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Parker Interstellar Travels #1
The Trilisk Ruins
Telisa Relachik studied to be a xenoarchaeologist in a future where humans have found alien artifacts but haven't ever encountered live aliens. Of all the aliens whose extinct civilizations are investigated, the Trilisks are the most advanced and the most mysterious.
Telisa refuses to join the government because of her opposition to its hard-handed policies restricting civilian investigation and trade of alien artifacts, despite the fact that her estranged father is a captain in the United Nations Space Force.
When a group of artifact smugglers recruits her, she can't pass up the chance at getting her hands on objects that could advance her life's work. But she soon learns her expectations of excitement and riches come with serious drawbacks as she ends up fighting for her life on a mysterious alien planet.
Telisa refuses to join the government because of her opposition to its hard-handed policies restricting civilian investigation and trade of alien artifacts, despite the fact that her estranged father is a captain in the United Nations Space Force.
When a group of artifact smugglers recruits her, she can't pass up the chance at getting her hands on objects that could advance her life's work. But she soon learns her expectations of excitement and riches come with serious drawbacks as she ends up fighting for her life on a mysterious alien planet.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 21, 2005
1499 people are currently reading
1416 people want to read
About the author
Michael McCloskey
40 books115 followersI am a software engineer in Silicon Valley who dreams of otherworldly creatures, mysterious alien planets, and fantastic adventures. I'm also an indie author with over 150,000 paid sales and another 150,000 free downloads.
Visit http://www.squidlord.us for more information.
You can subscribe to announcements of my new releases here: http://eepurl.com/nExcb
Visit http://www.squidlord.us for more information.
You can subscribe to announcements of my new releases here: http://eepurl.com/nExcb
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
May 1, 2012
I've gotta tell you, I nearly didn't make it past the first page. Chapter one, paragraph one: Telisa checking herself out in a mirror and describing herself to the reader in some detail. I sighed and nearly put it down right there, but talked myself into continuing because this was a book about space archaeologists. I'm happy to report it did get better from there, which I suppose says something about first impressions, but since that's not really what we're here to dissect, we'll skip over that and get into the meat of the book.
The truth of the matter is that this is almost a really good book. If it were made into a blockbuster movie, it would probably be a lot of fun to watch, but a book doesn't get special effects and buttery popcorn. There's a lot of tell in here, and not nearly enough show. I don't need every book to include an epic romantic subplot, but when I read a line like "It seemed like they never had time to be alone, ever since things had started going wrong. How many times had she daydreamed of a moment like this since she met Magnus?", my reaction shouldn't be "wait, what?" Telling me after the fact that she's been thinking sexy things about a dude doesn't count as building tension.
It's not just the relationships that suffer from too much tell, though. Much later in the book, Telisa has a conversation wherein she wonders nervously to herself if she should mention to the other person she suspects they were behind some awful things that happened earlier. These suspicions are firm enough in her head at this point she's ready to have a conversation about it, but it was neither mentioned or foreshadowed beforehand, so the line is just dropped in awkwardly, telling me what I'm supposed to think instead of gently leading me there and allowing me to experience things along with the characters.
I did enjoy the conflict between the smugglers and the big government, and the little bits about the aliens we hear is interesting, although considering they're stuck in an alien world, we don't really hear much. Granted, there's a second book in the works (the abrupt ending will attest to that), and it's possible more of the aliens will be explored there.
The truth of the matter is that this is almost a really good book. If it were made into a blockbuster movie, it would probably be a lot of fun to watch, but a book doesn't get special effects and buttery popcorn. There's a lot of tell in here, and not nearly enough show. I don't need every book to include an epic romantic subplot, but when I read a line like "It seemed like they never had time to be alone, ever since things had started going wrong. How many times had she daydreamed of a moment like this since she met Magnus?", my reaction shouldn't be "wait, what?" Telling me after the fact that she's been thinking sexy things about a dude doesn't count as building tension.
It's not just the relationships that suffer from too much tell, though. Much later in the book, Telisa has a conversation wherein she wonders nervously to herself if she should mention to the other person she suspects they were behind some awful things that happened earlier. These suspicions are firm enough in her head at this point she's ready to have a conversation about it, but it was neither mentioned or foreshadowed beforehand, so the line is just dropped in awkwardly, telling me what I'm supposed to think instead of gently leading me there and allowing me to experience things along with the characters.
I did enjoy the conflict between the smugglers and the big government, and the little bits about the aliens we hear is interesting, although considering they're stuck in an alien world, we don't really hear much. Granted, there's a second book in the works (the abrupt ending will attest to that), and it's possible more of the aliens will be explored there.
April 5, 2012
Excellent. Well conceived and well written. (Could have used one more review by a human editor.)
I love well-done first contact books. And this is that.
One criticism of all first contact books: even the good ones like this agonize through the initial contact/ relationship/ communication, then rush forward as if all issues of context and language magically disappear. I suspect--super-intelligent aliens and computers notwithstanding--it won't be so.
It ends like the hook for a longer series, but it does have a satisfying, if limited conclusion.
I love well-done first contact books. And this is that.
One criticism of all first contact books: even the good ones like this agonize through the initial contact/ relationship/ communication, then rush forward as if all issues of context and language magically disappear. I suspect--super-intelligent aliens and computers notwithstanding--it won't be so.
It ends like the hook for a longer series, but it does have a satisfying, if limited conclusion.
May 17, 2012
An interesting alien can't really save a pedestrian book. Telisa is an xenoarcheologist answering a job offer that turns out to be for a smuggling corp. She accepts, and goes with them to a planet that is rumored to contain Trilisk ruins. But the United Stations Space Force is also there, and smuggling is a death sentence when caught. The smugglers, the UNSF, and a marooned alien must deal with the puzzle of the ruins, a shape-changing facility that might be more of a prison than an archeological find.
The book is better when describing the alien, as he's decently conceived. He can only detect mass: things like sound and smell are beyond him, and he has a fairly pragmatic view of dealing with people. He also is skilled, with a clear purpose. The humans though aren't done too well at all, with some weird decisions. Telisa accepts the job way too readily for any archeologist, to whom smuggling destroys knowledge more than finds it. The humans really have no purpose at all, and not much in the way of history either. I'm not sure even why smugglers and the UNSF are needed. The book could have just worked with Telisa, the alien, and one other person. The reason why is that
The book is better when describing the alien, as he's decently conceived. He can only detect mass: things like sound and smell are beyond him, and he has a fairly pragmatic view of dealing with people. He also is skilled, with a clear purpose. The humans though aren't done too well at all, with some weird decisions. Telisa accepts the job way too readily for any archeologist, to whom smuggling destroys knowledge more than finds it. The humans really have no purpose at all, and not much in the way of history either. I'm not sure even why smugglers and the UNSF are needed. The book could have just worked with Telisa, the alien, and one other person. The reason why is that
January 28, 2013
Although not as developed as the more profound Insidious, the Trilisk Ruins is easy to read and is probably McCloskey's most accessible book. It also has the benefit of being part of a series, in which the books really only get better, and due to their success, is likely to continue. Like all of McCloskey's books the Trilisk Ruins is professionally edited and available at a reasonably low price.
September 18, 2020
Greetings, Shiny
The Trilisk Ruins by Michael McClosky, follows the exploits of Telisa Relachik, a Xenoarchaeologist and budding smuggler. Paired with former military man, Magnus, she sets on a journey to recover valuable alien Trilisk relics located on a newly discovered planet. Complications arise when she is trapped in a Trilisk compound with no apparent way to escape.
Enter the alien, Shiny, a centipede-like being carrying enough tech on his body to sink a battleship. True to her educational background, Telisa sets about learning to communicate with Shiny. Unfortunately, the UNSF, the Space Force policing all alien tech, wants Shiny and will stop at nothing to capture him (or her or it).
I enjoyed the story and the tech imagined by the author felt real. Learning how to escape the Trilisk facility bogged down the tale somewhat, but the story picked up nicely once they exited. I look forward to the next book in the series to see if my attention is held with the continuing saga. I was surprised that some of the tech used in the book was imaginative (like the Tangler grenade) while other weapons were mundane, old-style slug throwing rifles or spray-on skin healer.
Please be aware this is a series of 15 books. The fact that Telisa’s father is the UNSF officer pursuing Shiny and her adds an unsettling element into the story.
I rate the book, The Trilisk Ruins, as an overall 4 out of 5.
The Trilisk Ruins by Michael McClosky, follows the exploits of Telisa Relachik, a Xenoarchaeologist and budding smuggler. Paired with former military man, Magnus, she sets on a journey to recover valuable alien Trilisk relics located on a newly discovered planet. Complications arise when she is trapped in a Trilisk compound with no apparent way to escape.
Enter the alien, Shiny, a centipede-like being carrying enough tech on his body to sink a battleship. True to her educational background, Telisa sets about learning to communicate with Shiny. Unfortunately, the UNSF, the Space Force policing all alien tech, wants Shiny and will stop at nothing to capture him (or her or it).
I enjoyed the story and the tech imagined by the author felt real. Learning how to escape the Trilisk facility bogged down the tale somewhat, but the story picked up nicely once they exited. I look forward to the next book in the series to see if my attention is held with the continuing saga. I was surprised that some of the tech used in the book was imaginative (like the Tangler grenade) while other weapons were mundane, old-style slug throwing rifles or spray-on skin healer.
Please be aware this is a series of 15 books. The fact that Telisa’s father is the UNSF officer pursuing Shiny and her adds an unsettling element into the story.
I rate the book, The Trilisk Ruins, as an overall 4 out of 5.
September 12, 2012
My new-found interest in Kindle-based sci-fi novels is leading me to tackle books I never thought I’d touch. A friend of mine had a mom who was obsessed with science fiction novels when we were kids. They had this really neat library balcony type thing and it was full of dime store novels in which the captain always looses his shirt in fights and runs off with the alien girl. At the time I thought it was all cheesy to the extreme. I held a similar view of tv shows in the genre until my brother got me started on Stargate: Atlantis. It turns out I’m willing to tolerate a bit of cheese if the science is sufficiently intriguing and the characters are fascinating. The question is, does The Trilisk Ruins by Michael McCloskey meet my now lowered standards?
Well, let’s see. McCloskey gives us a society of space faring humans who’ve discovered countless worlds full of alien ruins. They’ve never met a single live alien…until now! Dun duh dun! But before our heroes meet the alien with a high functioning brain all along his spinal cord and 40 legs we learn that humans no longer live under a free society. The government is increasingly oppressive and no longer allows citizens to own anything but the most basic robots and under no circumstances are they allowed to own alien artifacts. The heroine Telisa is an archaeologist whose access to archaeological sites has been strictly limited by the government. Which is ironic because her father is a highly decorated member of the space marines or whatever the soldiers are called that crack down on illegal tomb raiders. Naturally the girl joins up with some smugglers on an illegal salvage mission to find the coolest alien junk she can get her hands on.
The trouble starts when she opens her mouth. McCloskey’s dialogue is reminiscent of my sophomore creative writing course. It reads like the sexual confused drivel written by the spoiled kid trying to rediscover himself in the absence of his parents. The only thing lacking in this regard is excessive use of profanity and body part descriptions. Every interaction is awkward and dead pan; sterile in the extreme. Like reading a Dick and Jane book. The dialogue is logical and appropriate but any emotion it tries to convey is awkward and unformed. Telisa’s inner monologue is a train wreck in and of itself. She is constantly expressing worry in a way that comes across disingenuous and juvenile. It’s certainly no Ray Bradbury dissertation on modern man.
Based on McCloskey’s loose understanding of human relationships it should come as no surprise that alien’s inner monologues are fascinating and thought-provoking. His ability to describe human interactions from a non-human point of view is the saving grace of the book. Over the years science fiction writers have presented us with aliens that are largely humanoid, or if not they are perceived as vicious monsters. Few writers present us with the possibility of an alien race which complete lacks a basis for understanding humans in the way McCloskey presents. It is a fascinating thought experiment which I for one thoroughly enjoy undertaking.
As a result I’ve found very few first contact stories that I’ve not enjoyed and Trilisk Ruins is no different. The story held my attention but it never gripped me in a summer thriller sort of way. The plot moves along with little discoveries along the way spiced with bouts of action but the alien and its perceptions drive the story.
So what’s the verdict? Does the book meet my new standard? Well it’s not about to win any awards, but I won’t be running to Amazon to demand my 99 cents back either.
Well, let’s see. McCloskey gives us a society of space faring humans who’ve discovered countless worlds full of alien ruins. They’ve never met a single live alien…until now! Dun duh dun! But before our heroes meet the alien with a high functioning brain all along his spinal cord and 40 legs we learn that humans no longer live under a free society. The government is increasingly oppressive and no longer allows citizens to own anything but the most basic robots and under no circumstances are they allowed to own alien artifacts. The heroine Telisa is an archaeologist whose access to archaeological sites has been strictly limited by the government. Which is ironic because her father is a highly decorated member of the space marines or whatever the soldiers are called that crack down on illegal tomb raiders. Naturally the girl joins up with some smugglers on an illegal salvage mission to find the coolest alien junk she can get her hands on.
The trouble starts when she opens her mouth. McCloskey’s dialogue is reminiscent of my sophomore creative writing course. It reads like the sexual confused drivel written by the spoiled kid trying to rediscover himself in the absence of his parents. The only thing lacking in this regard is excessive use of profanity and body part descriptions. Every interaction is awkward and dead pan; sterile in the extreme. Like reading a Dick and Jane book. The dialogue is logical and appropriate but any emotion it tries to convey is awkward and unformed. Telisa’s inner monologue is a train wreck in and of itself. She is constantly expressing worry in a way that comes across disingenuous and juvenile. It’s certainly no Ray Bradbury dissertation on modern man.
Based on McCloskey’s loose understanding of human relationships it should come as no surprise that alien’s inner monologues are fascinating and thought-provoking. His ability to describe human interactions from a non-human point of view is the saving grace of the book. Over the years science fiction writers have presented us with aliens that are largely humanoid, or if not they are perceived as vicious monsters. Few writers present us with the possibility of an alien race which complete lacks a basis for understanding humans in the way McCloskey presents. It is a fascinating thought experiment which I for one thoroughly enjoy undertaking.
As a result I’ve found very few first contact stories that I’ve not enjoyed and Trilisk Ruins is no different. The story held my attention but it never gripped me in a summer thriller sort of way. The plot moves along with little discoveries along the way spiced with bouts of action but the alien and its perceptions drive the story.
So what’s the verdict? Does the book meet my new standard? Well it’s not about to win any awards, but I won’t be running to Amazon to demand my 99 cents back either.
October 2, 2012
After enjoying a few of McCloskey's other titles, I figured I should take a look at what seems to be his most popular novel. It's not bad, but to be honest I preferred the others.
It starts out OK enough, following an alien later nicknamed "Shiny." And the one thing really done well is that the alien isn't anthropomorphized at all - making aliens humanoid with a few tweaks in appearance and culture is, alas, something most sci-fi is all too guilty of. Shiny isn't like that at all, and Guess I'll get to find out in one of the later novels.
But if we jump back again - the first place I noticed something off was the chapter following the humans. It took me a reread of a few pages to place the feeling - simply, the characters personalities don't come out through the dialogue, and dialogue and prose both felt more like a synopsis or writing outline than what should be in the actual novel. Or, TL;DR: It's generic.
At times, it came off a little cheesy and tropey. Redshirt syndrome that conveniently leaves the two love interests alone together and so on.
This did get somewhat better as the book went on and, to its credit it's finding out how the characters will continue from their first adventure that's got me wanting to read the second book.
The setting didn't especially grab me, maybe because I've read one too many stories about being trapped in , although this is the most gentle one of the type I've read so far. And the background setting is kind of your generic (semi-)dystopia, although it does tie into the protagonist's own story well.
In short it's an OK book but, given the choice, I'd pick up McCloskey's Insidious instead -.^
It starts out OK enough, following an alien later nicknamed "Shiny." And the one thing really done well is that the alien isn't anthropomorphized at all - making aliens humanoid with a few tweaks in appearance and culture is, alas, something most sci-fi is all too guilty of. Shiny isn't like that at all, and Guess I'll get to find out in one of the later novels.
But if we jump back again - the first place I noticed something off was the chapter following the humans. It took me a reread of a few pages to place the feeling - simply, the characters personalities don't come out through the dialogue, and dialogue and prose both felt more like a synopsis or writing outline than what should be in the actual novel. Or, TL;DR: It's generic.
At times, it came off a little cheesy and tropey. Redshirt syndrome that conveniently leaves the two love interests alone together and so on.
This did get somewhat better as the book went on and, to its credit it's finding out how the characters will continue from their first adventure that's got me wanting to read the second book.
The setting didn't especially grab me, maybe because I've read one too many stories about being trapped in , although this is the most gentle one of the type I've read so far. And the background setting is kind of your generic (semi-)dystopia, although it does tie into the protagonist's own story well.
In short it's an OK book but, given the choice, I'd pick up McCloskey's Insidious instead -.^
December 31, 2011
I found this book by clicking an ad on a webcomic site.
It had its moments of interesting scifi. The aliens were nicely done but the humans were a bit flat. For most of the story they didn't seem to have a coherent goal other than to survive, and (when survival was not an immediate problem) to poke at alien artifacts with sticks.
So I would have liked to have a stronger story-arc in this book rather than leave a bunch of plot threads hanging to a sequel.
It had its moments of interesting scifi. The aliens were nicely done but the humans were a bit flat. For most of the story they didn't seem to have a coherent goal other than to survive, and (when survival was not an immediate problem) to poke at alien artifacts with sticks.
So I would have liked to have a stronger story-arc in this book rather than leave a bunch of plot threads hanging to a sequel.
September 4, 2020
WHY DID YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Ok, so, I chose this book because it was free, from my favorite genre, and the cover looked decent.
WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
It held my attention; I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. I also enjoyed the swear word (or shall I say phrase), "purple paste." There are some nice ten-dollar words put to use, mostly military in nature, which I like because I appreciate words I have to look up on my Kindle's onboard dictionary.
WHAT DID YOU DISLIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
At sentence level mechanics are sound, but at composition level there are many extraneous details and descriptions that could be eliminated to make the prose more crisp. Also, conversations are dull and the characters are shallow, and I don't think a prologue and epilogue are necessary.
DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS BOOK?
Yes!
Ok, so, I chose this book because it was free, from my favorite genre, and the cover looked decent.
WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
It held my attention; I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. I also enjoyed the swear word (or shall I say phrase), "purple paste." There are some nice ten-dollar words put to use, mostly military in nature, which I like because I appreciate words I have to look up on my Kindle's onboard dictionary.
WHAT DID YOU DISLIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK?
At sentence level mechanics are sound, but at composition level there are many extraneous details and descriptions that could be eliminated to make the prose more crisp. Also, conversations are dull and the characters are shallow, and I don't think a prologue and epilogue are necessary.
DO YOU RECOMMEND THIS BOOK?
Yes!
February 17, 2012
Acceptable premise, fairly interesting plot, but I had a lot of trouble connecting with the story at more than just-a-story level. I enjoyed the characterizations of the aliens.
One thing that drove me a little crazy was the author's insistence on explaining that characters were accessing their link each time they stared off into space. It felt insulting that he didn't expect me to be able to remember that, and it broke up the flow of the narrative. If he really thought it was going to be that hard to figure out, he should have just removed the mechanism altogether.
Readability: 4
Writing style: 4
Enjoyed: 3
Learned something: 0
Personal appeal: 3
What I expected: 5
Edition read: 4
One thing that drove me a little crazy was the author's insistence on explaining that characters were accessing their link each time they stared off into space. It felt insulting that he didn't expect me to be able to remember that, and it broke up the flow of the narrative. If he really thought it was going to be that hard to figure out, he should have just removed the mechanism altogether.
Readability: 4
Writing style: 4
Enjoyed: 3
Learned something: 0
Personal appeal: 3
What I expected: 5
Edition read: 4
May 16, 2012
In the Trilisk Ruins, Michael McCloskey describes a far future universe where human beings have encountered alien ruins on diverse planets.
These ruins have obvious commercial values: alien artifacts are immensely valuable. Meanwhile, the government has restricted access to these ruins to its own military. The main character is a xenoarchaeologist who is frustrated by the lack of access to these new findings. She decides to embark with a bunch of pirates/mercenaries who hope to visit new alien ruins before the military can get their hands on them. The novel touches on a common theme in scifi: it is unwise to put your military in charge of first contact with aliens.
These ruins have obvious commercial values: alien artifacts are immensely valuable. Meanwhile, the government has restricted access to these ruins to its own military. The main character is a xenoarchaeologist who is frustrated by the lack of access to these new findings. She decides to embark with a bunch of pirates/mercenaries who hope to visit new alien ruins before the military can get their hands on them. The novel touches on a common theme in scifi: it is unwise to put your military in charge of first contact with aliens.
August 2, 2012
I really enjoyed this book, I found it by clicking a link down the side of facebook (not ordinarily something I ever take for a recommendation). Despite its dubious origin I quickly found myself absorbed and by the time I'd read the first three chapters I was off to order (and pay priority postage) for part two. The aliens are ALIEN, the human society is frankly fascinating, and the entire premise of the books leaves me curious for more.
March 12, 2012
Some judicious editing to remove needlessly, pointlessly, repetitively redundant content would have made this more enjoyable. It is a pity to need to lead with that comment, but readers should know that if they press on they'll be rewarded with an intriguing alien and some cool speculative science. The writing definitely improves as the story unfolds.
June 5, 2017
Very enjoyable
A really good book. Great plot and great characters. Fast paced end very interesting. A must read. You will enjoy it.
A really good book. Great plot and great characters. Fast paced end very interesting. A must read. You will enjoy it.
January 5, 2019
Aaaaaaaaaaaand it's my first Kindle freebie trash book of the year!
Yeah, I was not expecting this one to be any good. When it comes to Kindle freebies, there are only a couple of ready explanations for why a company is giving away a book they could be getting money for, and these tend to come down to either 1) it's public domain, or 2) it's not good enough to be trusted to make a profit on its own merits, so they'll give away the first book in the hopes that it'll be enough to get potential readers hooked on the rest of the series to the point they'd be willing to pay for it.
I'll give it this much: the story is at least competently written. There are fewer spelling and punctuation errors than I've come to expect from modern Kindle publishing, and the descriptions are generally clear; it's never necessary to wade through several paragraphs of confusing technobabble in order to figure out what the hell the characters are doing or what a scene actually looks like underneath all the jargon. No, the main issue with the writing is that it is so incredibly dry.
The Lack of Emotional Investment
There's hardly any emotion in the writing. Sure, we're told on occasion that Telisa is nervous or Magnus is angry, but that's conveyed with little more than "she was nervous" or "he was angry"—even the characters' mind-numbing terror is conveyed through a dry description of the chemical and physiological responses of their bodies rather than something the readers will actually be able to empathize with. This eliminates any possibility of an emotional connection with the characters before it even has a chance to form—and if I can't connect with the characters emotionally, then I have no reason to care about where their stories are going or even whether they live or die. That right there is a pretty good indication of just how invested it's possible to get in this story.
The Over-Explaining
Michael McCloskey makes a mistake that's incredibly common to hard SF authors, and which is almost singlehandedly responsible for turning me off the SF genre and into fantasy instead: getting bogged down in technical descriptions of how things work rather than letting the writing speak for itself. You don't need to spend a full paragraph explaining what exactly a stunner is. Anyone who's even so much as seen Star Wars as a kid is going to know what you're talking about simply by seeing the word "stunner". Any other necessary specifics regarding the effects that it has and the maintenance it needs, you can convey from context, and any other technical details regarding how it works that aren't directly relevant to the story, the readers don't need to know. (And what's more, probably don't care to know—if you absolutely must include that information for the benefit of your most hardcore fans, it's called an "Appendix" and writers use them for a reason.)
This isn't the last time the author does this, either: he takes a lot of time to segue off into clunky asides in order to explain this or that detail of the worldbuilding, or the specifics of how a piece of technology works. While some of this is information that actually does need to be conveyed, a good writer will find a way to smoothly incorporate it into the actual story. Here, it's relegated to dry, boring chunks of exposition. Reading it is a lot like trying to drink a cup of hot cocoa that's barely been stirred: for the most part it's watery and bland, but then once in a while you come to a congealed glob of text that's so dry it immediately sends you into a coughing fit.
The Obligatory Romance
Sure, that's all well and good (and the sad fact of the matter is, even so much as specifying what about Magnus Telisa finds attractive already puts McCloskey ahead of some authors I've read—low bars indeed!), but do you maybe want to try conveying her growing attraction in the context of an actual scene or two? No? You're just going to tell us, and then expect us to take your word for it. I see how it is.
Miscellaneous WTFs
As far as making-up-random-phrases-to-use-as-swears-because-future-slang-won't-be-the-same-as-present-slang goes, "purple paste" was a downright bizarre choice. In all honesty, it just sounds silly, especially when it's coming out of the mouth of a hardened military veteran or a bloodthirsty mercenary in a situation where a well-placed F-bomb or two would have been much more thematically appropriate. Hell, in terms of delivery even the kid-friendly "Monkey feathers!" packed more punch than "purple paste".
Seriously, is it something they eat...?
The Alien
If I give it nothing else, I will give it this: I actually did like how Kirizzo was written.
One of the things I always appreciate seeing in SF works is an alien who's actually believably alien, as opposed to a Rubber Forehead Alien who's just an obvious human with some makeup pasted on. While Kirizzo does have motivations and thought processes that are logical for any species that is the product of Darwinian evolution (a sense of self-preservation) and is possessed of high intelligence (the ability and desire to find out as much as possible about these poor clumsy bipeds), there are also a number of things that are appreciably different. We never get the sense, for example, that Kirizzo is capable of real affection or loyalty in the way most humans experience it; his motivations for cooperating with and helping the humans seem to come exclusively down to the fact that he's figured out that they want the same thing he does and has judged his own chances to be better with their help than without it to the point where it's worth his while to make an effort to communicate and to extend his help to them in turn.
The ways in which he perceives the world are also appreciably different: he has a finely-tuned mass sense that isn't analogous to anything within human experience, but is downright amazed when he manages to figure out that these strange bipeds have an innate sense that's capable of detecting the vibrations of the very air molecules around them. While the book did fall flat in a lot of ways, this is one of the things it got right and that deserves to be acknowledged.
The Verdict
The primary issue with this story is that it fails hard in "Show, Don't Tell".
Thematically, it's all about the action, while any real emotional bones the story could have had are relegated to brief asides and exposition. In this, the experience of reading this book is a lot like watching someone else play a video game, only without the interesting visuals or the opportunity to tease the player: the reader has no personal investment and is completely disconnected from anyone who does. At best, you're bored out of your mind. At worst, your fingers keep uncontrollably twitching as you fight the urge to grab the controller yourself so you can do it right. Either way, it's not worth the time or effort.
Yeah, I was not expecting this one to be any good. When it comes to Kindle freebies, there are only a couple of ready explanations for why a company is giving away a book they could be getting money for, and these tend to come down to either 1) it's public domain, or 2) it's not good enough to be trusted to make a profit on its own merits, so they'll give away the first book in the hopes that it'll be enough to get potential readers hooked on the rest of the series to the point they'd be willing to pay for it.
I'll give it this much: the story is at least competently written. There are fewer spelling and punctuation errors than I've come to expect from modern Kindle publishing, and the descriptions are generally clear; it's never necessary to wade through several paragraphs of confusing technobabble in order to figure out what the hell the characters are doing or what a scene actually looks like underneath all the jargon. No, the main issue with the writing is that it is so incredibly dry.
The Lack of Emotional Investment
There's hardly any emotion in the writing. Sure, we're told on occasion that Telisa is nervous or Magnus is angry, but that's conveyed with little more than "she was nervous" or "he was angry"—even the characters' mind-numbing terror is conveyed through a dry description of the chemical and physiological responses of their bodies rather than something the readers will actually be able to empathize with. This eliminates any possibility of an emotional connection with the characters before it even has a chance to form—and if I can't connect with the characters emotionally, then I have no reason to care about where their stories are going or even whether they live or die. That right there is a pretty good indication of just how invested it's possible to get in this story.
The Over-Explaining
Michael McCloskey makes a mistake that's incredibly common to hard SF authors, and which is almost singlehandedly responsible for turning me off the SF genre and into fantasy instead: getting bogged down in technical descriptions of how things work rather than letting the writing speak for itself. You don't need to spend a full paragraph explaining what exactly a stunner is. Anyone who's even so much as seen Star Wars as a kid is going to know what you're talking about simply by seeing the word "stunner". Any other necessary specifics regarding the effects that it has and the maintenance it needs, you can convey from context, and any other technical details regarding how it works that aren't directly relevant to the story, the readers don't need to know. (And what's more, probably don't care to know—if you absolutely must include that information for the benefit of your most hardcore fans, it's called an "Appendix" and writers use them for a reason.)
This isn't the last time the author does this, either: he takes a lot of time to segue off into clunky asides in order to explain this or that detail of the worldbuilding, or the specifics of how a piece of technology works. While some of this is information that actually does need to be conveyed, a good writer will find a way to smoothly incorporate it into the actual story. Here, it's relegated to dry, boring chunks of exposition. Reading it is a lot like trying to drink a cup of hot cocoa that's barely been stirred: for the most part it's watery and bland, but then once in a while you come to a congealed glob of text that's so dry it immediately sends you into a coughing fit.
The Obligatory Romance
She also discovered she was starting to become attracted to Magnus. She found herself staring at his image in her mind's eye, summoned from her link memory. [...] At first she had found Magnus distant and mysterious, almost rude, but through the lessons he gave her, she saw that he genuinely cared about her. His voice, which had at first sounded cold and flat, started to sound softer, almost intimate to her. Telisa wondered if it was just wishful thinking on her part. She resolved to find out—after their first expedition.
In the short time since she had met him, he had given her the impression of invulnerability. It was not the kind of bragging, pretend-out-loud sort of toughness, but a quiet, understated acceptance of the world's problems without slowing down. Telisa found herself attracted by it, but she put those thoughts aside again.
Sure, that's all well and good (and the sad fact of the matter is, even so much as specifying what about Magnus Telisa finds attractive already puts McCloskey ahead of some authors I've read—low bars indeed!), but do you maybe want to try conveying her growing attraction in the context of an actual scene or two? No? You're just going to tell us, and then expect us to take your word for it. I see how it is.
Miscellaneous WTFs
As far as making-up-random-phrases-to-use-as-swears-because-future-slang-won't-be-the-same-as-present-slang goes, "purple paste" was a downright bizarre choice. In all honesty, it just sounds silly, especially when it's coming out of the mouth of a hardened military veteran or a bloodthirsty mercenary in a situation where a well-placed F-bomb or two would have been much more thematically appropriate. Hell, in terms of delivery even the kid-friendly "Monkey feathers!" packed more punch than "purple paste".
Seriously, is it something they eat...?
The Alien
If I give it nothing else, I will give it this: I actually did like how Kirizzo was written.
One of the things I always appreciate seeing in SF works is an alien who's actually believably alien, as opposed to a Rubber Forehead Alien who's just an obvious human with some makeup pasted on. While Kirizzo does have motivations and thought processes that are logical for any species that is the product of Darwinian evolution (a sense of self-preservation) and is possessed of high intelligence (the ability and desire to find out as much as possible about these poor clumsy bipeds), there are also a number of things that are appreciably different. We never get the sense, for example, that Kirizzo is capable of real affection or loyalty in the way most humans experience it; his motivations for cooperating with and helping the humans seem to come exclusively down to the fact that he's figured out that they want the same thing he does and has judged his own chances to be better with their help than without it to the point where it's worth his while to make an effort to communicate and to extend his help to them in turn.
The ways in which he perceives the world are also appreciably different: he has a finely-tuned mass sense that isn't analogous to anything within human experience, but is downright amazed when he manages to figure out that these strange bipeds have an innate sense that's capable of detecting the vibrations of the very air molecules around them. While the book did fall flat in a lot of ways, this is one of the things it got right and that deserves to be acknowledged.
The Verdict
The primary issue with this story is that it fails hard in "Show, Don't Tell".
Thematically, it's all about the action, while any real emotional bones the story could have had are relegated to brief asides and exposition. In this, the experience of reading this book is a lot like watching someone else play a video game, only without the interesting visuals or the opportunity to tease the player: the reader has no personal investment and is completely disconnected from anyone who does. At best, you're bored out of your mind. At worst, your fingers keep uncontrollably twitching as you fight the urge to grab the controller yourself so you can do it right. Either way, it's not worth the time or effort.
December 1, 2019
An interesting start to the book, but it didn’t take long before it began to go a bit flat. The story splits between Telisa tramping through the alien jungle and the trigger happy Joe. Telisa’s journey was boring and I wasn’t the slightest bit interested in Joe. Then there was just confusion as they both entered the mysterious building.
I presume the author liked the idea of nobody knowing what was happening, but I didn’t, I was already getting bored with the story, this just added irritation on top.
I tried skip reading to keep going and even resorted to reading some reviews in the hope they would provide either some clarity to the story or at least the hope it would get better. However even the 5/4 star reviews were damning with faint praise. I’m afraid this just isn’t for me.
I presume the author liked the idea of nobody knowing what was happening, but I didn’t, I was already getting bored with the story, this just added irritation on top.
I tried skip reading to keep going and even resorted to reading some reviews in the hope they would provide either some clarity to the story or at least the hope it would get better. However even the 5/4 star reviews were damning with faint praise. I’m afraid this just isn’t for me.
February 2, 2023
Decent writing, GREAT aliens.
So I read this book and was left satisfied but not thrilled about the Trilisk universe. The writing was decent, the characters were decent, the world building was... Again, decent. Where the author excelled was designing believable and very different aliens and alien environments. Blown away by the attention to detail that he put towards making a great alien world to explore. I just wish he had spent more time with the rest of the story. As a result, moved a three star to a four. Worth a read, be interested to see if he develops the universe better in the next book, but in no rush to see.
So I read this book and was left satisfied but not thrilled about the Trilisk universe. The writing was decent, the characters were decent, the world building was... Again, decent. Where the author excelled was designing believable and very different aliens and alien environments. Blown away by the attention to detail that he put towards making a great alien world to explore. I just wish he had spent more time with the rest of the story. As a result, moved a three star to a four. Worth a read, be interested to see if he develops the universe better in the next book, but in no rush to see.
July 9, 2019
Great Read
It took me a while to get into the story but when I did, wow. This turned into a great read I could not put down. The author did a great job with the character development, making them both real and believable. The action was fast and non-stop.
I really like this book and highly recommend it.
It took me a while to get into the story but when I did, wow. This turned into a great read I could not put down. The author did a great job with the character development, making them both real and believable. The action was fast and non-stop.
I really like this book and highly recommend it.
December 4, 2021
The kind of SF I’ve been seeking
I had almost despaired of finding a series that created in detail a genuinely alien universe. There are a few elements of space opera but I can forgive those. Michael McCloskey has generated some convincingly alien fauna and flora and an intriguingly different bio-mechanical life form that has a character of its own. There’s enough about Trilisk artefacts to pique my curiosity to learn more. I’m wasting no time to move on to Book 2. Highly recommended.
I had almost despaired of finding a series that created in detail a genuinely alien universe. There are a few elements of space opera but I can forgive those. Michael McCloskey has generated some convincingly alien fauna and flora and an intriguingly different bio-mechanical life form that has a character of its own. There’s enough about Trilisk artefacts to pique my curiosity to learn more. I’m wasting no time to move on to Book 2. Highly recommended.
September 21, 2017
amazing for a first novel. Great world-building
While I like to give new authors a chance, I have high standards. This book met them. It is well written (despite a few awkward word-choices) and well edited. The best part of this novel and potentially the series, is it's good use of the idea of integrated technology. While it's disappointing to see that the author has ignored the undoubted life extension technologies that will soon be in use, his vision of people being intimately linked to their environment through an advanced "Internet of Things" is excellent.
I look forward to reading his upcoming books.
While I like to give new authors a chance, I have high standards. This book met them. It is well written (despite a few awkward word-choices) and well edited. The best part of this novel and potentially the series, is it's good use of the idea of integrated technology. While it's disappointing to see that the author has ignored the undoubted life extension technologies that will soon be in use, his vision of people being intimately linked to their environment through an advanced "Internet of Things" is excellent.
I look forward to reading his upcoming books.
March 30, 2019
2019 grade B+
A SciFi adventure, similar to the old "space ranger" stories famous authors from the mid 20th century had to write to get published. Those same authors forced SciFi to more adult levels. This novel takes advantage of that because it is considerably more sophisticated and modern.
The only portion of the story that slowed down for me was when they were trapped in the maze. I pretty much knew what was going on from life experience, and it repeats itself a bit too much. It took me a couple of days to finish the maze even though is is fairly short. The transition from exploring the ruins to the maze is also a little abrupt as are some of the new character point of view introductions and transitions.
Once the characters are out of the maze, I never lost interest and finished the book fairly quickly. The last chapter does not quite end the story, but don't worry, the epilogues finish it very well.
A recommended book.
A SciFi adventure, similar to the old "space ranger" stories famous authors from the mid 20th century had to write to get published. Those same authors forced SciFi to more adult levels. This novel takes advantage of that because it is considerably more sophisticated and modern.
The only portion of the story that slowed down for me was when they were trapped in the maze. I pretty much knew what was going on from life experience, and it repeats itself a bit too much. It took me a couple of days to finish the maze even though is is fairly short. The transition from exploring the ruins to the maze is also a little abrupt as are some of the new character point of view introductions and transitions.
Once the characters are out of the maze, I never lost interest and finished the book fairly quickly. The last chapter does not quite end the story, but don't worry, the epilogues finish it very well.
A recommended book.
September 23, 2019
Fascinating, enjoyable read
I enjoyed this first in a series about humans' interactions with a non-humanoid alien. Good dialogue and plotlines. I look forward to reading the next book in the series!
I enjoyed this first in a series about humans' interactions with a non-humanoid alien. Good dialogue and plotlines. I look forward to reading the next book in the series!
June 12, 2021
Ok, why 5 stars? Cause it kept me wanting more. Is it the best book I ever read? No. Is it one of the best I've read lately? Yes.
March 10, 2017
Amazing! More Xeno-archaeology please!
Fantastic read great characters and well developed alien cultures!
Truely an outer space adventure of excitement and wonder! On to the next book!
Fantastic read great characters and well developed alien cultures!
Truely an outer space adventure of excitement and wonder! On to the next book!
Read
March 10, 2017Great read
Can't wait to read more about these characters. The description of the stories current filter and collect alien artifacts is very entertaining
Can't wait to read more about these characters. The description of the stories current filter and collect alien artifacts is very entertaining
June 13, 2017
The good news is that the alien species, technology, culture, etc all seem to be interesting and nicely developed -- at least given the caveat that this is the first part of a series, and one can only expect so much exposition to be included in the opening book; some details have to be left unrevealed for future teasing-out...but what we get in here is all quite promising and makes me interested to discover more. All three of the species we catch a glimpse of seem to have their own individual and distinctly non-human perspectives, history, technological development, sensory perceptions, etc. The one we get our closest look at The other two species we don't really get to know, and again there's a lot about Shiny and his people that remain unrevealed for purposes of future discovery, but what we do see indicates a high probability of good world building developments for at least two of the three species in the later books of the series. (It's possible the third species will never be met in great detail -- or then again, perhaps they will be! Either way would work given the way this first story leaves-off.)
The bad news is that unfortunately the development of all the human characters as well as their whole society leaves me quite bored. The characters themselves are bland and generic
In my opinion, even worse than having bland and generic characters, we have a bland and generic society: the government is too big! It has too many rules! It wants to control people and be in charge of all knowledge! It won't let random people go poking-around willy-nilly among alien artifacts! Granted you can do interesting things with that kind of set-up, but the only thing that really gets done with it in this book (admittedly the first of a series, so perhaps we get more into the meat of things in later volumes) is to give Telisa a reason to have had a falling-out with her daddy The fact that we're in a technologically advanced futuristic society capable of FTL travel and digital mental linkage to both computer databases and to the personal links of other characters, and yet we have a presumptively heteronormative society (admittedly we only really encounter one romance so this may be an unfair assumption to make from a small sample size...but based on the way the characters talk to and interact with one another, heteronormativity is the prevailing state of the day beyond the one featured relationship) leaves me pretty unimpressed. If one can't even manage to depict a society that's at least as socially diverse as our own, let alone extrapolate toward possible future developments...well, basically I'm going to be bored with your bland and unrealistic social setting pretty much no matter what else one does with it, and nothing else interesting gets done in compensation either. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure that everybody is white. At the least, the only physical descriptions we get (admittedly sparse) are all slanted heavily toward whiteness, which is thus treated as the default state. Yipee.
The fact that we've got a "one pretty girl in a group full of men who definitely take the time to note that she's pretty even though they're ostensibly hiring her for her brains and her connections rather than her looks" set-up doesn't help my lack of interest in the human characters either.
In summation, the book has some good points and scifi potential. I just wish the author had put half as much energy into making his human characters and their society interesting and unique as he did into crafting his aliens and alien technology. Especially given that of our four main character perspectives, three of them are humans, the book really suffers from the fact that all three of them and the culture they come from are incredibly, incredibly bland. While I am interested in learning more about Shiny's people and the vanished alien cultures whose artifacts our characters have beenrecklessly stealing collecting -- and I don't have any especial dislike for Telisa the way one occasionally does for badly written main female sex objects characters; she's not objectionable, she's just not compelling -- I don't think I'm interested enough to be enticed into further reading of the series.
Basically if I stumbled across a copy of the next part in a library I'd probably go ahead and borrow it, but unless it falls into my lap like that this is probably where my interest in the series ends. Trilisk Ruins was an entertaining enough read that I certainly don't regret the time spent on it, but it's not a series I can see myself ever bothering to seek out purposefully.
The bad news is that unfortunately the development of all the human characters as well as their whole society leaves me quite bored. The characters themselves are bland and generic
In my opinion, even worse than having bland and generic characters, we have a bland and generic society: the government is too big! It has too many rules! It wants to control people and be in charge of all knowledge! It won't let random people go poking-around willy-nilly among alien artifacts! Granted you can do interesting things with that kind of set-up, but the only thing that really gets done with it in this book (admittedly the first of a series, so perhaps we get more into the meat of things in later volumes) is to give Telisa a reason to have had a falling-out with her daddy The fact that we're in a technologically advanced futuristic society capable of FTL travel and digital mental linkage to both computer databases and to the personal links of other characters, and yet we have a presumptively heteronormative society (admittedly we only really encounter one romance so this may be an unfair assumption to make from a small sample size...but based on the way the characters talk to and interact with one another, heteronormativity is the prevailing state of the day beyond the one featured relationship) leaves me pretty unimpressed. If one can't even manage to depict a society that's at least as socially diverse as our own, let alone extrapolate toward possible future developments...well, basically I'm going to be bored with your bland and unrealistic social setting pretty much no matter what else one does with it, and nothing else interesting gets done in compensation either. Oh yeah, and I'm pretty sure that everybody is white. At the least, the only physical descriptions we get (admittedly sparse) are all slanted heavily toward whiteness, which is thus treated as the default state. Yipee.
The fact that we've got a "one pretty girl in a group full of men who definitely take the time to note that she's pretty even though they're ostensibly hiring her for her brains and her connections rather than her looks" set-up doesn't help my lack of interest in the human characters either.
In summation, the book has some good points and scifi potential. I just wish the author had put half as much energy into making his human characters and their society interesting and unique as he did into crafting his aliens and alien technology. Especially given that of our four main character perspectives, three of them are humans, the book really suffers from the fact that all three of them and the culture they come from are incredibly, incredibly bland. While I am interested in learning more about Shiny's people and the vanished alien cultures whose artifacts our characters have been
Basically if I stumbled across a copy of the next part in a library I'd probably go ahead and borrow it, but unless it falls into my lap like that this is probably where my interest in the series ends. Trilisk Ruins was an entertaining enough read that I certainly don't regret the time spent on it, but it's not a series I can see myself ever bothering to seek out purposefully.
February 18, 2015
This is one of those rare books that suffers not from being bad, but from being too close too good for its own good. Oh, and a lot of repetition of some words and phrases.
The plot is a little mundane and ordinary (though not boring to read). Telisa is hired by a group of high-class smugglers to visit a new planet and gather some government-forbidden alien artifacts to sell on the black market for lots of money. She is immediately attracted to Magnus, the military guy in their cozy little group of four. The four get to the planet, run into some government interference, meet an alien, get some artifacts, and then try to escape both the UNSF (United something Space Force) and a maze-like structure on the planet. The plot has potential. It just misses.
What I liked is that the book flowed fairly well, the plot was easy to follow, it was easy to read, and you did get pulled along with it. But it had some flaws. First, as another reviewer said, the characters were almost two-dimensional. There was a little depth to them, but not much. In other words, you could guess what the characters were going to do before they did it. Second, I never felt drawn in to the scenery. I have an idea of what our two heroes look like because of the cover of the book, but they were never clear in my head, and neither was the alien, the environment, or the bad guys. Everything just felt kind of fuzzy. I also didn't like that a couple of characters were killed for basically no reason. The author tried to explain it away, but it didn't add up. The logic behind their deaths just wasn't there. Oh, and it's part of a series. That is, this book has some closure, but it also has open-ended questions to make you buy the next book. I liked this one, but not enough to jump into the series.
All in all, this is a decent book. If you like sci-fi, this is worth a gander. Just beware that you are going to read the word "link" about 600,000 times and that the characters say the word "Hrm" about 300,000 times. Other than that, and the fact that you'll have to spend a few more bucks to get true closure, you'll probably enjoy this book enough if you pick it up.
The plot is a little mundane and ordinary (though not boring to read). Telisa is hired by a group of high-class smugglers to visit a new planet and gather some government-forbidden alien artifacts to sell on the black market for lots of money. She is immediately attracted to Magnus, the military guy in their cozy little group of four. The four get to the planet, run into some government interference, meet an alien, get some artifacts, and then try to escape both the UNSF (United something Space Force) and a maze-like structure on the planet. The plot has potential. It just misses.
What I liked is that the book flowed fairly well, the plot was easy to follow, it was easy to read, and you did get pulled along with it. But it had some flaws. First, as another reviewer said, the characters were almost two-dimensional. There was a little depth to them, but not much. In other words, you could guess what the characters were going to do before they did it. Second, I never felt drawn in to the scenery. I have an idea of what our two heroes look like because of the cover of the book, but they were never clear in my head, and neither was the alien, the environment, or the bad guys. Everything just felt kind of fuzzy. I also didn't like that a couple of characters were killed for basically no reason. The author tried to explain it away, but it didn't add up. The logic behind their deaths just wasn't there. Oh, and it's part of a series. That is, this book has some closure, but it also has open-ended questions to make you buy the next book. I liked this one, but not enough to jump into the series.
All in all, this is a decent book. If you like sci-fi, this is worth a gander. Just beware that you are going to read the word "link" about 600,000 times and that the characters say the word "Hrm" about 300,000 times. Other than that, and the fact that you'll have to spend a few more bucks to get true closure, you'll probably enjoy this book enough if you pick it up.
January 1, 2013
I thing Michael McCloskey gets the balance right in "The Trilisk Ruins" (5 stars). The gubmint is the antagonist and it doesn't matter whether the administration is Republican or Democrat. (Both parties signed onto the USA PATRIOT Act after all.) The heroes are "criminals" who aim to misbehave. They spend a fair amount of time when they're in civilization scrubbing logs of incriminating evidence and bribing bureaucrats to overlook minor infractions. And they find the Feds like to infect everyone's computer with dormant spyware.
None of this gets in the way of a ripping good yarn. The hero and her handsome male companions go rocketing off into space in search of treasure with the gubmint a few steps behind trying to stop them and/or steal the treasure for themselves. I figured the axe-grinding to story-telling ratio was fairly light-handed, but I should get a 2nd opinion from a statist.
Many times you'll read an SF story wherein the aliens are just like us, but with some prosthetic makeup on their nose and funky jewelry (Bajoran), or pointy ears and eyebrows (Vulcan), or spots on their skin (Trill). Why, you might ask Gene Roddenberry? Because more elaborate makeup and alien get-ups cost too much, he'd say.
McCloskey has no such constraints. He devises aliens with tri-lobed brains, or 20-lobed brains, and he gives them really alien forms. Like 40 limbs, no sense of smell or hearing, but a sense of mass. And he gives this a plausible explanation without getting bogged down in technobabble. High marks for making his aliens alien.
Often you'll read Science Fiction with artificial intelligences and lots of networked computers and there's a sense that technology is just magic with wires. Not so in "The Trilisk Ruins." Communications protocols, encryption, and other terms of the geek's art are handled intelligently without any hand-wavy bull.
"The Trilisk Ruins" is the first novel in a series. If you buy this and like it, be prepared to buy a few more follow-up novels. I just did.
None of this gets in the way of a ripping good yarn. The hero and her handsome male companions go rocketing off into space in search of treasure with the gubmint a few steps behind trying to stop them and/or steal the treasure for themselves. I figured the axe-grinding to story-telling ratio was fairly light-handed, but I should get a 2nd opinion from a statist.
Many times you'll read an SF story wherein the aliens are just like us, but with some prosthetic makeup on their nose and funky jewelry (Bajoran), or pointy ears and eyebrows (Vulcan), or spots on their skin (Trill). Why, you might ask Gene Roddenberry? Because more elaborate makeup and alien get-ups cost too much, he'd say.
McCloskey has no such constraints. He devises aliens with tri-lobed brains, or 20-lobed brains, and he gives them really alien forms. Like 40 limbs, no sense of smell or hearing, but a sense of mass. And he gives this a plausible explanation without getting bogged down in technobabble. High marks for making his aliens alien.
Often you'll read Science Fiction with artificial intelligences and lots of networked computers and there's a sense that technology is just magic with wires. Not so in "The Trilisk Ruins." Communications protocols, encryption, and other terms of the geek's art are handled intelligently without any hand-wavy bull.
"The Trilisk Ruins" is the first novel in a series. If you buy this and like it, be prepared to buy a few more follow-up novels. I just did.
December 1, 2014
I found the book in the most unexpected of ways, through a side ad on a dating site, I gave it a go without knowing anything about it because it was nearly free in ebook. It was the best ad I ever clicked on.
While it starts a bit confusing by jumping straight into a very alien environment, it builds up quickly to be a fast paced and fast reader book; while the characters at first might appear obvious, it takes but a moment to realize they are anything but.
And Michael does keep the "sci" into sci-fi — while of course it's fiction, so many of the described techs do not exist nowadays, they are not made up such that they would not make sense. They are in many things the kind of tech that we *aspire* to have, even today.
It's probably just a pet peeve of mine, but having technologies explained that are just a future-looking idea of what we have today (think atomic flying cars in the '60s), or being completely indistinguishable from magic, feels like a cheap device.
The links in PIT are reasonably futuristic and at the same time can be described without falling into technobabble altogether.
It's a first of a series, which shows in some rough points over the first half of the book, but I ended up devouring it in just two days while on vacation in London, and I'm still hooked on the series!
While it starts a bit confusing by jumping straight into a very alien environment, it builds up quickly to be a fast paced and fast reader book; while the characters at first might appear obvious, it takes but a moment to realize they are anything but.
And Michael does keep the "sci" into sci-fi — while of course it's fiction, so many of the described techs do not exist nowadays, they are not made up such that they would not make sense. They are in many things the kind of tech that we *aspire* to have, even today.
It's probably just a pet peeve of mine, but having technologies explained that are just a future-looking idea of what we have today (think atomic flying cars in the '60s), or being completely indistinguishable from magic, feels like a cheap device.
The links in PIT are reasonably futuristic and at the same time can be described without falling into technobabble altogether.
It's a first of a series, which shows in some rough points over the first half of the book, but I ended up devouring it in just two days while on vacation in London, and I'm still hooked on the series!
April 14, 2012
I found The Trilisk Ruins to be an interesting start to a story. The author didn't focus too deeply on trying to explain the science of what was going on. And in some aspects it felt a little rushed, but overall I would say that I did enjoy the story.
The story focuses around Telisa Relachik, a Xenoarchaeologist in a time frame where Earth is being run by an oppressive government that appears to have grown out of the United Nations.
The United Nations Space Force controls everything that happens outside of Earth's orbit. It enforces it's rules with harsh zealotry. I can almost liken it's desire of control and level of fanatcism to Nazi Germany in many ways. Telisa signs on with a group of smugglers that travel into space, searching for alien ruins to try and salvage technology out from.
Overall there is a lot of negative perception being conveyed of the government, though much of that stems from rights violations and corruption it appears. I would say if you enjoy a good space Drama, this is a story worth looking into.
The story focuses around Telisa Relachik, a Xenoarchaeologist in a time frame where Earth is being run by an oppressive government that appears to have grown out of the United Nations.
The United Nations Space Force controls everything that happens outside of Earth's orbit. It enforces it's rules with harsh zealotry. I can almost liken it's desire of control and level of fanatcism to Nazi Germany in many ways. Telisa signs on with a group of smugglers that travel into space, searching for alien ruins to try and salvage technology out from.
Overall there is a lot of negative perception being conveyed of the government, though much of that stems from rights violations and corruption it appears. I would say if you enjoy a good space Drama, this is a story worth looking into.
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