New Dawn

Wandering Engineer #1

by Chris Hechtl

It it always darkest before the dawn. For 700 years the scattered survivors of the Xeno-Federation war have known this. Sol and the core systems are gone.

The scattered survivors on far flung worlds and space colonies must try to survive a universe gone mad. They have spent that time scratching an existence out of what ever they could. Those trapped aboard surviving space colonies waited until the parts failed and life support was snuffed out.

But a free trader crewed by women are about to change things. Fleeing a pirate they will stumble across a relic from their distant past. When the lifepod opens they will begin the journey back into the light of a New Dawn.

This is book 1 of the Wandering engineer story arch. There are 3 seperate story archs plotted, each with 3 or more books.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Military Fiction, Space, Military Science Fiction

474 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 3, 2010

Reviews

[Oneeyed · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very interesting premise and protagonist...

Sadly the author's skills aren't enough for this novel to reach its full potential.

The scenes felt very disjointed and chaotic, shifting between different places/characters/events from one short paragraph to another. Many dialogues ended up abruptly, only for the characters to restart them again several chapters later. I do understand that these characters were actually recalling previous discussions, but it felt very awkward...

The pace was sloooow. I do appreciate fiction about tinkerers so I enjoyed the scenes about fixing the ship up to a point, but after a while it got very repetitive and boring.

Many things in the story were not believable. For example, that the ship managed to be still habitable when the people maintaining had such low skills... I couldn't buy it. In my opinion, it seemed only a cheap way for the author to show off how awesome the hero was.

The characterisation was poor. The majority of females reacted like teenagers, the bully turned annoying very quickly, the captain was a disappointment. And to be honest, the countless crew members felt all the same and I just gave up trying to remember who was who after a while.

[M Hamed · Rating 1 out of 5]

you could actually feel your life wasting ,running out of heart beats reading this

[Zhugenaut · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main character, the Admiral, is too powerful in term of technology related skills including teaching them. (Un)fortunately those skills are suitable for the new era he was forced to live after centuries of cryo sleep. He is many times pictured to fix numerous issues in a space ship and lecturing the crew about their ship technology. The book is too focused on details about speculative technology and science, also on how the Admiral is using the magic-like replicator to produce spare parts and then installing them while explaining them to the crew. I wish the author didn't spend too much time in these scenes. This tendency is repeated in the next four books in the series. In brief, this book is extremely slow paced, not recommended for impatient readers.

I wanted to give it only one star, but I like the genre in general, and because it's written by a self published author, I added one more star.

[Gallandro_83 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just got this book and I'll admit the preview made me question if the book was worth buying. The only reason I decided to buy was because the book series already has a couple more novels; as a fast reader that made it worth the risk. The main storyline is given in the synopsis but the book starts with very little background and spares little time to set the scene as it were. The first third of the novel was jumpy and seemed to be a mash-up of cliched characters and very little background. By the end of the novel I think things got a little more fleshed out and I was satisfied with how things turned out but overall the book needs an editor and maybe a little more gritty real world feel. It felt like a fairly standard sci-fi script good guy won and yada yada yada.. I think a few scenes and the ending show promise for the author and I plan to buy the next book to see where this goes but overall its not going to be a book I reread or recommend as anything other than a time filler for sci-fi fans.

gallandro

[Sonic · Rating 1 out of 5]

If ever a book needed a copy editor, it's this one.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun reread

Read this series a long time ago. Now doing a re-read with a fresh perspective. I enjoyed this book it was a lot of fun and I love the engineering point of view. Fixing the Lost Society an Engineers job. the whole Johnny Appleseed thing was quite fun and it does some up much of the series. This particular book takes place on a military tender that has been salvaged after the war. And Admiral irons must fix not only the ship but it's crew as much technology and knowledge has been lost. The story progresses over a 15 month ish period with steady upgrades to the ship and its crew. Though the story is good. The writing style is slightly disjointed it does run in a uniform timeline but can jump around perspective seemingly randomly at times. Not overly difficult to deal with but can be a little Annoying to know where or when you've moved to. I will be reading more in this series again. Off to the next book

[COLM P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in a sweeping series - it’s self-published, and there is the occasional proof-reading glitch, but the series, in toto, is an amazing collection. After this book was published there were three prequels, which are also worth reading. But overall this is a very fine series of, ultimately over 30 books (I lost count), that would benefit from a reading order list. Hechtl has imagined an impressively detailed fictional universe, complex economically, sociologically and politically, and free from the right wing or left wing tropes one finds in other series.

It’s a really good series and I wish a mainstream publisher would pick it up. This book, like a few, would benefit from a re-edit and re-proof-read, reflecting Hechtl’s maturing as an author. But I heartily recommend all the books in this story arc.

[Michael Lacewell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overly Long

As most of these reviews said, the author/editor really really needs to learn the difference between 'then' and 'than' as well as several other common usage words. However, this third revision was much better than what the earlier reviews suggest his earlier revisions were.

My biggest issues is that it seemed many sections were out of order or the characters just have really awful memories. It could also have been about half as long and done without all that extra material.

[John Tyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good beginning

What if you woke up long into the future and discovered the things you hold dearest has been destroyed and what would you do to change to this bleak future this and other problems the protagonist has deal with

[Stefanos Kouzof · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is *repair* sci-fi. Instead of space battles, we have feats of repair. Too much feats of repair and too little engineering. And too much feats of repair. Too much feats of repair. Too much.
Probably a unique example of this sub-genre.

[John Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

A good start to the book series, I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book released.

[x x x · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awe

Chris gets the tone right. The hard bitten Chief, the dizzy crew, the inattentive watches, and their progress. Good Summer sci Fi reading.

[billy cardon · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you want to read a good series new, Dawn is the best

I’ve heard this before but they’re very nice and touching and very good to read. It’s a sci-fi story but it’s really good.

[Bruce Brachman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent characters, logical science and a really intricate future. The universe created by Chris is rich and has a long, substantial back story.

All good reasons for the Admiral to be where he is and do what he does.

A terrific first book in a series that makes you want to hear more about the Admiral's adventures.

I hope this series goes on for years. (and not in stasis).

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad read very slow and way to much technical talk and description

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good read, though slow to start.

[Robert Burford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book anyone that enjoys sci/fi or just a great read should get on-board for this series.

[Mrducking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit this properly, especially the first two thirds of the book and you have in your hands a solid 4 stars book

[Suprio · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5