Review: So much promise, so little delivery
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2013
First off, let me say I was looking for a little light and fun SF, and as far as this goes it qualified. As a 4 book omnibus it lured me in.As a pretty basic Humanity is better, stronger, smarter than all comers romp, it is fine.Where the clawing my eyes out and run screaming part comes in is the complete failure of the books structure. Spelling wasn't an issue for once, but the complete lack of any attempt at an editing pass was. Sentences constantly being changed and left part in the original, and part in the new format. In fact some of the text made me think this was written is some other language and run through some poor online translation. Viewpoints flicker between first, third and omniscient randomly.Character development is non-existent, until some one flips a switch and our bunch of altruistic geniuses become cold ruthless killers.Book 1 at least follows a typical story layout, and by itself is the gem of the series. By NO means great, but not terrible.Book 2 and beyond, they might be good some day if the author were to finish them, currently much of the story comes off as a breathless rush that presents a mere outline. Here is an excerpt from Book 2;-----"The alien ship places itself in orbit over the site and demands that we drop shields. They send some type of shuttle down near us. Communication is established with the alien ship. We demand they back off or face destruction and name ourselves. There is a long pause and they back off. We offer to give them specifications of the device that removes sand. They fire at the surface and destroy a building with molecular disruptors - are you kidding? Those only work if someone is unshielded. We move close to the opposing ship and they look kind of desperate. We offer some of the lamlees to them - we really did hit the mother lode of the damn things. Those rooms were chock full of them... it must have been a transshipment point for them.Pence, Ken (2013-01-21). TRADE WORLD SAGA (Kindle Locations 7389-7394).  . Kindle Edition. "-----Pretty much the last 3 books are written with text like that linking some actually developed scenes.So until Mr. Pence withdraws and rewrites the series, or at least finishes writing the books already out, save your self the money and the pain and avoid this like the plague.