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Welcome to Petra.
It is the ultimate prison. Inmates from all of Ported Space are dumped there, forgotten, and left to survive however they can. Hope dies. Escape is impossible.
Disillusioned war hero Kane Pythen comes to Petra on a fact-finding mission, but gets caught in an uprising that threatens to expose a shattering secret. And Rolf Ankledge, Petra’s ruthless warden, will stop at nothing to keep it from reaching Ported Space. If Kane involves himself, he risks losing everything he has. If he does nothing, he betrays the last shreds of his ideals.
The prison break of the millennium is on. Now Kane must race against time and vicious forces from all over Petra if he ever wants to see his wife and daughter again.
Petra is the first book in The Prison World Revolt series.
It is the ultimate prison. Inmates from all of Ported Space are dumped there, forgotten, and left to survive however they can. Hope dies. Escape is impossible.
Disillusioned war hero Kane Pythen comes to Petra on a fact-finding mission, but gets caught in an uprising that threatens to expose a shattering secret. And Rolf Ankledge, Petra’s ruthless warden, will stop at nothing to keep it from reaching Ported Space. If Kane involves himself, he risks losing everything he has. If he does nothing, he betrays the last shreds of his ideals.
The prison break of the millennium is on. Now Kane must race against time and vicious forces from all over Petra if he ever wants to see his wife and daughter again.
Petra is the first book in The Prison World Revolt series.
- GenresScience Fiction
316 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 15, 2015
24 people want to read
About the author
Matthew S. Rotundo
14 books16 followersMatt wrote his first story—”The Elephant and the Cheese”—when he was eight years old. It was the first time he had ever filled an entire page with writing. To his young mind, that seemed like a major accomplishment. It occurred to him shortly thereafter that writing stories was what he wanted to do with his life.
Matt gravitated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror at an early age, too. He discovered Ray Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn” in a grade school reader, and read it over and over whenever he got bored in class. (Needless to say, he read it a lot.) Other classics soon followed—Dune and Lord of the Rings and Foundation, the usual suspects. As a boy, he often pretended his bicycle was Shadowfax, and that he was Gandalf, riding like mad for Minas Tirith. Yeah, he was that kind of kid. Half the time, his family and friends didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
Matt’s story “Alan Smithee Lives in Hell” placed second in the 1997 Science Fiction Writers of Earth Contest. In 1998, he attended Odyssey. The workshop led directly to his first sale—”Black Boxes,” in Absolute Magnitude. In 2002, Matt won a Phobos Award for “Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown.” He was a 2008 winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. He has since continued to publish in various magazines.
Matt lives in Nebraska. He has husked corn only once in his life, and has never been detasseling, so he insists he is not a hick.
Matt gravitated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror at an early age, too. He discovered Ray Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn” in a grade school reader, and read it over and over whenever he got bored in class. (Needless to say, he read it a lot.) Other classics soon followed—Dune and Lord of the Rings and Foundation, the usual suspects. As a boy, he often pretended his bicycle was Shadowfax, and that he was Gandalf, riding like mad for Minas Tirith. Yeah, he was that kind of kid. Half the time, his family and friends didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
Matt’s story “Alan Smithee Lives in Hell” placed second in the 1997 Science Fiction Writers of Earth Contest. In 1998, he attended Odyssey. The workshop led directly to his first sale—”Black Boxes,” in Absolute Magnitude. In 2002, Matt won a Phobos Award for “Hitting the Skids in Pixeltown.” He was a 2008 winner in the Writers of the Future Contest. He has since continued to publish in various magazines.
Matt lives in Nebraska. He has husked corn only once in his life, and has never been detasseling, so he insists he is not a hick.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 9, 2017
I really enjoyed Petra and give it 4.5 stars. Petra is a prison planet that the worst of the worst criminals are sent to for life. And life really means life there. However not all is as it seems, and lots of powerful people have some pretty dark secrets that they will do anything to make sure they stay secret.
The novel is full of interesting characters. Most of them are the ultimate in anti-heroes and some are just plain villainous. Our main protagonist Kane, is the classic reluctant hero but the reader can really relate to his struggles. Kane has strong morals and he can see what is happening on Petra is wrong but at the same time all he really wants is to live in peace with his wife and baby daughter and so really doesn’t want to get involved. That idea doesn’t really work out. When he gets stuck on Petra and has to escape he really starts to develop and grow as both a person and as a hero and I can’t wait to see how he continues to grow in the next books.
Petra is really well edited and I didn’t find any grammar or spelling mistakes. It reads really smoothly and I read it in four days which is really fast for me as I tend to read quite slowly in a digital format.
The novel is action packed so there is never a dull moment, I kept finding myself saying that I would read for just one more chapter and then actually do some work, but then found myself saying the same thing again and again. The end of the novel really leaves you wanting more so I would definitely be interested in carrying on with this series.
I recommend this this book for any keen space opera fans and I also think that people who appreciate thrillers would enjoy this as well.
I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The novel is full of interesting characters. Most of them are the ultimate in anti-heroes and some are just plain villainous. Our main protagonist Kane, is the classic reluctant hero but the reader can really relate to his struggles. Kane has strong morals and he can see what is happening on Petra is wrong but at the same time all he really wants is to live in peace with his wife and baby daughter and so really doesn’t want to get involved. That idea doesn’t really work out. When he gets stuck on Petra and has to escape he really starts to develop and grow as both a person and as a hero and I can’t wait to see how he continues to grow in the next books.
Petra is really well edited and I didn’t find any grammar or spelling mistakes. It reads really smoothly and I read it in four days which is really fast for me as I tend to read quite slowly in a digital format.
The novel is action packed so there is never a dull moment, I kept finding myself saying that I would read for just one more chapter and then actually do some work, but then found myself saying the same thing again and again. The end of the novel really leaves you wanting more so I would definitely be interested in carrying on with this series.
I recommend this this book for any keen space opera fans and I also think that people who appreciate thrillers would enjoy this as well.
I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2016
Reading this, I found the characters immediately engaging. The conflict is well constructed, and the plot moves forward with the stakes rising at every turn. Once I started the book, I had to finish it all in one sitting. Now I’m hungry for the sequel.
December 5, 2021
Read for 2021 SPSFC
Overall Thoughts
This one was interesting to place in this list. I felt like I wanted to know the characters more than I did, but at the same time I also wanted to learn more about the world outside the planet, Petra, where all the action takes place. Petra is definitely a space opera, except the entire story is on one planet, and we don’t really see any of the movers and shakers behind how things got started. That said, it gives a nice, focused look at a heist story for a planet that is meant to be an inescapable prison.
Plot
The story starts with some history on the main character, Kane, who’s coming in to talk with the chief warden of Petra, an entire world meant to act as a prison. The subject matter is to be whether Kane can negotiate his planet joining the consortium of worlds that use the prison planet. It will be a betrayal of his ideals to do so, but all that goes out the window quickly as a group attempts to break free of the prison, dragging Kane into the plot to work against the omniscient controls of the warden.
Setting
This uses a really interesting concept of an entire world as a prison. It’s not new—it’s certainly been used in space opera before, but rarely do we have a book focused on the prison world and what its ramifications are. That said, I felt some of the worldbuilding could have been stronger in this one. It actually took me a good third of the book before I figured out that the world is just an open colony world. The only reason it’s a prison is because there is restricted travel to and from it. This puts things into a much different perspective—the warden is allowing tribes, factions, and even kingdoms to vie against each other, and people are born on this world, confined only from the sins of their parents. I wanted to lean into this more while reading, but although we do see some interaction with one of the feudal kingdoms, I wanted more. There are other books in the series, so perhaps there is more detail in those. As I said above, I also wanted more information on the other planets, what their disputes were, and why they sent people to this planet. Basically, I felt this book could have been just a little longer to help build out some of the reasons why the characters acted as they did.
Character
Kane is a great everyman POV to learn about the world as we dig deeper in it, but I also found myself wanting a little more about him. We find out some about his family, and ties he has to Petra itself, but a lot of them felt tenuous. I wanted stronger ties to bind him to the crew that’s trying to escape. Speaking of which, the crew and the warder are the other major players, and I actually found myself learning the most about the warden’s character over the length of the book. There are several people in the crew escaping, and some of them tend to blend together, meaning injuries and deaths that happen are not as impactful as I would have liked. Again, there may be more of this in the sequels, but this book doesn’t entice me quite enough to read them. But it might for you, and I’d encourage you to give it a read!
Score out of 10 (My personal score, not the final contest score)
Temporary score until more books in the contest are read: An interesting space opera/escape heist from a prison planet. Cool action, but I could have used more attachment to the characters. 6/10.
Overall Thoughts
This one was interesting to place in this list. I felt like I wanted to know the characters more than I did, but at the same time I also wanted to learn more about the world outside the planet, Petra, where all the action takes place. Petra is definitely a space opera, except the entire story is on one planet, and we don’t really see any of the movers and shakers behind how things got started. That said, it gives a nice, focused look at a heist story for a planet that is meant to be an inescapable prison.
Plot
The story starts with some history on the main character, Kane, who’s coming in to talk with the chief warden of Petra, an entire world meant to act as a prison. The subject matter is to be whether Kane can negotiate his planet joining the consortium of worlds that use the prison planet. It will be a betrayal of his ideals to do so, but all that goes out the window quickly as a group attempts to break free of the prison, dragging Kane into the plot to work against the omniscient controls of the warden.
Setting
This uses a really interesting concept of an entire world as a prison. It’s not new—it’s certainly been used in space opera before, but rarely do we have a book focused on the prison world and what its ramifications are. That said, I felt some of the worldbuilding could have been stronger in this one. It actually took me a good third of the book before I figured out that the world is just an open colony world. The only reason it’s a prison is because there is restricted travel to and from it. This puts things into a much different perspective—the warden is allowing tribes, factions, and even kingdoms to vie against each other, and people are born on this world, confined only from the sins of their parents. I wanted to lean into this more while reading, but although we do see some interaction with one of the feudal kingdoms, I wanted more. There are other books in the series, so perhaps there is more detail in those. As I said above, I also wanted more information on the other planets, what their disputes were, and why they sent people to this planet. Basically, I felt this book could have been just a little longer to help build out some of the reasons why the characters acted as they did.
Character
Kane is a great everyman POV to learn about the world as we dig deeper in it, but I also found myself wanting a little more about him. We find out some about his family, and ties he has to Petra itself, but a lot of them felt tenuous. I wanted stronger ties to bind him to the crew that’s trying to escape. Speaking of which, the crew and the warder are the other major players, and I actually found myself learning the most about the warden’s character over the length of the book. There are several people in the crew escaping, and some of them tend to blend together, meaning injuries and deaths that happen are not as impactful as I would have liked. Again, there may be more of this in the sequels, but this book doesn’t entice me quite enough to read them. But it might for you, and I’d encourage you to give it a read!
Score out of 10 (My personal score, not the final contest score)
Temporary score until more books in the contest are read: An interesting space opera/escape heist from a prison planet. Cool action, but I could have used more attachment to the characters. 6/10.
April 24, 2019
Fantastic 1st book! Ready to start book 2!
Great book, really got hooked into the characters as the story progressed. The plot itself plays out really nicely, and it was refreshing to read a story this original, and that pulls you into the universe the author has created.
Great book, really got hooked into the characters as the story progressed. The plot itself plays out really nicely, and it was refreshing to read a story this original, and that pulls you into the universe the author has created.
July 12, 2016
Although not overly compelling, I thought this was a solid read. It's a "prison break" story, but with a new spin. The prison is an entire planet, and there are no walls. Instead, the prisoners are just dropped off in the wilderness and left to fend for themselves. Matthew Rotundo puts up a pretty good argument for how this kind of scenario would play out. The results of letting hordes of thiefs, murderers, and rapists run amok are unsurprisingly awful, and here we come to the next important idea: a lot of these prisoners don't deserve to be there. A group of them puts an elaborate plan in motion, but escape isn't the only goal. They're setting out to start a revolution.
I'll say this: it's a well-written story. The author does a great job of abiding by the "show, don't tell" rule, which means the plot moves along at a good pace. I never got the opportunity to get bored. The final fifty pages were very tense, and definitely the best part of the book. The characters' individual motivations make complete sense. And as I mentioned, there's some good world-building here. It's all very sensibly done.
So why is this a three-star read, not five-star? As a whole, the story just never quite managed to connect with its own potential. For example, Southland. We get a preview of the Bone Tribes: the very worst criminals, who've banded together and torture, murder, and cannibalize anyone unfortunate enough to be dropped off in their territory. We hear what they do to women who fall into their hands, and yes, it's horrible. I feel like we were set up for an encounter with these monsters, but the scene never materializes. The same goes for the political landscape. We get a sense of the endemic corruption necessary to make a prison world like Petra a reality, but the juicy stuff is mentioned secondhand.
Basically, all the fascinating parts of this setting exist outside the plotline. The places and the characters that do find their way into the story just fall short of being all that interesting. I'm not going to say the story was bland, because that wouldn't be fair. But it does need some seasoning.
I'll say this: it's a well-written story. The author does a great job of abiding by the "show, don't tell" rule, which means the plot moves along at a good pace. I never got the opportunity to get bored. The final fifty pages were very tense, and definitely the best part of the book. The characters' individual motivations make complete sense. And as I mentioned, there's some good world-building here. It's all very sensibly done.
So why is this a three-star read, not five-star? As a whole, the story just never quite managed to connect with its own potential. For example, Southland. We get a preview of the Bone Tribes: the very worst criminals, who've banded together and torture, murder, and cannibalize anyone unfortunate enough to be dropped off in their territory. We hear what they do to women who fall into their hands, and yes, it's horrible. I feel like we were set up for an encounter with these monsters, but the scene never materializes. The same goes for the political landscape. We get a sense of the endemic corruption necessary to make a prison world like Petra a reality, but the juicy stuff is mentioned secondhand.
Basically, all the fascinating parts of this setting exist outside the plotline. The places and the characters that do find their way into the story just fall short of being all that interesting. I'm not going to say the story was bland, because that wouldn't be fair. But it does need some seasoning.
July 6, 2016
A well-done science fiction story that questions what is justice and what is justified in incarceration. Kane goes to Petra for a tour to advise his world's government on whether to contract with the prison system that is Petra. On Petra, the world is the prison and administration and the warden are safe behind the walls. Safe until the prisoners break in. The inmates, headed by a dissident that Kane met 15 years ago, who was presumed to be dead, see this inspection as the opportunity to get the word out to the public of what is really happening on Petra. Kane, who sympathizes but isn't sure he wants to lose what he has accomplished and he believes in fighting from inside the system. Now, he must make choices because more is going on than he ever consciously realized.
The writing is well done. The characters are developed. Technology and world building are accomplished and understandable without any technobabble. The plot moves along at a good pace. The underlying question of how this reflects our own system of incarceration, including the for-profit prisons, comes to mind, but those who don't like moral questions in their stories can easily ignore it.
Thank you to the author and his proofreaders! It was a relief not to have spelling, grammar, punctuation or typographical errors!
The writing is well done. The characters are developed. Technology and world building are accomplished and understandable without any technobabble. The plot moves along at a good pace. The underlying question of how this reflects our own system of incarceration, including the for-profit prisons, comes to mind, but those who don't like moral questions in their stories can easily ignore it.
Thank you to the author and his proofreaders! It was a relief not to have spelling, grammar, punctuation or typographical errors!
October 27, 2021
As the blurb says - a revolt on a prison planet. Kane Pythen, war hero, is sent to report whether or not his home planet, Juris, should join the Compact funding Petra. What he finds horrifies him but before he is able to return home to make his report he is embroiled in a well-planned escape attempt...
The background to the book is detailed enough and the use of an entire planet to restrain 'criminals' (use of the '...' there is deliberate) while not entirely original is here fleshed out well. The main characters perform well - no one is entirely black-or-white, with fears and hopes contributing to their actions.
There is an extended extract from Book 2 in the series - which is well worth following on the strength of this opener.
The background to the book is detailed enough and the use of an entire planet to restrain 'criminals' (use of the '...' there is deliberate) while not entirely original is here fleshed out well. The main characters perform well - no one is entirely black-or-white, with fears and hopes contributing to their actions.
There is an extended extract from Book 2 in the series - which is well worth following on the strength of this opener.
July 11, 2016
Too sophisticated to hang the Space Opera label (not that there is anything wrong with that) on, but with all the high speed twists and turns just the same. I could find nothing to dislike here. Our hero and a (literally) rag-tag band of inmates taking on the bad gorilla of a prison planet and it's absolute ruler. You get your plot, your characters, clever dialogue, action enough for anyone and refreshingly, a ruthless bad guy operating more business-like than is the usual and with relatively realistic sociopathic personal motivations. The ending was worthy of everything the crazy ride promised. Just really tight and good SF. There are some surprises here.
January 14, 2016
Rotundo creates a prison planet space opera that is both familiar within genre confines and freshly unique characters and plot twists. Kane is our apathetic reluctant hero, ready to exit the sphere of intergalactic politics who gets stuck on Ankledge's corrupt prison world, where everything starts to fall apart. Ankledge shifts from ruthless and powerful to desperate and failing as our hero Kane begins to like revolution he is thrust into and leads a tough group against nearly unbeatable odds few can survive, although not everything goes as plans.
June 28, 2016
Review to follow
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews