Shane VanAulen

The author states on the Amazon webpage for this novel that he had trouble with converting this book to a Kindle format. That is certainly true but it was not as bad as I expected. The print was a bit larger and in bolder (sometimes much bolder) print than in other Kindle ebooks but that was not a real problem for me. The misspellings were much more irritating. Either he made a lot of mis-fingerings or he is a terrible speller. The use of the word rouge for rogue was the most obvious and disconcerting. The grammar was more clunky than wrong. That seems to be a problem for a lot of beginning authors as far as I can see.

Another problem seems to be a result of teaching 8th grade Social Studies. The author kept inserting little history lessons in the story. Most of these history bits an older American reader, presumably his target audience, would probably not need. This is a personal opinion and your mileage may assuredly vary.

I disagree with the author's perception of physical actions in space. A spaceship is described as 'rocking' as a result of an explosion. In the vacuum of space a spaceship would undoubtedly be pushed by an explosion but not rocked. A ship being rocked is a consequence of the action of water. Also when individuals were described entering a wrecked spaceship as being confused because the spaceship was upside down. In the absence of gravity this would not be a problem I do not believe. Still, I am hardly an expert and those with more knowledge might be of another opinion.

Finally, I do not believe that swords would be of much use in combat. In a future with efficient projectile weapons swords would not seem to be effective. In combat in the spaceships of the future the combat actions would no doubt be brutal, bloody and deadly but I don't think swords would be of much use. But again, this is a personal opinion and foretelling the future is not within my powers.

Having said all this, nevertheless I did like the book. The plot was good, the characters were fairly well developed and the descriptions of combat were well-done. The interactions of the military personnel of various ranks were realistic, at least to me.

I am guessing that this is the first book in at least a trilogy. I hope the author will correct the spelling errors in future books and that the conversion process goes better. At the price asked for it the book was certainly worth my money. I look forward to further books in the series. I recommend this book to military science fiction fans.… (más)