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Star Saga #1
Starforgers
Galactic war breaks out and all Ranger Devon Ardel wants is a little revenge. Stellar Ranger Devon Ardel aims to avenge the death of her best friend Hap, killed by a new alien race known as Votainions, who are bent on invasion. Her vengeance leads her to join the Starforgers, a new stellar fleet of the military, at a time when the republic is on the verge of the first galactic war. The Starforger's starships are woefully outgunned against the powerful warships of the Empire. The fate of the Federation depends on whether or not they can turn the tide of the invasion. Devon's journey takes her to the edge of her humanity as she tries to stop the invading Votainions. Meanwhile, the civilian leaders are tied up in bitter political debates about the future of sentient androids known as Silicants. The Silicants want freedom from their human masters and are willing to make secret alliances to buy their freedom. The Chief Architect of the Votainion Empire, Lord Kantor, is following a spiritual vision and will stop at nothing to take back what he believes is their birth rite - the home world of the Federation. His actions start a war that will rage for a thousand years and have far reaching implications. The explosive first book of the Star Saga is just the opening salvo of a long and bloody stellar war. What readers are saying about "An action hero who just happens to be a woman, plus several cute twists (one on the classic AI liberation thing) keeps the story moving in directions you don't expect." - Joncar68 "Starforgers should easily fill your craving for action and adventure." - CMD Prompt "The story draws you in and each chapter leaves you wanting more." - Amazon Customer
- GenresScience Fiction
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2011
42 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 13, 2017
The author has a good imagination and I enjoyed the origin story in Starforgers. The novel combines several different plot lines, including political ambitions, military strategy, family relationships, and sentient androids which I found uniquely interesting. I liked that the novel includes a strong female protagonist in addition to other strong female characters. This is not often seen in science fiction novels, and kudos to the author for doing this.
Unfortunately many times I found myself pulled out of the character's Point-Of-View when I was told how the character felt, as opposed to being shown by the characters actions. This felt like head hopping to me -- from the characters POV to a third person omniscient POV.
There were also a number of spelling mistakes or wrong words used, in addition to several instances where a concept was introduced and then repeated more often than needed (at least in my opinion). If these issues were cleaned up then the novel would be a much more enjoyable read.
Unfortunately many times I found myself pulled out of the character's Point-Of-View when I was told how the character felt, as opposed to being shown by the characters actions. This felt like head hopping to me -- from the characters POV to a third person omniscient POV.
There were also a number of spelling mistakes or wrong words used, in addition to several instances where a concept was introduced and then repeated more often than needed (at least in my opinion). If these issues were cleaned up then the novel would be a much more enjoyable read.
April 9, 2018
4.5 Stars. I'd never heard of this author or this series but found it as I was perusing Amazon and decided to give it a try. I really, really enjoyed this book. The characters were great and I liked the old west type frontier planet with the Rangers as much as the usual concept of a larger empire or federation of planets with a larger fleet. I wasn't quite so sure of the aliens and how they were getting visions but maybe this will be explained in further stories. An enjoyable military sci-fi read. I'll definitely get the next one in line.
May 27, 2012
This is the third Ken McConnell book I've read and the second I've reviewed for this blog. Here is the link to the Tyrmia review.
Starforgers is the first book in McConnell's Star Trilogy. Starforgers is not related to Tyrmia in terms of story, but both tales are in the same universe.
The story is an origin story. It takes place many years before Tyrmia, at the beginning of the Great War between the alien Votainions and Humans. This book is not the first one that was written in the trilogy. The first McConnell wrote was Starstrikers. The author pulled a George Lucas by starting in the middle. If you read Starforgers first, then read Starstrikers, you'll learn a lot more about the past in McConnell's universe.
I'm not going to spoil the book, so let's focus on the Writing, Characters, and Plot.
The writing was good for the most part. Short, quick and to the point. There were a few misspellings here and there, but not enough to make me stop reading.
The characters were fun to read. I got a clear idea on how they thought, and acted. Most of all, I found out why the characters acted the way they did. The dialogue between characters was realistic and fun to read. Also, like with Tyrmia, the female characters are never damsels in distress. Rather. they are strong, and fight back. I think in Sci-fi and Fantasy too many women are helpless. This book also debuted Androids as main characters. I think if C3P0 read this book, he would be proud. :)
The plot was probably the most complex the author has attempted. All the characters by the end of the tale cross paths, and the story arcs are wrapped up by the end of the book. The ending made me very excited for the last book in the series.
Overall this book was good. I give it 4 out of 5 stars!
Available only for the Kindle and Kindle Apps.
Starforgers is the first book in McConnell's Star Trilogy. Starforgers is not related to Tyrmia in terms of story, but both tales are in the same universe.
The story is an origin story. It takes place many years before Tyrmia, at the beginning of the Great War between the alien Votainions and Humans. This book is not the first one that was written in the trilogy. The first McConnell wrote was Starstrikers. The author pulled a George Lucas by starting in the middle. If you read Starforgers first, then read Starstrikers, you'll learn a lot more about the past in McConnell's universe.
I'm not going to spoil the book, so let's focus on the Writing, Characters, and Plot.
The writing was good for the most part. Short, quick and to the point. There were a few misspellings here and there, but not enough to make me stop reading.
The characters were fun to read. I got a clear idea on how they thought, and acted. Most of all, I found out why the characters acted the way they did. The dialogue between characters was realistic and fun to read. Also, like with Tyrmia, the female characters are never damsels in distress. Rather. they are strong, and fight back. I think in Sci-fi and Fantasy too many women are helpless. This book also debuted Androids as main characters. I think if C3P0 read this book, he would be proud. :)
The plot was probably the most complex the author has attempted. All the characters by the end of the tale cross paths, and the story arcs are wrapped up by the end of the book. The ending made me very excited for the last book in the series.
Overall this book was good. I give it 4 out of 5 stars!
Available only for the Kindle and Kindle Apps.
April 22, 2016
I think the plot of this novel is quite interesting, but there were some problems that kept me from enjoying it. In no particular order:
-Comma usage was so not right. There were commas missing where they should have been and commas added where they didn't belong. Remember, when someone is addressed directly by name, title, etc., that needs to be set off with commas. For example: "I'm so glad we had the chance to fly together, Devon." That comma before Devon is NOT optional! Not having it is a glaring omission and one that this book had throughout.
-Typos and/or misuse of words also occurred. A few I remember off the top of my head: shudder should have been used instead of shutter; purr instead of pure; from instead of form (this is one I've done myself many times!); and furry instead of fury. There may have been more that I don't recall.
-Head hopping was also rampant in this book. I think the author was trying to do third-person limited point of view, but there was way too much jumping around into other characters' heads in the middle of scenes, especially towards the end. I was practically getting whiplash!
-Finally, this book doesn't just end mid-sentence—it ends mid-word. (I don't think it was supposed to. This isn't some literary device, as far as I can tell. It's an error.) I'm assuming the last part of the last sentence is supposed to read "the next thousand years" but it says "the next thousan" and just ends like that.
Seriously, I liked the concept of this book. If the above technical errors were fixed, I would have given it four stars. (I'm docking a star because the author killed off one of the most interesting characters, a villain who I thought was one of the more well-drawn characters in the novel.)
-Comma usage was so not right. There were commas missing where they should have been and commas added where they didn't belong. Remember, when someone is addressed directly by name, title, etc., that needs to be set off with commas. For example: "I'm so glad we had the chance to fly together, Devon." That comma before Devon is NOT optional! Not having it is a glaring omission and one that this book had throughout.
-Typos and/or misuse of words also occurred. A few I remember off the top of my head: shudder should have been used instead of shutter; purr instead of pure; from instead of form (this is one I've done myself many times!); and furry instead of fury. There may have been more that I don't recall.
-Head hopping was also rampant in this book. I think the author was trying to do third-person limited point of view, but there was way too much jumping around into other characters' heads in the middle of scenes, especially towards the end. I was practically getting whiplash!
-Finally, this book doesn't just end mid-sentence—it ends mid-word. (I don't think it was supposed to. This isn't some literary device, as far as I can tell. It's an error.) I'm assuming the last part of the last sentence is supposed to read "the next thousand years" but it says "the next thousan" and just ends like that.
Seriously, I liked the concept of this book. If the above technical errors were fixed, I would have given it four stars. (I'm docking a star because the author killed off one of the most interesting characters, a villain who I thought was one of the more well-drawn characters in the novel.)
January 28, 2012
Ken has a lot of enthusiasm, and you can see that the story is just tensing up, ready to explode. The story wasn't unpredictable or without its flaws, but it was still a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews