Dr. Beery has spun a very nice yarn that is, in my humble opinion, straight down the line as good an example of "hard" science fiction as you're likely to find. The story is paced rather quickly with very little exposition by the characters to setup scenes. The author just sets up the scene with a description and explanation of what has transpired in the intervening time between scenes thereby keeping the pace relatively quick. Dialogue is rather sparse when compared to other books in this genre.
The science part of the science fiction in this book is one of the best parts, in my view. Most of the science is kept as realistic as possible. The alien technology isn't exactly realistic. But anything that advanced would seem like magic to us, anyway. So, I wouldn't expect the very advance science to be realistic. It starts off well grounded in today's advanced science and quickly becomes your typical science fiction "science". (Hmmm, no matter how I write that it sounds weird.)
I liked this book but it is not without its faults. It is in serious need of an editor. Not only is it in need of correction of hundreds of typos, and grammatical errors (including homonym confusion, spelling errors, word form misuse, usage of non-words like "utilize", and missing words). But also for pacing issues and deficiencies in character development; we don't know enough about the characters for the most part to empathize with their situations. Some things just pop out at you at the beginning (or did to me, anyway). For example, the U.S. Air Force does not have a Lt. Commander rank. The O4 rank in the Air Force is a Major. Lt. Commander is a U. S. Navy rank. There are other examples of diversions from military protocols as well. A good editor would catch these and point them out to the author as well as making suggestions for changes, additions and excisions. In books going through the major publishing houses you never see these things because they are caught and corrected prior to publication. Little or no editing or even proof-reading is fairly common with indie books, unfortunately.
I realize that this is a novel about many things including conflict. But characters in the book are created, expanded then burned with too much frequency, I think. In general throw-away characters usually have no background established. It's just a waste of the reader's time and unnecessarily manipulative to build a character then kill him/her. Perhaps I'm too insensitive. But we don't get to know or empathize with the character enough that his/her death just seems like dumping the character rather than killing to cause an emotional peak to underline the brutality of war.
With regard to pacing, one of the things that irked me a bit was how quickly things happen. Humanity has never been quick to do much of anything. It is worse than herding cats to try to get a consensus to do anything because of politicians and their need to bicker over everything. With the political class, the only thing that will cause them to forget their political jockeying is immediate personal danger. And most are too self absorbed to personalize a direct threat that has not had up-close and personal consequences. So, the speed with which some things happen in the book are just not believable. Perhaps I'm too cynical. But that might be due to my age and how closely I've watched politicians during my life. One might think that the military would be somewhat insulated from that. But in the real world, military officers in the general officer ranks are more politicians than fighting men. This is the reality of the situation. As a result, even the most advanced military on Earth is pretty slow to bring new technologies online. On the order of decades and not just years. Of course, if you are not aware of this then those occurrences might seem to be reasonably paced.
Dr. Beery is in good company since all authors are human and make mistakes in their manuscripts. I'm sure he would have corrected all of these things if they had been pointed out to him. As inefficient and pedantic as most automated grammar checkers can be, they would have caught many of the grammatical errors in this book. A second edited version could (and should) be created and released that would probably overcome all or most of the defects I have pointed out. Even with the faults in this book, I still enjoyed it very much. It is a good story and I cannot wait for the next installment.
Every author has a vision. And I must admit that I like the vision Dr. Beery has tried to reveal to us even through the gauze of errors in his prose. I would recommend this book to other readers and lovers of science fiction (not fantasy). If Dr. Beery's next book is as good, and I'm thinking it will likely be better after reading the reviews of this book, then I will certainly buy and read it. The price is most definitely worth every penny. I wouldn't have minded paying even $2.99 or even $3.99 for this book. That's how much I enjoyed it even with the errors. Recommended.
I have decided to give Dr. Beery the benefit of the doubt and assume that once he is made aware of the problems with this book, he will correct them and produce a new edition. I'm going to give it five stars because it is a very good story even if a little too saccharine. That's the personality of the author coming through and I would not change that. Well, perhaps a little.
Perhaps Amazon would consider creating a pool of volunteer editors that independent authors could draw upon to help improve their works. I'm sure there are readers out there that would be willing to lend their time and expertise to aspiring authors.
It is easy to find fault within the works of others. It is very difficult to acknowledge the faults in our own works. I'm certain that there are grammatical errors and typos in this writing. So, please read for content and without a critical eye. My review isn't the subject of review, here. Please temper your comments accordingly. I will certainly correct anything pointed out to me, where possible.
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Amba Jane
This was a great start to what, I think, would be a fun series!
Reviewed in Japan on August 27, 2017
