Crucible

The Epherium Chronicles #2

by T.D. Wilson

Book two of The Epherium Chronicles

January, 2155

Earth Defense Forces Captain James Hood is on the mission of his life. The Cygni solar system is just one space-fold jump away. One more jump and they'll have reached the fledgling colony that Earth desperately needs if the human race is going to survive. But a plot to derail him has already damaged his ship, threatened the lives of his crew and cost him time. Time the colonists might not have.

So much depends on him now, but Hood's confidence is shaken. It's self-doubt he thought he'd buried, a brutal mind-killer for all military commanders. Yet danger surrounds his team; a brutal insectoid alien race is still out there, intent on eradicating humans, and a greater threat from an unknown, elusive enemy has emerged.

The forces at work on Cygni are like nothing Hood has trained for, tactically or emotionally. When put to the test, he must choose to either trust the unlikeliest of allies, or run and seal the fate of the Cygni colony forever.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 26, 2013

About the author

T.D. Wilson was born in 1968 in Troy, Ohio and has been an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy from a very young age. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and has supported
the systems and networks in several of the largest Supercomputing data centers in the world. His early thirst for adventure in reading began as he explored many of the great stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As his reading scope expanded, Mr. Wilson was fascinated by strange new worlds from the magical of Middle Earth and Narnia to the far reaches of space in Star Trek and Babylon 5. As a science fiction author, he strives to integrate a realistic flavor to his worlds by providing his readers a feel for the real science in science fiction. A topic he loves to discuss with his friends and readers. Mr. Wilson still lives in Ohio with his wife and their two sons.

Reviews

[Kelly]

Twenty-five years ago, the Epherium Corporation launched three colony ships to settle new worlds. In command of the new flagship Armstrong, Captain James Hood is directed to investigate mysterious signals from those nearly forgotten ships. His mission is complicated by startling revelations regarding the deep sleep technology used to quicken colonist’s long journey and a plot seemingly devised to prevent him from catching up with them.

Crucible, book two in The Epherium Chronicles, picks up the story up one jump from the Cygni system where Hood hopes to find a thriving colony. When they do find evidence of the colony ship Magellan and nearly three thousand colonists doing their best to tame a wild planet, Hood faces perhaps his most daunting challenge. Twenty-five years have passed for these men and women and Earth is not as they left it. An alien enemy has decimated the Mars. Many will have lost friends and relatives. But that’s not all. Cygni system might also be in danger, from the alien Cilik’ti and perhaps the corporation that funded the original mission.

Hood must prepare the colonists for the visible enemy first, the Cilik’ti. But even as they brace under the threat of invasion and attack, the invisible enemy is there, plans unknown.

Author T.D. Wilson combines several elements to make a very compelling read. The plot laid out in Embrace, the first book of The Epherium Chronicles, is expanded upon here without too much complication. The personal threads are deepened, however, with Hood being reunited with his uncle and two women he knew as a boy. If he didn’t already feel beholden by duty, he now has more than one reason to protect the new colony.

We learn more about the Cilik’ti in Crucible, which is much appreciated. There is no big passage of history for the reader to wade through, however. All revelations come exactly as they should, on a need to know basis. It’s difficult to elucidate this part of the plot without spoiling a good chunk of the story, so I’ll move on to the action. There’s lots of it and it’s all pretty awesome. Space battles, ground battles, power armour and classic David and Goliath conflicts. Wilson skips from view to view seamlessly so that we get in on every aspect, too, from the colonists and teams on the ground, to the men and women aboard the Armstrong. These pages were thrilling and the conclusion is never foregone. I enjoyed the tie-in with Hood’s chess games as the captain measured his progress against that of his enemies. The battle is much more than a game, however. It is, in fact, the crucible which will forever change humanity’s relationship with the Cilik’ti.

Crucible is a very enjoyable read. It’s got intrigue, plenty of action and a good dose of heart. Best of all, however, it’s not a sequel that either lets the story dip into obscurity or skip off on a vastly different tangent. We’re definitely still heading forward here, with a deeper and even more interesting story. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens in the next installment, Echoes, due to be released 30 March 2015.

Written for SFCrowsnest.

[Kathryn Svendsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crucible is the second book in The Epherium Chronicles Series. I recommend reading the series from the beginng. If you would like to read the review of Embrace, please click here.

Captain James Hood and his ship the Armstrong arrive at Cygni 4, the outpost where 25 years ago Earth sent colonists in ships fitted with Embrace sleep units so that they could make the journey to this planet in order to colonize this planet. At the time they sent these colonists, space-fold technology did not exist, so what was now a one week journey, took them 25 years.

We discover that many of the colonists have had their brains reprogrammed and are really criminals reprogrammed to have new personalities. Hood and his crew are suspicious as to whether or not this reprogramming actually worked, but as he and his head of security Maya Greywalker interview the colonists, nothing seems to be amiss. When Greywalker recognizes one of her old adversaries, she senses that something is not right, but she has no evidence, and her old adversary’s behaviour does not even indicate that he once knew her.

I loved the rich descriptions of the new life forms that were being discovered on this new world. Especially interesting was Max. You could tell from the few discoveries that had been made that there were going to be a lot more interesting things to find.

As in Embrace, the author did a wonderful job of developing the characters of the new players added to the story. I did start to find it difficult to keep all the characters straight in my head. I really would like to see this book as a movie because then there will be faces to go with the names and that will make it easier, plus the plot is movie-worthy.

I really liked the life form they found in the cave and the fact that they befriended it. Just as in any culture there are those who are honourable, respect life and are willing to sacrifice for what is right, this creature had these same qualities, though not all of his race did.

Even though Hood’s confidence has been shaken, he continues to push forward to ensure that the fledgling colony is prepared in case of an attack by the Cilik’ti. Hood shows himself to be a master forward thinker and planner. The author shows this with his references to the chess moves during the battle sequences. That doesn’t mean that the Armstrong actually wins the battle. You’ll be biting your fingernails waiting to see if he wins or not.

The battle scenes both in space and on the ground were well described and easy to visualize and follow. I could almost believe that I was there watching it all take place. They were at times a little gory, but fortunately is was mostly bug gore and not people gore. The author captures the tough reality of it and how it affects those who endure it. I was very sad when Kree’s ship blew up. I liked him.

The physical combat scenarios will not disappoint readers either. You might just discover just how tough the beautiful Maya Greywalker really is.

I have to admit it, I’m not usually all that much into war books, but this one was excellent. I was invested into the characters. I needed (and I still need) to know what is going to happen next. The battle is over. A good ending to this book. But obviously there is more to come. I can’t wait for book 3!

I gave Crucible 4 stars out of 5. Science fiction fans everywhere will want to get this book. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to the author who provided a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

This review was published on my blog Shelf Full of Books http://kathrynsshelffullofbooks.blogs...

[Shannon Haddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. Not great, not horrible, just okay.

The alien culture of the enemies was very unique and enjoyable and, quite frankly, I’d rather have read a whole book about them than about the humans.

Why? Because I just didn’t care about them. Many of them, especially at the beginning of the book, were hard to tell apart when they talked. Also, most of them felt rather like they’d been constructed to be interesting instead of the author just letting them grow into interesting characters on their own. This was not helped by everyone seemingly understanding every bit of science and technobabble that came up.

But, that isn’t what my main complaint is. My main complaint is the way the story is told. First of all, the narrative voice is so dry that I had to keep forcing myself to continue. Second, every measurement given was a bit too exact; it felt a bit like reading a textbook or official report, everything was 10 centimeters, 20 meters, never short, close to us, anything like that. Third, the story itself didn’t make complete sense. For example, I find it hard to believe that the first colonists sent to a new world would be unable to cook without power. And there were bits that were a bit too deus ex machina for my tastes.

And now, my two biggest problems: First, and most importantly, the story was horribly paced. After spending way too much time recapping and rerecapping what happened in the first book, you get a bit of plot, and then a battle that is nearly two-thirds of the book! This would be one thing if it was an exciting, blood pounding kind of thing. It’s not. It reads, in fact, a bit like an rpg or wargame write up at times. When it doesn’t, it still was not told in a dramatic enough way to keep my excitement. And the second big problem, which admittedly is probably a pet peeve more than an actual problem, is Hood thinking of someone as “his Jillian” when he’d only had a crush on her as a young man. If I have to explain what’s problematic about that, then you wouldn’t understand anyway.

The story itself was pretty interesting, aside from my complaints about it above. I just really didn’t like the way it was told and couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Ian Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part two of a trilogy, and from experience, this tends to be the more difficult to get right. In this case, I think Wilson has done a very good job, and I think this book could be read stand-alone without any significant problem. The required background to the story is that the Epherium Corporation has colonized three nearby planets, and the Earth Defence has built a huge warship, the Armstrong to go out to defend the colonists at Cygni. It was after the colonists set out that Earth was attacked by an alien race, the Cilik'ti, which is why the Armstrong was sent out. On the way, it was harassed by some unknown stealth ship, which is presumed to be from some Earth organization, but it is unclear exactly where it came from. The book opens with the Armstrong arriving at Cygni, the crew meet the settlers, and we get the results of the initial colonization. It turns out that at least some of the settlers are re-programmed criminals, so there are three potential hazards.

With a couple of reservations, the story is very well written. It is painfully obvious that the story is going to involve at least one of three problems, but the quality of the writing is such that what actually happens is something of a surprise, which limits my ability to comment on the bulk of the story without spoiling. My two reservations are first, in the main event, there is an attempt to generate tension through an equipment failure that is essentially a design fault. I think that was unnecessary because it had the opposite to the intended effect on me. There was plenty of tension, and you do not send a major expedition out with a serious design fault in a major piece of equipment that could be reasonably remedied. The second problem for me was there is a short action sequence at the end, but the situation the protagonists find themselves in is, in my opinion, unreasonable, and worse, the scene was, in my opinion, unnecessarily "blow by blow". I refuse to spoil, but since this story is well worth getting, I mention this as an exercise in analysis. If you don't get it, you will enjoy the book even more. Without those flaws, and a slightly confusing "major scene sequence", I would give it five stars.

[Timothy Reaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had purchased and enjoyed the first installment in this novella series. The story was light and entertaining. There was enough characters, and enough detail to keep me engaged. There were - as there are in most stories - things that you had to suspend disbelief over and simply ignore in order to keep reading. The end left me wondering when the next installment would be out.

I was thrilled when it finally arrived. Other than a few gratuitous uses of 'decimate', the second installment followed nicely along from the first. This is light-reading done well. The author is very good at keeping a balance of detail and action; keeping the reader engaged. This installment did bog down a little with the battle scenes, and glossed over the closing chapter. Even with that, I am once again looking forward to the next installment.

[Russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find this volume of the series as interesting as the first. A considerable portion of the story was a single battle. The presentation was long, drawn out, and, ultimately, just not particularly interesting. Frankly, page after page of "we moved there and shot; they moved there and shot" just does not make for an interesting read.