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The MAINTENANCE ENGINEER
The MAINTENANCE ENGINEER © 2010 by Utah Author Steve Nelson
Imagine a space adventure where the safety of the ship & crew relies on just one man. The Maintenance Man. After all, Nobody Messes with The Maintenance Engineer’s Ship! NOBODY!!
So Get Strapped In! Buckle Up! And Prepare for an Exciting Thrill and a half ride in this Scifi Action/Adventure at the Edge of the Galaxy! The Maintenance Engineer by Steve Nelson Is Now in Command! This story is Great for kids from 1 to 92!
Now at: Smashwords.com
Imagine a space adventure where the safety of the ship & crew relies on just one man. The Maintenance Man. After all, Nobody Messes with The Maintenance Engineer’s Ship! NOBODY!!
So Get Strapped In! Buckle Up! And Prepare for an Exciting Thrill and a half ride in this Scifi Action/Adventure at the Edge of the Galaxy! The Maintenance Engineer by Steve Nelson Is Now in Command! This story is Great for kids from 1 to 92!
Now at: Smashwords.com
ebook
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Steve Nelson
45 books4 followersSteve Nelson has been Head of School at the Calhoun School, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, since 1998. Calhoun is one of America’s most notable progressive schools and serves 750 students, from pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. Calhoun is particularly well regarded for its commitment to diversity and social justice.
Since 1997 Steve has been a columnist for the Valley News, the daily newspaper in the mid-VT/NH area on both sides of the Connecticut River. He has been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post since 2010, writing about education and politics. Before assuming his current position, he worked as an administrator at Vermont Law School and Landmark College. He is an avid violinist and also served for six years as President of a performing arts school in the Midwest.
Steve has competed in many marathons, triathlons, bicycle races and XC ski races, with steadily decreasing success. He now primarily races the grim reaper.
He is married to Wendy Nelson, has two children, Jennifer and Christopher, and three perfect grandchildren – Quinn, Maddie and Jack.
Since 1997 Steve has been a columnist for the Valley News, the daily newspaper in the mid-VT/NH area on both sides of the Connecticut River. He has been a regular contributor to the Huffington Post since 2010, writing about education and politics. Before assuming his current position, he worked as an administrator at Vermont Law School and Landmark College. He is an avid violinist and also served for six years as President of a performing arts school in the Midwest.
Steve has competed in many marathons, triathlons, bicycle races and XC ski races, with steadily decreasing success. He now primarily races the grim reaper.
He is married to Wendy Nelson, has two children, Jennifer and Christopher, and three perfect grandchildren – Quinn, Maddie and Jack.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 11, 2013
Disclaimer: I've only read the free 20% offered on Smashwords.com, because, honestly, there are better books one can spend five dollars on.
For those who don't know, a Gary Stu is an unrealistic and badly written character, whose personality is often hard to describe because there's so little of it there.
The rest of the first chapter consists of Gary Stu stupidly fumbling about the ship trying to figure out what happened. We get a few redundancies such as "The door was solidly locked, it would not open." Nelson obviously never took English past grade 5 -- random words are bolded and around half the sentences end in exclamation! points! in a futile attempt to add excitement.
Chapter 2 is much the same as the first, with Gary Stu mentioning everyone except him is dead. How convenient. We have more randomly bolded words than the first chapter, more random Capitalizations, and more exclamation! points!.
If I could sum the book up in one word it would be this: boring. The narrative reads like Nelson's pulled it out of his arse (wouldn't surprise me in the slightest) with Gary Stu (our protagonist isn't named in the sample, so I'm calling it as I see it) waking up suddenly after falling out of bed in his space shuttle.
For those who don't know, a Gary Stu is an unrealistic and badly written character, whose personality is often hard to describe because there's so little of it there.
The amount of research done while writing the book was probably less than I'm doing for this review; If Nelson had done his research, he would know that you can't fall out of bed in a shuttle, because you're sleeping harnessed into a specially designed sleeping bag which is strapped to the wall.
The rest of the first chapter consists of Gary Stu stupidly fumbling about the ship trying to figure out what happened. We get a few redundancies such as "The door was solidly locked, it would not open." Nelson obviously never took English past grade 5 -- random words are bolded and around half the sentences end in exclamation! points! in a futile attempt to add excitement.
Near the end of the chapter, Gary Stu finds a hold blasted through the wall of the shuttle and 20 bodies lying on the floor. Because, according to Nelson, space has gravity, isn't incredibly cold, and doesn't kill anyone who's unlucky enough to be exposed to it (i.e. Gary Stu)."Something somehow undetected had hit us!" But it was detected! It knocked Gary Stu out of bed and left a gaping hole in the shuttle. Consistency issues like this run rampant throughout Nelson's work.
Chapter 2 is much the same as the first, with Gary Stu mentioning everyone except him is dead. How convenient. We have more randomly bolded words than the first chapter, more random Capitalizations, and more exclamation! points!.
At this point, I don't really care what happens next. There isn't any reason to keep reading -- the plot hasn't started yet, I have no idea what the ship looks like, and the lack of characterization is such that the protagonist might as well be a feather duster. I still don't know his name, either.
May 11, 2013
Disclaimer: I've only read the free 20% offered on Smashwords.com, because, honestly, there are better books one can spend five dollars on.
For those who don't know, a Gary Stu is an unrealistic and badly written character, whose personality is often hard to describe because there's so little of it there.
The rest of the first chapter consists of Gary Stu stupidly fumbling about the ship trying to figure out what happened. We get a few redundancies such as "The door was solidly locked, it would not open." Nelson obviously never took English past grade 5 -- random words are bolded and around half the sentences end in exclamation! points! in a futile attempt to add excitement.
Chapter 2 is much the same as the first, with Gary Stu mentioning everyone except him is dead. How convenient. We have more randomly bolded words than the first chapter, more random Capitalizations, and more exclamation! points!.
If I could sum the book up in one word it would be this: boring. The narrative reads like Nelson's pulled it out of his arse (wouldn't surprise me in the slightest) with Gary Stu (our protagonist isn't named in the sample, so I'm calling it as I see it) waking up suddenly after falling out of bed in his space shuttle.
For those who don't know, a Gary Stu is an unrealistic and badly written character, whose personality is often hard to describe because there's so little of it there.
The amount of research done while writing the book was probably less than I'm doing for this review; If Nelson had done his research, he would know that you can't fall out of bed in a shuttle, because you're sleeping harnessed into a specially designed sleeping bag which is strapped to the wall.
The rest of the first chapter consists of Gary Stu stupidly fumbling about the ship trying to figure out what happened. We get a few redundancies such as "The door was solidly locked, it would not open." Nelson obviously never took English past grade 5 -- random words are bolded and around half the sentences end in exclamation! points! in a futile attempt to add excitement.
Near the end of the chapter, Gary Stu finds a hold blasted through the wall of the shuttle and 20 bodies lying on the floor. Because, according to Nelson, space has gravity, isn't incredibly cold, and doesn't kill anyone who's unlucky enough to be exposed to it (i.e. Gary Stu)."Something somehow undetected had hit us!" But it was detected! It knocked Gary Stu out of bed and left a gaping hole in the shuttle. Consistency issues like this run rampant throughout Nelson's work.
Chapter 2 is much the same as the first, with Gary Stu mentioning everyone except him is dead. How convenient. We have more randomly bolded words than the first chapter, more random Capitalizations, and more exclamation! points!.
At this point, I don't really care what happens next. There isn't any reason to keep reading -- the plot hasn't started yet, I have no idea what the ship looks like, and the lack of characterization is such that the protagonist might as well be a feather duster. I still don't know his name, either.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews