Just me with yet another Bandit Book Blog, this time it's a book I've actually read, enjoyed thoroughly and have read again since, which is a pretty good indicator of whether a book rates a thumbs up from me, I read it over and over again.
The Book is called Shadow of the Wraith, by an ever so nice gentleman who lives on the Emerald Isle, by the name of Ross Harrison, I reviewed it for my friend Sammy HK Smith, the publisher of my own work, for her blog when she interviewd Ross for her blog, and I'm going to put it up again along with everything else you need to know to purchase a copy of this fine piece of fiction.
Shadow of the Wraith
(by Ross Harrison)
Review by David Muir
Right, Sammy asked me
to do this review for her, maybe because she thinks I've got loads of
free time (which I do, but don't needed reminded of) and I had only
thus far read the Book in bits and pieces, Up on Authonomy and while
not distracted by boobs and booze, I read a couple of the chapters
after the parts on the site, but had enjoyed it so thoroughly I gave
it a 4 star rating on good reads without actually reading the whole
thing).
Anyway did finally read
the whole thing and did most of it today, in fact I read 75% of the
book today, and while there were bits missing from the draft that I
had seen part of and bits added, it still holds on to it's essence.
Which is frankly, (stealing a Castleism) is So Awesome! Great
characters, most of them completely looney tunes. There's a main
character who is more than he seems (which by the way I never saw
coming and I normally see these things coming, until it was right in
my face), who seems to live half in the real world half in the
movies, hero complex much, along with his trusty sidekick, a
relationship much like a certain Mr Reynolds and Mr Cobb, it has a
wisecracking Android who throws off one liners that even Bender would
be proud of (but sadly not as rude) along with the odd movie quoute
(though the Arnie one was wrong), an assassin that learns to play
nice with others, a bad guy who isn't a guy at all, intrigue and plot
twists that makes your head spin a bit.
Anyway the story starts
with Travis Archer, the focal character of the story, former Terran
Alliance military operative, now bounty hunter who is chasing a mark
he's been after for a bit, he finds him only for his bounty to be
nicked by the Krathan Assasin Juni Lien. Mr Archer not so happy about
this so when he goes looking for her on the ethernet (galactic
internet) he finds his old team mate Jay Miller, has a bounty on his
head, Archer feeling nothing but a sense of loyalty, and probably a
good dose of his hero complex. This precipitates into an
investigation for the alliance to find the Star Wraith, big honking
ship that's been running around the stars knocking ships off left
right and centre for years. They get the old team back together and
add a number of aliens, including the Krathan Assasin eventually the
aforementioned wisecracking Android.
There is intrigue
abound as they are ordered to blow the Star Wraith, find out that
it's actually built by the alliance, and basically steal the ship
until they find out what is really going on. Now I'm sure I could
reveal the whole plot to you, but that would be a waste, because you
wouldn't get the enjoyment out of reading the book, so hopefully this
should wet your appetite.
I did find the book
awesome but there were also not so awesome parts to it, while the
wisecracking robot was great at times it did feel as if some of the
earlier witty spark between Archer and Miller which I found quiet
interesting was transferred between the android and the guy who now
owns him, and the too and fro between the team-mates wasn't used as
well after that pint, and it felt like sometimes his jokes and
one-liners were there just for the sake of it.
I felt that possibly
it was a little too short. I think that sometimes it was too easy to
get from a to b, the end hook was a little contrived and the author
will know which bit I'm talking about, but maybe that particular
character is the hook for the second because I understand the book is
meant meant to be part of a series and while a lot of authors do that
leave a hook (I do) so you know there's more to come and also leave
it with a proper ending (which there is), I felt that the book itself
is that hook and there wasn't any need for it to be that easy to get
the information they needed to get to the end bit. I felt at times
the author wanted to get his story out on the page (digital as mine
may have been it's still a page) it maybe just felt a little too
fast, though nominally the first book in a series is the shortest
one.
I liked the way the
parts of the book were broken up with the headings, but sometimes and
I don't know if this is just the way it was formatted on my Kindle
but on the same page without any spacing you had two different
perspectives for characters in the same bit, but again maybe the
formatting on my kindle.
All in all I would
highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Science Fiction, Space
Opera or as Ross put it Space Fantasy. It is all in all a good first
book, and the fact that it is self-published shouldn't put you off
because I have seen writers who actually got a book deal nowhere good
as this.
Purchase
Links:
Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZBK6QA
ePub:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210824
Paperback:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0957592906
Also
available from a variety of other retailers.
Blurb:
It
sounds like a simple assignment: track down the mysterious Star
Wraith and put an end to its rampage. But when Travis Archer and his
team of inept soldiers find themselves the most wanted people in the
galaxy - hounded by assassins, terrorists and their own military -
they realise the Wraith is just a symptom of a much larger problem...
Finding war raging between one army intent on destroying an entire
species, and another that will destroy the galaxy, Travis must put
aside his fears and his past to uncover the truth behind it all. To
become the hero he's always imagined.
Shadow
of the Wraith is the first book in the NEXUS series.
Kindle ASIN:
B007ZBK6QA
£2.49 $3.79
ePub ISBN:
9781476390390
£2.49 $3.82
Paperback ISBN-13:
978-0957592902
£7.99 $12.10
About
the Author:
Ross
Harrison has been writing since childhood without thought of
publication. When the idea was planted by his grandmother to do so,
it grew rapidly, and after a bumpy ten years or so, here sits the
fruit. Ross lives on the UK/Eire border in Ireland, hoping the rain
will help his hair grow back.
Links:
http://www.ross-harrison.com
http://www.facebook.com/StarWraith
http://www.twitter.com/AuthoRoss
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ross-Harrison/e/B007ZSUY06/
No comments:
Post a Comment