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Carson Mach Adventures #2
The Lost Voyager
A mining ship goes missing…
Its precious cargo could change the galaxy…
Unless one man and his crew can find the lost Voyager.
Carson Mach, a freelance rogue captain, and his crew are faced with a seemingly routine mission to find and rescue the Voyager, a missing mining ship in a remote system. Only he and his employers know what the lost ship carries in its cargo hold and the devastating consequences if it falls into the wrong hands.
On arrival to the Noven system, the destination of the Voyager, Mach and his crew have three planets to explore, with no clues as to where the ship and its artefact might be. Their first stop reveals a terrifying new enemy has joined the search, raising the stakes considerably.
If the new threat finds the cargo, it will place the entire galaxy in a perilous position from which it won’t recover. Mach and his crew must overcome impossible odds and defeat the new enemy if they’re to reach the Voyager and save the lives of trillions.
All Carson Mach stories are standalone adventures and can be read in any order.
Its precious cargo could change the galaxy…
Unless one man and his crew can find the lost Voyager.
Carson Mach, a freelance rogue captain, and his crew are faced with a seemingly routine mission to find and rescue the Voyager, a missing mining ship in a remote system. Only he and his employers know what the lost ship carries in its cargo hold and the devastating consequences if it falls into the wrong hands.
On arrival to the Noven system, the destination of the Voyager, Mach and his crew have three planets to explore, with no clues as to where the ship and its artefact might be. Their first stop reveals a terrifying new enemy has joined the search, raising the stakes considerably.
If the new threat finds the cargo, it will place the entire galaxy in a perilous position from which it won’t recover. Mach and his crew must overcome impossible odds and defeat the new enemy if they’re to reach the Voyager and save the lives of trillions.
All Carson Mach stories are standalone adventures and can be read in any order.
418 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 15, 2015
79 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
A.C. Hadfield
16 books50 followersA.C. Hadfield is long-time Star Trek and Star Wars fan and dreamed of writing space adventures as a young child. As an adult, he's now living that dream and writing exciting space operas in distant galaxies as well as our own solar system.
Author of the Carson Mach Series, Blackstar Command, and Vanguard Rising.
Author of the Carson Mach Series, Blackstar Command, and Vanguard Rising.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
August 26, 2022
Carson Mach and his Rag Tag Crew are back on it! Since the last book, they apparently wasted no time getting a bad rep sheet again, but they can clear all that and cash in on a nice payday, too. All they have to do is this tiny-whimsy mission.
This really deadly, crazy dangerous mission that involves all hell of shit. Odd enough, the black hole bomb is not the worst. It's more like Aliens meets Starship Troopers.
The phage are really aggressive.
It's satisfying enough, it's what I expected after the first book. Nothing less, but sadly also nothing more. And the phage hardly make sense without a controlling race, but what can you do?
There seem to be some interesting hooks throughout the story, like a potential new crew member, but apparently A.C. decided not to go with them. Which is a pity, really.
So, solid food for the space opera junkie. Don't expect anything surprising, and you'll be good. Nuff said.
*****
You can also read this review on my Blog.
This really deadly, crazy dangerous mission that involves all hell of shit. Odd enough, the black hole bomb is not the worst. It's more like Aliens meets Starship Troopers.
The phage are really aggressive.It's satisfying enough, it's what I expected after the first book. Nothing less, but sadly also nothing more. And the phage hardly make sense without a controlling race, but what can you do?
There seem to be some interesting hooks throughout the story, like a potential new crew member, but apparently A.C. decided not to go with them. Which is a pity, really.
So, solid food for the space opera junkie. Don't expect anything surprising, and you'll be good. Nuff said.
*****
You can also read this review on my Blog.
September 8, 2015
WYSIWYG ............ what you see, is what you get. The Lost Voyager is subtitled "A Carson Mach Space Opera." So don't be surprised if the author tries to tap more of you emotions than just excitement and fear.
Yes, there is plenty of excitement as "The Bleach Crew" ventures into neutral space to see if they can find the missing OreCorp ship, Voyager, last heard from before it was supposed to land on Noven Alpha in the Salus Sphere.
Carson Mach leads a multi-species team of renegade experts that hires out to clean up others' mistakes. There are humans, there are vestans, fidians, maybe even lacterns. Mach, always just one step ahead of being locked up again, provides the leadership: Think more Hannibal Smith's A Team than Captain Kirk's Enterprise crew.
There is plenty of plot about what war has just ended, and what threats there might be on the horizon, but the focus is on what they find in the Noven system. A particularly nasty (aggressive and competent) new species that might be headed for galactic conquest.
As far as the opera goes, there is Adira, Mach's "on-off lover, assassin, and generally complicated woman." Lassea, the young pilot of the Intrepid. Sanchez, the hunter. Babcock, whose specialty is cyber warfare. Squid Two, his creation. Tulula, vestan engineer and "pal" of Sanchez. Romances, hook-ups, spats and misunderstandings pepper the plot but don't overwhelm it.
Hadfield spends time enough on the techie aspects of the future but gives no real details about how things work or why the galaxy has gotten to its present state.
Summer is almost over, and this may be a great book for a "beach read." It goes down quickly and easily and leaves no bitter aftertaste.....maybe no aftertaste at all.
Yes, there is plenty of excitement as "The Bleach Crew" ventures into neutral space to see if they can find the missing OreCorp ship, Voyager, last heard from before it was supposed to land on Noven Alpha in the Salus Sphere.
Carson Mach leads a multi-species team of renegade experts that hires out to clean up others' mistakes. There are humans, there are vestans, fidians, maybe even lacterns. Mach, always just one step ahead of being locked up again, provides the leadership: Think more Hannibal Smith's A Team than Captain Kirk's Enterprise crew.
There is plenty of plot about what war has just ended, and what threats there might be on the horizon, but the focus is on what they find in the Noven system. A particularly nasty (aggressive and competent) new species that might be headed for galactic conquest.
As far as the opera goes, there is Adira, Mach's "on-off lover, assassin, and generally complicated woman." Lassea, the young pilot of the Intrepid. Sanchez, the hunter. Babcock, whose specialty is cyber warfare. Squid Two, his creation. Tulula, vestan engineer and "pal" of Sanchez. Romances, hook-ups, spats and misunderstandings pepper the plot but don't overwhelm it.
Hadfield spends time enough on the techie aspects of the future but gives no real details about how things work or why the galaxy has gotten to its present state.
Summer is almost over, and this may be a great book for a "beach read." It goes down quickly and easily and leaves no bitter aftertaste.....maybe no aftertaste at all.
February 22, 2019
What happened? Book 2 had no story progression to speak of - was literally one mission. And near the end I counted three wrongly used "you're" and at least five sentences with missing words. This was rushed and I'm concerned that the author might not know which your/you're to use - was the copy editor fixing mistakes all along? Were they the ones rushed?
This is more interesting to think about than what happens in book two. After reading this in one day, I did have a dream about an insect-like thing attacking, so it's not a total loss. Funny enough, it looked like a bug from Starship Troopers.
This is more interesting to think about than what happens in book two. After reading this in one day, I did have a dream about an insect-like thing attacking, so it's not a total loss. Funny enough, it looked like a bug from Starship Troopers.
October 25, 2017
Excellent Classic Space Opera Novel
A. C. Hadfield currently has three of the Carson Mach (Bleach) novels in print and Kindle, and I unreservedly recommend all three of them. This is the third that I have read, and the protagonist has improved, as have the struggles, from my first, "The Atlantis Ship". Characters have developed in unexpected dimensions over the three novels. Some of Carson's more irritating rough edges have been smoothed down.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AS BOTH AN INDIVIDUAL BOOK AND AS A SERIES!
A. C. Hadfield currently has three of the Carson Mach (Bleach) novels in print and Kindle, and I unreservedly recommend all three of them. This is the third that I have read, and the protagonist has improved, as have the struggles, from my first, "The Atlantis Ship". Characters have developed in unexpected dimensions over the three novels. Some of Carson's more irritating rough edges have been smoothed down.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AS BOTH AN INDIVIDUAL BOOK AND AS A SERIES!
February 18, 2018
Great Read
Fast paced, great characters. Would recommend it. Finished it in a couple of days. A 2nd book would have been good.
Fast paced, great characters. Would recommend it. Finished it in a couple of days. A 2nd book would have been good.
May 28, 2024
Shlock that reads like it was pounded out over the course of a long weekend. Wooden, cookie cutter characters, stirred in with a bit of daring do heroics and tepid romance.
August 31, 2015
This is the second book I’ve read with the main character named Carson Mach. He’s quite a character, although he isn’t as dangerous or as bad as his past seems to make him sound. In the previous book, “The Atlantis Ship”, Carson comes to the rescue of the Common Wealth from a ship that’s impossible to find and defeat. He does this job masterfully and manages to get all of his past debts paid off. Since he left the Common Wealth Defense Forces, Mach has become a freelancer doing things for customers that aren’t quite illegal but not necessary legal, either! He’s made some friends and a lot of enemies. But in the previous book, he got a new ship and rounded up a crew that seems to be just what he wanted.
In this book, he’s taken on a new mission, a very, very dangerous mission, for which he will get paid extremely well. HIs ship, the Intrepid, Carson and his crew have to go find an OreCorp mining craft, the Voyager, and find out what happened to her cargo. The Voyager was supposed to be delivering her cargo to the planet Noven Alpha, an abandoned mining planet that is supposed to be uninhabited; supposed to be!
Carson starts out this mission badly. He doesn’t tell his crew the full extent of the mission, namely that the cargo the Voyager was carrying is extremely dangerous. There is a very good chance that he, his ship and his crew might not return from this mission! And the second problem he finds is that his best friend and toughest crew member, Sanchez, has got some kind of medical problem that he won’t tell anyone about just yet. It is obviously causing Sanchez some problems because he’s not as energetic as before and it seems to be getting worse.
The story line is kind of predictable. Of course the planet that supposed to be uninhabited is just the opposite. The things there are just as dangerous as the cargo his supposed to find. They run into all sorts of problems, but continue to fight there way out. That’s all I’ll say about this mission, but I will let you know that Carson will be around for other missions.
I was surprised that the author spent so much time analyzing the “feelings” of the crew. Carson, especially, gets mushy over his sick friend and constantly worries about his girlfriend, Adria. That’s kind of strange writing when you’re really about killing aliens and blowing up stuff. Still it makes for a good story if you like the human side of characters.
I’ll continue reading about Carson Mach because the writing is good and I like the style; not all blood and guts, but predictable.
In this book, he’s taken on a new mission, a very, very dangerous mission, for which he will get paid extremely well. HIs ship, the Intrepid, Carson and his crew have to go find an OreCorp mining craft, the Voyager, and find out what happened to her cargo. The Voyager was supposed to be delivering her cargo to the planet Noven Alpha, an abandoned mining planet that is supposed to be uninhabited; supposed to be!
Carson starts out this mission badly. He doesn’t tell his crew the full extent of the mission, namely that the cargo the Voyager was carrying is extremely dangerous. There is a very good chance that he, his ship and his crew might not return from this mission! And the second problem he finds is that his best friend and toughest crew member, Sanchez, has got some kind of medical problem that he won’t tell anyone about just yet. It is obviously causing Sanchez some problems because he’s not as energetic as before and it seems to be getting worse.
The story line is kind of predictable. Of course the planet that supposed to be uninhabited is just the opposite. The things there are just as dangerous as the cargo his supposed to find. They run into all sorts of problems, but continue to fight there way out. That’s all I’ll say about this mission, but I will let you know that Carson will be around for other missions.
I was surprised that the author spent so much time analyzing the “feelings” of the crew. Carson, especially, gets mushy over his sick friend and constantly worries about his girlfriend, Adria. That’s kind of strange writing when you’re really about killing aliens and blowing up stuff. Still it makes for a good story if you like the human side of characters.
I’ll continue reading about Carson Mach because the writing is good and I like the style; not all blood and guts, but predictable.
January 16, 2016
A solid if rather predictable tale, more "military" sci-fi than space opera in my opinion. There's aliens, blood and guts, cool weaponry and a bit of bad language, filled with plenty of action and gritty dialogue. All good stuff. It gallops along a fair old rate as we follow our freelance mercenary crew on a job to distant planets for a hush-hush job where they discover some unexpected things. I powered through this quickly and this is because it's written in a nice style that I thought flowed very well. The story line itself is nothing all that spectacular and I found myself anticipating the plot easily during most of it. Everything ended very much like I thought it would. That said, it's an okay story, enjoyable enough to read so that I never once felt like giving up on it. But it sorely needs a twist in there somewhere, something that will come as a surprise and leave the reader wondering and surprised. Alas, it had so such twist and that was my only disappointment. This author can write pretty good, and if this book had thrown me a storyline curve ball it would be a beauty. Here's another example of quite acceptable indie science fiction that we're seeing more and more of these days. Sort of recommended, a good fun read for a holiday away, etc.
July 13, 2015
This is a great quick paced read, the first page starts mid action and drags you into the story, piquing your interest, making you want to continue reading. As with the first book 'The Atlantis Ship' you may think that the story premises is not new, especially for those familiar to a lot of sci-fi action plots, but A.C. Hadfield, writes it with enough suspense, character development and plot twists to keep you wanting to read on.
Apart from the fast paced action, the character development and world building also deliver. The history of the main characters, which Carson Mach pulled together in the first book, are constantly being revealed throughout the story and through their experiences they grow both individually and as a team. There seems to be a lot of thought put into the back story and universe that these characters inhabit. Things that happened in the first book continue to influence events in the second book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next installment of the Carson Mach Adventures.
I received this as an Advance Copy.
Apart from the fast paced action, the character development and world building also deliver. The history of the main characters, which Carson Mach pulled together in the first book, are constantly being revealed throughout the story and through their experiences they grow both individually and as a team. There seems to be a lot of thought put into the back story and universe that these characters inhabit. Things that happened in the first book continue to influence events in the second book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to the next installment of the Carson Mach Adventures.
I received this as an Advance Copy.
June 8, 2015
Enjoyable read
I enjoyed the characters and want to learn more off their backstory. A grin-worthy moment occupied when a character asked if there was anything that could be done about the jamming ... and the engineer/scientist gave the technically correct answer. As an engineer, technical accuracy will keep me reading an author.
Now I'm off to find out what other books the author has written. I know there is another Carson Mach book, but is he just part of a larger story arch?
I enjoyed the characters and want to learn more off their backstory. A grin-worthy moment occupied when a character asked if there was anything that could be done about the jamming ... and the engineer/scientist gave the technically correct answer. As an engineer, technical accuracy will keep me reading an author.
Now I'm off to find out what other books the author has written. I know there is another Carson Mach book, but is he just part of a larger story arch?
June 9, 2015
In this book Carson Mach is sent to rescue the crew of a lost space ship on the fringes of space. But nothing is simple in the man they nicknamed Bleach’s life. Doomsday devices and Alien invasions and a dying comrade all complicate things to the point of impossibility. There was more character growth in this story than the first with all the familiar action. Fans of the Starship Blackbeard or the Stainless Steel Rat will enjoy these voyages.
June 28, 2015
Carson Mach is back with another job. This time to do something he is not even willing to tell his crew until they are on location and it is time to get to work. Destruction of a weapon that is beyond belief created when then outcome of the Century War was in question. But before destroying the weapon, they find that the planet it is on is not devoid of life like was thought. And they also find out that they do not want to be friends.
Recommended read.
Recommended read.
July 5, 2015
The second outing for Carson Mach and his team of freelancers. This time on a retrieve and destroy mission, which tests the team to its limits. A touch of Starship Troopers, but still a very good read which moves along at a good pace. The team dynamic is very good, with each offering different qualities and talents. You don't have to have read the first book to enjoy, but this book does build on the team bonds developed in The Atlantis Ship.
September 3, 2015
Needs editing
The first chapter revealed some flaws in the structure. An info dump hidden within an action sequence. Worse, the characters doing all this dumping die at the end of the chapter. So most of it is largely irrelevant. I don't like books where you can skip the first chapter and still read the book. Why put all of that there? You just wasted my time.
When the first chapter is poorly written I have no interest in investing more time.
The first chapter revealed some flaws in the structure. An info dump hidden within an action sequence. Worse, the characters doing all this dumping die at the end of the chapter. So most of it is largely irrelevant. I don't like books where you can skip the first chapter and still read the book. Why put all of that there? You just wasted my time.
When the first chapter is poorly written I have no interest in investing more time.
June 28, 2016
The Carson Mach books are the epitome of pulp fiction (science fiction in this case). They're not subtle, they're not super complex, but they're great at what they set out to be. These books are a great romp from start to end, and contain everything you love in pulp - bigass laser cannons, cool guns, green alien babes (and dudes), and a manly-man protagonist. Named Carson Mach, which is about as epic of a pulp name as you can get.
Read them all, especially this one!
Read them all, especially this one!
January 22, 2016
A second dime-a-dozen Carson Mach Adventure. They aren't bad books, they just don't bring anything new to the table. Seriously the best thing the series has going for it is the cover artist. Again, I'm glad I listened, it was good, dumb sci-fi fun, but I'll never listen to it again.
Narration well done.
Narration well done.
January 22, 2016
Solid.
Nice stand-alone quality book with plenty of room left to move either forward or backward in time to develop characters further.
Writing itself could be fleshed out a bit more--not deplorable in any way but it is just missing something that would move this from "good-3 stars" to very good.
Solid choice for a winter day/weekend.
Nice stand-alone quality book with plenty of room left to move either forward or backward in time to develop characters further.
Writing itself could be fleshed out a bit more--not deplorable in any way but it is just missing something that would move this from "good-3 stars" to very good.
Solid choice for a winter day/weekend.
December 31, 2017
Excellent ,
Outstanding story, excellent suspense , and continues battle and shooting aliens .
What more could you ask?
All be looking for the new story's as they arrive .
Outstanding story, excellent suspense , and continues battle and shooting aliens .
What more could you ask?
All be looking for the new story's as they arrive .
July 29, 2015
Same as the last. Fantastic !!!
The line above really says it all. Great story line, not a dull moment. The action you on the edge of your seat, couldn't put it down, it's five o'clock in the morning. I just finished it !
The line above really says it all. Great story line, not a dull moment. The action you on the edge of your seat, couldn't put it down, it's five o'clock in the morning. I just finished it !
August 6, 2015
Another solid entry
I do have one complaint: at around 70%-80% the editing goes off the rails. A lot of missing "a", "or", and "the"s. Nothing major, but annoying.
I really loved the tech aspect, hopefully future entries will have Babcock doing cool stuff with nanos.
I do have one complaint: at around 70%-80% the editing goes off the rails. A lot of missing "a", "or", and "the"s. Nothing major, but annoying.
I really loved the tech aspect, hopefully future entries will have Babcock doing cool stuff with nanos.
September 5, 2015
I'm into a run of "so-so" books. Nothing seems to excite my reading interest. This book had an interesting enough.. start but soon bogged down into character studies. The initial scenes sounded OK but I gave up after 25 percent. Maybe I'll try again some other time.
July 26, 2015
Great adventure
I really enjoyed reading this book because of the aliens. I recommend it because I felt I was there fighting
I really enjoyed reading this book because of the aliens. I recommend it because I felt I was there fighting
August 8, 2015
quick read. full of action. pretty formulaic, though.
September 5, 2015
Space Opera
A action packed sci first page turner. Simple plot line just a fast paced Space Opera. Decent quick read. Fun escape.
A action packed sci first page turner. Simple plot line just a fast paced Space Opera. Decent quick read. Fun escape.
September 7, 2015
A great. Read
A crew of top niche fighting associates make this storyline, a must read. They all became a family in this story.
A crew of top niche fighting associates make this storyline, a must read. They all became a family in this story.
July 13, 2019
Lost nomore
I loved the book. There were many road blocks to overcome but they did it as a team. I think you will enjoy -this book
I loved the book. There were many road blocks to overcome but they did it as a team. I think you will enjoy -this book
September 30, 2016
Meh
Nothing special at all with this book. Characters were decently developed but storyline was pretty weak with a number of unlikely miracles aiding the storyline.
Nothing special at all with this book. Characters were decently developed but storyline was pretty weak with a number of unlikely miracles aiding the storyline.
July 29, 2019
Salīdzinājumā ar pirmo grāmatu sērijā, šitā tāda nedaudz haltūra. Nav tā, ka bija galīgi slikti, bet nu pārāk jau nu viss vienkārši.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews