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Gunship #1
Gunship
In a distant galaxy, planets are on the brink of civil war. While the totalitarian Legion prepares its troops, Captain Adam Michaels sees opportunity in the field of smuggling. Along with the rest of the Gunship's crew, Adam will chase their biggest payday yet. Of course, they'll have to face vampires, off-world gangsters, true love, and plenty of other perils along the way. Gunship is the perfect mix of whiskey, saloons, spaceships, and unique alien races. Kindle 2020
- GenresScience Fiction
86 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 13, 2011
121 people are currently reading
173 people want to read
About the author
John Davis
40 books170 followersJohn M. Davis is the bestselling author of Gunship, as well as Wicked, and the novelization of the motion picture REDD. Known throughout the writing industry as the Book Commander, John is a former writer for the Legends Football League and owns a minority share of the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife of 18 years and their two spoiled kids. When he isn’t writing, John enjoys reading, studying history, and listening to his favorite band, Evanescence.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 22, 2017
I enjoyed this space romp. A crew of rogues surviving as outlaws. The captain makes one rash decision and he finds love and the rest find purpose in their lives. Good characters and plenty of combat.
September 8, 2012
I get the reviews from others that this is similar to Firefly. There is something the rogue captain's speech pattern combined with 20th century style weapons and similar pieces that are Fireflyesque.
I really wanted to like this book but it really, really needs a line editor. Probably a good content editor too but definitely a line editor. I kept running into missing letters at the end of words but no punctuation to indicate that the character was cutoff in mid-sentence. There were some misspelled/wrong words and errors in phrases (it's 'fell swoop' not 'fail swoop').
Finally, at the end as the action shifts between characters and locations there was nothing but a new paragraph to indicate changes. With the paragraph breaks crammed together in an ereader I kept having to reread. For example, one minute a group is in jail and the next minute were looking a crew fixing a ship. The story bounces between these two locations every other paragraph. I kept have to reread to figure out where I was.
I'm giving it 3 stars for the story but I'm not sure I'll continue on with the series.
I really wanted to like this book but it really, really needs a line editor. Probably a good content editor too but definitely a line editor. I kept running into missing letters at the end of words but no punctuation to indicate that the character was cutoff in mid-sentence. There were some misspelled/wrong words and errors in phrases (it's 'fell swoop' not 'fail swoop').
Finally, at the end as the action shifts between characters and locations there was nothing but a new paragraph to indicate changes. With the paragraph breaks crammed together in an ereader I kept having to reread. For example, one minute a group is in jail and the next minute were looking a crew fixing a ship. The story bounces between these two locations every other paragraph. I kept have to reread to figure out where I was.
I'm giving it 3 stars for the story but I'm not sure I'll continue on with the series.
May 17, 2019
Gunship(Book 1)by John Davis
I think I download this while I was looking for steam-punk novels, this is not steam-punk. It's more like Firefly with caveat's galore. It might remind some people of Firefly and some people might actually enjoy it. But there are a lot of strange style choices and sense of some sort of rush that starts from page one and goes right through the thing.
The sense of rush itself could be good but in this case it's just damaging. With the style of writing and everything that John Davis wanted to stuff into this story I would have to go against my usual rule of limiting the size and say that he should have made this story much larger to give him time to develop characters and the story in more expansive way. It's really hard to explain without having someone read the story. You have to read this to see. I think that if he'd chosen a style that would have condensed his writing to essentials maybe the length of the story would then work.
The ebook had some other problems that may or may not have been style choices. Either way it causes difficulty reading the story. There are dramatic scene changes that are not separated in any way except the immediate jar (sometimes) that I got while reading. Sometimes I may have gotten scenes mixed in with each other because there was no way to delineate the scenes. Since on occasion a scene break does show up I have to strongly suspect that the missing scene changes may have just never been there, but it's often not quite fair to assume that with a kindle document because the process of conversion often does lose those dramatic spaces.
There is an entire section where we get a shopping list view of every character on the ship and possibly their motivation and such so that this doesn't have to be dealt with in the story and I would rather see something like this developed throughout the story instead of munged into one hill of description. One result for me is the feeling that every motive and every character seem to have been rushed out and I think that creates the feeling of the characters being flat though if the reader goes back to that section they can almost see they are slightly fleshed out. It really ruined the sense of romance for me in the love interests.
I did enjoy the tension of the battle at the end. The climax is helpful in giving the story a bit more depth. I did end up with some issues about how things developed but the largest is a bit of personal preference. I don't mind the female protagonist fighting in dresses and such. It's a common feature of games and comic books. What I have a problem with is when there is clearly no reason for the female to chose that. If it so happens that the battle starts while everyone is at a ball or dance or some swank function then, yes, what they have on is what they have on. In this story in the final scenes there was no logical reason for the character to show up for battle in a red dress. She knew she was going, everyone had time to get ready, and she should have been wearing the same thing the rest of the troops had and maybe even some battle armor. That said she should have been wounded, hurt, bleeding and sorry that she ever wore a dress into battle.I'm pretty sure there is no mention of the red dress being lined with battle armor.
Lastly and this I would not have complained about if the author had made this novel longer with more depth to the characters, but he didn't. This trilogy probably should have been one book and it should have been reworked and condensed. Or it should have been longer with more built in character development. This leaves you hanging, which again is not always a bad thing, but in this instance it seems inexcusable. This is like a short story or at best a novella. It is definitely not 358 pages as is listed. It's probably closer to 100 pages 120 at best.(I'm not sure where they get these page counts from and a word count is a lot better to judge by.)
For those who are concerned about grammar and spelling errors this is not the book for you.
Fans of Firefly who don't mind some light reading with striking similarities might appreciate this. It's sort of SFF with extreme emphasis on the Fantasy part. The vampires, zombies , and pirates are not well defined enough to really be that recognizable and if you don't mind a lot of bloody action then you might enjoy this if you do like Vampires, Zombies and Pirates.
Some more editing, tighter writing, and a bit more character development with a true page count of 350 pages would really help this book. It has a lot more potential.
J.L. Dobias
I think I download this while I was looking for steam-punk novels, this is not steam-punk. It's more like Firefly with caveat's galore. It might remind some people of Firefly and some people might actually enjoy it. But there are a lot of strange style choices and sense of some sort of rush that starts from page one and goes right through the thing.
The sense of rush itself could be good but in this case it's just damaging. With the style of writing and everything that John Davis wanted to stuff into this story I would have to go against my usual rule of limiting the size and say that he should have made this story much larger to give him time to develop characters and the story in more expansive way. It's really hard to explain without having someone read the story. You have to read this to see. I think that if he'd chosen a style that would have condensed his writing to essentials maybe the length of the story would then work.
The ebook had some other problems that may or may not have been style choices. Either way it causes difficulty reading the story. There are dramatic scene changes that are not separated in any way except the immediate jar (sometimes) that I got while reading. Sometimes I may have gotten scenes mixed in with each other because there was no way to delineate the scenes. Since on occasion a scene break does show up I have to strongly suspect that the missing scene changes may have just never been there, but it's often not quite fair to assume that with a kindle document because the process of conversion often does lose those dramatic spaces.
There is an entire section where we get a shopping list view of every character on the ship and possibly their motivation and such so that this doesn't have to be dealt with in the story and I would rather see something like this developed throughout the story instead of munged into one hill of description. One result for me is the feeling that every motive and every character seem to have been rushed out and I think that creates the feeling of the characters being flat though if the reader goes back to that section they can almost see they are slightly fleshed out. It really ruined the sense of romance for me in the love interests.
I did enjoy the tension of the battle at the end. The climax is helpful in giving the story a bit more depth. I did end up with some issues about how things developed but the largest is a bit of personal preference. I don't mind the female protagonist fighting in dresses and such. It's a common feature of games and comic books. What I have a problem with is when there is clearly no reason for the female to chose that. If it so happens that the battle starts while everyone is at a ball or dance or some swank function then, yes, what they have on is what they have on. In this story in the final scenes there was no logical reason for the character to show up for battle in a red dress. She knew she was going, everyone had time to get ready, and she should have been wearing the same thing the rest of the troops had and maybe even some battle armor. That said she should have been wounded, hurt, bleeding and sorry that she ever wore a dress into battle.I'm pretty sure there is no mention of the red dress being lined with battle armor.
Lastly and this I would not have complained about if the author had made this novel longer with more depth to the characters, but he didn't. This trilogy probably should have been one book and it should have been reworked and condensed. Or it should have been longer with more built in character development. This leaves you hanging, which again is not always a bad thing, but in this instance it seems inexcusable. This is like a short story or at best a novella. It is definitely not 358 pages as is listed. It's probably closer to 100 pages 120 at best.(I'm not sure where they get these page counts from and a word count is a lot better to judge by.)
For those who are concerned about grammar and spelling errors this is not the book for you.
Fans of Firefly who don't mind some light reading with striking similarities might appreciate this. It's sort of SFF with extreme emphasis on the Fantasy part. The vampires, zombies , and pirates are not well defined enough to really be that recognizable and if you don't mind a lot of bloody action then you might enjoy this if you do like Vampires, Zombies and Pirates.
Some more editing, tighter writing, and a bit more character development with a true page count of 350 pages would really help this book. It has a lot more potential.
J.L. Dobias
July 1, 2022
.
.
MY OPINION:
Book, story, plot, and characters ALL seem….:
…trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite….
…and TRITE!
Reads like a compendium of maybe the last 4 or 5 space operas I read — except written in crayon by a 9 year old for a 7 year old.
JUST MY OPINION !
Also:
Hey author!
Do you have any idea what the difference is between a “clip” and a “magazine?”
“… “I've put an entire rifle clip into one of the beasts myself!….”
“…Checking a small combat pistol for a full clip, he placed it beneath his own waistline….”
A clip is simply a storage device you use to load ammunition into the magazine of a firearm.
https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/...
In my extremely EXPERT opinion, this is a bad book….
.
.
.
MY OPINION:
Book, story, plot, and characters ALL seem….:
…trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite trite….
…and TRITE!
Reads like a compendium of maybe the last 4 or 5 space operas I read — except written in crayon by a 9 year old for a 7 year old.
JUST MY OPINION !
Also:
Hey author!
Do you have any idea what the difference is between a “clip” and a “magazine?”
“… “I've put an entire rifle clip into one of the beasts myself!….”
“…Checking a small combat pistol for a full clip, he placed it beneath his own waistline….”
A clip is simply a storage device you use to load ammunition into the magazine of a firearm.
https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/...
In my extremely EXPERT opinion, this is a bad book….
.
.
September 20, 2017
Egad! Run away!
A storyline comprising brutal squabbles amongst future interstellar criminals whom, obessed with alcohol, weapons and paranoic anger ( much of it between one another) lumber across the stars from one crime to another in a spaceship barely described as something resembling a 1940's naval craft. They are so relentlessly stupid they should be in an alley following drunks. Description is so meager flat painted set-screens would elucidate better. The dialogue consists of various reworking
of: " who has some liquor? ",or, "I'll be able to kill them"?,or " say that again and I'll killyou.
Don't bother. Unreadable. Maybe at some future date the author will discover that a story requires a
Story!
A storyline comprising brutal squabbles amongst future interstellar criminals whom, obessed with alcohol, weapons and paranoic anger ( much of it between one another) lumber across the stars from one crime to another in a spaceship barely described as something resembling a 1940's naval craft. They are so relentlessly stupid they should be in an alley following drunks. Description is so meager flat painted set-screens would elucidate better. The dialogue consists of various reworking
of: " who has some liquor? ",or, "I'll be able to kill them"?,or " say that again and I'll killyou.
Don't bother. Unreadable. Maybe at some future date the author will discover that a story requires a
Story!
August 31, 2017
Eh...ok book. I get why people compared it to Firefly, but....wow, so not as good and it was missing something - heart or fluidity or even cohesion of the characters I am not sure, but it was definitely missing something. Action was there, but not complete -
again, something was missing. Also, and this is a BIG one for me, the book didn't really have an end, it just had a dramatic sentence and...end of book. More like a chapter ending than a book ending. Not good enough to look up and read the next.
again, something was missing. Also, and this is a BIG one for me, the book didn't really have an end, it just had a dramatic sentence and...end of book. More like a chapter ending than a book ending. Not good enough to look up and read the next.
November 7, 2019
A JD. SYFY. Novel Gunship
JD. has penned a SYFY. Novel titled "Gunship", which is the space vehicle of a space crew that has managed to maintain control of their weapon of war for use in the free space market. They are not the only ones enter the very profitable smuggling market, which is the way people one e different planets who attempt to avoid taxes and tariffs. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
JD. has penned a SYFY. Novel titled "Gunship", which is the space vehicle of a space crew that has managed to maintain control of their weapon of war for use in the free space market. They are not the only ones enter the very profitable smuggling market, which is the way people one e different planets who attempt to avoid taxes and tariffs. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
September 7, 2019
How did this get published?
This book is full of errors that a good editor could have caught.
The story itself often lacks structure and the actions of the characters would only make sense in a bad sci fi tv movie in which the laws of physics are suspended.
I highly recommend finding a different book to read.
This book is full of errors that a good editor could have caught.
The story itself often lacks structure and the actions of the characters would only make sense in a bad sci fi tv movie in which the laws of physics are suspended.
I highly recommend finding a different book to read.
September 21, 2020
A familiar feel?
This reads like a grimdark version of Firefly, an ex soldier, on the losing side in a war, turned smuggler, with a crew of mildly psychotic misfits, but with a grittier, more action based plot. Space Vampires, double deals, and the start of a new conflict, fans of darker space opera tales will enjoy this.
This reads like a grimdark version of Firefly, an ex soldier, on the losing side in a war, turned smuggler, with a crew of mildly psychotic misfits, but with a grittier, more action based plot. Space Vampires, double deals, and the start of a new conflict, fans of darker space opera tales will enjoy this.
July 13, 2021
Unfortunately, the edition I downloaded was so poorly edited as to be almost unreadable. There are scene changes without even so much as a blank line for demarcation, terrible spell checking, punctuation missing, and so forth.
I think I could have enjoyed this series, but I won’t be reading any more of it. (Or trying to.)
I think I could have enjoyed this series, but I won’t be reading any more of it. (Or trying to.)
September 10, 2019
Great Story
I enjoyed this immensely. There was humour and good one liners. A mixture of campus and space travel. My only complaint is that it got slow and then it got rushed at the end.
I enjoyed this immensely. There was humour and good one liners. A mixture of campus and space travel. My only complaint is that it got slow and then it got rushed at the end.
January 28, 2020
Really good story
Love the intelligent characters and situation. Not sure what to think of the ending. If you are looking for a good criminal or sci fi tale. Definitely worth a read.
Love the intelligent characters and situation. Not sure what to think of the ending. If you are looking for a good criminal or sci fi tale. Definitely worth a read.
November 1, 2017
Good
My dad enjoyed the book very much thank you for writing it. He didnt have much and seemed to enjoy the story
My dad enjoyed the book very much thank you for writing it. He didnt have much and seemed to enjoy the story
December 28, 2018
Excellent Read
Loved the plot and characters, gripping story and we'll written. Brings to mind the movie Serenity and just as good as a book.
Loved the plot and characters, gripping story and we'll written. Brings to mind the movie Serenity and just as good as a book.
April 1, 2019
A nice diversion
Short and overly dramatic, although eliminating the unnecessary verbiage would have made a much better and more easily readable short story
Short and overly dramatic, although eliminating the unnecessary verbiage would have made a much better and more easily readable short story
October 14, 2019
A wonderful sci-fi adventure. Magnificent writing. I loved it
December 29, 2019
Could have been great
Good story. But the poor technical editing killed the rating it could have had.
Wrong words and bad punctuation ruined the flow.
Good story. But the poor technical editing killed the rating it could have had.
Wrong words and bad punctuation ruined the flow.
November 2, 2020
Two pages of forced manly dialogue into this one made it easy to put it down. Sometimes, free is worth what you pay for it.
October 9, 2014
I tried to like this book. I started out at three stars, but as the story progressed, it went
down to just one star. characters are ok, but need more development. the main character arrives at his
morals just too quickly.
the story line also developed too quickly. the book goes from a battle scene to a meeting
on planning a battle. you don't know how you got there. there is not anough story in between
to let the reader know how it happened. the reader does not know where it is taking
place.
let's talk about the grammer. no one proof read this book!!! missing words, wrong tenses of verbs are just some of the mistakes that I found. smashwords is the worst bublisher,
though I have found grammer mistakes in a big bublisher like bantam books too.
the author does not appear to know much about guns. he describes tracer ammo as if
it was doing the killing. I am sure it could put your eye out but not bring down a fighter
or a spaceship.
I think the author and the story have potential but it needs to be completly rewritten.
down to just one star. characters are ok, but need more development. the main character arrives at his
morals just too quickly.
the story line also developed too quickly. the book goes from a battle scene to a meeting
on planning a battle. you don't know how you got there. there is not anough story in between
to let the reader know how it happened. the reader does not know where it is taking
place.
let's talk about the grammer. no one proof read this book!!! missing words, wrong tenses of verbs are just some of the mistakes that I found. smashwords is the worst bublisher,
though I have found grammer mistakes in a big bublisher like bantam books too.
the author does not appear to know much about guns. he describes tracer ammo as if
it was doing the killing. I am sure it could put your eye out but not bring down a fighter
or a spaceship.
I think the author and the story have potential but it needs to be completly rewritten.
February 6, 2014
I Wanted to Like This Book . . .
. . . but I didn't. There are quite a few flaws in this book, the most obvious being: Scene breaks/transitions--there are a few, but for the most part there aren't any; Poor editing, the book is riddled with instances of wrong word choices--I suspect from over reliance on spell checking programs, since the things I'm referring to are things like using "he" in place of "the," "hear" in place of "her" and "to" in place of "too"; the final glaring problem I'll mention is the fact that the story reads like a mish-mash of "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica" with a dash of genetic engineering horror added in for a Geiger-esque effect.
It's rather disappointing.
. . . but I didn't. There are quite a few flaws in this book, the most obvious being: Scene breaks/transitions--there are a few, but for the most part there aren't any; Poor editing, the book is riddled with instances of wrong word choices--I suspect from over reliance on spell checking programs, since the things I'm referring to are things like using "he" in place of "the," "hear" in place of "her" and "to" in place of "too"; the final glaring problem I'll mention is the fact that the story reads like a mish-mash of "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica" with a dash of genetic engineering horror added in for a Geiger-esque effect.
It's rather disappointing.
June 15, 2015
I enjoyed this book as a start to the Gunship series. Nothing fancy, just a simple science fiction story line. It is similar to the Firefly series, it was a quick easy read as like many books that are the start of a series there are many questions that have been left answered. The characters have not been fully developed yet either, but I assume that will comes through the remainder of the books in the series.
June 28, 2020
This book is well thought out. The characters are engaging. It’s formulaic enough to feel comfortable; while also, imaginative enough to surprise.
I only give it three stars because of the terrible editing. It’s hard to read and not cringe. Bought the second in the series and, it too, is a horror show of editing. HMU!
I only give it three stars because of the terrible editing. It’s hard to read and not cringe. Bought the second in the series and, it too, is a horror show of editing. HMU!
November 21, 2012
It had good action and a simple, straightforward story. No surprises, so it was comfortable, in a way. Read my full review here:
http://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.c...
http://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.c...
May 16, 2015
INTERESTING BUT NEED MORE
Enjoyed it more than the last series 1st book I read which proves that it takes more than one is enough. We'll see if the second book in the series will hook me.
Enjoyed it more than the last series 1st book I read which proves that it takes more than one is enough. We'll see if the second book in the series will hook me.
October 25, 2015
This was a good read and part of a series . From the way book 1 went I think the series is going to be good and you should
know that I give little to no information on books that are short just my opinion, and I think it was good.So give it a try , I think you will like it.
know that I give little to no information on books that are short just my opinion, and I think it was good.So give it a try , I think you will like it.
January 21, 2017
Ok book
Lots of action but not lots of thinking about what's and how on making things work. I enjoyed the book but was disappointed with the scientific aspects of the equipment used and some of the characters were just to kookie
Lots of action but not lots of thinking about what's and how on making things work. I enjoyed the book but was disappointed with the scientific aspects of the equipment used and some of the characters were just to kookie
May 16, 2021
Well above average
Steady pace of action. Good character development. Will read some of the follow-ups.
By Dale Martin, author of Safari World 2-Impact and others.
Steady pace of action. Good character development. Will read some of the follow-ups.
By Dale Martin, author of Safari World 2-Impact and others.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews