Bruce's Reads

Action Packed Story

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

What I liked:

The fast-paced action and suspense was well written. It was a page turner, especially once the big stuff started up. It was also obvious the book had been edited—it wasn’t filled with typos and grammar problems (thank you!). That it itself, often makes independent books more enjoyable to read. The convoluted natures of both Zyra and Skringler worked well to keep me guessing what was going to happen. The author worked hard to make you hate one and cheer for the other (I won’t tell which). The author also presented a lot of sensory detail, for the most part, and that helped place images in my mind (but does anyone ever eat?).

What I didn’t like:

The first part of the story, where the sequence of events was mixed up was not necessary, especially in light of the whole book. It made the adventure seem like it was going to wrap up as soon as the reader caught up with the present time. I suggest that next time, simply write out the events as they happen, and tighten your tension with each chapter. I understand that going back helps build tension, but it also builds a certain amount of frustration.
For me, the sex scene between Zyra and Mika took away from the story. I thought it was too intense and detailed for what the story was really about. I also realize that in a story with this scope, it is hard to convey the entire thing while staying with one viewpoint. However, I think that if the author had kept to perhaps two or (no more than) three viewpoints, it would have kept the jarring effect to a minimum. Also, develop those characters more, instead of introducing them with little or no background and keeping them that way. For the most part, I thought the voices in the story were mostly similar except for Kara (slightly more irate), Mika (quieter) and Zyra/Skringler (defiant, mouthy). When characters lack enough color, it is easy to forget about them, and the story can more easily be overlooked. The last part of the story seemed contrived to a point. There wasn’t enough backstory presented to even hint at what was to come. For myself, I usually hate backstory, simply because too often it is a data dump. However, not knowing any of the big picture (at all) left me wondering if we were simply moving on to another plot. Even though I left more “improvement comments” than kudos on this review, I did enjoy the story and was pulled into a grand outer space adventure.