Deathship

by Steven Oaks

Set in the modern world of mostly North America, Michael Lang relates their story of how aliens came to offer a trade. The world's dead for their technology. Intrigued by the prospect of working for these powerful entities, Michael decides to sign up to be a pilot of one of their massive vessels and be one of many who collect the dead. Never truly to be in control, these pilots will merely be a figure head to show the populace that aliens and humans will work together. With a powerful artificial intelligence by their side, they come to understand what it is to be free. Feeling there must be more behind the aliens desire to shepherd the deceased to another plane of existence, Michael begins to investigate. Flying the aliens' giant craft around the world, Michael visits far off lands. Along the way they meet few who are displeased as the populace seems to be pacified by what the news shows them. Questions as to why the aliens are here and why we agreed to such a vile trade are never reported, and Michael senses a heinous plot at hand. Could Michael be right?

Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2014

About the author

Steven Oaks was born and he lived. He is also still alive, as the previous statement could be read to imply that he has passed on. He is in fact continuing to live and plans to do so for some time. But we are getting off topic, let us continue. He spends much of his time thinking up stories, and when given the chance, attempts to write them down in various mediums.

It has come to my attention that the phrasing of this narrative has been in the third person. This seems an outlandish way to describe oneself. I will be changing to a different perspective to explain what it is I do and who I am.

I am human, male. Healthy as far as I know. Tall. Tolerated by most members of the animal kingdom. I have yet to have one on one time with a bear, though I have viewed them from various distances. This makes me unsure of their true feelings of my person, but I’ll say that I’m probably delicious looking. Most cats like me, but I’m currently living with one who I feel has a distasteful view of me being alive in general. I am a big fan of pizza, tacos, and tira misu, though I currently subsisting on ramen. So I run or ride my wonderful bike almost every day so that when given the chance to eat, I will eat ravenously.

I have but one philosophy. Autonomy. It is by far my favourite word, except maybe the word disks. Say disks out loud, it’s awesome. Anyway, summed up to its basic core, I would say Autonomy means “leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone.” This does not imply that I wouldn’t help others. Certainly if I were to encounter someone in need I would assist. But I feel that essentially we are all in charge of our own lives. We are free to make our own mistakes and our triumphs are our own to treasure. We should be able to rely on friends, family, or partners, but let us not force others to care for those they do not know. This isn’t to say that one cannot offer help, or accept help from others; just no force should ever be involved. I find this particular philosophy most important about myself. Other philosophies are available; please feel free to peruse them as well. But autonomy is a strong subject in my works and will be seen often.

Reviews

[Lauren Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great first installment in this self published series. The story begins with a rather exciting encounter with an alien species that intends to share their knowledge with humans in exchange for a peculiar price of... our recently deceased. The book then takes us on an adventure that really focuses on building the relationship of Athene (the alien ship) and Michael (pseudo-pilot and protagonist). There is a very rich and interesting plot but I felt bogged down by some of the lengthy dialogue. Hoping for more details and world building in the next installment!

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deathship posed an interesting challenge for me. I found the premise fascinating, and I wanted to enjoy this novel so much. Reading the entire novel, it became clear that the author possesses a good breadth of knowledge about science fiction from the past century; he has given the issues broached a lot of thought; and I think he has something interesting to say about humans, the disposal of our natural resources, and the way we interact with strangers and those close to us. There is so much careful consideration of all these topics, as well as the pacing, the characters, and the process of defiance.

Why, then, did a short (two hundred sixteen pages) novel take me two and a half days to finish? I've read twice that in less time. What held me back?

I think it comes down to this simple detail:

The writing is uniformly atrocious. I don't mean casually or accidentally bad; I mean that a lot of thought has been given to sentence structure, to dialogue, and character descriptions. Both philosophical and casual exchanges sag under the weight of self-consciously ponderous and earnest prose. I found myself wincing every time Athene, the ship computer, giggled, and the debate with the smug, haughty vegan made me cringe throughout.

When Athene offers the narrator tea with chamomile, I was jealous. Chamomile might have improved my outlook on the book.

Knowing there was a subsequent book in The Outsider Series almost made me want to read it to see if the author had compounded the felonies he strew all over the pages of Deathship. Is it possible he's actually brilliant and i missed a clever satire? Alas, I doubt it.

[Samantha Hartsock · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's starts a bit slow but once I got to the part with the death ship the pace picked up and the story just sucked me in. It was fun and adventurous. The fact that the AI had so much personality was great. There was an interesting twist at the end as well that made me have to reread the beginning because my perception was changed and the book had a new experience. Not as great as Fight Club but along those lines. I recommend it.