I actually finished this a while ago but forget exactly when. It is book two in the series and, like many serialized stories, I see a same2019 grade B
I actually finished this a while ago but forget exactly when. It is book two in the series and, like many serialized stories, I see a sameness appearing. The adventure is good enough and the characters are still OK, but not a lot is added to the long story arc. It was not quite good enough to make me want to read another.
Merged review:
2019 grade B
I actually finished this a while ago but forget exactly when. It is book two in the series and, like many serialized stories, I see a sameness appearing. The adventure is good enough and the characters are still OK, but not a lot is added to the long story arc. It was not quite good enough to make me want to read another....more
A new dystopian novel. But instead of being about recovery from, or living in dystopian times, it is about preparations for the catastroph2024 Grade Z
A new dystopian novel. But instead of being about recovery from, or living in dystopian times, it is about preparations for the catastrophic event. The story actually starts with a Prologue about post recovery (I think) and then flashes back. Thereafter the chapters start with a day number. That number is a countdown till the apocalypse, as near as I can tell. It would have helped if I had figured that out sooner.
The prose was a little wordy right from the start and I never made an attachment to any of the characters. The story has a little science at the start about a long term sleep project and a deadly comet. Those kept me reading. But it seemed to be turning into a sort of government espionage story. The government did not want the secret reveled. When the second set of anti-government characters was eliminated in rather unpleasant and overlong chapters, I gave up. I did check the post comet area and tested speed reading, but I still did not like it.
"The Hidden" is a SciFi survival story with fabulous woNov 13, 2023 The Hidden by Romana Drew
2023 Grade A
"It's easy to die. Staying alive is hard work."
"The Hidden" is a SciFi survival story with fabulous world building and character development. It is a very real feeling story with the protagonist's sanity and life in danger. The author takes it right to the edge and then puts in just enough relief to relax the reader. Everything the protagonist does to survive is described succinctly so I never got bored. Yes there is tragedy too that fits exactly as needed. A Perfect Balance, and I suspect a difficult story to write.
Despite everything being alien, the story could happen now to a college student who was raised on a small farm with outdoor skills, if you could find a suitable uninhabited island to dump him on.
A lot of the tension relief is from the POV of other people on the planet and what they are doing about the protagonist and the villains who perpetrated the crime. It all ties together at the end into an exciting conclusion. It also fits between the other two novels of the long story arc but stands solidly alone as a self contained novel.
I read five of the original "Psychotechnic League" books in the 1970s-80s, but I only have 4 and 5 in my collection. They are 1984 Grade A 2023 Grade A-
I read five of the original "Psychotechnic League" books in the 1970s-80s, but I only have 4 and 5 in my collection. They are no longer in print under the original titles. I wanted to read the start again so purchased this Kindle title hoping it had the same content. I think it does. The League future history series is indeed out of date as others have said. But if you ignore the dates, it is good. I had no trouble.
The content is a selection of short stories, novelettes, and a short novel. The league is in its early days, but it does have agents (the focus of the stories) trying to fix the societies on various planets. The content can be little harsh but that is the reality of the fictional history at this point. The stories are not gross enough to put me off. Except for a bit of repetition in the longest story, the writing is excellent.
I enjoyed Anderson's afterward where he praised Heinlein for inventing Future Histories and explained the reasons for the new release.
The book might not be worth reading repeatedly, but I do Recommended it....more
Exodus (Book 5 in the series) By Steve White and Shirley Meier
2023 Grade Z
I read 30% of the book before I abandoned it, so it is Not a bad story. I jusExodus (Book 5 in the series) By Steve White and Shirley Meier
2023 Grade Z
I read 30% of the book before I abandoned it, so it is Not a bad story. I just found it more difficult to keep track or the who, what, and where of the story than it was worth. I expect the author to do that for me. Some continuity errors were so big I never figured out who and when the POV was in relation to the previous part of the tale. It might be more understandable if a person has read books one thru four first but the cover did not say it was book 5 when I found it in a little roadside free library....more
I did not get very far. I managed to finish chapter one despite the odd language use, undefined fictional words, and weak world building. 2023 Grade Z
I did not get very far. I managed to finish chapter one despite the odd language use, undefined fictional words, and weak world building. Forty years ago I might have put up with it. In fact I once read a novel where every verb was regularized. I also read a first draft that was so good but so poorly written that I had to sort of throw my mind out of gear to follow it. But when I started chapter 2 in this one, I just gave up. Sorry....more
The book is a cliff hanger in every sense of the word which was rather disappointing. Nothing was accomplished despite the high quality wr2022 Grade C
The book is a cliff hanger in every sense of the word which was rather disappointing. Nothing was accomplished despite the high quality writing and overall fun. I rarely slipped into speed reading and liked the characters, their development, and the world building. The book would be grade B if it had an end. But cliff hangers are deal breakers.
Many story lines were left unfinished. The cancer was not cured, no money was earned, no debts were paid off, the debt collectors were still after them, and no villains were vanquished. Thus the book is just character development, world building, and fights all the way through. All of that is enjoyable although the two 20-something guys seemed a bit dumb in places even for inexperienced males. Fortunately the Kindle version was not expensive. Never the less, I will Not be buying more from the author. Who knows if it will ever end. It might just go from cliff hanger to cliff hanger.
The details in the story are totally original but the McGuffin is very common. The premise is a highly skilled video gamer is given the opportunity to go into a SciFi or fantasy setting for real. I think half of the Manga I watch uses this theme. Certainly the 1984 movie "The Last Starfighter" used it.
Bob Shaw, interesting stories with good conclusions but with unpleasant characters and situations. In this one, both protagonists are dama2022 Grade C
Bob Shaw, interesting stories with good conclusions but with unpleasant characters and situations. In this one, both protagonists are damaged and self doubting. One is actually physically damaged. Those are only the protagonists. This story is also too wordy and I speed read a lot. Disposable at best....more
The novel starts a little slow with a necessary bit of review, but once the space travel from the Rishalt system to the Earth system start2022 Grade B
The novel starts a little slow with a necessary bit of review, but once the space travel from the Rishalt system to the Earth system starts, it picks up rapidly and is pretty exciting. At the end there is some repetition, and it is slightly slow. Both of those I speed read lightly. The overall story is interesting and wraps up the lose ends. My cynicism makes me doubt the speedy resolution by the governments, but I suspended my disbelief. The story makes an enjoyable conclusion to the first triad (pun intended).
There are more books in the Taxyon series now, but I think they involve new characters. I doubt I will read those, but the author has some stand alone novels. I will probably buy one of those eventually....more
Touted as a "Stunning New Novel," it is indeed stunning, but not great. It is hard SciFi and Niven uses the movements of the c2002 Grade B 2022 Grade B
Touted as a "Stunning New Novel," it is indeed stunning, but not great. It is hard SciFi and Niven uses the movements of the characters to "build the world." The problem is it was never fully clear to me how the environment works, despite the drawings at the start, and thus, it was slightly confusing. It is still a stunning place. Another problem was the characters. They are humans stranded from a seeding ship centuries ago. They have reverted to various tribes. They are nasty to each other inside each tribe and war with the other tribes on contact. I realize this is Niven's way of moving the characters around the "world," but they are not nice people. There were also a lot of them with no specific stand out character to like. Sometimes, after a POV change, I had trouble figuring who was who.
Still, the book was quite enjoyable. I did speed read a little but not much.
Note. My copy is ISBN 0-345-32065-4, is just titled The Integral Trees, has a different cover, and is a 272 page paperback, published by Ballantine - Del Ray in 1985...more
I tried to read this on Kindle, and I think there might be a good story. But it is smothered in exposition, has page long paragraphs, and 2022 Grade Z
I tried to read this on Kindle, and I think there might be a good story. But it is smothered in exposition, has page long paragraphs, and is poorly formatted. There is no indentation at the beginning of new paragraphs (or blank lines between them). Between the physical reading difficulties and the prose problems, I gave up.
(Note: the physical formatting problems may have been fixed. An author friend says it can be difficult to get formatting right in Kindle.)...more
This is a SciFi-Romance five chapter short story. I purchased a Kindle novel, liked it, and signed up for the author's mailing list. This2022 Grade B+
This is a SciFi-Romance five chapter short story. I purchased a Kindle novel, liked it, and signed up for the author's mailing list. This story was a gift at that point. The first three chapters are very good SciFi. In Chapter 4 or 5 things start to go wrong as a crisis and the romance is set up. At that point I did not feel the protagonist was being intelligent enough all the time. But she handled the crisis well, and the story was good. It probably needed about one more chapter to flesh it out. It was an enjoyable read....more
Disclosure - I am a chemist, a follower of all physical sciences and engineering, and I have always liked hard SciFi. So I liked this boo2022 Grade B+
Disclosure - I am a chemist, a follower of all physical sciences and engineering, and I have always liked hard SciFi. So I liked this book, despite it's problems, a lot more than the grade might indicate.
The story is told in two alternating points of view. Both are from the same person. The main story is on a spaceship at another star, with many problems to solve. This is in first person present tense which did not work as well as it did in The Martian. The second is from the past on earth and explains why and how the protagonist got to the present. That is third person, past tense and is actually better written and more interesting. It also had my favorite character Ms Stratt.
The story is very interesting but long and gets a bit repetitive and tedious. I never reverted to speed reading, but I fell asleep three times during the early space ship scenes. The story also seems contrived or forced. Like it was done to fit the writing style rather than fitting the writing style to the story. Overall, I'd say it should about 20% shorter.
The world building is amazing and includes one of the most unusual and interesting intelligent aliens I have encountered. The learning of each other's language and the bond that develops between the human and the alien is beautifully done and very strong.
I did have problems suspending my disbelief, although I was able to overlook them. I'm old enough to not have enough faith in humans to believe the whole world could cooperate at that level or that one man could know as much as the protagonist. Also, some of the problems the protagonist had to solve were not considered by scientists on earth. Why not? They knew the danger to earth involved a sun and a planet. Why were no provisions made to test or sample planets? Some of the other problems seemed to violate the redundancy rule that was mentioned so many times. Both science specialist astronauts doing an experiment with an explosive at the same time pre-launch?!
So that is why it is grade B instead of A. Still, it was a damn fine read with an exciting climax and a superb end. It was hard to put down at times and easy to return to.
Social SciFi with amazing world building of the society and excellent character development. The first two thirds is barley SJan 22, 2022
2022 Grade B+
Social SciFi with amazing world building of the society and excellent character development. The first two thirds is barley SciFi with the exploration of the brutal future dystopian feudal society. The book is not too graphic, but this future is not a nice place. The mission is to prevent this society from ever developing and that is the last third - which was difficult to put down. The end was predicted the early on, but the details of getting there are what make it work so well. The first and last chapters, bookend the content and are delightful.
The book is not grade A because it is overwritten. I'd guess it is about 20% too long. Each chapter is from a different POV, and some seemed out of place. This structure made selected chapters easy to speed read though. The POV swapping was not a problem because the prose is extremely well written third person. I never had any problems.
This is the kind of novel Biggle specializes in and it is Recommended....more
20xx Grade A 2016 Grade A 2022 Grade A 2024 Grade A+ (Kindle version)
This story is still so damn good it brings tears to my eyes. The characters are fabul20xx Grade A 2016 Grade A 2022 Grade A 2024 Grade A+ (Kindle version)
This story is still so damn good it brings tears to my eyes. The characters are fabulous. The prose is excellent. The world building is amazing. It is basically about two young adults coming of age. They are just about to graduate and enter the real world (college, jobs, and marriage). And then their lives are interrupted as their country is invaded. The fact that not a single person is human is irrelevant.
This is a complete standalone novel. There is no cliffhanger. It has a beginning, middle, climax, and conclusion. You do not need to worry about reading the sequels to finish the story, although they are excellent too. The story is mostly light and friendly. It only gets dark near the climax and has a positive end.
RECOMENDED
This is a full length literature quality social SciFi novel.
The story takes place on an alien planet with an indigenous alien population living in harmony with their environment. They may appear to be non-technological and not advanced, but that is because the planet has limited fuel resources so they keep their tech small. The world building is excellent.
