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Colony Builders: A Gamelit Factory Epic
Alex ventures to the Oculi System to industrialize Oculi 9 in what could be humanity's last hope!
In the year 3152, humanity is at war with three species who suppress our existence. While one is more ruthless than the others, our species is viewed as an unstable threat to the galactic balance.
Resources are finite, battle is ubiquitous, and the enemies of Earth are unrelenting. The average human is born to fight for the species’ survival, deprived of a normal life so that one day a future generation may know peace. The expansions of Alpha Centauri are under siege while the Wolf System is down to just a few outposts.
Not all is lost, though. Sol System is well-defended, a beacon of hope that desperately needs materials for its factories to support the war efforts. Call it luck, divine intervention, or just happenstance, but long-distance wormholes are finally discovered, and with them, expeditions into the depths of space bring hope of a restored balance.
A new initiative is born with the singular task of saving the The Colony Builders.
Alex, a hero clinging to the slim chance of victory, is initiated into the Colony Builders program. Sent to a distant solar system with a less than ideal crew, a basic replicator machine, and infinite blueprints, it's up to him to help turn the tide through colonization, industrialization, and manufacturing.
His efforts will either turn the Oculi System into something revered, or the planet's threats will consume him.
If you enjoy conveyor belts, blueprints, factories, warehouses, and powerplant creations then join Alex in his quest to save Earth!
In the year 3152, humanity is at war with three species who suppress our existence. While one is more ruthless than the others, our species is viewed as an unstable threat to the galactic balance.
Resources are finite, battle is ubiquitous, and the enemies of Earth are unrelenting. The average human is born to fight for the species’ survival, deprived of a normal life so that one day a future generation may know peace. The expansions of Alpha Centauri are under siege while the Wolf System is down to just a few outposts.
Not all is lost, though. Sol System is well-defended, a beacon of hope that desperately needs materials for its factories to support the war efforts. Call it luck, divine intervention, or just happenstance, but long-distance wormholes are finally discovered, and with them, expeditions into the depths of space bring hope of a restored balance.
A new initiative is born with the singular task of saving the The Colony Builders.
Alex, a hero clinging to the slim chance of victory, is initiated into the Colony Builders program. Sent to a distant solar system with a less than ideal crew, a basic replicator machine, and infinite blueprints, it's up to him to help turn the tide through colonization, industrialization, and manufacturing.
His efforts will either turn the Oculi System into something revered, or the planet's threats will consume him.
If you enjoy conveyor belts, blueprints, factories, warehouses, and powerplant creations then join Alex in his quest to save Earth!
- GenresScience Fiction
Audible Audio
Published December 22, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 27, 2024
I wanted to like this book. I was fine with them calling it "gamelit" and then not having any gamelit. I liked the characters and the idea of building a colony with a lot of printers and unlimited power supply.
Then I read the book.
A squad of 4 people is sent to Oculi Nine to start a military manufactory, armed with a printer and lots of blueprints, and some raw materials to get things started. The planet seems like Eden, until it doesn't.
There's a romance in the story where two people who have known each other for a month are madly in love, and they are in the same chain of command. That's "fraternization" and it's avoided because it causes problems. Maybe not on Oculi Nine, but I can't go there.
They build their manufacturing base on land instead of in space. Weightless manufacturing has so many advantages over land based manufacturing that it only makes sense to have orbital or asteroid belt manufacturing. I can see needing to mine the energy source on the planet, and I can see wanting to have a well-defended town for families on the planet.
They meet a spaceship captain named Annie and then suddenly she's "Anna." Threw me for a loop - who's Anna?
There is an intelligent race of aquatic people who they never take the time to meet. Why not? Too busy strip mining instead of mining in a way that doesn't ruin the place?
They build defensive turrets that can withstand bats but not the bears that they already know are out there. Why not? Eventually they beef them up, but why not build it that strong the first time?
And the mech suit seems to be overpowered, and has the only AI in the book, but they don't call it one.
When the 7th fleet shows up, the Admiral retires rather than take over for a Lieutenant. That makes no sense to me. Why does the future of humanity depend on Alex Pierson, and not someone with experience leading a larger group of capable officers?
I won't complain about how the Yeti are able to out-economy and out-breed the humans, why AI's can't be protected from whatever AMP's are, and what's up with the Empress. By that point I was just wishing for an AI.
One of my pet peeves: "pouring" vs "poring." You don't pour over documents or information. That gets them wet. You pore over them, looking closely enough to see the pores in the skin.
A few times I was knocked out of the story by odd word choices. "[the bird] gave me an odd lear"or "We braced ourselves, reading our weapons." It's just irritating, not a major problem with the book.
I was put off by how flowery some of the text got toward the end. The book closed with, "However cruel the universe, life persisted here - defiant, resilient, and free. I would help shield its kindling flame until it blazed forth anew and the good people of Oculi Nine could free Earth." If that's your cup of tea, you'll like this book more than I did.
I feel like this was a fine draft, but 2 or maybe 3 drafts away from being ready for publication. I won't be back for the sequel.
Then I read the book.
A squad of 4 people is sent to Oculi Nine to start a military manufactory, armed with a printer and lots of blueprints, and some raw materials to get things started. The planet seems like Eden, until it doesn't.
There's a romance in the story where two people who have known each other for a month are madly in love, and they are in the same chain of command. That's "fraternization" and it's avoided because it causes problems. Maybe not on Oculi Nine, but I can't go there.
They build their manufacturing base on land instead of in space. Weightless manufacturing has so many advantages over land based manufacturing that it only makes sense to have orbital or asteroid belt manufacturing. I can see needing to mine the energy source on the planet, and I can see wanting to have a well-defended town for families on the planet.
They meet a spaceship captain named Annie and then suddenly she's "Anna." Threw me for a loop - who's Anna?
There is an intelligent race of aquatic people who they never take the time to meet. Why not? Too busy strip mining instead of mining in a way that doesn't ruin the place?
They build defensive turrets that can withstand bats but not the bears that they already know are out there. Why not? Eventually they beef them up, but why not build it that strong the first time?
And the mech suit seems to be overpowered, and has the only AI in the book, but they don't call it one.
When the 7th fleet shows up, the Admiral retires rather than take over for a Lieutenant. That makes no sense to me. Why does the future of humanity depend on Alex Pierson, and not someone with experience leading a larger group of capable officers?
I won't complain about how the Yeti are able to out-economy and out-breed the humans, why AI's can't be protected from whatever AMP's are, and what's up with the Empress. By that point I was just wishing for an AI.
One of my pet peeves: "pouring" vs "poring." You don't pour over documents or information. That gets them wet. You pore over them, looking closely enough to see the pores in the skin.
A few times I was knocked out of the story by odd word choices. "[the bird] gave me an odd lear"or "We braced ourselves, reading our weapons." It's just irritating, not a major problem with the book.
I was put off by how flowery some of the text got toward the end. The book closed with, "However cruel the universe, life persisted here - defiant, resilient, and free. I would help shield its kindling flame until it blazed forth anew and the good people of Oculi Nine could free Earth." If that's your cup of tea, you'll like this book more than I did.
I feel like this was a fine draft, but 2 or maybe 3 drafts away from being ready for publication. I won't be back for the sequel.
October 14, 2023
Book one
This was well written and edited.
It's called gamelit but to me there was little to none in this book.
To me this book was sci-fi, really more fiction than science.
Science tells us that battles between races over resources wouldn't be needed.
In our own solar system is a single asteroid with enough wealth in it to make everyone on earth a billionaire, yes with a b.
Scientists have found planets were it rains rock, another that rains molten metal, and one that might rain diamonds. The list is endless and just a little research would have shown this.
Habitable planets or good old xenophobia would have been a better reason for war.
The silly strip mining of a habitable planet was also off putting. Why not use the ship to start a space station? Again plenty of resources are in space.
The entire premise for this book was flawed.
The main character is very flawed in his reasoning and him even being put in charge made zero sense.
I liked the DNA cloning, this was interesting but barely explored.
They are on a planet that was turned into a prison for the aquatic race that lived there, again barely explored.
The race that appears to have done that marvel of engineering is easily defeated by a single guy in a mech suit.
The diplomacy was a real stretch. As was the way everyone seems to just let this young kid stay in charge.
To me this and other issues just weren't logical. If I'm stopping over and over again to say to myself, this makes no sense, then I have a hard time suspending belief and enjoying the story.
3/10 for excellent editing but I doubt I will read a second book in this series.
This was well written and edited.
It's called gamelit but to me there was little to none in this book.
To me this book was sci-fi, really more fiction than science.
Science tells us that battles between races over resources wouldn't be needed.
In our own solar system is a single asteroid with enough wealth in it to make everyone on earth a billionaire, yes with a b.
Scientists have found planets were it rains rock, another that rains molten metal, and one that might rain diamonds. The list is endless and just a little research would have shown this.
Habitable planets or good old xenophobia would have been a better reason for war.
The silly strip mining of a habitable planet was also off putting. Why not use the ship to start a space station? Again plenty of resources are in space.
The entire premise for this book was flawed.
The main character is very flawed in his reasoning and him even being put in charge made zero sense.
I liked the DNA cloning, this was interesting but barely explored.
They are on a planet that was turned into a prison for the aquatic race that lived there, again barely explored.
The race that appears to have done that marvel of engineering is easily defeated by a single guy in a mech suit.
The diplomacy was a real stretch. As was the way everyone seems to just let this young kid stay in charge.
To me this and other issues just weren't logical. If I'm stopping over and over again to say to myself, this makes no sense, then I have a hard time suspending belief and enjoying the story.
3/10 for excellent editing but I doubt I will read a second book in this series.
November 7, 2023
Help me read more books
Right up front, let me say, this is *not* a gamelit story. If you picked up this book because of the gamelit elements, then you're going to be highly disappointed. The only thing that even resembles gamelit elements in this entire story is the occasional identification info shown when looking through the scope at various eitems in one or two chapters. Sorry dear author, but that does *not* make this a Gamelit story, so if that's why you wanted to read this book, then skip it, and go on about your day, you won't be happy.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a very good scifi story, that has some world building in it, aliens, space and planetary battles, strange life forms (don't know if I'd label them aliens) on the new planet, and other interesting happenings, then you've come to the right place, and the second book in the series promises to be just as fun to read.
Slapping the gamelit label on this one is a blatent attempt to take advantage of the gamelit genre popularity to sell more material, this book has nothing in it that would interest 99 percent of folks looking for gamelit material, so don't be fooled by that blurb. You can enjoy the story on it's own merrits though, especially since it's a very well done scifi story, and one I'd be happy to recommend to those of us who love our scifi with colonization, wormholes, spacecraft, aliens, and interstellar wars. Really good stuff here as far as it goes.
Right up front, let me say, this is *not* a gamelit story. If you picked up this book because of the gamelit elements, then you're going to be highly disappointed. The only thing that even resembles gamelit elements in this entire story is the occasional identification info shown when looking through the scope at various eitems in one or two chapters. Sorry dear author, but that does *not* make this a Gamelit story, so if that's why you wanted to read this book, then skip it, and go on about your day, you won't be happy.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a very good scifi story, that has some world building in it, aliens, space and planetary battles, strange life forms (don't know if I'd label them aliens) on the new planet, and other interesting happenings, then you've come to the right place, and the second book in the series promises to be just as fun to read.
Slapping the gamelit label on this one is a blatent attempt to take advantage of the gamelit genre popularity to sell more material, this book has nothing in it that would interest 99 percent of folks looking for gamelit material, so don't be fooled by that blurb. You can enjoy the story on it's own merrits though, especially since it's a very well done scifi story, and one I'd be happy to recommend to those of us who love our scifi with colonization, wormholes, spacecraft, aliens, and interstellar wars. Really good stuff here as far as it goes.
December 31, 2024
renaissance colonialism in the space age.
This book perfectly highlight the deaths and other wildness of human greed.
Humanity is losing a war so they go to other unspoiled places to exploit. With technology able to print and build pretty much anything the calmness produce dirty, environmentally, destructive, and utterly ruthlessness, instead of slightly slowing down and producing things that would be less destructive to a Perfectly clean world. Instead of trying to live with the natural wildlife, they destroy it. Instead of trying to extract minerals in an environmentally sound way they stripped mine. They had no reason to do any of this. They had the technology to do so much better. Laziness and an illusion of need for speed With all the motivation they thought necessary to completely destroy a new world.
This novel makes me think that humanity is nothing but a virus. we can be an or more, but this book does not treat us that way.
This book perfectly highlight the deaths and other wildness of human greed.
Humanity is losing a war so they go to other unspoiled places to exploit. With technology able to print and build pretty much anything the calmness produce dirty, environmentally, destructive, and utterly ruthlessness, instead of slightly slowing down and producing things that would be less destructive to a Perfectly clean world. Instead of trying to live with the natural wildlife, they destroy it. Instead of trying to extract minerals in an environmentally sound way they stripped mine. They had no reason to do any of this. They had the technology to do so much better. Laziness and an illusion of need for speed With all the motivation they thought necessary to completely destroy a new world.
This novel makes me think that humanity is nothing but a virus. we can be an or more, but this book does not treat us that way.
March 31, 2024
3.5 Stars. Overall well executed, but just didn't clear the "great" threshold in any way. After the number of the author's books I've read, this one was pretty typical in its slightly disconnected story. All the elements are there, but there's something I can't quite put in clear terms about how it doesn't quite work for me.
This one was better than some have been, but the je ne sais quoi this lacks is shared with its predecessors. If you like the author's style (more than I evidently do) this one should work for you. and it doesn't look like it'll be a big time investment. It has potential for sequels, but I didn't get the feeling those options would be exercised.
This one was better than some have been, but the je ne sais quoi this lacks is shared with its predecessors. If you like the author's style (more than I evidently do) this one should work for you. and it doesn't look like it'll be a big time investment. It has potential for sequels, but I didn't get the feeling those options would be exercised.
October 11, 2023
I can't quite justify 4 stars. Still a decent light read if you're looking for a Sci-fi base building type story.
Decent story and characters. Could have used another pass by an editor for some minor typos, and a pass by an editor for some story points. It jumps around a bit with issues being mentioned and then dropped entirety for a chapter or two before they're brought up again. Cleaning up the pacing and narrative would help bump up the rating.
Decent story and characters. Could have used another pass by an editor for some minor typos, and a pass by an editor for some story points. It jumps around a bit with issues being mentioned and then dropped entirety for a chapter or two before they're brought up again. Cleaning up the pacing and narrative would help bump up the rating.
October 15, 2023
A brilliant start
A very good storyline, with a growth potential. It starts laying the ground work and did a good job too. The action and emotion were well written. You became invested in the characters.
One of the best things is it didn't leave you hanging!
Well done! 5*
A very good storyline, with a growth potential. It starts laying the ground work and did a good job too. The action and emotion were well written. You became invested in the characters.
One of the best things is it didn't leave you hanging!
Well done! 5*
October 17, 2023
This was good, but it didn't really deliver on the premise.
There was no real gamelit element, we had a bit of a jumble on the alien invasion, and the time-delay aspect just created more confusion.
There was no real gamelit element, we had a bit of a jumble on the alien invasion, and the time-delay aspect just created more confusion.
October 20, 2024
I'm willing to give this a go, because the blurb sounds like it will be magical engineering (I know this is a scifi).
This was okay, but really not what I expected. I will not continue this series (whenever the author gets around to it).
3/5 Stars
This was okay, but really not what I expected. I will not continue this series (whenever the author gets around to it).
3/5 Stars
October 15, 2023
Very good read
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progressive type of books with lots of action
I enjoyed reading this book very much and I recommend this book to anyone who likes LitRPG and progressive type of books with lots of action
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews