mogishada he was raised in the slave system, but his mother taught him everything he needed to know in order to not just survive, but to come out on top. Indeed, at the beginning of the book Kanaan is the ‘demon warrior of the slave pits’, also known as The Destroyer.

In the slave quarters Kanaan claims Joss to protect her, but it will soon become something more.

The relationship between Joss and Kanaan is a bit off again, on again, depending on the last conversation they had. It is not an easy alliance but as the reader, I knew they were meant to be together. However, neither of them is an ace communicator, so it takes awhile for them to confess their love. Which is how it should be. 🙂

Joss and Kanaan will go through much before the end of the book. Arena battles, training, a tournament, escape attempt, family re-union and ultimately, the chance to join in the great, far-reaching battle against the Deg’Nara. The story is nearly epic and the romance keeps the pace. I truly enjoyed every page of Abaddon Rising.

I feel like I should clarify the Deg’Nara series, which started with The Chalice, originally published in 2012. Breeder Slave came next, in 2017, but it does not seem to be billed as part of the series (according to Amazon or Goodreads). Finally, Abaddon Rising came out this year and it is designated Deg’Nara #2. It is a little confusing, but to clarify:

Breeder Slave really is part of the Deg’Nara series. It takes place during the same time period as Abaddon Rising but has mostly different characters and locations. There is a slight overlap. Read them in any order. Both fit in nicely with the Deg’Nara series.

The author provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Links

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Giveaway

Don’t forget the ongoing giveaway for the audiobook of Phantom Evil by Heather Graham, or the print books of Catherine Cerveny’s The Rule of Luck and The Chaos of Luck.  If you haven’t entered yet, you might be interested to know that commenting on today’s post helps qualify you for an entry – see the giveaway post for all the details.  Or go straight to the giveaway….

Click Here:  a Rafflecopter giveaway

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