Review: A more accurate title would be Riddick- Origins. Spoilers ahead.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 1, 2014
This novella details how Riddick began his path to become the cool badas* that we all love. Anyone who has seen the second Riddick movie might believe that Riddick became the Furyan who Killed the Necromoonger half god because he was the last one left after Furya was wiped out and had to develop survival skills, but this book shows that was only the first in a series of events.Ghosts of Furya begins Fifteen years after Furyan civilisation is destroyed, Earth sends a squad of Marines to Furya to find out what happened to Furya, and if the Necromongers are a threat to Earth. The squad, by accident, stumbles across a Furyan teenage male who is like a solitary Tarzan, except without the family of apes, and then later, a Water Elemental who, via her skills with calculating probabilities, decides to leave the Furyan with the squad and, as they tend to do, says some cryptic words, which, we, with hindsight and some sci fi smarts, know that it means the squad is later going to have a bad day, but they will somehow put Riddick on the path of the Necromonger prophecy.They name the boy Riddick, and get him enrolled to become a US Marine. It seems Earth is still much as it is today- divided into countries, with the US providing the main muscle in space.Three years later, he has nearly finished his Marine training, and it seems everyone hates him- his fellow cadets, his Sergeant, and the General in Charge. Only the original squad who found him treat him decently. I have to admit this hatred seems quite far fetched to me. Riddick really doesn't have a single friend there? Just because he is a better combatant- better coordination, healing, combat skills, ability to anticipate?In any case, he stumbles across two of his fellow cadets raping a 12 year old girl, and kills one and badly injures the other defending the girl. He returns the girl to her home, and is, of course, subsequently framed for the rape of the girl, in order for the General to have him taken into his custody to be dissected and experimented on. The original squad members come to his rescue, and just before he and the squad leader, whom he has always had a romantic crush on, make it to the space ship, they are ambushed, and she, the squad leader, dies. Riddick makes it into space, knowing that he can never return to Earth, upset with the loss of the love of his life.So there you have it. Riddick - origins,  Born on Furya, designed on Earth, subsequent updating of Riddick 2.0 plus in the Milky Way Galaxy ^_^