Inception

The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1

by Andrew Beery

2067 was the year I died for the first time… It was painful. Had I known how often I’d be expected to die over the next several millennia, I might have made a stronger effort to stay dead. The year actually started off rather nice. I finished my PhD in high energy physics and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the United States Air Force. My first posting after the promotion was to the Lunar One Air Base where I worked with my father, Dr. Robert Kimbridge on “The Project.” “The Project” was our name for a VASIMR Ion Drive interplanetary space craft that used Thorium LFTR reactors for both shielding and power. Capable of a sustained point one G of acceleration, our prototype was expected to make the Mars run in less than a week. By the end of November the ESX Arizona was ready for her first trial runs and I was her pilot. History has an odd way of repeating itself.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Military Fiction, Amazon, Aliens, Space, Military Science Fiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 26, 2012

About the author

I am a geek with a passion for God [I am a fulltime Presbyterian Pastor/Retired computer programmer.]

I'm an unrepentant technologist with over 25 years in the "Information Technology" field -much of it as a Senior Manager of Research and Development.

I have a wonderful wife named Lori, and two fantastic daughters... CJ and Jackie. CJ is ten years the elder and is in college (Muskingum University, New Concord Ohio).

All four of us love Science Fiction, Scuba Diving and good food. Lori and the girls share a passion for music and the piano - regrettably I have absolutely no skills in this area. I do have a passion for Notre Dame and Green Bay Packer Football.

About my writing...

My current passion is a pure Science Fiction series following the adventures of a future "Horatio Hornblower" style character called "Admiral Catherine Kimbridge". I have also co-authored a fantasy series with my eldest daughter (CJ) called "The Ways of Mages"

PLEASE NOTE: All of the proceeds from the first book in each series goes to funding food banks and homeless ministries... So enjoy an inexpensive read and know that you are helping someone else in the process!

Blessings
Pastor Andy

Reviews

[Steve Poling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inception, the Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1 by Andrew Beery is the first of a series of novels, and if the next two novels in the series contain as much big story material, it will be a marvel.

This novel is the sort of "transgressive" work you'll only find in a $0.99 Amazon book, because it does not pay the Hollywood Stupid tax. For one thing, religion users are neither villains nor irritants. The hero's side kick (at least for a little while) is a scientist and a chaplain. And he's married and not contemplating an affair with the female protagonist. What's with that? Doesn't it say, "thou shalt commit adultery," someplace? Nevertheless, there's not much Bible thumping going on and the book sails clear of sectarian shoals. There's about as much religion as you'll find in a Bollywood movie.

The hero starts the book by dying (and she dies at least twice in this novel), but she saves the life of a powerful alien in a self-sacrificial way. And this makes the alien grateful enough to spend the next 50 years rebuilding her body from scratch and recompiling all of her memories. And adding some nanotech upgrades.

Given these super-powers, the hero doesn't do a whole lot with them. And while the alien is rebuilding her body, Earth government changes so she's transferred from the US Air Force to some kinda world government space command. Sadly, I think the author has never actually served in the armed forces, but he tries to get military courtesy right (with limited success). A bit less Star Trek watching is indicated. No, a LOT less Star Trek is indicated.

The beginning of the book has some really cool REAL science kinds of gadgets and gizmos. Some of the technology described is current bleeding edge stuff I could recognize. After the aliens give humanity advanced technology, not so much. I can imagine the nanotechnology and the quantum mechanics stuff working that way, and that's probably why I liked the book so much.

Some of the time lines seemed off to me. It seemed that humanity had some incredibly short deadlines to ramp up production of whole fleets of starships. And to integrate alien technology into their weaponry. Everything works out for the most part, but it just seemed too rushed. I hope the author will learn to pace himself more in the future. Of course, someone else might gripe that it'd go too slow, so your mileage may vary.

I liked the fact that the human race was good. Maybe too good to be realistic, but the hero in the story and her branch of the military and earth government seemed to all be people of good intent pursuing a good target: the salvation of the human race. In a couple of instances, the hero's altruism and kindness results in a big win for humanity that gives them the edge they need to face the next, harder hurdle.

The scale of harder and harder tasks with bigger and bigger challenges reminded me of both the Lensmen series and also the Perry Rodan series. If you liked those space operas, you'll like this, too. All told, I'll give this novel 5 stars and I hope to see more like it.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really unsure what rating to give this book. In the end I have given it 3 stars although if I could, I would have made it 3.5 stars.

The book is an ‘old school’ space opera in the mould of EE Doc Smith’s Lensmen series and as a space opera it has all the right ingredients. I like the start of the book and the origins of the Heroine (Cat) as a sort of cyborg, rebuilt by an Alien after dying in a space crash.

The problem with the story is that everything happens too quickly. There are massive jumps in the story and the pace of scientific developments is so outrageous it becomes unbelievable. I’m not one for long winded SiFi (eg David Weber’s Honor Harrington series is spoilt by the need for a good editor) But, this story definitely needed developing and could have been twice as long.

I will probably try the next book in the series, hoping that the author learns from this first book.

[Pranav Koli · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been years since I sacrificed an night's sleep because I just couldn't put down a book I'd picked up. Just one line - the first line, that's all it took, and I was hooked.

This book has all the ingredients of a gripping space drama - Fictional technology with names and back-"science" that nobody understands, but sounds good to hear and flatters you into feeling intelligent ( ;) ), the strong central characters, cheesy references to pop culture, the aliens ( and how they relate to humanity ), a long forgotten powerful and omnipotent race, the symbiosis between organics and synthetics and the ultimate triumph of human ingenuity and curiosity over everything else.

If you love any of the space exploration fictions like StarTrek, Star Wars, Star gate, Battle Star, FireFly - then this book would be just up your alley.

[Truitti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this read very much. it took me a couple of chapters to adjust to the style. There isn't too much back story about the characters and at first that disturbed me. but after a couple of chapters, so much was happening in "the present" that I adapted. I am so grateful that this Pastor / author didn't hit us over the head with constant conversion scenes. in fact, I liked that their reverend was more Christ like in action rather than constant sermon or preaching. I am so excited to read more science fiction from this type of author.

[Shaheen · Rating 5 out of 5]

outlandish but fun to read

[Jay Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, pretty predicable, I like some aspect but had some issues with other parts. I don't think I would continue with it and I really wanted too as it has a lot more books in this series. Sadly this book does not give me what I look for in a book/series, something unique, great charters, great world building, great dialog, great story, I don't need all of that in a book but I don't thing this one really gives me any of them. Other people have liked this book and the rating on the series looks to get better so maybe I will try the next book at some point but for now it is a "will not continue"

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun fluffy story. But it really doesn't do well in the suspension-of-disbelief department. A little annoying how nanos keep saving the day. More character in the characters would be good too.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inception is an enjoyable read. Beery creates a compelling and plausible science fiction universe, although his tendency to geek out over the speculative science and technological aspects sometimes overshadow the emotional experiences of the characters and the dramatic stakes. It's like when an author who clearly loves guns offers an abundance of details about a rifle that aren't strictly necessary. That being said, I read a lot of science fiction, and I find many of his ideas to be fresh and inventive and worth slowing down to consider. He also touches upon some interesting metaphysical questions regarding the nature of being, though it sometimes feels as though his religious leanings tether him from exploring these themes more fully and with greater skepticism. To be clear, the aspects of this novel that I've bumped against are relatively minor gripes. Inception is a very good and nearly great novel. Ultimately, I'm excited to read more in this series, as I suspect they will only get better.

[Patrick]

A Fun Read for Voyager Fans

I totally get Andy. He and I are cut from the same cloth. I'm a certified MCSE, Cisco, Citrix, all Comptia certifications, and an ordained minister and Seminary graduate. I am also a big fan of the Star Trek series and their many offshoots, especially the nine year run of the Voyager. I knew immediately that this work paralleled the Voyager work and took at face value and laughed, but, I couldn't put the book down. Loved it. My only regret is that I bought the ebook versions of volumes 1-9, and not the paperback versions. If ever I let my Amazon account go, I loose these books forever, even though I paid to have them. Guess I made a deal with the Devil on this point, but didn't realize it at the time. I have recommended these books to many in my circles of influence and love hearing their feedback. They all say the same thing, they can't put it down either!

[Norma]

( Format : Audiobook. )
"Greetings, Beloved of the Creator."
When Cat have up her own Life to save one of another species, she made a friend for many lifetimes... It was a good start with promise of even better things to come.
But they didn't. Instead, the tale drones on, miraculously developed new technologies to face the incoming enemies, plenty of battle talk but very little characteriseation: tedious and sleep inducing. I really tried to listen on but my mind simply kept slipping away! Partly, this must be down to the narration by Alexis Cruz. His voice was pleasant, genle, well articulated, with a reasonable selection of character voices, but he read just a fraction too quickly (easily resolved by turning the playback speed down to 0.9) and, combined with my lack of interest in the storyline, he pulled me into a near sleeping state.
I tried hard to finish: it is, after all, less than six hours long, but finally admitted defeat about an hour from the end.

[Vikarti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story and interesting start of new series...

Issues:
- author start with near-space technology (VASIMR drive etc) and soon after that... 30 years to get from Pluto to Earth on 230 km/s(?!). (It took slightly more than 12 years for New Horizons which went out at 16 Km/s). This is repeated later with 0.5c voygage. Acceptable using authors background but first pages set my expectations much higher.
- I thought Ben was Earth AI + Leeba's mind without ability to control anything. They merge together very very fast.
- Heshe's flight from D'lralu. It looks like Yarin Prime never ever considered WHY D'lralu (and others before them) exterminate other races until they find out REAL reason almost by pure chance.
- It's never noted that nobody from D'lralu actually saw living Masters / Uruk, only their machines.

[Leslie Baptiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book a little preachy.

A good book, I enjoyed the character of cat Cambridge. The book is a little bit preachy though, the author in Jack’s his theocratic believes more in this book then he’s done in another series of his I just finished. It’s OK to talk about the sanctity of life which I do believe him but he could tone it down a wee bit. When people read a science fiction book, sometimes they do not want a theocratic Homily. I enjoyed the science-fiction of this book and I think anybody who likes science fiction will enjoy this book going on to the next as I post this review.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hooked from the Start

There is little down time in this book. I was drawn into the story from the very beginning and before I knew it, it was over, maybe too quickly. The invincible female lead forges a coalition of races to repel a genocidal enemy. Oddly enough, it wasn’t the futuristic concepts that required a suspension of belief, it was some of the basic elements that left me scratching my head. Anyway, I can’t wait to see what happens next!

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally read the Infinity Brigade series ( a sequel by Andrew Beery) and I became interested in the universe of Catherine Kimbridge.
I enjoyed the first work in the series. The advancements came much more quickly then realistic, even with AI assistance. Still a good story, lots of action, good character development, and good plotting.
Good space opera, a good read.

[Amba Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book from the first page, till the last. It grabs you and leads you through all the twists and turns. The idea of us battling others, using technology we were given but don't understand is fascinating. Actually, I like this kind of story and am OK with the plot.

[M Hamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

there was no effort put in this

[Volpot · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. Pretty thin. Might read next book just to see if series improves

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent enough plot, but character development is almost completely absent.

[Noodle The Naughty Night Owl]

1/10: Couldn't get past the first few chapters; not for me.

[Paul Trott · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book I've read to date. Rushed drivel. No character arcs. No detail or depth. Everything was glossed over. Read like a poorly translated comic for young adults.

[Nigel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had the potential to be a really good military sci-fi novel as the premise and the action kept coming think and fast which all lead to keep the reader happily turning the pages. The human race has to do battle with a violent and aggressive race which is bent on nothing short of eradicating the whole of humanity (or to die trying in the event).
Where this novel fails for me is that much of what happens likes plausibility. Whilst I appreciate the need for a lack of reality when dealing in sci-fi concepts such as faster than light travel and description of alien races the plot that utilises such science needs to hold together and this doesn’t happen here. All too often we see an idea being thought of then subsequently implemented on a large scale all in a matter of weeks. Earth, in response to what is believed to be an all-out invasion manages to produce a large scale space fleet in no time at all!
It was a mildly enjoyable read but I don’t think I’ll be reading additional instalments of the series or further books by the author.

[Kathleen Kurdziel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting concept, with good flow, easy to read, but everything seemed just a little too pat. Cat has no angst over being resurrected. Everytime the ship she's on hits a snag, it's solved by the time she returns to Earth. She's 50 years behind the times yet she knows physics better than present day scientists without any refresher training. The pace of technological advancement is too incredible. 28 million people are killed on Mars, yet we're all good friends with the attackers within days. The chaplain leads a ship wide prayer to Jesus Christ, hard to believe that the entire crew of a united Earth space ship are Christians. Something just seems to be missing. The characters are all so nice and smart and in just the right place at the right time and everyone gets along and is good. Nobody is like that in real life. Of course, it is space opera, maybe we become better people in the future.

[Ron · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are books which are so bad that they are almost good, they are entertaining and provide some good laughs. This is definitely not one of them. The characters are wooden and one-dimensional, the action so fast-paced that it almost turns into white noise, the portrayal of a military organisation ridiculous. Even the name of the protagonist is reminiscent of elementary school-age TV entertainment.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book started well, with an interesting hook and a potentially interesting main character, but I feel it fell off fairly quickly with improbably lucky and rapid improvements in tech followed by a deus ex machina ending. Ultimately nearly all the characters felt flat and undeveloped, which contributed to not feeling the events had the weight they should; which led me to care less and less about the story as the book went on.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is amateurish at best. Imagine all the flaws of David Weber at his worst, condensed. Without his strengths. It would have been a good idea, at half strength. This just sort of dissolves your WSoD and leaves a puddle of yuck. I did manage to read it all the way through, though, so it's not atrociously bad.

[John Tyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story great science fiction

I am not overly religious for 11 years of my life I was in the service specifically the US Navy, I want go into details but this book touched my heart and for that I am greatful to the author. It has a great story. That touchedj my inner geek, and science and my religious side thank you for a telling a great story.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! The only reason I gave it four instead of 5 stars is because usually I try to find books with no bad language... unfortunately this one had a few words. Not a lot, but enough that it was a bit distracting to me. The story line was great, and I'll continue to look for books in this series. :)

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written, timeline is ridiculous

I read every space opera I can get my hands on, but I couldn't finish this book. Nothing goes wrong for the main character. Technological advances take days when by any logic they should take years. Ships and crews are built and trained in similarly unrealistic time frames.

[sid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I suppose this is a self-published work; it really needs an editor. Somewhat contrived. I picked it because of its 'technical' classification, but nearly all technical topics fell back to the actions of miraculous nanites.

[Cor Markhart · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has a great beginning and an new idea for a hero but the naive and religious( especially the focus on the one true god is very tiring) behaviour of many of the characters makes for a very boring reading. The author has also no idea of how a military functions and how officers interact.