The character building is even better. The characters are vibrant, varied, and alive - both villains and protagonists. Although there are no humans, the people are easily matched to human characteristics. Individuals are easy to keep track of and identify with. The villains are on a corporate space ship and decide to mine for minerals despite the planet being inhabited - a rather arrogant race.
This is one of the best stories I've read in a long time. The style and story remind me of - "Dragon Singer" by McCaffrey and "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein. It also has a feel of Clifford Simak. The story is detailed, has depth, and is never dull.
Highly recommended. Review by John Burt
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The League of Free Cadorie by Romana Drew
I was first introduced to this world via occasional posts on a Facebook page by the writer, Romana Drew, who was sharing a story about Robin Mayfield bit by bit as she built it into a book. Thoroughly enjoying this, I purchased "End of Innocence" (League of Free Cadorie) when the offer came up. It sat on my shelf for a while until after the Robin Mayfield was finished.
It didn't take long to be willingly dragged to the same world. The book is well written, easy to read and hard to put down. I'd like to say it's a classic tale of what happens when a more advanced race meets a less advanced race, but it's far more complex than that and delves into the varying emotional stresses of both good guy and bad guy. The imagery is such that your mind is there, right there, and you miss the places when you're finished, hungry for more of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end - except that there's more to come and that hasn't been published yet! I'm also of the opinion that the original title served it better.
The short review = A fun, Grade B, SciFi, government agent adventure. (In other words, a female Bond in space.)
This takes place in the Cad2021 grade B
The short review = A fun, Grade B, SciFi, government agent adventure. (In other words, a female Bond in space.)
This takes place in the Cadicle universe after the Fractured Empire series ends. Although I have not yet finished that series, I wanted to read a DuBoff with a female protagonist. That part works well! The story was a bit standard and predictable, even the end. But it was still quite enjoyable and kept me reading. Parts of it were exciting enough that I did not want to stop reading. Some of the alternate points of view are weak and tended to take me out of the story. I speed read many of them and I think most of the villain POVs could just be skipped. I am not sure if I will read book 2.
Oct 19, 2021 Book 2 of Future Adventures: Eight Complete Adventure Science Fiction Novels, Kindle
2021 Grade B+
Intelligent space adventure and I enjoyedOct 19, 2021 Book 2 of Future Adventures: Eight Complete Adventure Science Fiction Novels, Kindle
2021 Grade B+
Intelligent space adventure and I enjoyed it.
Faults: The prose, including the dialog, was initially a little formal. It either got better or I adapted because I no longer noticed after a short while. Occasional minor problems suspending my disbelief but only because I have a wide scientific background.
Merits: Easy, fun, and fast reading. Good solid SciFi. Interesting and complex story. Solid conclusion that I had to make sure I had enough time to finish - I did not want to stop in the middle. Strong and interesting female scientist protagonist. Excellent world building and character development.
Basic plot: Scientists are researching Europa from a station built above and below the ice. This story explores life in the ocean under the ice.
A recommended book. (I have already marked the sequel for purchase on my book list.)...more
Sep 27, 2021 Architects of Destiny (book 1 of Fractured Empire - The complete Cadicle series of 7)
2021 Grade B+
True space opera or adventure - Kind of nSep 27, 2021 Architects of Destiny (book 1 of Fractured Empire - The complete Cadicle series of 7)
2021 Grade B+
True space opera or adventure - Kind of nice. This is actually a prequel that takes place about 20 years before the first regular novel. Reading it is, of course, optional but it is rather good. The prose is smooth flowing, easy to read, and fun. It is a classic story of the boy who leaves home and takes a job on a freighter plying the space routes. It kept reminding me of the early youth oriented Asimov and Heinlein novels.
It was thoroughly enjoyable and is recommended.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = Oct 5, 2021 Veil of Reality (book 2 of Fractured Empire - The complete Cadicle series of 7)
2021 Grade B
This is the actual first novel in the series. The protagonist is a family man who works as an agent for a semi-military psychic-powers organization. At least he thought it was semi-military until his teen son is kidnapped by an enemy in a hidden centuries long war. That's when the deceit is exposed. The son is the other main protagonist.
The book is not quite as entertaining as the prequel, mainly because it seemed a little padded, it is needlessly introspective, and the conclusion is a little too open ended for my tastes (but not bad for a serialized story). Or maybe I just read it too soon after the prequel. The introspection bits are short and italicized so were easy to skip over when I felt like it. I also speed read some of the interrogation and battles when they got too long. But don't let that put you off, I always do that - they are actually quite exciting in places and very well written.
Recommended with reservations.
= = = = = = = = = = = = Nov 15, 2021 Bonds of Resolve (book 3 of Fractured Empire - The complete Cadicle series of 7)
2021 Grade B
This book started out so great, grade A level. An apparently new protagonist starts the story. She is a teen from earth who has been recruited into the Taranan Selective Service - a military psychic-powers organization. She was apparently an outsider on earth and has low self-esteem. Her character development is incredibly interesting as is the world building of the training. But, just as she starts to have self confidence about 2/3 of the way through, the story switches to the young protagonist from the last book.
He is a sort of introspective superhero and is quite boring. She, of course, "bonds" with him and by the end of the book has as little story as a simple girl friend. The reader never even gets to see the end of her training. Maybe it will be in the next book, maybe not. I'm sure she has a part to play in later installments, but, in this case, the last third of the book is grade C.
There are also interruptions throughout the main storyline to follow an even more boring villain. I speed read all of those and I think many, if not all, of the middle segments could have been skipped completely. Only the first and last are necessary to the series. Those were grade D.
Recommended with reservations. The author's female leads are much more interesting than the males.
= = = = = = = = = = = = Apr 30, 2022 Web of Truth (book 4 of Fractured Empire - The complete Cadicle series of 7) by A.K. DuBoff
2022 Grade D
This story has three parts. I don't remember what is in part one. Part two is almost pure melodrama. Probably only part three (short) contains material necessary for the long story arc. I had to do massive speed reading on part two including skipping whole chapters. I suspect the whole book can be skipped. I have abandoned the series at this point. Not recommended.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Overall. It turns out there is also a 5 book set. Book one of this set was a prequel and it was best so far. The grades have been going down progressively leading me to abandon the series. ...more
I would consider this more a soft SciFi novel as opposed to a space adventure. It does take place on space ships and various planets b2021 Grade C+/B-
I would consider this more a soft SciFi novel as opposed to a space adventure. It does take place on space ships and various planets but the story telling emphasis is mostly about character development, interaction, and introspection. The story structure is long stretches of characterization interrupted by a short action event with a little tension. The events don't really seem to have any connection to each other until the end of the book though. Eventually someone gets hurt of course and in the climax a whole lot of people get hurt and there is plenty of excitement.
It is another difficult book to grade. It is basically a grade B because it is quite well done and a fun read. But I never want to read it again which earns it a grade C. I am not the target audience though. My SciFi start was with Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Norton, and others. Those may be heavily social but all have hard SciFi underpinnings and the characters just get on with solving the problems instead of talking about themselves.
The content is basically a dystopian crime novel in a SciFi setting. Every city is described as a dump, bars as dives, hotels as seedy, and governments as crooked. All of the protagonists were psychologically damaged in some way in the past and are basically crooks now. They have no choice, given the society, but I got tired of it and started having trouble suspending my disbelief that the society could even function. And, yes, I did start speed reading a bit (not easy in this case) when it got tedious and repetitive.
It is just not my kind of book/story but it is well done.
This kind of book always makes me wonder why it gets published when really fun stories from authors like David Pearce and Romana Drew have such difficulty, although Romana's book Marauders of Sazile is starting to get some sales....more
It actually feels like there is an interesting story here but it is not written well enough for me to read. I think it is at beta level an2021 grade Z
It actually feels like there is an interesting story here but it is not written well enough for me to read. I think it is at beta level and needs proofing. There are technical errors like the "hexagonal sphere." (A bunch of hexagons makes flat sheet unless there are some pentagons included.) There are also grammatical errors that any good proof reader would catch. It needs to be run through scribofile.com and grammerly. It feels like it was written by someone young and inexperienced - we were all there once. My advice would be to fix it and republish which is the advice I gave for the first book I was ever asked to alpha-read.
Anyway I had to abandon it but wish the author well. ...more