Enduring Endurance

Endurance #1

by A.C. Spahn

Alternate Cover Edition: B00EHLWGTQ

Infusing the traditional science fiction format with humor and awkward coworkers, Enduring Endurance follows the not-so-best-and-brightest of humanity as they explore the galaxy by accident.

Captain Thomas Withers expects the worst when he’s assigned command of the Endurance, the least-respected ship in the United Earth Law Enforcement fleet. He gets it, and then some.

After a poorly executed experiment throws Thomas and his crew out of Earth’s solar system and into humanity’s first meeting with aliens, he must rely on the outcasts of the corps, not only to get home, but to survive the trip at all.

Genres: Science Fiction

67 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2013

About the author

A. C. Spahn wanted to be an interstellar starship captain when she grew up. Since nobody was hiring, she became a writer instead.

She enjoys breaking boards with her fists, organizing messy rooms, and debating the physics of fictional technologies. When not commanding imaginary starships, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and kids.

She is the author of the USA Today bestselling Endurance series, the “Cara Watt, P.I.” stories on Daily Science Fiction, and other short pieces published by Flash Fiction Online, Star*Line, and more.

Reviews

[Ken Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always liked the lighter side of SF (Fredric Brown, Harry Harrison, Douglas Adams, etc.) and "Enduring Endurance" by A. C. Spahn ticks all the right boxes.
Capt. Thomas Withers saves a woman during a covert operation and inadvertently ends an ongoing 5-year investigation.
The powers that be are less than happy but, due to the publicity his 'heroic' act received, can't fire him.
Instead he's put in charge of the Endurance, widely considered the armpit of the United Earth Law Enforcement fleet.
He's no sooner started putting manners on his motley crew when the ship is transported 25 light years away and, unless they can find a supply of a rare metal, it's a loooong way home.
On the plus side he's discovered (a) Intelligent life x 2, and (b) FTL. There is, however, the small matter of starting an alien rebellion and, possibly, initiating a war between Earth and the Haxozin.
All in a day's work for Capt. Withers!
It's good fun and a very fast read (63 pages on my tablet).
3 Stars.

[Evita · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this short story more than the actual short story. After reading The Long Way To A Short Angry Planet I was really in the mood to read more SF with a lovable cast. This story did an... okay(?) job in introducing characters. Mostly they just seemed like card board cut-out of popular characters but again, with the extremely short length of this book I want to be lenient. The plot was very bizar, but it was intereseting to read scifi about a world before other alien species where discovered. But still there wasn't much substance. I want to read the next stories but I don't know when I'm in the mood. Maybe theyll do a better job to make me root for the characters.

[Don · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book feels like a third-grader came up with a story line, then gave the story to a baseline-literate adult to write. Sorry, this just isn’t very good sci-fi. It’s not very good anything.

If you’re looking for a good space travel/adventure book, I would definitely read Becky Chambers’ A Long Way To a Small, Angry Planet. That book has developed characters that you actually care about, well thought-out science, and an intriguing plot. This book’s not even close to having those attributes.

[Tonya OK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just to be clear, if you are expecting a serious sci-fi story, this isn’t it. To be fair, I think it’s pretty clear it’s not meant to be taken that way. I am not sure whether it would be accurate to call it a satire, but it’s meant to be a light, amusing, take in the genre. Less sci-fi per se and more a humorous story using sci-fi as the genre of choice. The story moves fast, the characters are quirky and, as long as you don’t expect any sophisticated plot or science, it’s a very entertaining read.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so many space opera / ensemble cast sci-fi stories out there - and many are really good. Even light-hearted ones can be really good. This isn't one of them. It's OK.

I'm also disappointed in a female author who fails the Bechdel test. There are three(?) female characters, but they don't seem to interact despite being on the same crew. (The airheaded medical officer, the shy security chief, and I think there's a wife of one of the other characters.)

I will continue the series since I already own it and each story is pretty short. Maybe there will be more depth later?

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 3 out of 5]

The start was good--but then it dragged. Mainly because I didn't like the main character. He kept messing up and being stubborn about it. But the ending redeemed the whole story and got me interested enough to try the next book.

[This was more of a novella--pretty quick read]

[Marieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very basic story, more of a parody than a pastiche, but servicable.

[Steve Lundh · Rating 3 out of 5]

SF with humor and a quick read. Not a lot of twists and turns which is why I gave it 3 stars but still a fun book.

[Awesome Indies Book Awards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome Indies Book Awards is pleased to include ENDURING ENDURANCE (Endurance #1) by A. C. SPAHN in the library of Awesome Indies' Badge of Approval recipients




Get past the awkward title. The name of the space craft is “Endurance” and the new captain, Captain Thomas Withers, has to endure his time on the ship.

