Review: Brilliant sci-fi serial fiction--plenty of Aliens, a little AI, interstellar space travel and lots of futuristic gadgets/gizmos
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2013
If you love sci-fi, then you will love this book. As the tale opens, scientists aboard an interstellar space craft, piloted by Captain Faraday, make an unexpected discovery. They've identify a self-generating power source, and ruins, signs of a former civilization, not of human origin, on a nearby planet. Captain Faraday, piloting the ship to deliver humans to a new earth colony among the stars, determines to send down a small crew of his most trustworthy and best men and one woman, see if they live, and then report in with the results. Commander Jack Webster, Sergeant Hope O'Conner and two journeymen set off in a small scouting vessel and so begins the first volume of a modern work of sci-fi that is an emotional, cerebral, magical, funny, touching and shocking adventure. If you like books by Heinlein, Bradbury, or any other illustrious sci-fi writer, then you will like (if not love) this book. The author skillfully handles an ensemble story within a story, I won't say more to avoid spoilers. This is a difficult book to synopsis, and avoid spoilers, as it is a complex, well-written story with many, many elements. It is the rare writer who can balance so many characters, giving them each a distinctive and authentic voice, as well as write both strong male and female characters. I laughed out loud at parts of this books and was horrified by various turns of events in other scenes. There is a charming romantic sub-plot and so much heart. I already bought and started and am loving book two in the series,Return of the Android (The Tale of Batharok). Happy reading~*