Alpha

by Taylor Hohulin

Alpha is the world's first robotic soldier, but he would rather woo his mechanic than wage war. This probably has something to do with his human heart, given to him in hopes that it would prevent him from enslaving the entire human race.

Once the greatest soldier the Planet Earth Military Forces had seen, Meat can't help but think this new age of robotic soldiers will leave people like him in the dust. Forced into retirement, he has nothing left to do but stew in his bitterness toward the organization he once loved.

Lucas Sharpe wishes he'd managed to work his way to CEO of the Planet Earth Military Forces before its leaders traded their plasma rifles for stacks of paperwork. Now he's just bored.

Alpha is having enough trouble winning his mechanic's heart - as it turns out, robots aren't her type - but when Meat begins to stalk Alpha's inventor, Lucas sees a chance to return to action, even if it means breaking a few rules. Unfortunately, Lucas's involvement only makes Meat angrier, and before long, the ex-soldier's obsession escalates into all-out suburban warfare. Everything Alpha loves is threatened, and it becomes clear he will have to fight. And he would fight - he really would - if not for an unfortunate, deadly malfunction that should come as no surprise to anyone who knows his inventor is the worst Military scientist of all time.

Genres: Science Fiction

306 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2013

About the author

Taylor has worked in the Christian radio industry since 2008, in roles ranging from on-air personality to webmaster. Currently, he is a morning show host in West Des Moines, Iowa, where he lives with with his wife, his cat, and his dog. He has lost track of the number of times he's eaten a whole sleeve of Oreos.

Reviews

[James Eldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the day when this was released I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy. Now that my son is 12, I'll be buying him his own copy.

[Rachel Barnard · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Everything about Alpha was an inhumanly perfect imitation of humanity.” (Page 48).

In Alpha by Taylor Hohulin, four characters come together to form a hilariously written story about how hard it is to build a military-ready robot and to get everyone to accept the idea of a robot military. The Doctor who builds the robots is all consumed with creating a robot that will be loyal to its military and fierce but not too threatening. The first robot he builds, his Alpha, is consumed with his heart’s desire and wants to love the doctor’s sister over anything else. Meat is the soldier with a chip on his shoulder, just forced into retirement from a military life and nothing to do but plot to destroy the very robot that threatens the careers of all future human soldiers. And finally there is the leader and CEO of the Planet Earth Military Forces who just wants to get back into action and be done with all the paperwork.

With robots the likes of Douglas Adams’ characters in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the book is full of little laugh moments. The way the story is written and the writing style itself will blow you away with its funny little insights into humanity and how people think and look at the world. Hohulin has built a hilarious world out of a mashup of what ifs in this book. What if a robot fell in love? What if a scientist wanted to create a military robot but kept failing? What if a former soldier didn’t want to retire?

Meat is your classic all brawn and no brain character but he isn’t pathetically dimwitted. He can reason out logical conclusions and utilize resources and go about trying to attain his goal. He is not stupid, he is just single-minded. All he wants is to be a soldier and if he can’t do that for the Planet Earth Military Defense, well then he will wage war against any who opposed him rejoining the military and any who newly oppose him. Meat was a fun character to laugh at with his strictly logical thinking and surface level.

I loved how the robots thought and how they were different in their personalities depending on how they were built and I was glad Hohulin decided to make Alpha the more prominent robot instead of spreading narrative thinly over all three robots. Alpha was the most interesting robot and the one with the most story to tell.

[A.B. Shepherd · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the end of Alpha, Taylor Hohulin says that Data from Star Trek Next Generation is his favorite robot. I suspect that would offend Data since he is an android, but that does explain the vibe of Alpha. While this is a sci-fi novel, with robots created for military warfare it is very light and irreverent in tone (even though violent).

It is even softer sci-fi than my own book, Lifeboat. At least I think so.

When I read, one of the things I enjoy about reading is that I can stop and think along the way. As I was reading Alpha I noted that a couple of very different movies came to mind. Alpha is really in no way like these movies and yet...

Ever see the movie Multiplicity with Michael Keaton? Michael Keaton has himself cloned and then the clone has HIMself cloned? A copy of a copy is never quite as good - remember? When you read Alpha, there is no cloning involved, but that movie came to mind for me when Beta and Gamma arrived. I don't want to give too much away here though, so no spoilers. Sorry.

