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Lost In Spacetime Thriller #1-8
Black Hull
Imagine a distant future where technology’s inexorable advance has halted for all but the richest .1% of humanity. Indigents who still have it fly spaceships that are hundreds of years old, and entreat the help of robots that are relics of the past.
The wealthy, having achieved immortality through science, and secured total power through purchase of all government seats, spread and consume the last resources of the cosmos. The unlucky majority pursue one goal: The generational commitment to buying a ticket into Utopia—the virtual reality program that simulates what in antiquity was known as heaven. Little do they question the mysterious origin and purpose of their gloried destination.
For those who can’t afford to upload their consciousnesses into Utopia, and leave their physical bodies forever behind, there are few options but to live the life of an outlaw.
Eight hundred years in the past, Mick Compton is ripped away through a wormhole into the dystopian future of the Messier 82 galaxy. In a place where the only thing that matters is getting into paradise, he wants only to get back home to his proper place and time, to his wife and family, so that he can right the wrongs of his past. But Sera, a battle-hardened smuggler with plans of her own for him, won’t make it so easy.
And a darker agenda is at play in M82—the terrorist known as The Force of Darkness has reached a terrifying conclusion: Humanity is a virus, whose chance at equilibrium with its environment long ago failed. The only solution is complete extermination of mankind. After decades of surreptitious construction, FOD is nearly ready to detonate a quantum black hole with the power to consume the entire spread of the human race.
Will Mick succumb to the draw of Utopia and forsake his desire to return to a real family? Will FOD pull off the ultimate terrorist act and destroy humanity once and for all? Find out in Black Hull.
The wealthy, having achieved immortality through science, and secured total power through purchase of all government seats, spread and consume the last resources of the cosmos. The unlucky majority pursue one goal: The generational commitment to buying a ticket into Utopia—the virtual reality program that simulates what in antiquity was known as heaven. Little do they question the mysterious origin and purpose of their gloried destination.
For those who can’t afford to upload their consciousnesses into Utopia, and leave their physical bodies forever behind, there are few options but to live the life of an outlaw.
Eight hundred years in the past, Mick Compton is ripped away through a wormhole into the dystopian future of the Messier 82 galaxy. In a place where the only thing that matters is getting into paradise, he wants only to get back home to his proper place and time, to his wife and family, so that he can right the wrongs of his past. But Sera, a battle-hardened smuggler with plans of her own for him, won’t make it so easy.
And a darker agenda is at play in M82—the terrorist known as The Force of Darkness has reached a terrifying conclusion: Humanity is a virus, whose chance at equilibrium with its environment long ago failed. The only solution is complete extermination of mankind. After decades of surreptitious construction, FOD is nearly ready to detonate a quantum black hole with the power to consume the entire spread of the human race.
Will Mick succumb to the draw of Utopia and forsake his desire to return to a real family? Will FOD pull off the ultimate terrorist act and destroy humanity once and for all? Find out in Black Hull.
- GenresScience Fiction
316 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2013
28 people are currently reading
288 people want to read
About the author
Joseph A. Turkot
49 books110 followersJoseph Turkot is the author of eight novels and many short stories. He began writing as an independent author, and The Rain is his first release with Blackstone Publishing. He lives in South Jersey, and when not writing, he dreams of the day when he’ll be able to open an animal sanctuary.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 6, 2013
An interesting sci-fi story of how one man comes to terms with his actions, how they have affected the people around him and how they impact his current choices.
I was drawn in from the beginning, both by the story as well as the characters.
The story is interesting. Overall it is dark, especially towards the end. But I think the author did an amazing job showing the capability for humanity in his characters. Not everyone gets a happy ending, but that’s true of real life too. I also enjoyed how the author wove all the characters separate stories together. The timeline of the story doesn’t follow point A to point B. There are quite a few flash backs for all the characters that help fill in how they got to where they are. But despite the jumping back and forth for various characters the story isn’t choppy or annoying like some I’ve read that have tried to use the same technique.
I also really got attached to some of the characters, especially XJ and GR. I think they bring their own innocence and humanity to the story, despite the fact that they are robots. But all the characters, not just the robots, got my attention. I liked finding out more about them as the story progressed. I think they really added an extra depth to the book.
Overall it is an intriguing book. Solid science fiction, with interesting characters, and an action filled story. Definitely worth the read.
I was drawn in from the beginning, both by the story as well as the characters.
The story is interesting. Overall it is dark, especially towards the end. But I think the author did an amazing job showing the capability for humanity in his characters. Not everyone gets a happy ending, but that’s true of real life too. I also enjoyed how the author wove all the characters separate stories together. The timeline of the story doesn’t follow point A to point B. There are quite a few flash backs for all the characters that help fill in how they got to where they are. But despite the jumping back and forth for various characters the story isn’t choppy or annoying like some I’ve read that have tried to use the same technique.
I also really got attached to some of the characters, especially XJ and GR. I think they bring their own innocence and humanity to the story, despite the fact that they are robots. But all the characters, not just the robots, got my attention. I liked finding out more about them as the story progressed. I think they really added an extra depth to the book.
Overall it is an intriguing book. Solid science fiction, with interesting characters, and an action filled story. Definitely worth the read.
Did Not Finish
July 4, 2016DNF 20% - Moving too slowly for me
September 28, 2013
A good read!
The author promised a thrill ride and I'd say he delivered on that. Black Hull is a quick and enjoyable read with a fast pace. The characters are unique, but we really don't get to spend a lot of time with them. I think it would be better to be a little more intimate with them, but it wasn't a deal killer. I agree strongly with what turned out to be the driving issue in the story and give big kudos for that. I rather liked the little twist at the end, too.
That said there were a few things I didn't like. A pet peeve of mine is the mix of singular and plural in the same sentence. For example (not from the book), "Someone rubbed their nose in it." It is very common and I even find myself doing it from time to time, but I think that should be ferreted out in editing. Also, the author has a tendency to use odd descriptions. For example, (also not from the book), "The ocean was as smooth as glass." I understand this sentence. It's a pretty common description. But, "The ocean was like a coffee table," is a bit harder to understand, I think. I believe the author was trying to paint a colorful picture with words, which is always appreciated, however, for me he missed the mark to the point where some short passages I just did not understand. I also felt that I could have used a bit more description of the setting. I often had trouble really picturing where the characters were and what things looked like (or even, what just happened). This won't bother some people since obviously it is left to the reader to fill in using his imagination, but I like to fill in a little less.
********************Mild spoiler alert!************************
I think what I wrote above would be, to some extent or another, the opinion of most readers. What follows is more my opinion than issues with the author.
I'm not a big fan of droids that have personalities. I did love Star Wars, but in reality I have no idea why someone would program a droid to talk back or even disobey like C3PO. In this book the droids seem to take on the role of comic relief to some extent and I don't feel it really fit with the story. The top spinning around and smoke coming out for example is strange to me, in this setting.
The line between android and human was blurry. The line between a person and an elaborate piece of software was also blurry. I don't like that, but again, that's just me, not the author. This won't be a problem unless you are like me in that respect.
********************End mild spoiler*************************
Overall, the story was too abstract for me. If you don't have a problem with that, I highly recommend the story. If you tend toward hard science fiction, then you might have a problem with some of the sequences.
The author promised a thrill ride and I'd say he delivered on that. Black Hull is a quick and enjoyable read with a fast pace. The characters are unique, but we really don't get to spend a lot of time with them. I think it would be better to be a little more intimate with them, but it wasn't a deal killer. I agree strongly with what turned out to be the driving issue in the story and give big kudos for that. I rather liked the little twist at the end, too.
That said there were a few things I didn't like. A pet peeve of mine is the mix of singular and plural in the same sentence. For example (not from the book), "Someone rubbed their nose in it." It is very common and I even find myself doing it from time to time, but I think that should be ferreted out in editing. Also, the author has a tendency to use odd descriptions. For example, (also not from the book), "The ocean was as smooth as glass." I understand this sentence. It's a pretty common description. But, "The ocean was like a coffee table," is a bit harder to understand, I think. I believe the author was trying to paint a colorful picture with words, which is always appreciated, however, for me he missed the mark to the point where some short passages I just did not understand. I also felt that I could have used a bit more description of the setting. I often had trouble really picturing where the characters were and what things looked like (or even, what just happened). This won't bother some people since obviously it is left to the reader to fill in using his imagination, but I like to fill in a little less.
********************Mild spoiler alert!************************
I think what I wrote above would be, to some extent or another, the opinion of most readers. What follows is more my opinion than issues with the author.
I'm not a big fan of droids that have personalities. I did love Star Wars, but in reality I have no idea why someone would program a droid to talk back or even disobey like C3PO. In this book the droids seem to take on the role of comic relief to some extent and I don't feel it really fit with the story. The top spinning around and smoke coming out for example is strange to me, in this setting.
The line between android and human was blurry. The line between a person and an elaborate piece of software was also blurry. I don't like that, but again, that's just me, not the author. This won't be a problem unless you are like me in that respect.
********************End mild spoiler*************************
Overall, the story was too abstract for me. If you don't have a problem with that, I highly recommend the story. If you tend toward hard science fiction, then you might have a problem with some of the sequences.
August 31, 2013
I received a complimentary copy of Black Hull from its author Joseph A. Turkot with my promise of a review.
Black Hull is a space opera flavored with cyberpunk and with perhaps a dash of Firefly. Turkot's writing style is choppy at times and there are abrupt transitions and flashbacks, but by the time we are well into the book we come to expect these and they aren't too bothersome. If Black Hull were published in the traditional way, a good editor could perhaps have helped the story flow more smoothly. Typographic errors are the bane of indie authors; I noticed a few, but not enough to be annoying. With the writing criticisms out of the way, let me say that I did look forward to each reading session and never came close to abandoning this book (which I tend to do if the story doesn't grab me or if I feel the witing is not so good.)
I appreciated the epilogue, which I presume is an homage to Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. All in all, Black Hull is a not-bad read; better than other indie authors I've read and better than some established SF authors.
spoiler ahead-
Turkot introduces a concept that I haven't come across before and which may be original with him: Utopia, a sort of cyber-heaven that charges a pricey admission fee. The character of Mick Compton, our protagonist, is well developed and at times I was almost surprised at references to him in the third person because he had such a first person presence. There is what I consider to be a flaw in the story-telling: Mick's adventure partner, Sera, whom we come to know and care about, is replaced by FOD (Force of Darkness) whose character is never really developed. I kept expecting Sera to rejoin the story.
Black Hull is a space opera flavored with cyberpunk and with perhaps a dash of Firefly. Turkot's writing style is choppy at times and there are abrupt transitions and flashbacks, but by the time we are well into the book we come to expect these and they aren't too bothersome. If Black Hull were published in the traditional way, a good editor could perhaps have helped the story flow more smoothly. Typographic errors are the bane of indie authors; I noticed a few, but not enough to be annoying. With the writing criticisms out of the way, let me say that I did look forward to each reading session and never came close to abandoning this book (which I tend to do if the story doesn't grab me or if I feel the witing is not so good.)
I appreciated the epilogue, which I presume is an homage to Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos. All in all, Black Hull is a not-bad read; better than other indie authors I've read and better than some established SF authors.
spoiler ahead-
Turkot introduces a concept that I haven't come across before and which may be original with him: Utopia, a sort of cyber-heaven that charges a pricey admission fee. The character of Mick Compton, our protagonist, is well developed and at times I was almost surprised at references to him in the third person because he had such a first person presence. There is what I consider to be a flaw in the story-telling: Mick's adventure partner, Sera, whom we come to know and care about, is replaced by FOD (Force of Darkness) whose character is never really developed. I kept expecting Sera to rejoin the story.
September 11, 2013
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like it. The cover was amazing. The book blurb about a man stuck on a ship being sucked into a black hole was fascinating.
Unfortunately, the book has almost nothing to do with the book blurb. That interesting lead in takes up less than a chapter before the book unravels in a random series of encounters that lead nowhere.
WHY I DIDN'T LIKE IT
My main critique of Black Hull is how it deals with dialogue. Many chapters have large, extended sections without a line of exposition, description, or dialogue markers. They are all dialogue. Not even a “he said”. This makes it very difficult for the reader to follow who is saying what. It also left me very unattached to the characters because it was difficult to create a visual image of them or the action.
For example:
Chapter 17
“At the T-Jump?”
“Yup.”
“How long?”
“Couple of days.”
“And how long after until you’ll reach Utopia?”
“I don’t know. Could be a month. I’ve got to stop off to do dad’s transfer.”
“Who’ll do that?”
“Cheapest? A droid on the West Rail Sector.”
This section goes on like this for several pages. What it’s missing is something to help the reader get a clear visual of who is saying what and what are they doing as they say it. Writers need to create a mental movie in the mind of the reader. This book fails to do that.
On a formatting note, there was no table of contents. This is a very helpful feature in ebooks and is an easy fix the author should consider.
IN CONCLUSION
I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it would need a massive rewrite before I could give it anything but a one star.
Unfortunately, the book has almost nothing to do with the book blurb. That interesting lead in takes up less than a chapter before the book unravels in a random series of encounters that lead nowhere.
WHY I DIDN'T LIKE IT
My main critique of Black Hull is how it deals with dialogue. Many chapters have large, extended sections without a line of exposition, description, or dialogue markers. They are all dialogue. Not even a “he said”. This makes it very difficult for the reader to follow who is saying what. It also left me very unattached to the characters because it was difficult to create a visual image of them or the action.
For example:
Chapter 17
“At the T-Jump?”
“Yup.”
“How long?”
“Couple of days.”
“And how long after until you’ll reach Utopia?”
“I don’t know. Could be a month. I’ve got to stop off to do dad’s transfer.”
“Who’ll do that?”
“Cheapest? A droid on the West Rail Sector.”
This section goes on like this for several pages. What it’s missing is something to help the reader get a clear visual of who is saying what and what are they doing as they say it. Writers need to create a mental movie in the mind of the reader. This book fails to do that.
On a formatting note, there was no table of contents. This is a very helpful feature in ebooks and is an easy fix the author should consider.
IN CONCLUSION
I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it would need a massive rewrite before I could give it anything but a one star.
March 30, 2015
Wanted to rate 1.5 stars. What an infuriating and maddening book! I wanted to like this--and did at times, very much--but the overall assessment at the end is this: Too many holes, too many questions, not enough explained. I'm not even sure this qualifies as "dystopian." Of the future, for sure. But true dystopian? I'm not convinced.
My pet peeve for e-books was well represented: Too many editing errors.
Either the protagonist's (Mick Compton) second child is named Mickey, or he's named James. If he's Mickey James or James Mickey, then say so. But to refer to him randomly as either one without batting an eye tells me that Joseph Turkot played around with both names and settled on one, after using the other one. I just don't know which is which. Errors like this are distracting and take away from my pleasure at reading. After all, if you can't even remember to edit your book, then what other lazy mistakes are you making? Besides the spelling errors and spell-check errors, I mean. Those are also in evidence.
At any rate, the story itself is very much like a dream much of the time, which is ok, except there were many liberties taken with my ability to keep up, catch up, and believe. I hated the ending. I understand the non-resolution is part of the deal, but I just didn't enjoy this one. I think my limits were already stretched, and then to throw me an ambiguous ending made me throw up my hands in frustration and wish I'd read something else.
My pet peeve for e-books was well represented: Too many editing errors.
Either the protagonist's (Mick Compton) second child is named Mickey, or he's named James. If he's Mickey James or James Mickey, then say so. But to refer to him randomly as either one without batting an eye tells me that Joseph Turkot played around with both names and settled on one, after using the other one. I just don't know which is which. Errors like this are distracting and take away from my pleasure at reading. After all, if you can't even remember to edit your book, then what other lazy mistakes are you making? Besides the spelling errors and spell-check errors, I mean. Those are also in evidence.
At any rate, the story itself is very much like a dream much of the time, which is ok, except there were many liberties taken with my ability to keep up, catch up, and believe. I hated the ending. I understand the non-resolution is part of the deal, but I just didn't enjoy this one. I think my limits were already stretched, and then to throw me an ambiguous ending made me throw up my hands in frustration and wish I'd read something else.
August 8, 2013
Review By Harmony Kent
08th August 2013
I received a free copy of this book for review purposes.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Mick Compton is a man with a past: he’s facing thirty years in prison for violence—and he’s lost his once highly coveted position with NASA’s FRINGE outfit. Now, facing a long stretch in prison, with two sons and an ex-wife he wants back, he’s faced with a horrible dilemma—do the time and miss out on his children’s youth, or run one black hull smuggling operation in a distant system, get a meaty reward, and pay off a connection with a standing offer to wipe his crime history from the UCA database.
All is going well until the ride home: Mick finds himself waking up prematurely, long before arriving in Earth orbit. He’s floating in dead space."
MY THOUGHTS:
Brilliant! The transition between serialization and full novel has been affected seamlessly. This is an author I have not read before, but shall certainly be reading more of. The plot is fast moving and keeps the reader's attention the whole way through. The characters have depth and pull you into the story. The writer accurately depicts the many and complexly interwoven aspects of human nature. You're left wondering "does he? doesn't he?" right up until the penultimate pages. Well done Mr Turkot - a book to be proud of!
08th August 2013
I received a free copy of this book for review purposes.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
"Mick Compton is a man with a past: he’s facing thirty years in prison for violence—and he’s lost his once highly coveted position with NASA’s FRINGE outfit. Now, facing a long stretch in prison, with two sons and an ex-wife he wants back, he’s faced with a horrible dilemma—do the time and miss out on his children’s youth, or run one black hull smuggling operation in a distant system, get a meaty reward, and pay off a connection with a standing offer to wipe his crime history from the UCA database.
All is going well until the ride home: Mick finds himself waking up prematurely, long before arriving in Earth orbit. He’s floating in dead space."
MY THOUGHTS:
Brilliant! The transition between serialization and full novel has been affected seamlessly. This is an author I have not read before, but shall certainly be reading more of. The plot is fast moving and keeps the reader's attention the whole way through. The characters have depth and pull you into the story. The writer accurately depicts the many and complexly interwoven aspects of human nature. You're left wondering "does he? doesn't he?" right up until the penultimate pages. Well done Mr Turkot - a book to be proud of!
February 20, 2014
I just couldn't get into this book. It was very choppy and I had trouble following all the changes in perspective and voice. The characters weren't distinctive enough in my mind to be memorable, and that made it very challenging to read.
December 29, 2013
This book is more of a sketch of a novel, rather a finished product.
September 22, 2014
It just went on and on and on and on and made nearly no sense. I could not wait until it was over! :P
December 16, 2013
In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As always, this critique will start with some quick comments about the cover. Overall, it’s very well done. It looks extremely professional, and the excellent editing and use of space tell me that this was put together by someone who really knows what they’re doing. I absolutely adore the fonts used. The image, however, I’m not completely sold on. To me, it just looks too much like a microscope image of ‘the miracle of conception’ from my old biology textbooks, and part of me spent the entire book wondering just when the part about giant black space semen was going to come in. That’s just a personal opinion; as I said, the cover is very well done, and a print edition of this book would look right at home on any bookstore or library shelf.
The biggest thing Black Hull has going for it is its opening. It’s everything that the opening of a novel should be – action-packed, suspenseful, and light on backstory. We open with an escaped convict, lost in the blackness of space, impossibly far from home and drifting in a broken spaceship. He has no idea how he got there, his cryosleep chamber is broken, and he has only minutes of oxygen left. This book grabbed me from the first paragraph, and I knew within minutes that I really wanted to read and review it. I could feel the tension and desperation in Mick’s situation, and I actually couldn’t set the book down until I knew how it was resolved. Writers who struggle with crafting interesting beginnings need to read this one and take notes, because this is essentially textbook perfection.
After that killer opening, the plot meanders somewhat. There is a lot of worldbuilding going on, and it seems fairly obvious that the author has some abstract ideas to explore before the book is over. Luckily, the world that Turkot has created is rich, strange and exotic, and absolutely chock full of depraved horrors that fit neatly within the realm of the human psyche. No matter what kind of writhing, awful thing Turkot conjured up, I always found myself thinking ‘Yep, I could see humanity stooping to that.’ Everything is incredibly innovative, and there were a lot of things in the story that I wouldn’t have minded learning more about. Importantly, the author does maintain a pressing and steady conflict that ties the entire story together, which prevents the plot from feeling completely aimless, and in fact, some of the chapters that strayed from the main storyline were the strongest ones in the entire novel. I thought that the flashback scenes of Mick’s family life and Sarah’s childhood were particularly compelling, and stuck with me long after some of the details of the main plot had gotten a little fuzzy.
Description in this novel was actually somewhat lacking, which is not a phrase I use very often. The reader is given a bare minimum outline of what the scene looks like, leaving a lot of gaps to fill. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the dialogue. Turkot uses virtually no dialogue tags, even when there are more than two people speaking, which forces the reader to stop and try to piece together who is saying what. A lot of the dialogue is rapid-fire and lacking in detail, giving us the bare minimum of what needs to be said without really expanding further. This helped to heighten the tension during action scenes, but was somewhat less effective during parts that were supposedly showing us character development. The dialogue also takes sharp turns without warning; characters will switch topics with no build-up, to get to the next important plot point as quickly as they can. It comes off a little stilted, and I found that the dialogue issues brought me out of the story more than once. Luckily, Mick spends a great deal of the novel alone, and his monologues with himself show none of the issues that his other interactions do.
The characters were another aspect of this novel that needed work. Mick, the main character, is the absolutely embodiment of the ‘grizzled space marine with a heart of gold’ trope, right down to his mysterious brain modifications and his pining for his ex-wife. It’s not a bad execution of the character, by any stretch, but there just wasn’t anything original or unexpected about Mick. In fact, he might have been a little too convincing – Mick’s memories of his dysfunctional marriage are gut-wrenchingly real, filled with incredibly raw anger and misplaced frustration, but that emotional intensity just doesn’t carry over to Mick’s gentler side. Throughout the novel, I could never be quite sure if Mick actually felt anything for Sara, or if he was purely physically attracted to her. His relationship with Karen was better, thanks to the repeated use of flashbacks to the first time they met, but there was still an awfully big gap between “being an abusive ass to her” and “missing her as the love of his life”. The droids also posed a bit of an issue; we’ve got a snarky, oblivious android with a love of logic puzzles and his can-shaped companion, who doesn’t really speak much. Now where have I seen that combination before? Star Wars allusions aside, the droids didn’t always feel as if they ‘fit’ into the story, though I did appreciate the comic relief. Perhaps the biggest character issue, however, was FOD. He’s thrown into the story near the ending, with very little warning, and presented as if the reader is supposed to have some sort of pre-existing reverence for him. Is he the villain? The story is a too abstract to tell, but better incorporation of him throughout the story might have at least allowed the reader to get a handle on what kind of person he is.
The ending was a bit bleak for my tastes. Okay, a lot bleak. Probably he bleakest ending of anything I’ve ever read. I wasn’t expecting Mick and Sara to go skipping off into the sunset, hand-in-hand, but I certainly wasn’t expecting that. There’s a lot of great action and tension that leads up to the final pages, which makes it a quick read, but the ending left me feeling a little bit let down and empty. Once again, there was nothing technically wrong with it – this is just more personal preference. Despite that, the book held my attention,for the most part, from start to finish and did include enough twists, turns and shocks along the way to make it an entertaining and worthwhile read.
http://pagecandyreviews.com/2013/12/0...
As always, this critique will start with some quick comments about the cover. Overall, it’s very well done. It looks extremely professional, and the excellent editing and use of space tell me that this was put together by someone who really knows what they’re doing. I absolutely adore the fonts used. The image, however, I’m not completely sold on. To me, it just looks too much like a microscope image of ‘the miracle of conception’ from my old biology textbooks, and part of me spent the entire book wondering just when the part about giant black space semen was going to come in. That’s just a personal opinion; as I said, the cover is very well done, and a print edition of this book would look right at home on any bookstore or library shelf.
The biggest thing Black Hull has going for it is its opening. It’s everything that the opening of a novel should be – action-packed, suspenseful, and light on backstory. We open with an escaped convict, lost in the blackness of space, impossibly far from home and drifting in a broken spaceship. He has no idea how he got there, his cryosleep chamber is broken, and he has only minutes of oxygen left. This book grabbed me from the first paragraph, and I knew within minutes that I really wanted to read and review it. I could feel the tension and desperation in Mick’s situation, and I actually couldn’t set the book down until I knew how it was resolved. Writers who struggle with crafting interesting beginnings need to read this one and take notes, because this is essentially textbook perfection.
After that killer opening, the plot meanders somewhat. There is a lot of worldbuilding going on, and it seems fairly obvious that the author has some abstract ideas to explore before the book is over. Luckily, the world that Turkot has created is rich, strange and exotic, and absolutely chock full of depraved horrors that fit neatly within the realm of the human psyche. No matter what kind of writhing, awful thing Turkot conjured up, I always found myself thinking ‘Yep, I could see humanity stooping to that.’ Everything is incredibly innovative, and there were a lot of things in the story that I wouldn’t have minded learning more about. Importantly, the author does maintain a pressing and steady conflict that ties the entire story together, which prevents the plot from feeling completely aimless, and in fact, some of the chapters that strayed from the main storyline were the strongest ones in the entire novel. I thought that the flashback scenes of Mick’s family life and Sarah’s childhood were particularly compelling, and stuck with me long after some of the details of the main plot had gotten a little fuzzy.
Description in this novel was actually somewhat lacking, which is not a phrase I use very often. The reader is given a bare minimum outline of what the scene looks like, leaving a lot of gaps to fill. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the dialogue. Turkot uses virtually no dialogue tags, even when there are more than two people speaking, which forces the reader to stop and try to piece together who is saying what. A lot of the dialogue is rapid-fire and lacking in detail, giving us the bare minimum of what needs to be said without really expanding further. This helped to heighten the tension during action scenes, but was somewhat less effective during parts that were supposedly showing us character development. The dialogue also takes sharp turns without warning; characters will switch topics with no build-up, to get to the next important plot point as quickly as they can. It comes off a little stilted, and I found that the dialogue issues brought me out of the story more than once. Luckily, Mick spends a great deal of the novel alone, and his monologues with himself show none of the issues that his other interactions do.
The characters were another aspect of this novel that needed work. Mick, the main character, is the absolutely embodiment of the ‘grizzled space marine with a heart of gold’ trope, right down to his mysterious brain modifications and his pining for his ex-wife. It’s not a bad execution of the character, by any stretch, but there just wasn’t anything original or unexpected about Mick. In fact, he might have been a little too convincing – Mick’s memories of his dysfunctional marriage are gut-wrenchingly real, filled with incredibly raw anger and misplaced frustration, but that emotional intensity just doesn’t carry over to Mick’s gentler side. Throughout the novel, I could never be quite sure if Mick actually felt anything for Sara, or if he was purely physically attracted to her. His relationship with Karen was better, thanks to the repeated use of flashbacks to the first time they met, but there was still an awfully big gap between “being an abusive ass to her” and “missing her as the love of his life”. The droids also posed a bit of an issue; we’ve got a snarky, oblivious android with a love of logic puzzles and his can-shaped companion, who doesn’t really speak much. Now where have I seen that combination before? Star Wars allusions aside, the droids didn’t always feel as if they ‘fit’ into the story, though I did appreciate the comic relief. Perhaps the biggest character issue, however, was FOD. He’s thrown into the story near the ending, with very little warning, and presented as if the reader is supposed to have some sort of pre-existing reverence for him. Is he the villain? The story is a too abstract to tell, but better incorporation of him throughout the story might have at least allowed the reader to get a handle on what kind of person he is.
The ending was a bit bleak for my tastes. Okay, a lot bleak. Probably he bleakest ending of anything I’ve ever read. I wasn’t expecting Mick and Sara to go skipping off into the sunset, hand-in-hand, but I certainly wasn’t expecting that. There’s a lot of great action and tension that leads up to the final pages, which makes it a quick read, but the ending left me feeling a little bit let down and empty. Once again, there was nothing technically wrong with it – this is just more personal preference. Despite that, the book held my attention,for the most part, from start to finish and did include enough twists, turns and shocks along the way to make it an entertaining and worthwhile read.
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May 31, 2017
Book moves fast and what you think will happen goes awry.
The book keeps you going and twist at the ending. Make you not want to trust technology. Stay in the real world and live through fantasy novels.
The book keeps you going and twist at the ending. Make you not want to trust technology. Stay in the real world and live through fantasy novels.
July 29, 2015
Society and empathy have evolved for thousands of years. Could I have guessed that corruption would continue to evolve along side them?
Black Hull is a strange, meandering tale that at times reads like a lucid dream. It will have you questioning what you are reading and how you are approaching the book itself while the main character, Mick, is questioning his whole approach at life. The premise is simple enough. Mick was in prison for a crime of passion, but he agrees to do a deep space smuggling job in order to cut time off his thirty year prison sentence. The mission will take ten years, so he is trading ten years of his life for twenty years he can spend with his kids and the wife who cheated on him, leading to the crime of passion. That premise, however, is where the simplicity ends and the strange trip begins.
Something goes wrong with the mission and Mick finds himself on board an escape pod that is losing power. He resigns himself to death, and the next time he wakes up, he's no longer where or when he thought he was. His pod has full power, he is saved by a bot called XJ and learns that he has been cast into the future - a future in which Earth has been destroyed and his wife and children are long gone. Mick's new goal is to find a way back. Time travel technology exists, but it doesn't come cheap or easy. His ticket to the past becomes Sera, a hard-lined captain who has her own goals. She's trying to get to Utopia, and she is going to use Mick to get there.
The style of this book will leave some readers floundering and grasping at conceptual understanding, I'm sure. It isn't an easy style and the formatting on my Kindle made it even harder to read. It switched constantly from inline paragraphs to block paragraphs. Endless sequences of dialogue led into meandering internal prose as Mick tried to remember why he held onto his goal to get back to a wife who didn't want him and reconciling past with present with future. There are also several flashbacks stuck into random places without transition that caused my brain to stutter a bit as it switched gears.
Formatting and style aside - there is a good adventure / thriller aspect to this story and a unique science fiction flavor that you don't get very often. There is comedy mixed with profound questions, and characters that don't ask you to like them. No, Sera and Mick don't even try. You find yourself liking them, however, and you find yourself asking the same questions as Mick - stay or go. Past or present. What is that fine line between good and bad? How far would you go when life becomes a blurred concept of artificial existence? What would you do in a desperate search for a personal utopia?
I recommend this read simply because it is unique. It stands out in a sea of merely likable, retold stories. It stands on its own, and I look forward to more from this author.
October 15, 2013
When I won this book in a book likes give away, the title intrigued me. And reading the 251 page book only increased the mounting sense of confusion. For a science fiction novel, the book included a lot of strange words and thought forward theories. This book was worth the review because the author has requested for one.
Any book of any genre can be clear on the concept and vague on the words or vice versa. But for a thoroughly enjoyable read, there has to be a coherence and charm to the narrative. This book manages a smashing opening and it is only after a few pages do we realise that we have been transported to the future, for the first time in THIS story.
And it takes the average reader some time to realise the gravity of the situation in which the hero is stuck. Imagine being stuck in a spaceship light years away from the planet earth in a cryogenic chamber. That is exactly how the hero is. And then we are made to understand that he got into such a situation due to a problem in the spaceship he was travelling in and the ship meeting with an accident.
The story quickly progresses with the hero being rescued by a robot who tells him that he is in the year 4000. In the future he meets a few characters that promise him that they will give him an opportunity for travelling back to his time and his family. So our hero aids his rescuers and decides to embark on missions to get money for his travel back home.
We are also introduced to the story of why Mick was forced to go into the space travel in the first place. All Mick longs for is to go back home to his loving wife and kids. And to overcome his haunting past, he accepts to just another assignment and so his experiences continue. From his rescuer to his enemy, to the singular entity called as Force of Darkness who is intent on destroying all of humanity, Mick’s companions vary all through the book.
But the book includes more philosophical content. The need to save humanity and stop the destruction of earth is emphasised all through the book. But the most striking aspect of the book is the virtual mirage world, Utopia, reaching which is the dream of more than half the people in the book. It is the fabled land of plenty and the land of all is good, always, forever.
From the soldier cell-robot Sera to the droids XJ and GR, everyone wants to go to this virtual land and be reunited with their families and lost loved ones. But the world is just that, virtual. The mindless struggle to achieve the pointless is the whole point of the narrative. The book tries to achieve a preachy tone in the guise of science fiction, and slightly succeeds in creating the fear of what if. But the narrative is not strong enough to drive the point home.
Any book of any genre can be clear on the concept and vague on the words or vice versa. But for a thoroughly enjoyable read, there has to be a coherence and charm to the narrative. This book manages a smashing opening and it is only after a few pages do we realise that we have been transported to the future, for the first time in THIS story.
And it takes the average reader some time to realise the gravity of the situation in which the hero is stuck. Imagine being stuck in a spaceship light years away from the planet earth in a cryogenic chamber. That is exactly how the hero is. And then we are made to understand that he got into such a situation due to a problem in the spaceship he was travelling in and the ship meeting with an accident.
The story quickly progresses with the hero being rescued by a robot who tells him that he is in the year 4000. In the future he meets a few characters that promise him that they will give him an opportunity for travelling back to his time and his family. So our hero aids his rescuers and decides to embark on missions to get money for his travel back home.
We are also introduced to the story of why Mick was forced to go into the space travel in the first place. All Mick longs for is to go back home to his loving wife and kids. And to overcome his haunting past, he accepts to just another assignment and so his experiences continue. From his rescuer to his enemy, to the singular entity called as Force of Darkness who is intent on destroying all of humanity, Mick’s companions vary all through the book.
But the book includes more philosophical content. The need to save humanity and stop the destruction of earth is emphasised all through the book. But the most striking aspect of the book is the virtual mirage world, Utopia, reaching which is the dream of more than half the people in the book. It is the fabled land of plenty and the land of all is good, always, forever.
From the soldier cell-robot Sera to the droids XJ and GR, everyone wants to go to this virtual land and be reunited with their families and lost loved ones. But the world is just that, virtual. The mindless struggle to achieve the pointless is the whole point of the narrative. The book tries to achieve a preachy tone in the guise of science fiction, and slightly succeeds in creating the fear of what if. But the narrative is not strong enough to drive the point home.
November 9, 2013
I really enjoyed this book and think the ideas described in Black Hull were very novel and original. The main character Mick is in deep space far from home when disaster strikes. The book opens with him awakening in an escape pod in dire circumstances – and we’re off. The author constructs a future world of space travel, human/android hybrids and technology which allows you to live forever – if you can afford it.
The novel is fast paced with sparsely written prose that makes you feel like you are in an action movie. There is a minimum of exposition and backstory, so this is one of those reads that you have to give a little time to get the full picture, and that is okay. The concept of the ‘wonders of technology-assisted life in the future’ is turned on its head as we go further inside the novel and examine the results of greed, lust and superficial living on the galaxy.
The novel reminded me in many ways of Phillip K. Dick’s work especially “A Scanner Darkly” where the flaws and character defects of one character, in a not so pretty future, drive the story deeper into despair as he doggedly follows his obsession. The difference is that Mr. Dick is king of the interior monologue and Mr. Turkot has set his morality play as a space opera where technology is supreme, and action and reaction preclude deep time-consuming introspection.
Mr. Turkot’s descriptions of the worlds Mick visits in his travels are minimal but the plot of this novel is much more like “Firefly” than “Star Trek”. Mick and company are on the move and watching their collective backs, not exploring the solar system with the might of an army behind them. If Mr. Turkot did develop some of these concepts further (for example Utopia or Mick’s job with FRINGE) in another novel, I would surely read it.
The only criticism that I have is that Mick’s life and personality as seen through the lens of his obsession with getting home, is somewhat one dimensional, (which is what an obsession is after all) and I would have appreciated a little more disclosure about his life.
If you like science fiction and want to get on board with some original concepts within a darkly envisioned future you will love Black Hull.
Full disclosure: I received Black Hull ‘The Complete Novel’ free from Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review. I don’t know the author and chose the book at random.
The novel is fast paced with sparsely written prose that makes you feel like you are in an action movie. There is a minimum of exposition and backstory, so this is one of those reads that you have to give a little time to get the full picture, and that is okay. The concept of the ‘wonders of technology-assisted life in the future’ is turned on its head as we go further inside the novel and examine the results of greed, lust and superficial living on the galaxy.
The novel reminded me in many ways of Phillip K. Dick’s work especially “A Scanner Darkly” where the flaws and character defects of one character, in a not so pretty future, drive the story deeper into despair as he doggedly follows his obsession. The difference is that Mr. Dick is king of the interior monologue and Mr. Turkot has set his morality play as a space opera where technology is supreme, and action and reaction preclude deep time-consuming introspection.
Mr. Turkot’s descriptions of the worlds Mick visits in his travels are minimal but the plot of this novel is much more like “Firefly” than “Star Trek”. Mick and company are on the move and watching their collective backs, not exploring the solar system with the might of an army behind them. If Mr. Turkot did develop some of these concepts further (for example Utopia or Mick’s job with FRINGE) in another novel, I would surely read it.
The only criticism that I have is that Mick’s life and personality as seen through the lens of his obsession with getting home, is somewhat one dimensional, (which is what an obsession is after all) and I would have appreciated a little more disclosure about his life.
If you like science fiction and want to get on board with some original concepts within a darkly envisioned future you will love Black Hull.
Full disclosure: I received Black Hull ‘The Complete Novel’ free from Story Cartel in exchange for an honest review. I don’t know the author and chose the book at random.
December 13, 2013
As a sci-fi fan I was drawn to the premise of this story and its thought-provoking implications. The author crafted a story that was fast-paced and full of twist and turns that ultimately left me with my jaw on the floor in a last minute shocker that I had a foreboding feeling about. Along the way the author introduced us to an eclectic cast of characters with backgrounds hinted at through flashbacks scattered throughout the latter half of the story especially. These characters range from a human to lifelike bots to androids reminiscent of those found in Star Wars. Much of this story had a Star Wars feel in fact, from the cocky pilot to the droids to an older individual dispensing sage advice to an exotic bar full of dangerous individuals. It was a non-stop journey full of pulse-pounding moments that led to one man seeking forgiveness and discovering it in an unexpected way. The ultimate meaning of the story was religious based with a sci-fi slant.
For the most part this is not an uplifting story. It repeatedly points out how bad humanity has fallen in the future with only the rich finding peace. Most of the characters have done bad deeds that they don't feel guilty about as the ends justify the means. The only person with a modicum of guilt is the main protagonist Mick and his realizations come at his lowest point with death staring him in the face. The harshness of the characters made them hard to like and even harder to relate to. The only characters I found sympathetic were the androids GR and XJ and even they took on too comedic of a role to be likable at times.
The storyline was undoubtedly unique and memorable with its exotic and vividly depicted other worlds. The characters were equally unique but hard to relate to as not much time was dealt in the here and now getting to know them beyond the mission. The tone is gritty and keeps you thinking and with more stated to come I'm left wanting more. I ultimately applaud what the author created though the execution was a bit lacking. Fans of sci-fi will find this appealing though for its thought-provoking ideas and for that I recommend it.
For the most part this is not an uplifting story. It repeatedly points out how bad humanity has fallen in the future with only the rich finding peace. Most of the characters have done bad deeds that they don't feel guilty about as the ends justify the means. The only person with a modicum of guilt is the main protagonist Mick and his realizations come at his lowest point with death staring him in the face. The harshness of the characters made them hard to like and even harder to relate to. The only characters I found sympathetic were the androids GR and XJ and even they took on too comedic of a role to be likable at times.
The storyline was undoubtedly unique and memorable with its exotic and vividly depicted other worlds. The characters were equally unique but hard to relate to as not much time was dealt in the here and now getting to know them beyond the mission. The tone is gritty and keeps you thinking and with more stated to come I'm left wanting more. I ultimately applaud what the author created though the execution was a bit lacking. Fans of sci-fi will find this appealing though for its thought-provoking ideas and for that I recommend it.
August 3, 2016
Mick has awakes to find he is alone in space with no knowledge of what happened. He is saved and finds he is in the future. A future that is full of robots and never knowing who to trust. He ends up in the hands of Sera who just wants to get into Utopia. She promises to help Mick get back to his time but there is something else out there with it's own plans. The Force of Darkness wants to reset everything and end humanity. FOD sees it as the virus that has screwed up the universe. Mick will have to decide if he wants to go back to his family or if he wants to stay in Utopia. FOD may just change his plans for good.
Mick was an interesting character to get to know. He has a past and did things he can't take back. He has always lived for exploring space and put his family to the side to get his goals. He faces many challenges when he wakes up including looking at all he did. You see the way he acted wasn't all his fault but I still didn't care for how he treated his family. You also get to see where Sera comes from and how she became the smuggler she is. She has her own guilt eating away at her and what she believes she did.
This is an action packed interesting book. You see the universe in the future through the authors eyes. It is a dangerous and complex world you find yourself in. Action is always going full speed and you are never sure what will happen next. It's a place everyone does what they can to get what they want. You get flashes back to Mick when he was around his family and you see how much he regrets what he did. He has big choices to make in this book and seems to change for the better. If you love sci-fi or dystopian book you may want to try this book out.
Mick was an interesting character to get to know. He has a past and did things he can't take back. He has always lived for exploring space and put his family to the side to get his goals. He faces many challenges when he wakes up including looking at all he did. You see the way he acted wasn't all his fault but I still didn't care for how he treated his family. You also get to see where Sera comes from and how she became the smuggler she is. She has her own guilt eating away at her and what she believes she did.
This is an action packed interesting book. You see the universe in the future through the authors eyes. It is a dangerous and complex world you find yourself in. Action is always going full speed and you are never sure what will happen next. It's a place everyone does what they can to get what they want. You get flashes back to Mick when he was around his family and you see how much he regrets what he did. He has big choices to make in this book and seems to change for the better. If you love sci-fi or dystopian book you may want to try this book out.
October 8, 2013
I liked the book's cover, so I decided to give it a try. I read it in 3 hours to find out whether the main character can achieve his goal, but I find the ending is... unsettling, because I feel tricked that .
- I don't get the main character's feeling towards his wife. He says that he loves her, but it feels like he hasn't forgiven her yet.
- I like XJ and GR :)
- Some scenes need more description (never thought I'd ask that, since I don't like long descriptions). Because of the non-existent dialogue tags, I often lost track of the who, what, where, why. It just feels like talking heads.
- I don't understand why FOD isn't introduced earlier if he's important to the plot; it's almost like a cheat.
- I thought FOD was the villain... I think this story needs a villain personified.
- I also thought the man who cheated with the main character's wife is his 'back from future' self, and that's why I kept reading (because then at least his goal is achieved).
- I don't understand or care much about the side-trips (subplot with the sexbot)
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for honest review.
- I don't get the main character's feeling towards his wife. He says that he loves her, but it feels like he hasn't forgiven her yet.
- I like XJ and GR :)
- Some scenes need more description (never thought I'd ask that, since I don't like long descriptions). Because of the non-existent dialogue tags, I often lost track of the who, what, where, why. It just feels like talking heads.
- I don't understand why FOD isn't introduced earlier if he's important to the plot; it's almost like a cheat.
- I thought FOD was the villain... I think this story needs a villain personified.
- I also thought the man who cheated with the main character's wife is his 'back from future' self, and that's why I kept reading (because then at least his goal is achieved).
- I don't understand or care much about the side-trips (subplot with the sexbot)
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for honest review.
December 11, 2013
Mick Compton was ripped away through a wormhole into the future. All Mick wants to do is go back home to his wife and family. In this world, time travel exists but is not cheap or easy. Mick is faces with the consequences of his choices as he faces what decision to make next.
The main and secondary characters were realistic in that you did not always like them. This book contains a lot of flashbacks so at times it was hard to follow. Overall, this was an interesting dark tale. It is a unique mix of sci-fi, adventure, and thriller into one. I have not read anything by Mr. Turkot before but I will be reading more in the future. This book does a great job of making you think. I loved that I was kept guessing as the story unfolded. What would you do if you were Mick?
The main and secondary characters were realistic in that you did not always like them. This book contains a lot of flashbacks so at times it was hard to follow. Overall, this was an interesting dark tale. It is a unique mix of sci-fi, adventure, and thriller into one. I have not read anything by Mr. Turkot before but I will be reading more in the future. This book does a great job of making you think. I loved that I was kept guessing as the story unfolded. What would you do if you were Mick?
September 8, 2015
I received this book in exchange for an honest review. After struggling to keep up with the changes and move arounds that was necessary to complete this book I gave up. Yes the book is fast paced and has a lot going on its just that, it has a lot going on. The chapters aren't chapters so much as a recap of things in times long past. The writers way of getting you the background. I couldn't complete the book I just got plum tuckered out but that doesn't mean it wont be awesome for you.
November 7, 2015
The complete Black Hull Novel. It is a nice light reading novel that I started reading with the short stories. It is about a man that is sent to the Fringe of space and wakes up many years in the future. He wants nothing more than to find a way back in time, back to his family. But others use him since he doesn't have implants, but all he wants is to survive and return to his family.
September 29, 2013
Good set up. Good storytelling. Appropriate hooks to current culture and science as history. First chapter to a continuing story.
A good read.
A good read.
October 10, 2013
Awesome book =)
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