RYMYNY: Before the Annexation

by Max David

“The Earths, all of them, go about their lives unaware that even now, they are owned. Seven billion slaves... No idea how lucky they are, no idea what we've done for them, not that it matters. We take who we want— we kill those we can’t use. Rymyny is coming and it’s coming for everyone.”
—Officer Radyanta Maristana

What would you do if you were asked to be the person all of Earth's population was judged?

Would the pressure destroy or inspire?

Earth is in the cross hairs of destruction and Rymyny, its guardian. The cost of Earth's protection, slavery.

https://vimeo.com/128566727

280 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 27, 2014

Reviews

[Lisa Reads & Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Slavery, colonization, and exploitation are human activities with ancient roots. While these criminal practices have either ceased or can exist only due to clandestine tactics, their tragic repercussions contribute to modern suffering. Thankfully, all three conventions are universally and publicly deemed as criminal acts against humanity.

Slavery and colonization, once pursued by the most powerful and technically advanced nations, have become signs of politics that are archaic and uncivilized. From my reading of world history, the more technically advanced a nation becomes, the less susceptible to superstition. Scientific thought often replaces cultural beliefs, including religious text that contradict modern trends, i.e. although slavery is accepted in scripture, modern people agree that the abolition of slavery was rightful. These make fascinating themes for science fiction, and speculative fiction novels.

Those premises are ignored in RYMYNY. On RYMYNY and other humanoid-dominated planets, great technical advancements have not resulted in civilized enlightenment. Slavery, annexation, and resource exploitation abound. The Earth will be enslaved and pillaged, unless one representative from Earth is able to change the minds of a judicial panel. (I found that story device to be weak, by the way.) A glimmer of human morality exists, but not enough to have any social sway--slavery is overt and brutal, with only a pretense of human decency.

The logic of such a situation escapes me. Given the belligerent, aggressive, and flawed aspects of civilization on RYMYNY (and they are the better of other similar planets?), coupled with their technical advancements in space travel, weapons, and medicine, for example, one wonders how those components are able to co-exist.

While looking for life on other planets, we would only be able to detect civilizations similar to ours in technical usage and advancement. Our instruments have searched for communication upon radio waves, for example. Lacking any success thus far, one thought is that humans do not survive long after advancements in technology because we quickly destroy ourselves, through war or ecological destruction. While reading RYMYNY, I couldn't help but doubt that such a technologically advanced civilization, yet one so entrenched in religion and arrogance, would exist--or would need slaves given what we know of robotics. Perhaps if the people of RYMYNY were more alien, I wouldn't consider them as subject to the natural courses of human evolution. Once that idea entered my head, other structures of the plot fell apart. That, and the writing style and typos dampened my investment in the story. But hey, I'm a curmudgeon and have high expectations for science fiction, so don't let all that deter you from reading this novel.

[Sue Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book’s title sparked my interest, and I was glad someone recommended it to me.
RYMYNY. Yes it takes a few goes to pronounce it, and I’m not even sure I’m saying it right. It would be great to hear this book as an audio recording!

We begin our read on a cruise ship, in the cruise ship casino to be precise, and the chapter achieves some great references to sounds and the atmosphere of gambling. We’re with the characters Sloan, Molly and Ashley. There is a lot of description at first which, for me, slowed down the process of finding the action. But when the action hits, it hits hard (I won’t ruin the surprise by telling you what it is).

My favorite line is, ‘years before the Great War and all the devastation that came with it, no one knew how important those first players were,’ … wow!

Have I got you curious yet?

So, Rymyny is a place, and it’s not on earth. The voice of the piece isn’t my kind of normal read and in places I thought it a bit ‘telly’, but that’s the professional in me coming out. The reader in me loved the way the story quickly evolved, the way the character John was described, and the sci-fi-type world that the author dragged me into.
I really felt for John’s plights, faced with the decision of staying to look after his disabled brother or moving to pursue his own dreams. We also discover that Ashley from the ship, in the beginning, is John’s girlfriend.

This is an ‘indie’ produced read; and I like to add that into my reviews because it’s not that I didn’t see the few typo’s, I just chose to read over them.
But anyway, reading on…

John promises Ashley that he ‘would do anything’ for her, but he’s already in a world of trouble that he doesn’t even know about, at this point. And throughout the story he continues to prove himself of hero-type material.

The story has a rich sci-fi world, a thread of moral dilemma, fight scenes and car chases, and deep ventures into underground caverns, and a delicately balanced social system with slavery both holding it up, and threatening to topple it over.

Rymyny is an engaging read, with an in-depth cast of characters, which is bound to take you on a thrilling journey. Give it a go.

[Cassandra Webb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted this book, and very much enjoyed reading it. It's sci-fi, with a strong male lead character and lots of other strong personalities by his side.

There are a lot of moments that made me stop and consider issues such as belonging, ownership and slavery in the light of society today. But the morals in the story are hidden behind action scenes and plenty of kicking-ass!

Enjoy.