Without a Front: The Producer's Challenge by Fletcher DeLancey

Without a Front: The Producer's Challenge
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 461
Date: October 23 2015
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Chronicles of Alsea (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: February 23 to 24 2016

The seventh book that I’ve read by Fletcher DeLancey. Second one in the Chronicles of Alsea series. I’d actually read the first book in that series, ‘The Caphenon’, before I had read the five Star Trek Voyager books. Meaning that it’s been a month and roughly 20 days since I read the first book in this Alsea series.

I had initially planned to read the second book immediately after the first, but then I noticed that the Captain and her bonded mate weren’t in the second book. Which confused me since the first book seemed to have ended with them saying ‘bye for now, we’ll be back shortly.’ Well, however long shortly is, it’s not short enough to include them in this here book. Granted only sixth or so months have passed between books – I just thought more time was going to pass between books, for some reason. That time I just mentioned, the months, is internal chronological time. Not my time or publication time.

Right, so, this book here. It is six months later in story time and Lancer Andira Tal is suffering greatly. So much so that she ducks out on her own guards so that she can have some time by herself. It takes her friend and chief guard, Micah, to pull a blaster on her for Tal to realize that there are other options available to her. So, after a lot of work is done to make it possible, Tal goes on vacation for a short while.

Why is she suffering? She has a ton of people pounding her regarding that new technology that she had gotten from the Caphenon (well through the treaty with the Protectorate). And the various castes are not agreeing with each other or with Tal about the pace of change. In addition, Tal is suffering from an unexpected source – separation. She had made it about a month operating ‘relatively well’ regarding that separation, since the departure of the Caphenon, but then communication got reestablished and adversely impacted her. Adversely impacted because she had shared, intimately, with a tyree connection – and it’s almost like her own tyree mate was dead/gone/etc. Doesn’t help that she, in addition to that, actually did develop a love for one of the pair. Which was further not helped when she learned that the other would have been agreeable to seeing what might have developed if she hadn’t been a part of a tyree. And so, suffering.

Tal, Micah, and a bunch of guards visit the beach. Run around, kick the sand, etc. During one of her jaunts around, Tal runs into a woman and they strike up a nice little relationship. Is she the one? Has Tal found someone for herself? Well, things are complicated, because Tal hadn’t been running around as herself – she’d been in disguise. And failed to reveal who exactly she actually is before things went too far and the woman got pissed at her.

So. That happened. And Tal had not, in fact, ‘found her one’. She’s somewhat better, though, from having had a vacation. So, back into the political combat of her life.

The book is subtitled ‘The Producer’s Challenge’. Am I actually ever going to mention said challenge? Well, just like me taking a while to get to it, the book itself took a while to get to this challenge. As I’d mentioned, the various castes were fighting/bickering/arguing over the new technology, and the pace of interdiction. As part of this, Tal meets with various delegates. One such delegation involves the Producers caste. After returning from her vacation she has a meeting with the delegates. But immediately calls into question the appearance of one member of the delegation. Apparently that woman, Salmon Hol-Opah (there’s a good chance I’m misspelling her first name), was taking the place of another member ‘because he is ill’ (he isn’t ill). One thing leads to another and Salmon makes some comment or another, or some words occurred that lead to ‘the challenge’. The challenge consists of Hol-Opah hosting Tal for a month (or was it nine-days? I forget now; there was some argument over the length of the challenge, but I believe it ended up being a month). Thereafter, Hol-Opah would be hosted, in turn, by Tal. Hence the second part of Without a Front being subtitled ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’.

This was an interesting book. More interesting, actually, than I had expected. And the romance that occurs, and yes one does occur beyond that vacation fling one I mean, seemed quite good. Unique ‘relationship troubles’ occurred that was both innovative and not stupid.

I liked roughly 95 to 99% of the book. The part I didn’t like? Well, two parts actually. Somewhere near the end, but not specifically the end, the author suddenly switched from ‘showing’ to ‘telling’. It’s as if she knew that she would need to ‘wrap things up’ shortly and didn’t have room to ‘do it right’. Show she speed things up by ‘telling’ things. Then the ending returned to the more accepted ‘showing’ style of writing. And immediately ran into the second part I didn’t like. The abrupt ending to this specific book. Lives are literally hanging in the balance. Or however that’s worded. Right, but that’s okay-ish and didn’t detract from the rating.

An enjoyable book. My understanding is that this book here used to be combined with ‘The Warrior’s Challenge’ and be called Without a Front – and stand on its own without the Caphenon book. Since that is the case, I’ll note that there is a good enjoyable story in this specific book here, though it kind of ends in a cliff-hanger, and – while it can be read without the first book in the series, there are many issues that will be much easier to understand if the first book is read before this book here. And so, with all that, I say that this was a good almost solid second book to a series. Almost solid because of its cliff-hanger ending.

February 25 2016

Forward Motion by Fletcher DeLancey

Forward Motion
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 892
Published Date: 2008
Publisher: Fanfiction
Series: Past Imperfect (5th in series)

Review
Rating: 5.5 out of 5.0
Read: February 5 to February 7 2016

I was somewhat reluctant to read this book for two specific reasons. This be a really really long book, and, secondly, I'd already read an 'after return' series of books through the official canon. I figured any need to learn more about the 'after stuff' had been satisfied both by the official books and by the previous book in this here series. Since they did 'get back' at the end of the last book. Well, no, just reading that tells me that it didn't include 'after stuff'.

Right, so. This really long book involves family, assassins/terrorists, couples, briefings/parades, and business. This book was jammed backed with stuff. All of which was handled quite well.

On the family side – I guess anyone who wanted something more, longer, more in depth involving Seven of Nine and her human relatives will have to read the official books. Because that is something tackled relatively deeply there. But only lightly here. Well, more than lightly. The aunt and Annika meet. The ‘after’ versions of 7 are vaguely interesting in their two different interpretations. The official version has 7 actually using her real name (and dating Chakotay, which was really gross on many many levels; more than just because I despise Chakotay). While the fan fiction has 7 still using 7 of Nine. Yet, 7 seemed to have grown more as a character, filled out more, in the fan fiction than in the official version.

More family – the Janeway family, as might be expected, was an important feature in this book. With mother Gretchen, sister Phoebe, Kathryn herself, and Lynne. Plus the motherly-ness Gretchen brings, in certain scenes with Revi.

Even more family – it was only touched on very briefly, but B’Elanna’s mother turns up in this book, along with Tom’s father. B’Elanna’s father wasn’t involved, and I don’t recall if Tom’s mother was mentioned. In the official canon, B’Elanna's father and mother turn up, however briefly.

I suppose I should mention that Alison’s aunt plays a role as well, but then she always did, what with being Admiral Necheyev, Janeway’s direct boss. Their dynamic of being aunt/niece played a part in this book, but not as importantly, on one level, as some other families.

Revi Sandovhar’s mother and father also popped up. Good/bad. Those who actually read this series in order, probably already recall that there is something like bad blood between Revi and her family. Mostly between Revi and father. Well, that gets addressed in this book here.

One last family to mention (though I’m sure I’m missing others). And that would be the Hamilton family. Both the living (Elise, Brian, Melanie (Elise’s mother, Brian’s sister), and . . um, Adele and . . Stephen is mentioned, he’s Elise’s brother; and, of course, Lynne Hamilton), and the dead (Lynne’s parents via messages).

That whole family dynamic was handled quite well.

In terms of coupling/Romance. The main couples continued living their lives – Revi & Seven, Lynne & Kathryn Janeway, but they also had to share the spotlight this time around with a third main couple. Alison and Elise.

Well, darn. My ability to write stuff is sadly lacking. Failing. I’m failing!

Well, I liked everything that occurred in this book, despite my reluctance to read it. Quite enjoyable time spent by me reading this here book.

February 8 2016

Past Imperfect series by Fletcher DeLancey (books 1-4)

Past Imperfect by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 312 (estimated)
Date: 2002
Publisher: Self
Series: Past Imperfect (first book of series)
Book Website: The free book is found at website link.

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 10 2016

1) I mentioned in that other book I've read by DeLancey that I had read 15, I believe, Star Trek Voyager books, and that I had seen most, maybe all of the television series. And that I didn't exactly recognize the people involved from Voyager in the book I had read. But then that's to be expected. That other book that I had read by DeLancey was not a Voyager book. This one is a Voyager book.

A lot of people from Voyager had mostly cameo roles in this book. Or, at least, their scenes were quite small. Tuvok, Chakotay, the Doctor, and Harry Kim had scenes. Kim's were mostly 'contacting people. They are not responding. Scanning' type scenes and did not give enough to see if the characterization matched up with what I recalled of him from the show. Chakotay had a slightly larger role, at least in the importance of his words, but again, not enough there to get a handle on if this Chakotay matched up. Tuvok and the Doctor had even larger roles, and there I can say that both matched up - both of their characters matched what I recalled from the television show I've seen and books I've read. Paris? If this was a television episode, his role would have consisted of seeing how good of a nonverbal actor he could/can be. At least I recall him in the book, but not actually saying anything. Which is more than what Neelix had - he was mentioned, not seen.

Other than Janeway herself, B'Elanna Torres and Seven of Nine appeared to have the largest roles for Voyager crew. Well, Tuvok's could be at or slightly less than their roles. Seven of Nine didn't specific match my recollection, but was within the range of her characterization - which has morphed over the years. B'Elanna? She was a fiery angry person on the show. She was a fiery angry person in the book. Still, there seemed something vaguely 'off' about her. No matter.

Janeway had the most scenes. And seemed to match up well with what I recalled of her character from books and television. The transition from 'nonlesbian' to 'lesbian' wasn't exactly very detailed. Janeway had a guy back on earth. But there always seemed something vaguely off about their relationship, like it was excepted for her to have a relationship, so she did. She seemed a lot more concerned with missing her dogs than missing her man. So something could have been inserted to at least make it appear that she could have always been a bisexual. At least. Since there isn't anything that would make that non-canon. That would remove it from official Star Trek Voyager universe to have her be that. Since she's basically a nonsexual being (on the show - she's the Captain, everyone works for her, who'd she be a sexual being with exactly?). Sure, there's some sexual tension between Chakotay and Janeway, but that always seemed more on Chakotay's side. Instead it's just that Janeway has been able to appreciate the female form before now, but now feels deeper feelings than appreciation.

2) I wish I knew the page total. I dislike leaving it as 0 pages read. mmphs.

3) The book came in parts. Hmm. That's a short sentence and I've already messed it up. There are sections in the book - Voyager finds a ship drifting in space. Finds a woman in there in a stasis chamber. Then book turns to something of a budding romance novel. Then back to science fiction with the introduction of new aliens, and a new planet. I mention this because everything was rather well done. To the point that I was/am vaguely confused as to how well done this all turned out. Quite professionally done, this fanfiction. Then we got to about the 91% and well, weirdness occurred. Granted, by about 96% everything's quite brilliant, but there was the literal introduction of an element . . . well, I can't really say without being spoiler-y. Just . . . it was jarring how I was reading, thought there were a few pages until book conclusion and suddenly . . . a rift in space opens. And weirdness occurs.

4) There were graphic sex scenes and eroticism. Something that probably is unexpected to anyone that has never read a Star Trek book before but has seen them in, say, the young adult section of a library - I've read several Star Trek books, the official ones, that had heightened levels of eroticism in them. One or two might even have had sex. One I think was explicit (the one I recall involved Riker), most were implied.

January 10 2016

Present Tension
Pages: 200 (estimated)
Date: 2005
Publisher: Self
Series: Past Imperfect (2nd book in the series)
Book Website: The free book can be found at this link.

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 11 2016

Note: estimated page totals appeared on GoodReads after I had written this review (well, I think they appeared after I'd read the fourth book, actually). I do not know if the two are linked - appearance of page total, and my reviews.

I really wish I knew how many pages these books contained. The first one seemed closer to 400 than 200, but could have been anywhere between 200 and 800 pages in length. This one was rather short. I think it was book length, but I'm not really certain. I just know that I started it, and shortly thereafter I looked down and saw that I was at 47% complete (as opposed to the current book I'm reading, the third in the series, which is only at 41% at the moment and feels like it's the size of three of the second books combined).

Of the Voyager crew from the tv show, Janeway still keeps much of the stage for herself. As expected (at least in terms of people from the show). Tuvok's time on the screen, or, um, page, was slightly more than in the first book. I would say that he has continued to act within the characterization that I had come to expect, except he didn't really. There was an incident during a prison break that seemed off. Tuvok performed an invasive mind meld that literally destroyed a guy's brain pathways. And had no inherent issue with doing so. I had some vague recollection that Tuvok was reluctant to do mind melds, or maybe I'm thinking of a different Vulcan. I know Spock seemed to do them at a drop of a hat. *boom, Spock appears 'Mind meld anyone?'* Though there his mind melds, many of which were, if I recall correctly, without consent, but weren't brain destroying. Tuvok causally destroying someone's brain seemed odd.

Chakatoy's role also was larger in this book. Somewhat barely. And mostly to show how much of a giant ass he is. I never particularly liked the giant pompous ass, so let's not examine too closely into whether or not this is in keeping with his other characterizations - on the show and in official books.

Seven of Nine had the largest increase in stage presence/pages. Hmm, no idea why I keep saying 'screen' and 'stage'. After growing deeper in emotional awareness, social ability, and friendship acquiring and keeping, Seven has, in this book, come to the conclusion that she should retry that dating thing she had tried before but failed at. This time she isn't going to use a computer hologram for tips, the Doctor. She is instead going to get help from her two new friends, Lynne and Torres (a human woman and a half-human, half-Klingon woman). An interesting development.

Everyone else had their roles narrowed or remain at a low level. Harry Kim might have squeaked a couple of times. I'm fairly certain Neelix was actually able to have a couple of lines - "Brownies anyone?". I know Paris finally had something like two lines in the third book (so far), but I'm still not certain he said anything in the second one - this book here.

I mentioned a prison break earlier. After an ion storm, Voyager needs some supplies. So heads to the nearest high tech planet. And into some aliens that seemed really familiar. No idea if they are or not, but they seemed like ones I ran across in the Star Trek Corps of Engineers books, and in one (or three) specific 'missions/episodes' in/on Star Trek Online. Well the prison break part comes in when Janeway finds herself in one. A prison, that is.

While in said prison, Janeway . . . um. hmm. Okay, she got herself into prison because she meet another human on said planet and tried to talk with her. Police erupted and ran towards them with the intention of beating said female human. Janeway, naturally, got in their way. Both were beaten bloody. So then, while in prison, Janeway and the female human get to know each other. The female, Revi Sandovhor(sp?) is an ex-borg ex-Collective ex-Starfleet refugee.

Good solid book. I liked the first book more than the second, but still a high quality book. Professional quality. Quite short. I read it in one go without realizing I'd begin and end it so quickly.

January 11 2016

Future Perfect
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 450 (estimated)
Date: 2005
Publisher: Self
Series: Past Imperfect (3rd in series)
Book Website: The free book can be found at this link.

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 11 2016

I'm 48% into the next DeLancey Voyager book so it's a little too late to write anything in here. Things merge, and stuff.

There was a lot of funny moments that occurred in this book, which was something of a nice change from all the melodrama. It's not that there wasn't humor before, just that there was enough that I could actually put this book on a humor shelf. There was also a lot of sex. And sex toys.

Hmm, see, as I said, I can't really say anything in here. Separating out what happened in this book from what has occurred during the first 48% of the next book has turned out to be impossible.

January 11 2016

No Return
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 575 (estimated)
Date: 2005
Publisher: Self
Series: Past Imperfect (4th in series)
Book Website: The free book can be found at this link.

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 13 2016

My fifth book by this author, fourth in this series.

It’s quite possible my lowish rating is due partially to how I had approached this series. As in, I gobbled up the books as prior one was completed, before taking a breath. And the inherent emotionalism/emotional roller coaster kept building and building until I just couldn’t take it any longer. It’s possible I’d still have rated this around this rating regardless, we’ll never know now.

I was somewhat slightly nervous about starting this specific book because I knew it was deeply connected to, and or was the basis for The Chronicles of Alsea. And I had read the first book in that series already, so I wasn’t certain how much of this would end up being something of a modified reread.

My worries were not meet. This book did in fact visit Alsea. And then left again. And the entirety of the Alsea section was over by the 8% mark in the book. It was also, mostly, massively boring. A lot of the feeling that I’d expect from a DeLancey book didn’t seem to be there for this section. As in, it was bland. The information is just relayed without much else.

Voyager, while attempting to get home, gets caught in another void. With other ships. Gets a certain amount of damage, but the biggest issue was the loss of food. So the ship and crew look for food. Arrives at a pre-warp civilization. One that has just two cities on the entire planet. Because they are pre-warp, Janeway and the away team have cosmetic surgery to make them look like Alseans (why this actually ever worked on the show/movies/books I'll never know; 'let's cosmetically add ridges to your nose/a tail/hooves; no no,you don't need to know the language - the universal translator will handle that; what's that? knowing the customs and stuff? no no, time restraints, don't have time for that . . . just bluff'). Two sets of away teams beam down to the planet. They find food. They buy food. They have the food delivered to abandoned warehouses. They beam food up. They begin to depart the system. They stop when they pick up a Borg signal coming from the planet. They hurriedly investigate. Find that it’s about to explode and kill three million people. They rush to help keep the ship from exploding and keep the people from dying. They meet Andira Tal. They deactivate the Borg ship. They have dinner with Tal up on Voyager. She links Janeway and Lynn. Voyager leaves. The end. And everything was conveyed in about that level of emotion and excitement. 8% of the book has now been read. This boring recap sounds like it is filled with exciting thrilling stuff. It wasn't conveyed in a thrilling exciting manner in the book.

I had the thought, while reading this book, that there’s a feeling, false or otherwise, that the author had been massaging the Voyager books for a longish while. Bringing them up to a higher quality. As mentioned, I could be wrong about that. I mention, though, because this specific book reads more like the first book the author wrote. I’m phrasing that wrong. I mean, that this specific book reads as if it is the first book the author had ever written. With all the flaws and issues inherent in first books. That or, since an entire series of books was made up based off of the first 8% of the book, more time was spent on those other books, and less on ‘polishing up’ this one.

None of that really mattered in the rating. The rating is deeply connected to emotional roller coasters the author seems to love deeply. Before this book there were just two couples who didn’t go through a particular pattern. A pattern of coming together, having one or both fuck things up, have them split, have them come back together, have them reach the highest levels, and while there have one or the other fuck up again, and have them crash yet again. Repeat. 80,000 times. That’s how these books read. Up, down, plateau, Janeway, while in a state of blissful happiness suddenly becomes weirdly enraged, and boom, explodes. Yet again the relationship is in turmoil. Or, yet again Lynn feels inadequate, and boom. Or, yet again, Revi feels undeserving of love, and destroys her relationship with Seven. The only one who didn’t regularly fuck things up was Seven. Odd, I know.

I had mentioned that there had been just two couples who hadn’t been on this roller coaster before this book. Then ran off and talked about what the ‘roller coaster’ meant. Well, back to the two couples. Harry Kim and his girlfriend, and Tom Paris and his girlfriend B’lanna Torres. Vaguely interesting, that, how the relationship that actually did go through a bunch of up and downs, and emotional turmoil on the television show, Paris and Torres, were ‘flat’ in DeLancey’s books. Well, until this book. And Harry Kim himself also had a bit of emotional roller coaster to ride in the official books – mostly the books set after the return of Voyager to Earth and reuniting with Kim’s girlfriend/spy. But no emotional turmoil in DeLancey's books.

Is there a message here? The two straight couples that have any importance in the series have very limited ‘trouble’ to handle, and the one that Torres and Paris face isn’t internally created (unlike on the show), but externally created. Granted, Kim and his on ship girlfriend have no real scenes in the books. They are just seen, and/or talked about. So, for all the reader knows, they do have issues. But the focus isn’t on them so the reader doesn’t learn of them. Right, the message. Straight couples equal no internal emotional turmoil. Lesbian couples equals massive, and I mean massive, and repetitious horrifying angsty turmoil. Constantly. There’s never a level reached wherein things kind of level off. No, always bitter angry fighting. So, am I supposed to be seeing a message from that? Are lesbian relationships inherently unstable and explosive? By the way, there is, in fact, one male-male relationship mentioned in the series, but they have just one scene (up to now), and neither are ‘important’ characters.

So, yeah, my lower rating for this specific book is based on all of that above. The constant beating against my head that lesbians are unstable, plus . . . um well, for the first time I started skipping passages, pages. I mean, for fuck sake, someone important actually ‘dies’ and I just kind of read it with no emotional impact. Just, get it over with already. Heartless, I know, but this was something like the 26th time in this book where some relationship got into trouble, where someone was at the height of happiness and suddenly tragedy strikes. For fuck sake. There’s only so many times the emotional manipulation can occur before I just grow numb. Seriously, I just became numb. I just couldn’t keep my brain from numbingifying itself to save me.

So, yeah, maybe the low rating is because I read all of these books all at once. But, then again, maybe I would have had a lower rating for this book anyway.

I feel vaguely bad on two levels: this is the first DeLancey book I didn’t rate 5 stars, and remember this is the fifth I’ve read, and everyone else who has ever read this book just absolutely loved it. I was just numbed. (Hehe, so I go look at the ratings on GoodReads. What do I see? “100% of people liked it”. Hmms. 34 rated it 5 stars, 14 rated it 4, and I’m one of the 4 losers who rated this book 3 stars. There are no 2 or 1 star ratings for this book).

January 14 2016

The Caphenon by Fletcher DeLancey

The Caphenon
by Fletcher DeLancey
Pages: 400
Date: March 14 2015
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Chronicles of Alsea (First in the series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 6 to January 7 2016

My first book by this author.

I went into this both interested and somewhat concerned. Interested because the story itself sounded interesting. Concerned because everyone seems to love the book (with around 9 exceptions, or in other words, 70% of the people who rated the book, rated it 5 stars).

The book kept my interest from beginning to end. And the interesting little description, turned into an interesting read. If I keep using the word interesting, it will begin to lose its meaning.

If I recall correctly, this is the first science fiction book I’ve been able to get myself to dive into and complete, that involved lesbians (at least one that wasn't based on earth). That lesbian part is/was both important and not important. Though the more important part was the relationship itself, regardless of the person, or genders involved. As in, the issues and conflicts (like, say, conflict of interest), would have been the same regardless of the genders involved, same sex or otherwise. In other words, the nature of the relationship was an important plot point in the story, but the book itself is more of a science fiction book that happens to have a couple making up two of the prominent characters, as opposed to a romance that happens to have a science fiction backdrop. Hopefully I’ve worded this coherently enough.

I went into this book with some vague idea that this was a reformatted, reworded/worked Star Trek Voyager fan fiction novel. I know this author has written those, but I’m not actually sure if this is one or not. My point in bringing this up is that I went into the book with this idea, so that kept popping up in my mind as I was reading. It was more something that would pop up as a remembrance, rather than a ‘ha-ha *points* that’s Voyager like!’ I’ve read 15 Voyager books, and seen, I believe, all episodes of the television series. Though I’ve a vague recollection that somewhere along the way I might have skipped an episode here or there. I write all this to note that I wish I hadn’t had this vague idea before I went into the book. Because it served as an unneeded distraction. This specific book here works quite well on its own merits. And the book was, obviously enough not a Star Trek book (obvious as in it uses different words for things, like Protectorate instead of Federation; and while it had something of that ‘seeding alien race’ thing that popped up on Star Trek the Next Generation, that isn’t a theme that only appears in Star Trek, it’s also in other science fiction universes (there’s a whole series of Larry Niven books that involve both a seeder race, and seeded races)). There were similarities but this had its own little self-contained universe to play in.

Well, the book itself, or, I mean, the story – the book opens as a watcher type watches a screen, watching stuff fall onto a planet. His planet. He is all excited because He’ll be able to direct various scientists to great finds. Then more falling objects appear. Then one breaks apart into tiny bits, while the other continues to fall. And is really really huge. And is headed directly towards a city. People are warned, specifically one Lancer Tal, evacuation orders are begun to be ordered. Then something strange occurs – the object looks as if it is starting to glide away from the city. Though it will still land nearby.

Lancer Tal and a group of guards head out to the crash site. And stare at what appears to be an alien ship. One long running question has been answered. Aliens do in fact exist. Tal watches as three figures stumble out of a hatch onto the ship and begin the slow process of walking across the ship down a ladder.

Lancer Tal comes face to face with Captain Serrado. It’s a relatively slow process but eventually the nature of who and what these ‘aliens’ are discussed and revealed. They are Gaians. And they accidentally ended up on their planet because their fusion core was about to explode. Damaged, as it was, during a battle against a third group of aliens, the Voloth (sp?). The Voloth were there to invade and conquer. The Gaians had been there to observe the Alseans (that being the name of the planet), and intervened when Voloth forces attacked.

First contact occurs among these ‘primitive’ Alseans and these Gaians (I don’t actually recall Alsean actually being used in the book, though it might have been). The primitives turn out to be a lot less primitive than expected.

This is a book that feels longer than it actually is, at least I felt that way when I was at the 40% mark. I don’t mean that in a bad way. More in that a lot of stuff, interesting stuff, was happening.

Hmms. I should probably scrap this write up and start over. I’m not really doing a great job conveying what I want to convey. I say this knowing I’ll probably just leave it as is. But hey, I might come back and ‘fix this’ later.

I liked this book. I might read the next book in this series immediately. Haven’t determined that yet.

January 7 2016