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The Navigator (Awash In Starlight): Awash In Starlight
A superbly dark, funny and entertaining romp through the universe with the last survivor of a viral epidemic as our guide and an un-named virus as our narrator. This story begins with the Munich Virus, which wipes out every known population of humanity across the universe, leaving Kego, our schizophrenic nine year old navigator, to fend for himself and return to Earth with the Frozen, those who were lucky enough to be in stasis when the virus struck. We follow Kego on his journey through the cosmos as he stears the Solstice back to Earth to re-establish the human race. Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The History itself and by another who was there as an outsider looking in. Somehow this book manages to cover every subject from religion to politics, using life, death, peace, war, love, hate and humanity as its stepping stones, without burying the story or bombarding the reader with endless details. Instead Merrick has created a post apocalyptic science fiction tale set in a future that seems possible even today, that will make you both laugh and cry, feel compassion for each and every character at some point while hating them in the next and leaving you wanting more when you reach the end. review courtesy of Sams Reviews at goodreads.com
- GenresScience Fiction
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
12 people want to read
About the author
Steve Merrick
16 books8 followers Why is it so hard to write your own Biography and why do words like pretentious and dilemma keep ricocheting around my head as I type this. So from the top, I am Steve Merrick, I am also known as stevesevilempire the photographer, check the website any time you want or type that into google, really I am a one man evil empire. My life long dream has been to write good science fiction, real stories that use the future in a n allegorical way to reflect our present.
I am currently putting together the second book in the Awash in Starlight series, its called the perspective of breath, fortunately I am not going to tell you what that's about but should you be curious then check out the first book The Navigator.
Other than cycling and tree hugging my hobbies are Physics, Marine Biology, Ilford HP5 Film and music.
I am currently putting together the second book in the Awash in Starlight series, its called the perspective of breath, fortunately I am not going to tell you what that's about but should you be curious then check out the first book The Navigator.
Other than cycling and tree hugging my hobbies are Physics, Marine Biology, Ilford HP5 Film and music.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 1, 2012
This is a very interesting read, full of ideas and with a highly-unusual narrator figure to provide a god-like point of view. Other reviews have outlined the story so I won't go into details, but the tale was refreshingly different and the main character Kego was imagined well. Some of the humour was a bit hit and miss (the 'comical' names of some of the people mentioned didn't fit well with the general style) and it did often seem as if the robots had more personalty than the humans - though I accept the author did deliberately play on this theme at times. If this had been properly edited, polished and proofed I would not have hesitated to give it a solid four stars; unfortunately it isn't, so I can't. Having said that, the story and the philosophies within were strong enough to keep me reading despite the distracting typos, so credit where it's due.
July 27, 2011
A superbly dark, funny and entertaining romp through the universe with the last survivor of a viral epidemic as our guide and an un-named virus as our narrator. This story begins with the Munich Virus, which wipes out every known population of humanity across the universe, leaving Kego, our schizophrenic nine year old navigator, to fend for himself and return to Earth with the Frozen, those who were lucky enough to be in stasis when the virus struck. We follow Kego on his journey through the cosmos as he stears the Solstice back to Earth to re-establish the human race.
Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The History itself and by another who was there as an outsider looking in.
Somehow this book manages to cover every subject from religion to politics, using life, death, peace, war, love, hate and humanity as its stepping stones, without burying the story or bombarding the reader with endless details. Instead Merrick has created a post apocalyptic science fiction tale set in a future that seems possible even today, that will make you both laugh and cry, feel compassion for each and every character at some point while hating them in the next and leaving you wanting more when you reach the end.
Narrated by an unknown and un-named virus of indefinate age, wisdom and sarcasm who gives his somewhat unusual yet strangely enlightening views on Kego's, and utlimately humanity's, journey, as obstacles are met, faced and hurdled, this is more than just a story. It is a romp through the history of mankind as viewed by one who has not been subject to 'civilised' influences and has gained his knowledge through The History itself and by another who was there as an outsider looking in.
Somehow this book manages to cover every subject from religion to politics, using life, death, peace, war, love, hate and humanity as its stepping stones, without burying the story or bombarding the reader with endless details. Instead Merrick has created a post apocalyptic science fiction tale set in a future that seems possible even today, that will make you both laugh and cry, feel compassion for each and every character at some point while hating them in the next and leaving you wanting more when you reach the end.
September 15, 2013
To begin with the story was a good concept but reading was hard going. Not hard going because of any reason other than the book being badly edited, the editor/author seeming not knowing the difference between 'Their', 'There' and 'They're' which is a pet hate .. but this was compounded by getting 'your' and 'you're' wrong on too many occasions to count. There was also the change in narration styles a few times but this was soon forgotten once the story picked up.
The storyline jumped around all over the place making the story difficult to follow but not as difficult as some of the conversations. None of the conversations let us know who was saying what so the reader needs to reread most conversations at least twice to pick up the gist.
However difficult the story and conversations were to read the final half of the book was an enjoyable Sci-Fi tale, even if it does need lots of editing and a new spell checker, that ticked along at a steady pace and eventually became quite enjoyable.
The storyline jumped around all over the place making the story difficult to follow but not as difficult as some of the conversations. None of the conversations let us know who was saying what so the reader needs to reread most conversations at least twice to pick up the gist.
However difficult the story and conversations were to read the final half of the book was an enjoyable Sci-Fi tale, even if it does need lots of editing and a new spell checker, that ticked along at a steady pace and eventually became quite enjoyable.
December 3, 2012
Ok, so this book took me a very long time to read! I struggled through the frequent typos, constant misuse oh they're/there/their, knew/new, to/too and various others. I am a bit of an editing Nazi!
My issues with the editing aside, the story just didn't flow! The constant changing from Kego's writing, the virus' thoughts, Jenny's thoughts and Eel's thoughts all got very confusing. The timeline jumped around from present to past, to future with little thought for how the reader would handle it.
I didn't like Kego, I didn't like Jenny, I didn't get to know Eel, and I often felt I knew the robots more than the main characters.
A valiant first effort, but it still needs a lot of work!
Steve, I will email you the typos I picked up soon.
NOTE: I receieved a copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review
My issues with the editing aside, the story just didn't flow! The constant changing from Kego's writing, the virus' thoughts, Jenny's thoughts and Eel's thoughts all got very confusing. The timeline jumped around from present to past, to future with little thought for how the reader would handle it.
I didn't like Kego, I didn't like Jenny, I didn't get to know Eel, and I often felt I knew the robots more than the main characters.
A valiant first effort, but it still needs a lot of work!
Steve, I will email you the typos I picked up soon.
NOTE: I receieved a copy of this book from the author in return for an honest review
March 12, 2012
A virus has evolved over the ages killing off several species. Then it wipes out most of homo sapien except for Kego and 4000 frozen humans on a space ship. Kego has been genetically developed by the virsu to give it some competion but has flaws as being mentally unbalanced. The story jumps around alot. This was an e-pub that I got for free.
October 2, 2014
This is the very first book I have written, so warts and all I am very attached to it. The main engine of this book is through the writers within it. The main writer is the Munich Syndrome, a simultaneous virus who has also wiped out most of humanity. Well except one, and as you will discover he nearly finishes the job of extinction on his own. The main character is Kego O'Grady, who you get to know from his birth to his untimely death. A life that is spent mostly alone aboard the other main character, the mighty Asterio class space ship the Solstice.
I don't want to give too much away here but if you are curious check out the free preview and if anyone has any questions about the story (After you have read it.) then feel free to ask them.
The Navigator is the first in a larger body of books that are all going to be called The Awash In Starlight series.
Enjoy
Steve Merrick
I don't want to give too much away here but if you are curious check out the free preview and if anyone has any questions about the story (After you have read it.) then feel free to ask them.
The Navigator is the first in a larger body of books that are all going to be called The Awash In Starlight series.
Enjoy
Steve Merrick
January 7, 2014
As the author its unfair for me to post my view, all I will say is that this is my much loved first book, full of rookie mistakes but i love it.... This is the new paperback version that has =been proofed and looks really great ;-)
Steve Merrick
Steve Merrick
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews