Mesh: The Pioneers

by David Ciccarelli

Mesh -- Part The Pioneers

Forty-four years after the disappearance of her father, Simi Duan has turned his ambitious vision into a corporate empire focused on constructing space stations. Her latest project, the Duan Gardens, is set to orbit further from Earth than any other outpost. This risky venture makes her the target of politicians, competitors, and militants who feel that Simi Duan is pushing society too far too fast.

Zahir Bard is a recently retired diplomat for a government rapidly becoming obsolete. The United Earth Administration coaxes him back into public service to supervise the burgeoning frontier, specifically, the operations of Simi Duan. He reluctantly agrees, as much to protect his own legacy as to protect the bureaucracy that employs him.

Skulking in the dark corners of man’s prefabricated space outposts is mercenary Cyril Tarsi. He has spent his adult life running from the mistakes of his youth, each contract hopefully his last. His new assignment will take him to the fringe of civilization and into the center of an interplanetary conspiracy

Desmond Colson is a twelve-year-old boy who has bounced along humanity's path into deep space. His family’s nomadic lifestyle has left him isolated and weary. But the family’s next move is to the Duan Gardens, the literal edge of human civilization. Dez hopes that this move will bring the Colson family to a place they can finally call home.

The entrepreneur. The politician. The assassin. The child. All pioneers moving deeper into the Solar System, and closer to the Mesh.

Genres: Science Fiction

200 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 1, 2013

About the author

David Ciccarelli has held many jobs over the years including film editor, background actor (even showing up as an animated background character in an episode of "King of the Hill), video store merchandiser, classical music store supervisor, coach, and history teacher. However, his passion has always been writing. He has written two dozen screenplays, over a dozen short stories, and several novellas. Most of his stories contain science fiction or supernatural elements as well as a dark sense of humor. His first full length novel, Mesh: Book One, was released in June, 2014. His second book, Don't Eat That, a humorous picture book, was release in March, 2017. His most recent book, the middle grade novel The No Such Things, was released in August 2019.

Reviews

[Taylor Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review breaks down the 'essence' of this book, and if you feel that reading this review will spoil the book, then please read the book first. I have done my best not to reveal any secrets, but it is up to your discretion whether you read this review or not. You have been forewarned.

Well wasn't that an interesting book? It might've been a little more interesting if it hadn't been just another sci-fi ghost story that did little to stand out in my mind. Here's the breakdown, people. The story starts out with the introductory character's ship being ripped to shreds by some 'invisible force', and his (briefly related) encounter with something (some sort of creature) that "they" [whoever 'they' are in this context] weren't going to "believe it". Translation: welcome to the gods, puny human. Then fast forward about 40 years. That man's daughter, now the head of the corporation named after him, is launching her next big enterprise, pushing the space frontier farther than anyone before her. Cue the expected political chaos and secret organization that hates her guts for some unknown reason. Compound that with a no-account mercenary/assassin, a 'survivor' of the Mesh and Oeurani, the higher-dimensional race that the survivor claims will be affronted (or disturbed) by Simi, the first character's daughter, and her company's expansion. Boil away all the 'drama' of the politics, a family narratively followed for a different PoV, and the mercenary's sub-plot mission, and all that's left is the mythological message, "Exploring nature with technology can anger the gods. Simi, you have angered the gods, so prepare to feel their wrath!" I'm sorry, but even the attempted cliff-hanger ending left a lot to be answered for in the quality department. For a first book in a series, it gave me little reason (even including all the unanswered questions) to come back for the next installment.

Storyline aside, I had some issues with the actual writing of the book. Now, I do not condemn authors that choose to use language in their writing for 'artistic reasons', but offensive language has become my litmus test for how well the quality of the writing and plotline will be. Since there was language outside of the actual dialogue [due to the narrative style, but I'll deal with that in a minute], my expectations for this book went from decent to low-mediocre. And there were a lot of different PoVs taken up in the story, a switch happening every chapter except the last few chapters, in which the switching became almost sporadic. By the time the author established the main PoVs we'd be switching between, any PoV taken outside of that came across as "the author wants to show you something that he can't with the normal retinue, and you'll never see or hear from this character again". It took a little getting used to, but even then the flow was a little rough. The narrative PoV was being switched so much, and to so many different places not even relatively close (hey, we're in outer space) to each other that I was getting mental whiplash during the ride. With so much head-jerk going on, I had to take a step back to 'heal', and from a more objective position realized that the style of third-person PoV being used was the closer, "in the character's head" kind of writing style, which I thought I liked. However, I learned one thing from this book: I do not like the "in their head" narrative being used on more than one character in the same book. Writing out their thoughts like that, compounded with all the PoV switching, made the characters blend together and lose their individuality. It wasn't until I was 87% through the book [exact percentage courtesy of Amazon Kindle Reading App] that the characters started to be differentiated from one another.
The actual writing itself (the grammar, punctuation, and capitalization) were fine except for maybe some very minor things [nothing that was bone-jarring derailment of the reading flow, like the PoV switching was], but overall the book left me feeling very sad at how short the book fell of expectations. I wanted a little more congruity with the switching, maybe a little longer segment for each before switching or at least a smoother transition, instead of being flung to the far reaches of the galaxy and back every five pages (or so it felt; at the very least this happened each chapter).

[N.K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a joy to read and the method was as good as the characters. Each chapter's introduction of a new character or a new character set, weaves you more deeply into the story, and before a reader realizes it, they're deeply enmeshed in the climactic events of the story. I didn't want it to end, and I'm ready for the next installment.

Beautifully done!

[Daniel Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

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This review is from: Mesh: The Pioneers (Kindle Edition)
Great story, fast paced, lots of intrigue and exciting action, with strong characters and an excellent plot. I am giving it five stars and I highly recommend it. P.S. I only I wish that I had written this novel.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story that is continued in other volumes, so this one peters-out rather than coming to a satisfying conclusion. Many details have been drawn from classic SF and given interesting twists by Ciccarelli. An example is the alien ships have a drive system that reminded me of the HYPERION novels 'resurrection drive' but with better crew safety. Similarly the monsters will all remind you of other works, however that is far from a bad thing.

A decent SF read.

[Ted Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read. I've been tackling several indie authors lately with varying success. This one was very polished. Fast writing, solid characters. It's the first in a series, so there were a lot of unanswered questions, but I'll come back for another installment.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, it has a lot of potential and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

[John Mosman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, interesting and compelling sci-fi space opera story. Good cliff hanger as we wait for the next book.

[Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fast paced

Comes to play with standard 'space opera' basics. Characters are not formed to the point of boredom. Believable and hard to put Dow.