Review: Outstanding adventure!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 29, 2013
There are many styles writers have for Sci-Fi books, some are heavily into a very realistic military, some are very detail oriented in their technology and accuracy in physics as we understand the subject, each writer has his or her own strengths and weakness that they have to work with in their writing style. Terry seems to have a solid foot in each...though there is much where a reader must put aside disbelief and simply enjoy the fiction. The best writers are able to blend reality into fiction without becoming a dry textbook in explaining physics or astronomy to the reader. A tough balance, we all love 'magical' technology...too much of it and we lose much of the drama of having to overcome obstacles, too little and we get bored.Terry Compton has created a series that reads like the grandest of adventures, an outstanding universe filled with incredibly rich worlds and inhabitants to explore, an incredibly rich relationship with the three primary characters that mimics siblings perfectly in their interaction, a very, very, cool concept for technology from an exceptionally advanced and vanished species, continual discovery of worlds, peoples, cultures, and technology in nearly every chapter...it really is a Grand Adventure I enjoyed so thoroughly that I've been reading nonstop for days!I have read the first three books in the series but have missed the short stories published between them, i have to go back now and read those. It's rare that i find a series i enjoy enough to go on a reading binge lasting days, rarer still that i find a series worthy enough to do so and find it has seven or eight sequels already written and waiting for me!The criticism;I don't like writing this part of reviews, especially for a series or book i enjoyed so thoroughly. If i only write the positives and leave out the negative it comes across as dishonest so i only write this part to lend authenticity to the positives. Personal preference has much to do with negative reviews and shouldn't...this is fiction...the writer is at the helm and we are simply passengers on the journey.Also recall i am only three books into this series, not halfway yet.The series is Epic in scale, we see whole alien worlds and characters while away visiting...but very little of Earth and it's characters who aren't travelling. I would expect that the changes to society and government would be well worth mentioning in a little detail would be worthy of inclusion. Being off and travelling to adventure is grand, but the folks at home are having an adventure as well with new things and technology coming in...perhaps this makes it into a book deeper into the series than i have read yet.There is a fairly glaring lack of involvement with the Earth's governments and military, again, perhaps this comes into a later sequel. I cannot imagine an Earth space port not run by government officials or secured by our military...where is the tax man?Some of the alien people are a bit unimaginative, while others are quite believable and interesting, it just feels like some were thought out well and others are based on pre imagined cartoon characters. This criticism almost didn't make the edit...i feel it almost falls into the personal preference category. The characters are well written, but their physical appearance...less so.Overall;BUY THEM NOW!The only waste of your time would be waiting, or reading less worthy books!While a little bit pricey, the books are worth the money, each of the three i have read so far are between 400 and 500 pages.Any Sci-Fi/fantasy fiction fan would have a blast reading this series!