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Fists Of Earth #1
Captive Audience
This voyage of the cruise ship Jade Viking is anything but typical. Departing Japan with a joint American/Japanese crew, upon docking in San Francisco, it will trade the Stars & Stripes for the Rising Sun. Wall Street lawyer Kimberly Martin has brokered a deal between Spencer Corp. and the mysterious firm Sukuru. Clever marketing has Jim Morris aboard, filming the final scenes to his next martial arts action movie.An alien ship follows radio transmissions back to Earth, looking for something quick and easy to seize for profit. Jade Viking is a glittering light in the dark, northern Pacific night, and shortly, the Ananab ship P’Tasum is on its way home, cruise ship and contents secured in the hold.It falls to Jim Morris to organize reluctant allies to seize the ship. The odds are steep. But have the aliens really considered the consequences of kidnapping and attempting to enslave 3,500 dirty, hungry, and extremely angry humans?
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2011
About the author
William Hatfield
79 books8 followersAuthor and musician, writer of science fiction, mystery, and short stories.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 2, 2011
Take the best parts of Love Boat, Enter the Dragon and The Arrival and you have William Hatfield’s novel Captive Audience. A cruise ship, martial arts, & aliens… what more could you ask for?
This isn’t the Pacific Princess but the Jade Viking and she is on her final voyage from Japan to San Francisco. Upon arrival, she will seal a multi-million dollar deal between the Japanese firm Sukuru and the American Spencer Corp. Her crew is a mix of the outgoing Americans and the incoming Japanese. On board to ensure the deal gets finalized is the Senior VP for Sukuru, Yoshi Toshida and Spencer Corps lawyer, Kimberly (never Kim) Martin. Needless to say the negotiations of the deal have been brutal thanks to Toshida’s distain for women and tensions are high among the two groups.
Aside from the regular cruise passengers, including a high school senior class, a Hollywood film crew is aboard. Not Bruce Lee, but Jim Morris. He and his crew are wrapping up Morris’s latest martial arts movie, Weeping Winds of Fury. The Japanese aren’t thrilled with this bunch either and see Morris as a ‘pretender’ and insult to martial arts.
Now add some of the freakiest aliens you’ve ever seen. A few days out of San Francisco, everyone wakes up aboard the ship that is no longer in the Pacific but the hold of an Ananab ship. Morris is the first to rouse and put up resistance to their abductors. He rally’s the ships crew, passengers and his film crew to fight back so they can return home. It is not nearly as easy as they think it will be since the ship is already to low on fuel to return to Earth. After defeating the alien slave masters and befriending two races of enslaved aliens, they have no choice but to dock at the ships destination: Station Chaq.
Against all odds they not only take control of the ship, renamed aptly, Jade Viking, but also the Station. Learning that the aliens they had been fighting are intending to turn Earths population into slaves, changes their objective to return home into one of defending Earth. The survivors of the original Jade Viking cruise are split into three factions. Some want to remain in space as an outpost to protect their home while others want to do the same from earth. The last faction wants to give the technology to Sukuru or the American government. Plans are made and passengers are heading back home to Earth.
Captive Audience is full of interesting aliens and their political system. Space battles and martial arts full the pages from cover to cover. If you can imagine Bruce Lee kicking alien butt, then you get the picture of Jim Morris. Sci-fi fans will not be disappointed with Hatfield’s novel and martial arts fans will love it!
This isn’t the Pacific Princess but the Jade Viking and she is on her final voyage from Japan to San Francisco. Upon arrival, she will seal a multi-million dollar deal between the Japanese firm Sukuru and the American Spencer Corp. Her crew is a mix of the outgoing Americans and the incoming Japanese. On board to ensure the deal gets finalized is the Senior VP for Sukuru, Yoshi Toshida and Spencer Corps lawyer, Kimberly (never Kim) Martin. Needless to say the negotiations of the deal have been brutal thanks to Toshida’s distain for women and tensions are high among the two groups.
Aside from the regular cruise passengers, including a high school senior class, a Hollywood film crew is aboard. Not Bruce Lee, but Jim Morris. He and his crew are wrapping up Morris’s latest martial arts movie, Weeping Winds of Fury. The Japanese aren’t thrilled with this bunch either and see Morris as a ‘pretender’ and insult to martial arts.
Now add some of the freakiest aliens you’ve ever seen. A few days out of San Francisco, everyone wakes up aboard the ship that is no longer in the Pacific but the hold of an Ananab ship. Morris is the first to rouse and put up resistance to their abductors. He rally’s the ships crew, passengers and his film crew to fight back so they can return home. It is not nearly as easy as they think it will be since the ship is already to low on fuel to return to Earth. After defeating the alien slave masters and befriending two races of enslaved aliens, they have no choice but to dock at the ships destination: Station Chaq.
Against all odds they not only take control of the ship, renamed aptly, Jade Viking, but also the Station. Learning that the aliens they had been fighting are intending to turn Earths population into slaves, changes their objective to return home into one of defending Earth. The survivors of the original Jade Viking cruise are split into three factions. Some want to remain in space as an outpost to protect their home while others want to do the same from earth. The last faction wants to give the technology to Sukuru or the American government. Plans are made and passengers are heading back home to Earth.
Captive Audience is full of interesting aliens and their political system. Space battles and martial arts full the pages from cover to cover. If you can imagine Bruce Lee kicking alien butt, then you get the picture of Jim Morris. Sci-fi fans will not be disappointed with Hatfield’s novel and martial arts fans will love it!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 18, 2023
OMG. Great Sci-fi book
I'm not a big fan of Sci-fi books, although I love most of the movies and TV shows, I think because they are about the people. This book, the first in the series, is also about the people, including the alien people. I'm heading toward the second book now!
I'm not a big fan of Sci-fi books, although I love most of the movies and TV shows, I think because they are about the people. This book, the first in the series, is also about the people, including the alien people. I'm heading toward the second book now!
February 8, 2014
When the cruise ship Jade Viking is drawn up into the hold of a huge alien spaceship, no one on earth knows what has happened to the ship. It seems to have simply disappeared. But its passengers are all too aware of their perilous situation. Some panic, others try to bluff and bluster their way out of the situation, and some, led by actor and martial arts expert Jim Morris, resolve to find a way to free themselves. This is a rousing good adventure with intriguing characters. It kept me reading left me eager to read the sequel. The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that Morris's feats of strength and agility at times strain credibility. But that quibble is easy to overlook in this fast-paced, high action space opera.
October 6, 2018
Great set of book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews