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Vitalis #1, part 1
New Beginnings
Humans have advanced to span multiple solar systems, diminish the effects of aging, and conquer the human genome, yet their cruelty towards their own kind binds them to the stone age. The rim worlds are the outer solar systems for human civilization. Men and women earn their living with their wits and talents, although treachery often nets a bonus.
The Rented Mule is a ship with a crew seeking to earn an honest living in a realm of dishonesty. No stranger to trouble, they know the unwritten rules of the trade and have avoided being claimed as “salvage” for many years.
On a routine transport mission the Mule has to struggle with not only the usual dangers of traveling through rim systems, but also a new navigator with a troubled past and a romantic interest in the ship’s engineer.
Plagued by threats from without and within, the crew’s only hope when the Mule suffers catastrophic damage may be an uncharted planet. The fate of the Rented Mule and crew is in the hands of the neophyte navigator.
The Rented Mule is a ship with a crew seeking to earn an honest living in a realm of dishonesty. No stranger to trouble, they know the unwritten rules of the trade and have avoided being claimed as “salvage” for many years.
On a routine transport mission the Mule has to struggle with not only the usual dangers of traveling through rim systems, but also a new navigator with a troubled past and a romantic interest in the ship’s engineer.
Plagued by threats from without and within, the crew’s only hope when the Mule suffers catastrophic damage may be an uncharted planet. The fate of the Rented Mule and crew is in the hands of the neophyte navigator.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
92 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2011
9 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Jason Halstead
107 books129 followersTalking about myself in the third person is giving me fits - time to switch this up.
My day job is that of a computer jockey and all the hands on and hands off work that entails. When I leave the office behind I jump into family life (beautiful wife and two obnoxiously cute young children), finding a new way to hurt myself while powerlifting, and writing.
As of mid 2015 I haven't hit the 100 book mark yet, but I'm getting close! There's always at least in process. I just can't seem to stop myself...
My day job is that of a computer jockey and all the hands on and hands off work that entails. When I leave the office behind I jump into family life (beautiful wife and two obnoxiously cute young children), finding a new way to hurt myself while powerlifting, and writing.
As of mid 2015 I haven't hit the 100 book mark yet, but I'm getting close! There's always at least in process. I just can't seem to stop myself...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 17, 2019
Vitalis: New Beginnings
I was not sure how much I would like this: especially considering the rocky beginning. The narrative is okay though sometimes it feels like the writing could be more polished. It also is difficult to tell if the glitches in the dialogue are deliberate though sometimes it seems more that there is a greater need for editing.
This novella also takes a bit of a leap toward being somewhat erotic which would tend to have me put in mature young adult if I were to consider it for young adults so from age 18 up with mature added.
It took about a quarter of the story for me to warm up to this story. It feels like we get a lax view of a star-ship crew at the beginning that makes us wonder how they might survive anything and then the Main Character turns out to have a second personality that puts her close to a Deus ex Machina planted into the story. Perhaps some bit of nod to the FireFly Series in a small way.
What this does have going for it are some interesting characters in a rather fantastic story where they manage to survive a number of attempts to pirate their ship from under them. I'm not really clear on the plot of the story because it seems to heavily lean toward the main character Kira who is also apparently Emily trying to come to grips with who she is and the fact that she leads a more interesting life than she believes.
Kira is uncertain how she lucked into this crew of misfits, but apparently Captain Sharp has been keeping his own secret: he was paid a handsome sum to take her aboard. But I won't go much further into that because you have to read this. As the author mentions himself you should read this one before you decide to continue to read on to find out what happens to our ship of misfits as they discover a new world.
This story standing alone makes a fair way for the reader to get to know the author and it's inexpensive enough that when you decide to purchase the omnibus which also, at the time I write this, is at a fair price: you won't have a lot invested into what turns out to be a fairly nice storyline.
This is great SFF for those who like their SF on the light side with a pretty even pace and my only speed bump was getting past all the erotica that seems to be there to accelerate a relationship between Kira and Eric.
I've already purchased the omnibus so I'm sure that explains enough about how I felt about the novella overall. That's saying a lot from someone not fond of having a story broken into little pieces to sell off for a few bits here and there.
J.L. Dobias
I was not sure how much I would like this: especially considering the rocky beginning. The narrative is okay though sometimes it feels like the writing could be more polished. It also is difficult to tell if the glitches in the dialogue are deliberate though sometimes it seems more that there is a greater need for editing.
This novella also takes a bit of a leap toward being somewhat erotic which would tend to have me put in mature young adult if I were to consider it for young adults so from age 18 up with mature added.
It took about a quarter of the story for me to warm up to this story. It feels like we get a lax view of a star-ship crew at the beginning that makes us wonder how they might survive anything and then the Main Character turns out to have a second personality that puts her close to a Deus ex Machina planted into the story. Perhaps some bit of nod to the FireFly Series in a small way.
What this does have going for it are some interesting characters in a rather fantastic story where they manage to survive a number of attempts to pirate their ship from under them. I'm not really clear on the plot of the story because it seems to heavily lean toward the main character Kira who is also apparently Emily trying to come to grips with who she is and the fact that she leads a more interesting life than she believes.
Kira is uncertain how she lucked into this crew of misfits, but apparently Captain Sharp has been keeping his own secret: he was paid a handsome sum to take her aboard. But I won't go much further into that because you have to read this. As the author mentions himself you should read this one before you decide to continue to read on to find out what happens to our ship of misfits as they discover a new world.
This story standing alone makes a fair way for the reader to get to know the author and it's inexpensive enough that when you decide to purchase the omnibus which also, at the time I write this, is at a fair price: you won't have a lot invested into what turns out to be a fairly nice storyline.
This is great SFF for those who like their SF on the light side with a pretty even pace and my only speed bump was getting past all the erotica that seems to be there to accelerate a relationship between Kira and Eric.
I've already purchased the omnibus so I'm sure that explains enough about how I felt about the novella overall. That's saying a lot from someone not fond of having a story broken into little pieces to sell off for a few bits here and there.
J.L. Dobias
April 7, 2012
First off, way short and ends like a chapter. This should be put together with the other books as one instead of this. Not sure If I am going to read the rest yet. The main character Kira is the star everybody else is a two dimensional back drop for her. I did like her character but would have felt more vested in the story if there was more reason for her to save the rest of the crew.
February 20, 2012
This was another story Jason Halstead published which immersed me into the lives of his characters. Not normally a reader of science fiction, I must admit that this series promises to be exciting, taking me into worlds I could never have imagined, despite the wildest of dreams.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews