What do you think?
Rate this book
The Second Coming
The Second Coming
Welcome to Skid – the most technically sophisticated and powerful civilisation in the known universe.
The Second Coming is the second novel in the Skidian Chronicles series and follows on from the first novel where our unlikely protagonists were kidnapped by a desperate food research team from the Planet Skid. The researchers were on a mission to locate expertise to assist them in developing organic food sources to feed their people as their planet’s synthetic food production systems had begun to fail for some inexplicable reason.
The Skidian team had selected a team of experts at random without really understanding the expertise that they required to achieve their objectives. However, more by good luck than good management, they stumbled on someone who could generate new food production systems in the form of New Zild style grasslands based cattle farm, station or ranch.
Despite this stroke of good fortune the planned enterprise ultimately failed simply because not enough Skidians wanted to get their hands dirty in making things grow. The old earthly adage; ‘you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink,’ was particularly fitting as a famine of unheard of proportions unfolded on Skid.
Since the inception of modern Skid as it was at that point in time – the most sophisticated and powerful civilisation in the known universe – the concept of having to actually do anything remotely connected to work, for most Skidians was unknown and hundreds of millions of them had been governed by a small group of hereditary rulers who didn’t brook any change to the status quo for generations.
The alternative systems developed by the offworld experts would inevitably lead to the transformation of Skid as it was known and the fracturing of Skidian society. Faced with a choice between maintaining the Skidian Way and perhaps saving a good number of Skidians from certain death, the hereditary rulers chose the former and hoped for a miracle to deliver them from mass starvation and the end of the Skid as they knew it.
To make matters worse the artificial intelligence that unknown to those rulers or perhaps unacknowledged by them in many respects monitored and controlled all the systems that kept the population fed, housed, and watered was experiencing its own difficulties.
The second novel deals with the aftermath of the breakdown in food supplies. The offworlders have been returned home after undergoing a partially successful memory wipe and Skid is slowly recovering from the disaster that; not for the first time has all but destroyed the most powerful and sophisticated civilisation known in the known universe. But all is not lost and not all is as it seems.
Welcome to Skid – the most technically sophisticated and powerful civilisation in the known universe.
The Second Coming is the second novel in the Skidian Chronicles series and follows on from the first novel where our unlikely protagonists were kidnapped by a desperate food research team from the Planet Skid. The researchers were on a mission to locate expertise to assist them in developing organic food sources to feed their people as their planet’s synthetic food production systems had begun to fail for some inexplicable reason.
The Skidian team had selected a team of experts at random without really understanding the expertise that they required to achieve their objectives. However, more by good luck than good management, they stumbled on someone who could generate new food production systems in the form of New Zild style grasslands based cattle farm, station or ranch.
Despite this stroke of good fortune the planned enterprise ultimately failed simply because not enough Skidians wanted to get their hands dirty in making things grow. The old earthly adage; ‘you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink,’ was particularly fitting as a famine of unheard of proportions unfolded on Skid.
Since the inception of modern Skid as it was at that point in time – the most sophisticated and powerful civilisation in the known universe – the concept of having to actually do anything remotely connected to work, for most Skidians was unknown and hundreds of millions of them had been governed by a small group of hereditary rulers who didn’t brook any change to the status quo for generations.
The alternative systems developed by the offworld experts would inevitably lead to the transformation of Skid as it was known and the fracturing of Skidian society. Faced with a choice between maintaining the Skidian Way and perhaps saving a good number of Skidians from certain death, the hereditary rulers chose the former and hoped for a miracle to deliver them from mass starvation and the end of the Skid as they knew it.
To make matters worse the artificial intelligence that unknown to those rulers or perhaps unacknowledged by them in many respects monitored and controlled all the systems that kept the population fed, housed, and watered was experiencing its own difficulties.
The second novel deals with the aftermath of the breakdown in food supplies. The offworlders have been returned home after undergoing a partially successful memory wipe and Skid is slowly recovering from the disaster that; not for the first time has all but destroyed the most powerful and sophisticated civilisation known in the known universe. But all is not lost and not all is as it seems.
395 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 2014
4 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 3, 2021
The Second Coming is a fitting continuation to the first novel in The Skid Chronicles. We know what happens to every character introduced in the first novel, and there were no loose ends. Character growth was evident, and as a result, the second book was better than the first.
However, this book still had its drawbacks. The first half of the book was unnecessarily drawn out, as not many notable events occurred that could not have been condensed into a few chapters. The second half of the book was much more eventful and how the entirety of the Chronicles should have been paced.
The main female character, Sue, is still weak, insipidly so. How she is willing to overlook the flaws of the male protagonist, Bruce, baffles me. Bruce is a great provider and a go-getter, but he is an unreliable spouse (and that is being generous). She appears to still be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, allowing him to mistreat her in such a way, because of her fear of being alone. The fact that the author introduces another weak minded female character, Carol, similar to her, makes me think that this is how all young female humans in this book are. All I feel for these women is immense pity.
Again, I loved the dogs and how they seem to be the only ones to tell Bruce off. I also feel concern for the baby, as the baby seems to have a father that is only nominally interested in him, and parents that are only nominally interested in each other. I hope the baby grows up to be like the dogs, as they set the best example for how to deal with Sue and Bruce.
I received this book for free, and I am voluntarily writing this review.
However, this book still had its drawbacks. The first half of the book was unnecessarily drawn out, as not many notable events occurred that could not have been condensed into a few chapters. The second half of the book was much more eventful and how the entirety of the Chronicles should have been paced.
The main female character, Sue, is still weak, insipidly so. How she is willing to overlook the flaws of the male protagonist, Bruce, baffles me. Bruce is a great provider and a go-getter, but he is an unreliable spouse (and that is being generous). She appears to still be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, allowing him to mistreat her in such a way, because of her fear of being alone. The fact that the author introduces another weak minded female character, Carol, similar to her, makes me think that this is how all young female humans in this book are. All I feel for these women is immense pity.
Again, I loved the dogs and how they seem to be the only ones to tell Bruce off. I also feel concern for the baby, as the baby seems to have a father that is only nominally interested in him, and parents that are only nominally interested in each other. I hope the baby grows up to be like the dogs, as they set the best example for how to deal with Sue and Bruce.
I received this book for free, and I am voluntarily writing this review.
March 17, 2019
2nd book on the series.
It did start of slow for me but it soon picked up pace! Sue and Bruce returned to earth with no memory of their time on skid. Dreams draw them together along with baby Bruce. Before long they find themselves back on skid with the American president!
Intriguing and entertaining read.
It did start of slow for me but it soon picked up pace! Sue and Bruce returned to earth with no memory of their time on skid. Dreams draw them together along with baby Bruce. Before long they find themselves back on skid with the American president!
Intriguing and entertaining read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews