So far this blog has been about how I got to where I am now as a writer. Now that I have picked back up The Conflict Within, I am going to start really seeping myself back into my Sci-fi roots. So for a little while, and I hope to post more then once a week, we are going to talk about Sci-fi and Sci-fi only, except for a little Game of Thrones here and there.
So come join me as I geek out, I'm going to try and review books and episodes of some of my favorite shows, we are going to start TV wise with what I call sci-fi pot Battlestar Galactica (RDM) and then move to something a little more scary, Babylon 5. I believe this to be the best show ever and if you don't at least like it after seeing all five seasons I will rethink our friendship. If you think I am kidding ask Elizabeth, I was really worried that we couldn't be together if she hated that show.
But enough about TV because today we are going to start with a book review, because well I am writing a book that is what I do, and even though TV and movies have really framed my world view of the genera but today a book.
This afternoon I finished the first of the Gabriel series by Steve Umstead the book is Gabriels Redemption.
At first glance I'm going to give this four stars I had a lot of fun reading it and picked up book two as soon as I finished the first one.
(This is the book summery from Amazon for those who are leery to click links)
North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel was dishonorably
discharged after a disastrous mission on a far off world called Eden.
He's spent the last five years hiding from his past, from
those responsible for the failed mission, from those responsible for
running him out of the Navy, and from those originally responsible for
making him into who he was - a highly-trained, physically and mentally
augmented Special Forces soldier.
Two mysterious visitors appear
unannounced at the door of a Gabriel's seedy hotel room in the slums of
Jamaica. His past has finally caught up with him.
From the
decaying Caribbean to politically-charged South America, from the back
alleys of Mars to a tiny colony on a planet six hundred light years from
Earth, Gabriel's Redemption is a near-future military science fiction
story of a personal journey seen from the perspective of a soldier
who has lost everything -- one who desperately needs to redeem himself
not only in his government's eyes, but also his own.
Interstellar
action and political intrigue mix with one-on-one battles on the
surface of a frozen planet in Book One of the science fiction-adventure
trilogy.
Hello again. OK so how do I feel outside of the simple statement of 4 stars. I love good military sci-fi in books, love it. This is in a lot of ways Starship Troopers without the political side story. (Yes I know that is what that book is but the comparison is apt.) The main character Gabriel is drawn well and makes since. As the story starts, Umstead builds the world very very well. Technology makes since, I love their ships and the way he deals with FTL travel, wormholes that are a crap shoot the first time through is really cool. The team of gruff special forces types come together, as good real people, that you feel when bodies start to hit the floor.
My only real complaint with the book was that it seemed to rush a bit through the climax, wrapping everything up a little to quickly. I felt like the book could have easily been another hundred pages and not felt overlong or milked. (pages being relative as I read this on my Nook which does page numbers).
I like to keep reviews short, so I am going to end it by emphatically stating that you should give this indie author a go, I mean what do you have to lose but a few bucks, still cheaper then a paper back and as good if not better then what you are going to find new in a book store.
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