The Synchronicity War Part 1

The Synchronicity War #1

by Dietmar Arthur Wehr

After almost a century of peaceful exploration and colonization of space, the United Earth Space Force stumbles across a shockingly xenophobic alien race that has more and better-armed ships and refuses all attempts at contact. As the outgunned Space Force is driven back in battle after battle in what appears to be a war of extermination, one officer experiences precognitive visions that help him blunt the enemy onslaught but he can't control or predict when they occur.

With the Senior Brass convinced that he's a tactical genius, he's given more and more responsibility and is terrified by the belief that Humanity's Fate rests on his shoulders. Can he solve the mystery of his precognitive visions before the Human Race plunges into the abyss of total extermination? This is Volume 1 of a military SF series about desperate space battles and the men, women and Artificial Intelligences, who fight and die in them.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Amazon, Audiobook, War, Space

286 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 19, 2013

Reviews

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty cool military sci-fi novel. I don't usually indulge in that genre but I was in the mood and checked this out on audio. The production was outstanding. The narrator sounded like he was managing the cast of Star Trek or something and the action scenes were exciting because it was so well read.

There's a lot of hard sci-fi in here so you won't just read that someone jumped to light speed - you'll also learn the how and why of it. That's gonna be a plus for some people and a minus for others.

3.5 stars. I'll likely read the sequel eventually.

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a hard time putting down military SciFi space opera but had no problem putting this one on ice after about 1/3 of the way through. Flat, not interesting, felt like a plot outline filled in with some words but no feeling or passion. Some promise of good ideas but just not that intriguing. 1 Star

[Michael Pang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humans explore the universe. Humans make first contact. Humans must wage war...

I came across this book by chance on Amazon and noticed a lot of 5 star ratings. I took a chance and downloaded it to my Kindle and am pleased I did, this is a great start to a new series by a relatively new author. I read somewhere that the author is a fan of the Honor Harrington series and it shows. The space combat centers around ship-ship combat versus "space marines"-ground combat.

If you like your military sci-fi to get into details like: how much time a message is delayed due to the time lag of communications over distance, how many fighter drones X type of ship can carry, how many meters thick the armor is on a frigate versus a light cruiser is, kiloton yield of a fighter carried nuclear warhead yields, etc. then this book may be for you.

Not as polished as an Evan Currie, David Weber or Jack Campbell, but in that vein. The characters aren't as complex as those authors but the action is definitely there. I gave the book 5 stars (though maybe not quite worthy as my other 5 star military scifi authors) to encourage the author to write more and for readers to give this book a try.

[Emanuele Gemelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean, really? How can anybody judge this book deserving more than 0.5 stars? Everybody has the right to like it or not, but I think there are objective things which should guide your own judgement: plot and writing. Plot is non existent: as wrote here by somebody, it's pretty flat, flavorless and quite repetitive. Writing skills are those of a teener. But the non plus ultra is the author begging for 5 stars in amazon!!! You cannot be serious!

[Scott Holstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

ATTN: I somehow bought this series as one single book and read it all the way through in one reading, so I am just going to copy and paste this review for each of the four separate parts making up the whole of the book I read.


It was pretty funny to read the reviews of this first part of the four part saga of Wehr's The Synchronicity War. Everybody's bitching and moaning and giving one star reviews for how much it sucked, how the plot is so terrible, the writing so shoddy, the characters so indefinable, how it's terrible military sci fi, can't compare to David Weber (no one can, when it comes to military sci fi, although I thought Chris Bunch came close), but I somehow bought this series as one single book and read it all the way through, so I saw things differently, so when I went on to read reviews for the next three books, it was rather amusing at just how many people had changed their tunes. Where were all of the hugely influential book critics? Those obviously so much better writers that they've churned out many more commercially successful books than Wehr? The ones giving him one and two stars for the first "book"-part? Um, yeah, they weren't trolling around anymore. Instead, for the next three books, I saw very little but four and five star reviews, with people seriously impressed not only with the military sci fi action, but the hard sci fi, the detailed scientific explanations of what makes THIS go THAT way, etc, and while people still thought characterization was weak, and I guess that's not the strongest part of the series, I still don't fully buy that, as I became wholly invested in the characters, human and mechanical, and their personalities and relationships, and yes, he could have given us some detailed descriptions of what so and so looked like, but the man was working on a four book Military Sci Fi series, not a damn romance, so cut him some slack! Maybe he's not as good as Weber? No one is! But I'll wager he's as good as Jack Campbell and most of the others, certainly as ambitious. And I think, a fine writer, with nothing to be ashamed of and plenty to be proud of. This is an IDEA man! He thinks of things that constantly blow me away. His tactics are borderline brilliant, sometimes just plain brilliant. So, why the first book hatred, and then the irony of the Loooove over the next three books from you, dear readers? Geez, I don't know how many of you are writers out there, but I've published 15 books of my own, pre-self publishing, have ghost written two others, and have had fiction, poetry, nonfiction, journalism, academic writing, technical tutorials, technical white papers, and everything in between, published over the past 28 years, and sometimes it just takes the author awhile to set the tone, to set the pace, to get where he or she wants to be, which may have been the case with Wehr, I don't know, but if everyone hated the first book, but loved the final three, it seems to me it just took awhile for him to set his universe up enough so that readers were adjusted to it, and grew invested in it. That's it, that's all. Sometimes some authors do that. Not everyone can jump right into you're being invested in the plot from the second page. That's a special kind of writer and usually, a certain kind of book.

