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The Corsair Uprising #1
The Azure Key
Liam Kidd was a freelancer for Vesta Corporation, Earth’s largest and most corrupt asteroid mining company. Through a series of events he finds himself working the mines, a fate worse than death. When an opportunity presents itself, he and two other miners escape through a nearby wormhole. They find themselves across the galaxy in the middle of a conflict between three alien species. Liam’s only chance of getting home lies in finding a device rumored to be capable of opening a singularity. Now, he and his crew must face the horrors of war to return to their own system, a challenge that might prove deadly.
207 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 13, 2014
17 people are currently reading
249 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 1, 2019
Similar to Artemis, we get acquainted with the lucky loser Liam Kidd, who after some event that ended up in serious debt towards rich corporation, ends up mining in the Asteroid Belt. There, together with Saturn Vega and Ju-Long Ma, he witness the attack of the first real extraterrestrials that seem to have come from the wormhole. Wisely, with a stolen spaceship, instead of escaping as far as possible, they flew straight to the wormhole and find themselves - 10,000 light years away, in the orbit of unusual planet.
Story has lot of action (sometimes lacks realism) and short chapters almost that make it quick and easy read. We keep track of Liama's all-time swinging adventure, highlighting the rich opus of extraterrestrial civilizations, the Garuda planet and the nearby moon. There is, in spite of the scarcity of the reality of the narrative itself, some welcoming good humor, so it is a good idea for those in front of them who have some leisure time, and of course all of us who love SF.
P.s. I hope other parts will also be translated in Croatian langauge.
Story has lot of action (sometimes lacks realism) and short chapters almost that make it quick and easy read. We keep track of Liama's all-time swinging adventure, highlighting the rich opus of extraterrestrial civilizations, the Garuda planet and the nearby moon. There is, in spite of the scarcity of the reality of the narrative itself, some welcoming good humor, so it is a good idea for those in front of them who have some leisure time, and of course all of us who love SF.
P.s. I hope other parts will also be translated in Croatian langauge.
October 30, 2021
Roman kojem ne nedostaje akcije. Ako nemate prevelikih očekivanja, sasvim je sigurno da će vas jednostavnost fabule i dijaloga u potpunosti odmoriti. Čak je i bolji nego sam pomislila da bi mogao biti. Mogla bih ga nazvati "svemirski krimić". Pročitala sam i lošije romane. Ako ništa drugo, barem se brzo čita. Vidim da ima nastavke, ali nemam želju pročitati ih. Pronalazak ključa mi je sasvim dovoljan.
November 5, 2018
Fast paced and well written space adventure with fun characters. These characteristics are enough to satisfy most Space Opera readers and they were more then enough for me as well. The clean and easy-to-read style of the author is perfect for that type of story and the characters are interesting enough to want to follow on more adventures. From Toronto, Canada to a galaxy 10,000 light years away is quite an adventure and the maybe-crew? (I guess they will stick together) is a fun and raucous one. Really, this is a nice classic vibe Space Opera series that I will gladly continue reading.
January 26, 2019
Was a very good read.
Truly enjoyed reading this book. Am hoping the rest are as good as p this one was. Well driven plotline and actions.
Truly enjoyed reading this book. Am hoping the rest are as good as p this one was. Well driven plotline and actions.
July 4, 2023
Some sense of classic SF
A good first effort. Covered a lot of ground... heh. Perhaps longer books would possibly provide an appropriate pallette for development
Thank you
A good first effort. Covered a lot of ground... heh. Perhaps longer books would possibly provide an appropriate pallette for development
Thank you
June 23, 2015
This is now my fifth review and I was beginning to become a little bit concerned. Supposedly a reviewer is required to "criticize", to "find fault" and to "suggest improvements", but I have actually loved every single one of the books I've read and reviewed thus far.
Perhaps I'm just not cut out to be a critic. I read for enjoyment and for the fantasy, and every book I've read to date has delivered those things in "spades". The Azure Key is no exception. Like Hayden Bradford, Trevor Schmidt is also an author I've come into contact with through the Twitter group #promocave. I was therefore quite excited and keen to read and review his book.
The Azure Key is the first book in what appears to be a trilogy called The Corsair Uprising. The next book in the series is called Nightstalkers and was published in March of this year, with the third being called Deathwish which I assume is currently a work in progress. In addition to this Trevor has written other books, all available on Amazon: Memory Leak, The Sword Maker's Seal, Symbiote, and Replica - a short story.
Published, I assume by Trevor himself, at 244 pages it is a good substantial read that I was able to complete in one Sunday sitting. Now, I'm a bit old-school and I don't get all the many and varied genres that get tossed around these days. It seems like there is a genre to cover just about every book ever written. I'd never even heard of "steampunk" or indeed "dystopian" before, until I joined Promocave, and as for a "space opera", what exactly is that? Jesus Christ superstar, meets Star Wars? Look, you can call it what you will, but The Azure Key is plain and simple, in my mind - A Science Fiction story. That have been said, it is an EXCELLENT science fiction story.
