Hey Jared,
My reading has suffered. If it’s not the ankle biter begging to go to the park (and playing Pokemon Go along the way) then it’s Rimworld or some other game dropping a big update. Thus I’m a day late and feel only a little guilty.
Title: Origins
Series: Spinward Fringe; Broadcast 0
Author: Randolph Lalonde
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: CU, Distant Future, Super High Tech
Synopsis: Jonas and his friends become the unlikely crew of a ghost ship sent out to gather/steal new tech in hopes of saving their home. But the galaxy is even darker and more brutal than they could ever assume. Can he keep them alive or are they destined to become corporate bio assets.
I’ve read this book before…..in fact I’ve read this book and nine of the ten that come after it. It’s just the latest one I need to read and it’s already purchased…..waiting. I figured it had been a while and I hadn’t given them the attention I should have so it would be nice to read them all again.
You see, I have a love-hate relationship with this series. I can’t stop reading or buying the next book, but it grates on my nerves a bit. If there’s something I want to know more about, it’s glossed over. If it’s something I find a bit boring, it goes in depth and drags on for what feels like forever. Every stinking time!
The characters are a little flat overall if you consider there to be several main characters and the main character is a little flat if you consider it have a single main character and a bunch of secondary characters. It’s sort of stuck between the two. Either the main characters are underdeveloped or they’re perfectly acceptable secondary characters and the main character is disgustingly underdeveloped. Jonas, the “main character,” comes across as a white knight that rarely, if ever, lifts his helmet and it’s written from his POV almost exclusively. To everyone else he’s perfect and they have total trust in him. The reader can see his doubts but they never play into his actions. No. His actions are always perfect for the situation.
The plot for this book is a little too perfect…..too convenient. It’s clearly trying to get the story somewhere specific. The beginning is all sunshine, daisies and rose colored glasses, but by the end it’s dark, brutal, and psychological. There are a couple of plot holes and minor contradictions. Nothing too major but I still yelled at the book/characters because they were being woefully ignorant for no reason. For example, the captain and the first officer NEVER leave the ship at the same time unless it’s for shore leave. Period. And don’t try and use Star Trek as an excuse.
Something that really irked me when I first read the series is the jump in tone, style and feel of this book and the rest of the series. This is a free eBook, but the rest aren’t. I felt I knew what the next would be like and I was shocked when it wasn’t. Not that the rest are bad, or not worth it, but they feel very different from this first one. A lot less hope, dirtier, more brutal, different priorities and goals, different characters taking on more of the spotlight and POV. You’ve been warned.
Well it’s time to get this thing published. Need to get started on next weeks book, probably a shorter one and then I need to get some stuff together for W3 (Wizarding World Week), culminating in the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I hope to have that read and reviewed for Aug.5th but that’s when the family reunion starts so who knows if anything will get out that day.
Robert
Reading Over The Shoulder 