This review seemed a little spoilery to me. If you want to check out a shorter spoiler-free version check out the bottom of this page which has my Goodreads Version!
Click here
Joshua James writes a LOT of books. I've enjoyed at least one series of several books from him (I have a sneaking suspicion he must be a 'them' given the number of books!) and joined his reader group - which is where I heard about this one.
It's on Kindle Unlimited so I hope he/ they got some benefit from my reading it - but at least I'm doing a review, so that could help with sales.
Dreams & Robots
What we have here is your classic couple of blokes on a (nearly) derelict starship, raised by robots and tormented by weird dreams who seem to be possessed of something called "Tak" - which is a bit like Tech - that inhabits their bodies, powers the ship, (and their robot) and makes lights flash on other things that do stuff - like show videos and open locks.
They're rushing back to.. somewhere, having found a cure for a deadly plague that did something really bad - although they don't know who they are, where they're going or what to do when they get there.
Some of the questions get answered when they crash into a planet and encounter the locals - who are split between the Tak-rich City and the Jawa-like Scavengers.
Down to Earth
Turns out the plague was down to man's arrogance when an attempt to merge man and Tak went wrong and... well, something really bad happened. The City is just gathering and hoarding what's left, while the Scavengers are using any they find just to stay alive.
Naturally the City are mightily 'agin' anything messing with the status quo - actually the backstory is a lot more complex than that, but you do need some incentive to buy and read the book, right?
There's a big fight, some jiggery-pokery with the Cure (which despite the title is NOT an actual Elixir) and suddenly the whole planet is full of Tak and the birds are singing again...
To be continued...
And then the other shoe drops, the top baddies escape, and it's eyes-down for the sequel Reedemr. Which you can bet is probably not someone who repays, recovers, saves, or exchanges something for something else.
Overall I'd say this is a workmanlike SciFi epic - it's meant (I think) as a YA book - the heroes are listed (again I think) as early teens, but there's enough kickass action that you tend to forget their age and don't have a mental picture of a couple of younglings bouncing around inside a space wreck.
The spiritual Tak is a nice touch, but (my humble opinion) seems a lot like "The Force"TM with added Midiclorians. Maybe we'll learn more about this later.
I'll certainly go on to the next book - more on that to follow!
The Spoiler Free version is here:
Elixr: The Lost Starship by Joshua James
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is my (hopefully) spoiler free version of a review. For more detail and some plot details, try here: https://bit.ly/3ayp9LY
Joshua James writes a LOT of books. I've enjoyed at least one series of several books from him (I have a sneaking suspicion he must be a 'them' given the number of books!) and joined his reader group - which is where I heard about this one.
It's on Kindle Unlimited so I hope he/ they got some benefit from my reading it - but at least I'm doing a review, so that could help with sales.
Overall I'd say this is a workmanlike SciFi epic - it's meant (I think) as a YA book - the heroes are listed (again I think) as early teens, but there's enough kickass action that you tend to forget their age and don't have a mental picture of a couple of younglings bouncing around inside a space wreck.
The spiritual Tak is a nice touch, but (my humble opinion) seems a lot like "The Force"TM with added Midiclorians. Maybe we'll learn more about this later.
I'll certainly go on to the next book - more on that to follow!
View all my reviews