Vitalis

Vitalis #1

by Jason Halstead

Mysterious blackouts left Kira with precious few memories of events in her life, never mind those worth sharing. Somewhere in those blank spots she acquired skills - skills she was hard pressed to explain. But
those skills got her a job as the new navigator for the Rented Mule, a transport ship that plied the Rim Systems at the very edge of human civilization.

When their ship is set upon by pirates Kira’s skills allow her and the crew to escape, only to find themselves stranded in deep space with only one chance for survival, an undiscovered planet teeming with life that is light years beyond the borders of the Terran Coalition of Systems.

Forced to crash land, the crew of the Rented Mule learns immediately that the key to surviving on Vitalis is a closely guarded secret. Vitalis has a way of getting inside the mind, body, and soul of a person and once it’s got them, it doesn’t let them go.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

590 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2011

About the author

Talking 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...

Reviews

[James Starvoice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something is wrong :(

Stopped at 12%. There is a story here (I know there is!) and it's just the kind of stories I like, and it will make an awesome TV show.

The problem is the writing:
The author wasted much space on fillers that tells us nothing (sometimes whole pages) while taking shortcuts on the things that matter. For example: Kira finds Eric and gives him a good slap and a piece of her mind. And I had no clue what she was angry about because it was nowhere in the dialogue or description. So I ended up to flipping pages back and forth to find out what was on her mind.. that was very poorly executed.

There is sooo much needless description inserted between one dialogue and the next (often, it has nothing to do with the ongoing conversation). It made me lose track of events & forget what they were talking about.

The love between Kira and Eric was too 'instant' and it happened for the most ridiculous reason: He showed her his p*nis then pointed it at her direction. And Kira became madly in love with him.

Everyone on the ship is yelling for no reason, or the author didn't know that "!" Indicates "shouting"

And finally, I don't think the ship's cold hibernation is working the way it should. In fact I think their bodies are growing normally and only the crew's minds are frozen because they are adults acting like teenagers. There is, literally, nothing but sex on everyone's minds even when they're attacked by pirates! and it's not just the men, Kira herself had a lust for 'herself' at times... in the middle of a meeting with the captain no less.

All in all, there is a good story underneath all that excessive sex-addiction and pointless fillers, and I might try to finish the book. But my first impression remains firm: it needs complete rewriting :(

[Douglas Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story

Found this by accident on another site and some of the reviews were good and some not so good, also not very many reviews so I didn’t expect much. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, don’t know why some of the reviews were negative because I thought it was excellent. First book was long and so much happened. Older series and I see many more books, I hope the next are as good as the first.

[Haleh Everett-Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent sci-fi read

An unexpected and crazy story of crash landings, an "Earth" like planet, and sentient hybrids. This story had many unexpected twists and turns.

[Donna Fernstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun SF read of the sort I enjoy. The plot was interesting, and the worldbuilding was definitely entertaining. I did have a few pet peeves - one, that the proofing and editing could have been a little better. Second, that characters purported to have scientific knowledge didn't seem to know a thing about biology - I thought the author could have done a bit more research. The one thing that had me wincing over and over again was using the term 'animals' when the author clearly, from context, meant 'mammals.' Sayings 'bugs and animals' is like saying 'apples and fruits.' Insects, worms, sea sponges, jellyfish, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals - all of these are animals, even in common speech rather than scientific lingo. For such a richly detailed alien world, I wanted to see more biological and ecological science. But it wasn't enough to put me off from reading the book, nor from wanting to read the sequel.

I was a bit bothered by how bleak the future seemed - technology and medicine having advanced barely 50 to 100 years from present, despite interstellar space travel being the norm, for example - and social progress apparently having stagnated or even backslid. Still, I suppose that is par for the course with most space opera.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first part of this omnibus when it was free and decided to pay the 99 cents for the whole omnibus. The story was good if a little dry in some spots. The characters were alright but mostly it was the same character over with a different name. The one thing that ruined this book for me was the bad proofreading. There were so many errors in this book it was hard to read it let alone enjoy it. There were missing words, extra random words, misspelled words and mixing up of the character's names. It was almost every single page that had these types of errors. It was almost as if he wrote it and then published it, without going back through and making sure there were no mistakes. Even for 99 cents, the errors made this book not worth it. The book did end abruptly but I understand there is another one after it. However the errors in this book mean that I won't be reading another book from this author until it is free.

[Douglas Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

First sentences, " "Kira!"Captain Sharp snapped, drawing the attention of his navigator. “Captain!” She jumped, hitting her knee against the steel at her station. She was tall and predecessor was considerably shorter. The handyman on the Rented Mule hadn’t made it up to adjust the ergonomics for her yet. She clenched her jaw to bite back the pain and turned to face him. “Sir?” “It’s a milk run,” he said, grinning at her to show he was amused, “but have contingency courses plotted, this isn’t the core shipping lanes we’re flying.” “Yes Sir,” she snapped. “I’ve got two backup routes and a warning alert in place for proximity.” Sharp nodded. “Good, we still on schedule for the jump in two hours?” “Aye, Sir!” "

[Heather4Ever · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacked proper editing and proofreading. Lacked enough of a climax to be satisfying. Seemed that I was being catered soft-core erotica throughout the book, and I have to admit it was off-putting at times.

Plot itself was a little silly, but this being my first sci-fi/fantasy novel, I won't take the plot itself into consideration until I have other works to compare it to.

[Yvonne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting premise but needs an editor and proof-reader. Action sequence was well conceived but couldn't get past all the errors.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept, but it felt like the author just kept adding ideas. And some things felt rushed an unexplained.