Genre: Science Fiction

Disclaimer: Reading is all about discovery, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of a look inside the good and bad of a book.

The Analysis:

Reader alert: Science fiction can be classified as hard or soft, in relation to a reader’s difficulty to read it or understand the science depicted in the book. I would definitely classify this as soft and a great introduction to the genre. Let’s Book Review it.

Here’s the Blurb:

The face is a little hard to see. Otherwise I like it. What’s not to like about space, a place that automatically owns a beauty unknown to anything on this planet. The colors also work well with her suit.

Now The Story:

Book Info:
Pages: 204
Author: Karl Drinkwater
Available: On Amazon

I enjoyed this book. There’s not a huge cast, just two characters with understandable science built into the world building. It’s definitely not just a pirate-esque exploration of an unknown ship. Halfway through the book our MC (main character) and her AI also kick into survival mode to avoid military insurgents bent on capturing them. This transition is smooth makes sense for the direction of the story and just as enjoyable.

However, I understand how some may be disappointed in the switch considering the first half introduces some interesting elements that aren’t fully explored. So, I deducted a point for the missed opportunities. The alien is more interesting and mysterious as a villain than the galactic military.

Book Review tips: I think the author was aiming for a Harry Potter like thing here, where the big bad is the overarching story while little problems are the focus of each book. I think the author would have had to make the military half robot or juicing on some drug to make them more interesting than the aliens themselves. But just a thought.

But the detailed lost ship is thoroughly engaging and I found myself wanting to know what happened to those missing people. It was clear that this was a whole ecosystem of families and workers etc. The author even made me feel bad for decaying sex dolls. So the attention to detail was definitely there.

I believed that the female MC was fighting for her life and the life of her ship. At some points her attempts at being poetic about war came off as a little heavy handed to me. (But I don’t think most people would feel this way about this particular point.)

During the process of fighting off aliens and the military, she is badly hurt. The author doesn’t shy away from explaining to the reader she is human. She doesn’t automatically run on battery power. Every wound actually affected her. Great writing on this point. Her almost death was shocking. I was reading like, what is really going on. I was kinda confused because it was too early, story wise.

Only for both the MC and the AI to need to be rebooted at different points in the story. But it never felt like a rehash. You genuinely worried for them both.

This story is mostly action via fighting scenes be it with aliens in the beginning or the military guys. But the fight battle scenes were engaging until the very end. Which ended up being two or three chapters from the end, end. The rest was setting up for the series. Toward the end, their was a return of the alien from the first part of the story. Enough intrigue was inserted to make me wonder about book 2. But I am worried because of the little switcheroo the alien will have less play and the main story will be the rescue of the MC’s sister.

Frankly, not enough focus was given to the sister relationship to root for it. So, I never really grew attached to what happened to the sister. We don’t even learn the MC’s history with her sister until fairly late.

Small side note: I thought naming an Ai that she subscribed humanity too after her maybe dead sister was extremely inappropriate. I also thought the MC’s gift of (name) freedom was disingenuous and should have happened much earlier. She had the Ai sounding like her dead sister as well, smh. It just seems anti-everything that she stands for to take away this Ai sole method of owning her identity. Something that should have happened first before granting her freedom to go her own way.

I did take off an extra point for little nagging things that bothered me, but over all I did enjoy the book. It was a fun way to spend a few hours and a great addition to my book review collection.

Story At A Glance:

Recommendation:  3 out of 5

Series Continuation:  Yes*

 The Ratings:

Book Cover Appeal:

🍓🍓🍓🍓

Story & Narration:

🍓🍓🍓

Romance:

Not Applicable

Character/(s) Personality:

🍓🍓🍓

*It will be enjoyable if you focus on the action scenes and the overall plot. But if the alien doesn’t show up until book 3 in a major way, it could also be a tad disappointing. Its your expectations going in, I think.