As for me, while not necessarily as good as *some* of Weber's finer works, this series blew me away and I loved it! I loved the risks the author took, with his characters and with his readers. It strikes me as brave. The books had my attention the whole way, and while people pointed out that, yes, big bad aliens who were stronger technologically than humans and out to destroy us was nothing new, the author's treatment of this plot device was, IMO, so I thought he handled it quite well. Indeed, the only disappointment I felt was in reading the final page and knowing I had come to the end. After spending so much of my time in this universe. It was a tough blow! I would love to see Mr. Wehr come out with some more books, although he does have another series, which I've also read and enjoyed. His name is not that well known, I don't believe, but I think it deserves to be. In any event, I loved this series, and I strongly recommend it for all who love military sci fi, hard sci fi, or good sci fi in general.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as sci-fi goes, it's not a total loss, but this book reads more like a train schedule. It feels so structured all of the time (yup, pretty much all the time). Something like: "if the 10:54 train leaves before the 11:08 train, but accelerates faster and bypasses the local station then it will arrive 5 minutes ahead of the first train. However if going faster means needing more fuel, the 11:08 train will need to refuel at a local station....". Replace train with space ship and you get the picture. Even the minuscule amount of romantics is treated this way. On top of this, we soon find out that the protagonist, Shiloh, knows some of what will happen ahead of time - which means things run even more on schedule. He also pretty much single-handedly changes the course of the war by coming up with such revolutionary ideas as building bigger tanker ships to reach further into enemy territory (gasp!) - all whilst his superiors marvel at his ingenuity.

I'm pretty sure this all sounds a bit like a rant, but the books aren't un-readable, I just find it all a bit annoying. Now, on the other hand if you like that kind of writing...

[Nicholas Adams · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got to the end of chapter 3, and could go no further. The synopsis caught my attention, but that was pretty much the only part of the book that engaged my imagination.

What I liked: The descriptive science behind the technology.

What I didn't like: The characters were flat, the dialogue was stereotypical and cliche, but (most of all) the 10% I read seemed to be more than 90% tell and 10% show. This is something, that as an author myself gets pointed out to me more often than I'd like (but it gives me the opportunity to fix and improve.)

I wish Mr. Wehr had been told that Synchronicity War is more tell than show. Perhaps this makes for an engaging audio-book, but it could no hold my attention or interest me in going any further. I wish Mr. Wehr the best of luck in the future.

[Tommy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not bad, but not yet up to the level of the Webers et al.
There's some potential here, but overall I found it lacking in execution... at least to my taste.
Still Wehr has been quite innovative on the tech-side, whereas on the other hand I'm not sure whether Newtonian physics has always been taken seriously while writing. But you better not expect too much realism in milSF, both on the science side, as well for the personalities.

The story itself (plot, there's not too much of such a thing) is pretty straight forward, and if you urgently need something with starships in battles with faceless aliens you can give this one a try.

[Jean-luc · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's not often that I don't read a book to the end, but I could not bring myself to go any further than the first 40 pages. I don't know if it gets any better later in the book but the writing style is really lacking. Cliches, bad dialog. It's really hard to justify spending more time on this book!

[Matthew Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little dry in parts and very one sided, but it has good action and believable tactics. If you like space war tactical dramas, this is a good book for you. I'm giving it five stars because it delivered the kind of story the description claimed it would.

[Laurence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid first entry, what I really appreciate about this book is that it makes sense, it doesn't over explain but it also doesn't get bogged down in exposition. It doesn't stagnate. It's strong enough with the dialogue and unfolding of events. It's a somewhat believable space conflict, and is slightly reminiscent of submarine warfare which I think makes sense.
3.5 Stars will read the next one.

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

The science and the characters in this book are quite interesting. These aliens seem to have the upper hand for most battles. The science behind the battles and the movement of the ships was fascinating.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this was a good start to your usual science fiction series: man is out in space, he has first contact with some aliens that shoot first and don't ask questions later, and mankind is scrambling with technology and battling politicians in the never-ending quest to try and outgun the bad guys. Parts of the book were hard to get through as there is quite a bit of dialogue between the characters that seemed unnecessary and, despite said large amount of dialogue you really don't feel that close to the characters and takes away from the story: maybe that's a function of Book 1 in a series that is trying to set the background for the series.

Despite that negative comment above, I am interested in seeing where the story goes in book 2. I picked this up for free during a Kindle promotion vs. its normal price of 99 cents. You will get more entertainment value than 99 cents out of this novel.

[Pc5000 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed that book, five stars for me, because I like books which describe different tactics on how to outsmart your enemy, and then an execution of those tactics with various results. It's like a book about chess. I generally like mil sci-fi but not all: I find Kloos and Weber very boring, but can't get enough of Larson, Currie or Weil. So if you like to think while reading a book you might enjoy it, but if you prefer simple shoot them up, or mostly lots of character development then this book is definitely not for you. This author reminds me of Jack Campbell, my favorite author where the protagonist also deploys different, clever and sometimes complex tactics and tries to outsmart the enemy.

[Welwyn Wilton Katz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not my choice of science fiction, though it improves towards the end. I read it aloud to my husband who is vision-impaired. It seemed to me to be lacking in the kind of creativity that I like in science fiction. When you can summarize the plot as humans meet aliens in space, aliens are bad, aliens are more dangerous than humans, etc. it is hard to get excited about it. The writing itself is only okay. I gave it 3 stars because Greg suggested that and it was "his" book, but for me the book was a 2 star.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written with a writers faux pas, to explain everything and to explain it before it happens. There needs to be a little mystery, and your audience is smart enough to make their own connections and guesses.

Explaining how a certain strategy works, and then moments later showing the explanation follow through. Inundated with explanations from one character to another. Just chock full of Paragraphs with explanations.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

um..it was just ok. pretty one dimensional. shiloh does this, shiloh does that, shiloh has a vision.repeat.

The only thing making me want to continue the series is the CFP AI's, and the controversy surrounding them regarding their sentience.

[Peer Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

I found story compelling with lot of action. Set in a somewhat utopian future where race and 'nationality' is irrelevant to position. Liked the military explanations plus learned a few things I had no idea about. I consider this a very good, entertaining book.

[John Parabellum · Rating 4 out of 5]

very engaging tale. I couldn't put the book down.

4 instead of 5 stars because it was a bit too short. (less than 400 pages). well written and entertaining I look forward to reading parts 2 and 3 soon.

[Mohammed · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather poor read. So tedious in places that I just had to give up.

[Joe Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. I was hooked by AI in the drones and their ability to help the humans aboard the fighter.

[Cesar Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this book is certainly not bad, but it's also certainly not gonna be for everyone, even not all military sci-fi fans.

The first thing that stands out is the fact that the book is ostensibly written in a tell-don't-show style. Cardinal sin, I know. But the result of sticking with that style is that the story reads like a documentary instead of a novel. It's basically a historical account of a war, and it just so happens to have dialogue and monologuing from the main character here and there. So again, some people may get into that style, and some people just won't be able to. I personally found that it works pretty well.

The second thing that sticks out is the editing. Even ignoring several annoying Self-publishing pains like weird formatting (paragraphs are divided with empty lines, every single paragraph is NOT justified making the word-per-page count a complete guessing game, and pages are not numbered at all, repeat NOT NUMBERED!), this is the first book I've read that made me feel like good and proper editing would have made it far better. There's so many flat-out unnecessary scenes, so many pointless continuations of scenes instead of cutting to the next one (waiting for a meeting, then having the meeting, then going for a coffee break, then back to the meeting, then going to bed, then waking up the next day... when the only important thing was the meeting!!), several long sentences that could have been cut down and expressed the same idea... all of these issues could have been solved by further editing work.

So finally we can talk about the story. This is a through-and through military story about a war in space. All the beats from military protocol and hierarchy are present, and painstakingly so. You'll hear all about downtime, exercises, and many other unnecessary things that are part of military life. And of course, battles. This is where the book shines. The author uses very unique ideas for its space travel and military technology to create a compelling battlefield in space. The way jumpspace works is intriguing and has tactical consequences, refuelling ships also dictates the flow of military strategies (those darn gas giants!), and the range and nature of weapons used by both sides of the war shape and reshape the battles themselves. Oh and there's also AI fighter ships with personalities that bring an extra fun to the battles by the end. In terms of military space sci-fi, it's superb. All of this is well portrayed by the narrative and by the main character, a tactical genius going up the ranks in the Space Force (don't laugh), and his comrades in war.

But that's about all you can say about the characters. Again, due to the tell-don't-show storytelling, there's barely any scenes where the characters get to shine. Most of what they do is implied or glossed over, instead of having more than just a handful of proper scenes where they talk and develop personalities. The main character does have precognitive abilities, but... the visions that he has might as well not be there, because they just boil down to him making genius tactical decisions. So, just make him a tactical super-genius and it would be the same result to the story! There is a hint that one of his visions will have negative consequences which hints at the bigger mystery of why he's having them, but the book ended before any of that mattered! So not even that gets him proper character development. There's a hint of a romance that does compel some feels, but it comprises a whole two or three scenes in the entire book.

There is one last problem, and again, some people may not like this at all. The aliens they're fighting against... they might as well be humans for all it matters. These "aliens" have pretty much the same military technology as humanity (and the one piece of tech that they had an advantage with gets replicated by humans a few weeks later, simply because "they worked hard on it"!!), they need to refuel their ships exactly the same way humans do, they use the same tactics that some humans would.... there's nothing alien about them!!

So it's hard to recommend this book, except to die-hard "hard sci-fi" fans, and military sci-fi fans out there. I give it 4 stars instead of three because I just so happen to be in that demographic. The military aspect is top-notch, and the hard sci-fi part too, but every single other aspect that a novel should nail, down to the technical aspects that you'd take for granted in any other novel, is gonna be hard to swallow for a lot of people.

[Edwin Rydberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

To begin, I have to first mention this review is for the audible version. While the narrator was so good that it may have coloured my view, I truly enjoyed story nontheless.

The Synchronicity War describes the beginning of the phase of space exploration that comes after humanity gets comfortable in space and has begun colonizing planets in several solar systems. We're still alone, still doing our own thing, still playing our own politics... until we're not. And everything changes.

I enjoyed the attention to detail in many areas and, although I can understand why that might seem dry to some readers, I was impressed by the amount of thought that clearly went into not only the military battles, but the political machinations as wells as considerations of how to work around the scientific limitations of operating in a theatre of war on the scale of many solar systems.

Without giving spoilers, if I was to add any criticisms, they would be:
- I would have liked a bit of foreshadowing of the source of the main character's prescience (not a spoiler as it's in the blurb)
- Humanity's lack of curiousity bothered me a bit
- The cliffhanger ending was a bit too abrupt, although in my version at least, this was partially rectified by including the opening chapter of book 2

Overall, I really enjoyed the first book of The Synchronicity War series and I look forward to returning for the next ones.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantasy as Sci-Fi

What is the reason for the title of my review? This book stretches the limits of my credulity. There are plans to make technology they don't have and act as though it will be easy to make just because they want it. Bribery is seen as a more practical solution over eminent domain. Characters engage in long exposition - on the spot - to explain their motivations. These are all things that make for a bad read. I would not honestly recommend this book. The only reason I have it two stars is because I liked the premise. The implementation of that premise was deeply flawed.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could be great. It has an excellent setup and just the right amount of realistic characters to make it feel believable even though it’s sci-fi. However, there’s endless dialog regarding military briefings and senate hearings. It’s as if you’re watching Star Trek, but instead of seeing space battles and alien races and interplanetary adventures, you’re subjected to Kirk sitting in the Senate fielding endless questions for hours on end on what he plans to do about the Klingons. And you sit there for the whole thing. It could have been great, but it wasn’t.

[Ryan M Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe the author absolutely nailed the technology and science aspects of this book - enough to give it four stars on that strength alone. The pacing, also, is top-notch, and the cliffhanger ending is acceptable given that it's the first in a longer series.

But the wooden characters and stilted dialog leave a lot to be desired.

But, if you're like me, and are willing to read through those issues, the space combat scenes are well worth it!

[Adam F · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple yet fun sci-fi page turner that had me in awe at how cool and thought out the space battles and strategies were presented. For those that have played the game Eve Online, this book is a great look into a similar world, with characters you cannot help but side with. Chapters are in short which makes this a great book for casual readers.

[Stephen Levesque · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally enjoyed it! Can't say enough about this book. This is a well written and has well developed characters. The story is catching and with the strong characters makes for a very enjoyable read. It is so engaging that the pages just fly by and you don't want to put it down. Great Reading Everyone!

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some interesting - and sometimes confusing - situations due to the time travel built into the story. There are also some typos and minor editing errors but overall a very good read if you like hard sci-fi.

[Douglas · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good book with an unforgivable ending. The book ends just as a battle is beginning. That kind of lack of resolution in a book should not be rewarded and if it were possible I'd give this book negative stars for wasting my time.