Another movie that came to mind, believe it or not, was The Wizard of Oz and the "If I only had a..." song sung by the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow.

"If I only had a heart..." "...a brain..." "...the noive," (that is "nerve" in that Cowardly Lion accent). Yup that went through my head as well.

Alpha was given a human heart in his robotic body in the hope that it would make him feel loyalty toward his allies in the anticipated military intervention of Earth's military in the Mars/Venus war. The sci-fi is so light we never learn where the heart comes from or how it is obtained, and yet there is some pretty dark subject matter as well lightness and humor here in this book .

This book won't change your life. It won't change the world. But it will entertain you for a while.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received this book for free, in exchange for an honest review.*

I very rarely read books about robots, but I’m so GLAD I read this book. I loved it and was sad when it ended. This is NOT a hard core sci-fi book. It’s a simple, yet well written sci-fi story. That will capture you and hold your attention till the very end. This book has everything; action, death, and even LOVE. Yes, I said love in a robot book!

The Government needs robots built to defend a human envoy going to Mars for talks. Mars and Venus are at odds with each other. But not everyone is happy about this and makes their anger known. Dr. Max Center is offered the job to create the robots. These robots must be highly functioning, so that they protect the envoy/allies, but destroy any threats to those people. Alpha is created and is unique. He gets himself into some pretty funny and not so funny situations.

The characters were all likeable and well written. I loved the three robots, they were each amazing and well developed. As well as Dr. Max and Jo. Perfect. It was great seeing how Alpha grew, how he interacted with people and situations. Meat the antagonist, was always up to something. I loved the fact that he never gave up trying to prove his point. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought, but damn it, he was going to make a point.

I will admit the ending, made me sad. I hope it went another way, but I get why it had to be this way. Kudos for Taylor Hohulin for his first novel! This is well written story, that opens your eyes to possibilities.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first time author has produced a gem of a story-line with unlimited potential and endearing characters. I found myself lost in the world and forgetting to read with a critical eye towards how to improve, and that is always a good sign. The times I was pulled out of the world were usually times that I wanted more; more detail, more development, more fullness of story and character. Occasionally I would question whether this specific character would actually act or react in this specific way, but that is the danger with any character that is written down for the world to see. We all have an idea of what we think a character would say or do in a situation, and when You make the characters robots with touches of traditional human motivations, and it layers the possible reactions and reasons they do or say certain things to a level that is mostly unpredictable. That serves the story device to be able to make the characters do unpredictable things, which in turn makes for interesting twists and turns for the reader. For a first time author this story and writing is amazing. Hohulin has developed a cast of characters (and a world) that he could easily develop into a serial or other literary offering. I look forward to other things this author might give us, because his strong writing skills will only get better and be even more of a joy to read.

[Lisa Hapney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty quick read. There were some missing words, editing mistakes, etc., but not enough so that I didn’t enjoy it. In my opinion, this is a story for romantic souls. Alpha is somewhere in the middle between a military story, Bicentennial Man and The Wizard of Oz with regard to the flavor of the story, but just a little bit gritty around the edges. Overall it was an enjoyable and entertaining tale, but nothing too deep given the manner in which it was written. The story flowed well. I was not bored at any time and I felt for the characters, even Alpha’s slightly snobby and whiny siblings (?), Beta and Gamma.

I wouldn’t say this is a masterpiece, but it was a good fun read. I find that I need a little lighter fare from time to time as I read a lot of dystopian sci-fi and this fit the bill very nicely. There are action scenes and fights within this story, but at the end I was left with a light-hearted feeling for the most part given how Alpha’s love for his robot mechanic, Jo, influenced and colored his decisions and the descriptions thereof. That may just be my assessment, but at no point did this story take itself too seriously so neither did I.

I’d be interested to see what this author comes up with in the future. Overall it was a fun story. Alpha was a good adventure. There’s a little romance in the mix and I would recommend it for a rainy afternoon read.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

Decent writing, with few editing mistakes, but the story read more like a longer short story than an ebook; lacking discernible depth. Character development is what gets me excited most, and this book fell short, leaving a feeling of disconnectedness and reoccurring boredom. The primary storyline, however, is interesting enough that it allowed me to finish the book without feeling it to be wasted time - just not good enough for me to call it time well spent.

[Jess Mountifield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.