The IG Andromeda, a Universal Command Science Ship, had just successfully jumped over 160,000 light years into the Large Magellanic Cloud, giving the ship and its crew the honor of being the first to travel to another galaxy. One of these crewmembers, Donovan Rost, had just been presented with an honorary commission as an Ensign in the Universal Command. The only thing, it seems, that he did to earn such a commission was the fact that he had survived a long time in cryostasis… a very, very long time. Donovan came from a 21st century Earth - an Earth that used to be dominated by humanity. Now, man is a minority and all that he knew of his civilization is buried and almost completely forgotten. He’s about to learn why he and five others were revived and why they were now searching the Large Magellanic Cloud for a technological race that the crew is certain exists somewhere in that galaxy.
Scott McElhaney is the award winning author of the Mystic Saga, consisting of the books Indentured, Legacy, Violation, Judgment, and Convergence. Over 125,000 of his books have been downloaded in 2012 alone!
Scott's first novel, Mommy's Choice, was originally published in paperback under the pseudonym Scott Curtis. In under a year on the bookshelves, that novel won the National Christian Choice Book Award for romantic suspense. When Scott moved to a different publisher and started making his novels available to Kindle readers, he returned to his real name and reduced the prices to the absolute minimum allowed by Amazon. Scott McElhaney currently resides in Ohio with his wife and two sons. He's a Desert Shield veteran of the US Navy, having served on the USS South Carolina CGN-37. Although his books didn't become available to Kindle readers until December 2011, over 250,000 digital copies have been purchased to date and he still maintains a position in the top 100 worldwide in the "Sci-fi Space Opera" category.
I loved this book that looks exactly like the book I'd written... oh wait a moment, I did write this. I guess that explains why I loved it so much. I highly recommend any book by this author because he reminds me a lot of myself
This book read like a short story because I finished it so quickly. Nevertheless, it was a good story. I would have given it a higher rating but for the gaps it left in information. We never learn what year it is and the story is almost over before we learn about the mission. It also does not explain much about how the Erinyes took over the Earth and how they managed to get all of the humans to live in Australia. The story begins with Donavon being awakened from stasis. But the story line gives very little information about what preceded his placement in stasis and then it took forever to tell how he ended up on a ship and why. The love story included was nice but hay, this is supposed to be a sci fi story.
The story in my opinion was short on sci fi but I liked the mission objective and ending, although there was very little said about how they got the virus to the planet. The battle on the alien spacecraft in orbit was short, but that doesn't explain how the planet was seeded.
I was really disappointed by this book, all the more so because the premise was so intriguing. A man wakes up from cryogenic freeze to discover that not only has his cancer been cured but that he's untold thousands of years in the future and on a ship exploring another galaxy. The mystery of why they wanted him and a few other "popsicles" for this mission was enough to pull me forward through the story.
Alas, I found most of the other characters frustrating as their moods flipped around unpredictably, and the rest of the backstory around their mission and what's happened on Earth was not very compelling. Then the story seemed to run out of steam and jump to the climax without much of any build-up, and when the mystery of why they wanted these 21st century popsicles for the mission, I was sadly disappointed. I won't spoil it here, but I found myself saying, "Really? That's the best they could do? Who the heck planned this mission?"
With better characters, better plotting, and a better explanation for why these guys were there, this could have been an awesome book. But it wasn't. I hate to write bad reviews, but this one just didn't work for me.
Scott has turned out another great book, and as with Beyond the Event Horizon, it just confirms that he is doing exactly what he should be. I look forward to reading many more like this.
Kudos for writing this; I am not an author but I admire the effort. Problems: people have been 'asleep' for so long our current calendar system has been forgotten. Yet, nobody has problems communicating, they all speak the same language. The sleepers are being used because nobody from the current time can be bothered to care about the future. But the ship was built by and crewed by current time people. Obviously some people cared. Some of the timing seems off. Humanity is confined to Australia, yet the aliens allow them to experiment with space travel? Or did that happen after the virus?
Takes me back to the days of sci-fi glory, Clarke, Asimov..... It really does have a nostalgic feel but in a modern way. Highly enjoyable and would make a great episode in the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. Great work!
I don't usually read stories that end in an action scene, but this was different. This story had great character development. The writing was crisp; the pacing was very good. The story really held my interest.
Overall, it was another solid book by McElhaney. It was easy to read and a good page turner. However, it left me wishing there was more contained in the book, rather than wanting a sequel.
I will not delve into what the book is about. The books description does a fine job doing this. Rather, I want to go into the two main things I liked and disliked about the book. I will actually start with the things I disliked:
1:) Not enough side character development. There was a couple specific characters that I should have felt bad for at the end, but I didn't because I hardly knew them. The main character was well fleshed out, but it seemed like a whirl-wind getting to know all the other characters who were really only present for a few pages at a time. This is my only main "beef" with the book. 2:) A bit too short. I know that it is not like the author to make large novels, which is partly why I often enjoy them. However, it felt like it could have been at least 50 pages longer. This is mostly due to the above dislike.
The likes: 1:) As always, the dialogue is well written. This is something I feel McElhaney does quiet well. His characters have a voice and tone, rather than just words. The main character is believable and likeable, and most of this comes from the well done dialogue. 2:) The setting is something that I really enjoyed. The idea of Earth being saved now, but only having effect thousands of years later, as well as some of the technology (like the quantum telegraph, or being frozen for thousands of years).
Overall, another solid book. However, it left me wanting rather than totally satisfied. I am not sure yet if that is a good thing or not, ultimately. But still, I would recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi page turners.
I was really looking forward to reading this book – it had such potential. People in cryostasis being revived and cured of the diseases that would have killed them in the 21st century. Finding out they were on a spaceship that could jump into another galaxy. There was so much that could have happened in this book, but sadly hardly anything happened. The story that was given was OK, even though it was edited poorly (seems to be happening a lot lately) and seemed very rushed in the last quarter. It just could have been so much more. I’m not a fan of giving you a book report but for this one I will make an exception.
Here is the whole book:
A handful of cryogenically frozen people are woken up aboard a spaceship eons after they had “died”. They found out that a species from another galaxy had taken over most of the Earth, but in an H G Wells type of twist, a flu broke out and killed all of the invaders. Humans decided to space-jump to the invaders home planet and kill the rest of their species with this virus before Earth was recolonized…and that is what they did. The end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm not really familiar with the author of Erinyes, Scott McElhaney, but I wanted to read one of the "shorts" in sci-fi on Amazon and this one looked intriguing. The premise is very interesting and I think the book has real potential. I just wasn't able to get into the characters so much. That's a real shame because the author has a flair for sci-fi.
An awesome novel of the far future. The people of Earth seek vengeance on the home world of the ones who stole the Earth from them. Memorable, richly developed characters in a space opera worthy of rereading afterward.
I really liked this book. As others had stated it was short, and I would have loved to read more about what was happening at the end. But it's sometimes nice to just read a short, well written book. Some parts were cheesy, but still good. I thought the book was interesting and exciting.
great concept. The story was too short so the content was underdeveloped and confusing. The romance was pointless and wasted words. The action short-lived and the ending was rushed. fully develop the concept and this will be great.
The book read fast and kept engaged but the plot seemed a bit unconvincing. There were several realities of reactions of characters that just didn't seem very realistic. Good idea and creative and I enjoyed the read but "Beyond the Event Horizon" by the author was much more developed.