Uplift

Trade World Universe #1

by Ken Pence

It is forty years from the present date, and Richard Patterson is an aging warrior about to check out of this life. Just retired from a large multinational private military, he will be chosen to have a different fate. This will change his life, and the life of every being on Earth. How will this man move from a menial social class to challenge the elites? How will one man prepare the Earth to defend itself from a threat that has destroyed advanced, interstellar civilizations across the galaxy for millennia? His lead-time is short, and he faces a corrupt, self-serving society. Just surviving the day will be challenging since half of Earth’s population may die with the disruptive technology changes. There are billions of planets in our galaxy and now we can go there. How will neighboring species react now that humans can reach them? This is the same multiverse - all books tie into Trade World Saga - does not matter in what order you read them. Enjoy.

Genres: Science Fiction

486 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 3, 2014

About the author

Ken R Pence, Ph.D. is a professor of engineering at Vanderbilt University. He is a retired captain from the Metro Nashville Police Department where he served 31 years (16 on SWAT) and has taught police and military in the US and Europe (England, Germany, France, and Northern Ireland) in confrontation management skills. He has researched sniper shot location for DARPA, acoustic sensors to protect African elephant herds and inexpensive magnetic levitation. He lives in Nashville with his wife and his large - drooling - black lab (Drools Verne).

ken.pence@vanderbilt.edu

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good!

[Ron Towery · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new take on The he Uplift Theme

For those who have read the original Uplift series of books, this is a 21st centuries author's interpretation of an "Uplift" event. I found Mr Pence's novel very interesting and most of all enjoyable reading. The pace of the book was just right and his characters truly believable. I look forward to book two; if he gets time off his day job. Nuff said!!!!

[Layne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the read, hard to put down!

Old men, cool dead aliens, Nantes galore, And enemies on the way. I am trying to think of somewhere in the book that was slow or had too much technology or places that you could tell just added word count; can't think of any. Great read from beginning to end!

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pence, Ken. Uplift. Kindle, 2014.
I guess I blame John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and Joe Haldeman’s Forever War for creating a genre of military space opera fantasies for geezers. First, you need a gimmick for making old guys young again. Haldeman and Scalzi use future tech resulting from near-light-speed time dilation. In Uplift, Ken Pence has his old guy get a boost from a multidimensional alien in the form of a small 11-sided polygon that essentially says, swallow me. Next thing you know, we are getting humanity ready to fight off an alien horde, literally called The Horde, that is on its way to enslave us. No surprise—Scalzi and Haldeman do it better. 3 stars.

[Wilson E. Stevens Sr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read that was well written and hard to put down. I think I read it in one sitting, putting all else on hold until I was done with the book. It was getting a little ridiculous at the end of the book, and the follow-up book didn't look that interesting. I may or may not try to find and read it. Overall some good concepts and ideas, overall a good alien science fiction novel. The good reads summary describes the story plot very well, just now how well it ties in and goes together. This is a book that I may consider reading again.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two and half stars. Not a bad story; it reminded me a great deal of "Belisarius" by David Drake and Eric Flint. Weak characters overall. I was a bit disappointed as seeing this sold as part of the "Trade World" series. With the exception to the very last paragraph, there was absolutely no connection to any other of the Trade World books.

[Moscovici · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, the overall book is interesting and both the americans and the chinese and even the french are normal guys for a change, but the time line is super accelerated and the end is so cliffhanger and unbelievable that reading the book stand alone is useless and there is no follow up book.
Recommend using the time for other books at least until the second book is released.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting twist

Uplift takes a known sci to concept and adds some interesting twists and turns. Pence is able my on develop some believable characters and refind story and plot lines to weave a good tale. I am looking n forward to seeing how it all ties together...give it a read.

[Christopher Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read

Good read. I laughed a lot while reading this book. Now I need ten more words to finish this review.

[Ki Taeni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. 53%. I was enjoying this, I really was. And then fucking Carole decided to sleep with wtv that guys name is. Ngl I’m was so angry.

I’m just gonna leave this authors works alone bc I never finish his books andddddd they always make me mad. Life is too short for all of that.

Honestly should have just left all that romance out of it. Bc I really felt betrayed by Carole. And why the fuck was she written like that? Get all the upgrades after making a big deal about Richard not calling. Then, after he makes up for it, she shows her ass. I’m soo fucking livid