Author: Evan Currie
5 out of 5 stars
Book Info: Genre: Space Opera (per publisher); Military Science Fiction (per me) Reading Level: Adult Book Available: Book will be released in paperback and ebook format on September 25, 2012.
Disclosure: I received a free paperback ARC (uncorrected proof) from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: After an epic maiden voyage that introduced Earth to a larger universe—and a cosmos full of terrifying new enemies—Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC spacecraft Odyssey have spent months cooling their heels under their admiral’s watchful eye. But when Earth’s newest ally, the Priminae, strike a defense deal with the North American Confederacy, the Odyssey finally receives her orders: return to Ranquil, the Priminae’s war-ravaged homeworld, and lend badly needed support against the invading Drasin.
Weston and his crew are hungry for action, yet once back on Ranquil, they realize not all is as it seems. Yes, the Drasin are a formidable foe, but Weston suspects a powerful unseen force is waging the war that could alter forever the face of the universe. Determined to unmask the mysterious puppet masters, Weston and his motley crew defy NAC protocol and venture into deep space…where they will discover an enemy unlike any they have ever faced. The long-awaited follow-up to the spectacular Into the Black: Odyssey One combines old-school space opera with modern storytelling to create an exhilarating new sci-fi adventure.
My Thoughts: This is the second book in the Odyssey One series of space operas. I reviewed the first book in the series, Into the Black in May of this year; you can see that review by clicking on the link here (the link on the book name goes to the Amazon page to buy it).
As I theorized in my review of the first book in the series, we do indeed learn a bit more about the Drasin in this book – just enough for me, personally, to find the idea of them absolutely terrifying. We also learn more about Central, the Priminae information archive, which is in itself also rather of concern. I’m fascinated by what Currie is building here in this series. This book is again over 600 pages, but it moves fast, with lots of action and events.
Again, while the publisher is calling this space opera, I would classify it more as military science fiction, mostly based upon the amount of combat we see in this book. I can’t really comment on the hard science aspects of the book, as that’s really not my field, but it feels right and is certainly interally consistent.
This is an uncorrected proof, advanced reader’s copy, so I wouldn’t have been surprised to find some editing errors, but it appears that not even a basic spelling check was run on this thing. There is also a long section where the gender of a character changes every couple of sentences. I hope that these things will be fixed in the final copy when it is released.
This is a series I will continue to monitor. At this time I cannot find any information as to when the next book in the series is scheduled. However, if you like Currie’s style, he has a number of other books out there, including another military sci-fi series called the Hayden War cycle, so don’t despair! I am finding his style very engaging and fun, so I’ll definitely be not only watching for additional entries in the Odyssey One series, but looking at his additional books as well. I recommend that, if you also enjoy military science fiction, you take the time to check out Evan C. Currie.
Apparently, the corrections have been made. It was a design edit flaw which was made digitally. I also had to ask about some of the "errors" I thought
ReplyDeleteI was finding in the advanced readers copy.
Really? How does a design flaw cause blatant misspellings and gender reassignment? :-) heh. But I'm glad the corrections were made to the final copy - that would have been embarrassing to the publisher, to say the least! O.o
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