Review: An intriguing beginning to a new saga?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 15, 2012
First off, let me say I am a huge fan of independent publishing, especially since that is how I discovered one of my alltime favorite authors ever, Hugh Howey (author of Wool and others.)I honestly believe it gives talented writers more of a level playing field so they can get exposed to the hordes of us hungry readers out here without having to go through all the hardships associated with the traditional method.Talented is definitely how I would describe Andreas Christensen. While the premise of mankind escaping global devastation by fleeing the planet is not new or unique, the details of "his" apocalypse are, to me at least. So too is the escape plan concocted by Earth's residents when facing their impending doom. Christensen did not jump to the "easy" answers of generation ships, black hole shortcuts  or FTL travel, but instead came up with a fairly believable alternative that plays well in the novel and will probably translate to video nicely.Christensen crafts an engaging story with well-developed characters that make me want to know what happens to them (well, the ones who survive the first book anyway!) His dialogues between characters are sparse and to the point, adding to the story and giving the reader the information needed to understand later developments. It is written in the third person, which I prefer, and changes from character to character smoothly. There is no page-filling expositional narrative to bog you down, either. I like that a lot, as too many stories I read seem like the author is trying set themselves up as a writer of "Epic Novels" from the beginning. This one was relatively light and fast reading and left me wanting more, as a good multi-part tale should. Additionally, though Christensen is Norwegian, I found no indications of awkward language or phraseology anywhere.What absolutely clinched the deal for me though, is the way he managed to incorporate into the story a number of current socio-political aspects that have become a big concern for many people today. The increasing levels of government control, subsequent trampling of personal and societal freedoms and terrorist acts made this story so much more relevant and timely for me that I found myself nodding my head in agreement more than a few times. However, the political sub-story in no way obscures or detracts from the Science Fiction that makes this novel so readable.Since I did not read the first published version and instead received the revised version from just a few days ago, I can only assume how much quality editing improved the original story. I did find that the lack of (commonly-found in indie publications) grammatical and spelling errors allowed me to fly through the story easily and smoothly. It is one of my major pet peeves and if I start reading something that makes me start editing it in my mind more than occasionally, I will likely dump it and start another and never look back. If I was forced to come up with a criticism at all, it would have to be that the prologue was unneeded, but may turn out to be (later in the saga) a foreshadowing of something else that IS pertinent to the story. I look forward to finding that out.Christensen has completely hooked me and I am genuinely anxious to read the second book in the series, Aurora, to find out "what happens next."I will probably have to read his other works to tide me over until Aurora is finished.Here is Andreas Christensen's website and blog: [...]Trailer for the novel is here:[...](Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookRooster in order to review it.)