“Endurance” has become the dumping ground for the United Earth Law enforcement (UELE) Corps. It is variously called the “Misfit”, the “Dead End”, the “Quacker Barrel” and Withers has been promoted to its Captain as punishment for putting the life of a hostage ahead of the success of a five-year operation.

Add a crew of out of this world characters and a janitor – sorry, “Cleaning Enforcement Specialist” – who seems to know much more than you’d expect him to, and you got a pretty good tale.

The “Endurance’s” remit is to patrol around Neptune, staying out of everybody’s way and out of trouble. A boring way to end a career, but Withers has plans to shape up the crew with some old-fashioned discipline, and angle a transfer off to a better ship.

Then his Chief Engineer, Matthias Habassa, finally gets a decades old experiment to work and *pop*, they’re 20 light years away. The first Earth ship to leave the solar system.

The adventures experienced while sourcing more minerals needed to make the trip home make up the best part of the story.

And this is a short story. At roughly 22k words it was an easy single sitter. Amy Spahn appears to be creating a series of these. I’ve bookmarked the next one. It looks like it will be a good read also.

The characters are well drawn, although the Captain is a bit too morose for a bit too long (the only thing, in my opinion, keeping it from being a full 5-star). The ship and world is believable and the pace fantastic. I’ve got no problem giving Enduring Endurance a solid 4 stars.

[Connick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a brave choice of title, as I guess we’ve all had to endure tedious books in our time. Thankfully Enduring Endurance is lightyears from tedium. It is a fast, exciting adventure, wrapped up in around 80 pages. It begins with a fairly Star Trekie vision of future Earth with our hero, a discredited lieutenant being promoted to Captain of a space ship full of similarly disgraced crew, for allowing his moral fibre to take precedence over orders, effectively side-lining him for the rest of his career. He begins his new role by taking a strict authoritarian tack (determined to make good of a bad situation) with limited success, as the Endurance begins its tour of the most desolate reaches of the solar system. It isn’t long however, before the ship is sent massively off course and the crew are forced to forget their differences and work together to find a way to return home. As events spiral out of the group’s control, there are alien encounters, not all of them friendly or resolved without a battle.

This was a very enjoyable page-turner and a great start to what I’m sure will be a thrilling series of books. If I were to offer some constructive criticism… it is a short story with a lot going on, so there is a lack of suspense, building tension and peril. It seemed like each situation was resolved a little too quickly and then on to the next. I also feel that this type of book: short, exciting, action packed, and part of a sequence of stories (I believe four have been released so far) would lend itself very well to a cliff-hanger ending, to get the reader scurrying to find the next instalment to find out what happens. A bit cheeky perhaps, but I wouldn’t have had a problem with that. This is not to suggest that the actual ending is unsatisfying.

I received this book free from Awesome Indies Books in return for an honest review.

[Shauna Bickley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sits as easily in humour or adventure with space as the backdrop as it does science fiction. The quirky characters take centre-stage and drive the story, rather than technology and plot.

Thomas Withers has just been promoted to Captain of the space ship Endurance, but he’s not happy. He had ‘…dreamed about this day from childhood. Now he was here, he wished he’d stayed in bed.’ One of the things I enjoyed most is the quietly ironic tone of the writing which remains true throughout the book.

We discover the captain’s promising career has come to a resounding halt after putting the life of a hostage ahead of an operation. This act endears him to the reader and ensures we are on his side as he is assigned to lead a ship of misfits. What he finds is a group of quirky individuals with their own reasons for being on the Endurance

Thomas has plans to improve the discipline of the crew and therefore his own future options, but he doesn't have time to implement them before one of the chief engineer’s experiments finally works. The result is that Thomas and his crew are the first humans to leave the universe. While trying to reproduce the experiment so they can return home, they discover not one but two alien species.

The writing is crisp, and the character interactions humorous and honest as Thomas discovers that even a group of individuals who have been written off can pull together and create some surprising results.

This book is called Episode 1, and ‘episode’ describes the novella length and shape of the book perfectly. I’m looking forward to reading Episode 2.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Jeff Adkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an entertaining story built on solid characters. It reminds me of Keith Laumer's Retief series but is not as formulaic as those stories. The story continues in subsequent downloads... I recommend it. Very funny.

[Janine Southard · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Solid first episode in a new series. Perhaps a bit simplistic, but that's how pilot episodes have to be. I went out and bought the next one right after finishing this.