Celestial Hit List by Charles Ingrid book review

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

The elite battlesuit carrier and a walking tank Jack Storm goes to a new planet. He’ll face prophecies, miracles, magic, and a human nemesis. Or at least the nemesis he thinks he has. I’m sure there will be no shortage of future nemeses to Jack and his sentient suit. One of the major opponents is a civilization of cruel and clever cockroaches that’s unlikely to go away.

The series is still interesting to me. I’m captivated by books with complex worlds and simple plots. The enemies are clear, and the solution to the problems they create is also clear. There will be battles with lasers, jets, and spaceships. What is not clear is who will endure all the challenges and who will be sacrificed by the writer.

I think the score for this one is 4/5.

Point and shoot

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments
Blossoms 🌸 🌼

The iPhone 15 camera makes it way too easy for me to create image posts. I feel ready to generate enough content to confuse the AI scrapers and the image generators.

The actual colour was white.

Lasertown Blues by Charles Ingrid book review

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Jack Storm is kidnapped to a forced labor colony and his friends will try to save him. Needless to say, if the suit and the owner are connected, things will not be looking good for the kidnappers. Until then, Jack needs to be creative.

The story doesn’t matter much. I liked the spirit of the 1950s sci-fi with spaceships, alien life forms, and the simplicity of everything, with plot holes here and there. I keep drawing parallels with Asimov. For part 2, I’d say it looks more and more like Lucky Starr than Foundation, despite the mild fantasy elements. The military setup can’t be compared with Starship Troopers or any similar story because the author doesn’t try to reproduce anything an actual military would do. Who could imagine that weapons and barracks are actually guarded in the army?

The relationship between Jack and Amber is unrealistic. What’s wrong with two young people who live together becoming a couple? Stephanie Plum, Thraxas, and now this. The problems these two should have, given that they’re late teens/early 20s would normally be in the area of “Why are your socks on the floor” and “Something is rotting in the sink” rather than “May I kiss him”. The relationship is described as if the characters are not badass soldier/medium young adults but 12-year-olds.

4/5. Big plot holes but engaging and easy to read.

Solar Kill by Charles Ingrid

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Took a bit of a detour from Thraxas and Stephanie Plum today with Solar Kill by Charles Ingrid. This is a hard sci-fi space opera with spaceships, aliens, and difficult-to-explain powers in the (rough) spirit of the Foundation.

The main protagonist is an ultra-soldier, skilled in lucky survivals but is overly reliant on his battle suit, which might be a bit unwise. The suit is opinionated.

5/5, and I’m already deep into the second part. What a page-turner.