I used to read a lot of Science Fiction as a kid, especially Heinlen and Herbert, but as an adult I've tended to veer away from the world of space and the cosmos - much to my own detriment I suspect. The Azure Key is a good, old fashioned tale of three people caught up in a set of circumstances beyond their control. The "hero" for the want of a better word, Liam Kidd, is your typical hard-man mercenary (freelancer), with a heart of gold and a true sense of justice, despite his tough-man demeanor. The "love interest", Saturn Vera is of course beautiful, but as tough and fiery as Liam, as she well displays early on in the story. Together with Ju-Long, the trio escape an attack on the asteroid mine they are working on by shooting through a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy where humans have "never" been before
What follows is a series of adventures and battles as the trio try to survive and find a way back. It seems the only way out of their predicament is to secure the elusive Azure Key. In attempting to do this they discover a lot about themselves, about the aliens and about the inhabited cosmos that they did not even know existed. The little twist at the end sets the scene for what no doubt will be enthralling second and third books. I am genuinely excited about reading the rest of the Corsair Uprising series. This was a great story, well told and kept me enthralled every second of the way.
I suppose I have to mention the one TINY negative even though it didn't detract from the story at all. I discovered I think it was four typos or word juxtaposition errors in the first three chapters. My initial thoughts were; "Oh no, a self-edited book - maybe it's full of errors." Remembering well how badly my own book was "self-edited" I steeled myself to look for more, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was only one more error, late in the book, but that was it. As I said, none of that detracted from my pleasure in reading this book.
Did it serve the purpose of making me want to read the rest of the series. Absolutely it did! I'm not going over the top here - it's not award-winning literature, but what it is, is a damn good read and I would urge everyone who likes a good science fiction yarn to go and get a copy. It's available on Amazon at the ridiculously low price of only $2.99. I promise you won't regret it.
My rating for "The Azure Key" - a good, solid 5 stars. Well done Trevor!
You can read this review and more on my website at: http://grantleishman.weebly.com/book-...
Perhaps I'm just not cut out to be a critic. I read for enjoyment and for the fantasy, and every book I've read to date has delivered those things in "spades". The Azure Key is no exception. Like Hayden Bradford, Trevor Schmidt is also an author I've come into contact with through the Twitter group #promocave. I was therefore quite excited and keen to read and review his book.
The Azure Key is the first book in what appears to be a trilogy called The Corsair Uprising. The next book in the series is called Nightstalkers and was published in March of this year, with the third being called Deathwish which I assume is currently a work in progress. In addition to this Trevor has written other books, all available on Amazon: Memory Leak, The Sword Maker's Seal, Symbiote, and Replica - a short story.
Published, I assume by Trevor himself, at 244 pages it is a good substantial read that I was able to complete in one Sunday sitting. Now, I'm a bit old-school and I don't get all the many and varied genres that get tossed around these days. It seems like there is a genre to cover just about every book ever written. I'd never even heard of "steampunk" or indeed "dystopian" before, until I joined Promocave, and as for a "space opera", what exactly is that? Jesus Christ superstar, meets Star Wars? Look, you can call it what you will, but The Azure Key is plain and simple, in my mind - A Science Fiction story. That have been said, it is an EXCELLENT science fiction story.
I used to read a lot of Science Fiction as a kid, especially Heinlen and Herbert, but as an adult I've tended to veer away from the world of space and the cosmos - much to my own detriment I suspect. The Azure Key is a good, old fashioned tale of three people caught up in a set of circumstances beyond their control. The "hero" for the want of a better word, Liam Kidd, is your typical hard-man mercenary (freelancer), with a heart of gold and a true sense of justice, despite his tough-man demeanor. The "love interest", Saturn Vera is of course beautiful, but as tough and fiery as Liam, as she well displays early on in the story. Together with Ju-Long, the trio escape an attack on the asteroid mine they are working on by shooting through a wormhole to the other side of the galaxy where humans have "never" been before
What follows is a series of adventures and battles as the trio try to survive and find a way back. It seems the only way out of their predicament is to secure the elusive Azure Key. In attempting to do this they discover a lot about themselves, about the aliens and about the inhabited cosmos that they did not even know existed. The little twist at the end sets the scene for what no doubt will be enthralling second and third books. I am genuinely excited about reading the rest of the Corsair Uprising series. This was a great story, well told and kept me enthralled every second of the way.
I suppose I have to mention the one TINY negative even though it didn't detract from the story at all. I discovered I think it was four typos or word juxtaposition errors in the first three chapters. My initial thoughts were; "Oh no, a self-edited book - maybe it's full of errors." Remembering well how badly my own book was "self-edited" I steeled myself to look for more, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was only one more error, late in the book, but that was it. As I said, none of that detracted from my pleasure in reading this book.
Did it serve the purpose of making me want to read the rest of the series. Absolutely it did! I'm not going over the top here - it's not award-winning literature, but what it is, is a damn good read and I would urge everyone who likes a good science fiction yarn to go and get a copy. It's available on Amazon at the ridiculously low price of only $2.99. I promise you won't regret it.
My rating for "The Azure Key" - a good, solid 5 stars. Well done Trevor!
You can read this review and more on my website at: http://grantleishman.weebly.com/book-...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews