Review: Suspense the entire time
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
Fast-paced and full of twists, Betrayal on Triton certainly doesn’t disappoint. Henry drops you right into the middle of a mission—one that doesn’t end well. You won’t have pages and pages of science explanations which, for me, was a good thing. I love sci-fi, fantasy, etc., but at the same time, I want to read a story, not a spaceship manual. The story is written well enough that you pick up what you need as you go and the story is never interrupted. Considering it’s a nonstop story, this was crucial.You follow Ethan Riley, a futuristic mercenary. (I won’t give much of the story away here, so don’t worry. If you don’t want any spoilers, skip this paragraph.) Riley inherited the lifestyle from his father and has no issue being aligned against the corporations that have developed the rest of the solar system. There is some political discussion about greedy businesses and whatnot, but not so much that it distracts you from the story. If you’re even generally against big corporations, you’ll love cheering against the bad guys here. Riley is captured at the beginning of the book and given a choice: die or help us with this one mission against our competitor. Of course, it’s not really much of a choice. So he teams up with three other convicts (who he doesn’t know) to take out a base on Triton. From the title it’s clear that the mission doesn’t go exactly as planned. It’s a touch too easy to see through some characters but I think that was intentional. While I could figure out certain things (typically just, oh this isn’t going to go well), I never would have guessed the whole picture.There is twist after twist as the real truth behind Triton and the companies emerge. None are so bizarre as to be unbelievable which is a common problem in sci-fi, though you do start to wonder what sort of bad karma Riley has built up. You will soon feel you can’t trust anyone or anything, making this a seriously suspenseful tale. Henry has good control over his story and either planned the whole story before writing or has great self-editing skills. The writing is quite good with only a few distracting mistakes (i.e., “he could care less”). For a book that didn’t have to endure the editing process of a publishing company, it’s very impressive. Henry describes scenes and people succinctly and lets the story speak for itself; I never felt like he was beating an idea over my head. While it’s a little on the short side for a novel, you won’t feel like the story moves too quickly or that things were skipped.Aside from Riley, the characters are a little one-dimensional, but the story moves so quickly and no other cast member aside from Tori is really there long enough to get to know. You learn enough about Kirov to understand him, but he certainly has a one-track mind. Tori is a unique character (an android) and she feels she’s mainly there to cause internal debates for Riley who is trying to accept his feelings for her. And considering not all of the cast is trustworthy, you can’t get to know them too well up front. Riley, though, is a strong flawed hero to root for. He’s an inexperienced leader that is forced to take the helm and I felt Henry did an excellent job at keeping Riley less than perfect throughout (like a normal person). As the story develops, so does Riley, and he ends up a good leading man.I will give one word of caution: the book is full of adult language and violence. The author includes this disclaimer in the description, so I thought I should address it. For me this is only a problem if it’s used to cover up bad writing. That’s absolutely not the case the here, so I didn’t find it disturbing at any time. But if you have a different view on those two things, you may not be able to enjoy the story as much as I did. I hope, if you’re on the fence, you give it a shot. After a minute you’ll forget about the four-letter words and be dying to know what happens next.I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for others by Henry. He told a story that stands out as being original and he did it very well. He doesn’t get lost in talk of the future society but instead focuses on a single person trying to survive. I strongly recommend you give this book a try.