What do you think?
Rate this book
StarFight #1
Battlestar
Wasp-like aliens kill all the senior officers of the starship fleet led by the Battlestar Lepanto. That puts Ensign Jacob Renselaer on the spot. Can he find out why the aliens killed his ship’s officers? Can he take command of the Battlestar? Does he want to be the leader of ten heavily armed starships that never expected to encounter aliens? Deep in the Kepler 22 star system, mutual misunderstanding between two peoples who cannot speak to each other leads to multiple space battles. Somehow Jacob becomes the leader he never wanted to be. His close friend Daisy the pilot helps him, as do other friends on the Battlestar. On the alien side, Hunter One is determined to kill the invaders who threaten his new colony world. His people the Swarm have never been defeated. Now, he faces Soft Skins who do not flee at the loss of their leaders. In a distant star system, people human and alien die, scheme, and fight for survival. None of them have ever faced combat before. But now, both sides learn what it is like to have someone seek your death and the death of your friends!
- GenresScience Fiction
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 7, 2016
21 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
T. Jackson King
51 books48 followersT. Jackson King (Tom) is an Amazon bestselling science fiction and urban fantasy author. He is a lifelong reader of SciFi/Fantasy stories and his favorite authors have included Darynda Jones, BR Kingsolver, K.F. Breene, Martha Carr, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Andre Norton, J. K. Rowling, Ann Christy, Lois McMaster Bujold and Ursula LeGuin. Outside of fantasy and science fiction he has enjoyed the novels of Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, and the urban fantasy crime mysteries of Darynda Jones.
Tom began writing SF novels at age 38, when he discovered he had read all the Human-Alien first contact or encounter novels in his local library. So he decided to write his own, thanks to an overactive, very visual imagination. Those early years produced FIRST CONTACT and RETREAD SHOP. When the New York City publishing houses ignored his later novels because they had no Hollywood tie-in, he went to several small presses, then began self-publishing as an Indy author in 2011. He loves that readers in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are some of his most loyal readers!
Before becoming a bestselling author, Tom worked in a radiocarbon lab at UC Riverside and earned an MA degree in Archaeology from UCLA. His interests in ancient history, ancient cultures and journalism got him several government agency jobs that led him to roam the raw landscape of the Western United States where he worked as a federal archaeologist and newspaper journalist.
Tom lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and hangs with a group of smart and tolerant Westerners. Divorce taught him to smile a lot and to work at being a Nice Guy. Which earned him the love of his wife Sue. Still, he is pretty weird. Has been since fourth grade when he began reading SciFi. Since then, he and Authority have rarely been in agreement. Readers are welcome to visit his T. Jackson King page.
Tom began writing SF novels at age 38, when he discovered he had read all the Human-Alien first contact or encounter novels in his local library. So he decided to write his own, thanks to an overactive, very visual imagination. Those early years produced FIRST CONTACT and RETREAD SHOP. When the New York City publishing houses ignored his later novels because they had no Hollywood tie-in, he went to several small presses, then began self-publishing as an Indy author in 2011. He loves that readers in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are some of his most loyal readers!
Before becoming a bestselling author, Tom worked in a radiocarbon lab at UC Riverside and earned an MA degree in Archaeology from UCLA. His interests in ancient history, ancient cultures and journalism got him several government agency jobs that led him to roam the raw landscape of the Western United States where he worked as a federal archaeologist and newspaper journalist.
Tom lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA and hangs with a group of smart and tolerant Westerners. Divorce taught him to smile a lot and to work at being a Nice Guy. Which earned him the love of his wife Sue. Still, he is pretty weird. Has been since fourth grade when he began reading SciFi. Since then, he and Authority have rarely been in agreement. Readers are welcome to visit his T. Jackson King page.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 5, 2019
When humans discover intelligent wasp-like aliens on a distant world, things go wrong quickly. Ensign Jacob Renselaer soon finds himself in command of the exploration fleet and has to try to understand the motivations of the aliens even as they launch an assault on the fleet. An interesting premise, good action, and characters I cared about. What's more, the action is set on planets discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. A fun read.
March 20, 2018
Author’s PC Agenda Outdated, Distracting — Misguided Mess
Most, many, all (?) authors have an agenda. This book, author is pretty blatant regarding his. He comments on every single character in the story,including ‘guests’, on their nationality, ethnicity, sexual persuasion, skin tone, sex...... Everything! And then, when he believes the character is a political correctness issue, he then goes on to ‘legitimize’ the person’s right to be on spaceship with that character’s Schooling, experience, expertise. This would have made more sense 50 years ago. Unbelievable!
The aliens are kinda like Wasps, thingies that real people, here and now on planet Earth, confuse w bees. A good portion of story has their POV. And authors portrayal of their thoughts, speech, etc. is like current Earth like Wasps would think and act. It takes a HUGE LEAP to believe that they are a sentient, spacefaring species.
Last, to write in Mil genre.... that’s outrageous. Don’t care if he served or not, but he could at least research like others. Mr King, just for your education, which is probably way more than mine, Small Unit TO and tactics were developed by German Stormtroopers over 100 years ago. Most current military tactics, philosophy used today were developed, refined, used over 100 years ago, such as combined arms.
And around 70% positive reviews? Good Grief.
Most, many, all (?) authors have an agenda. This book, author is pretty blatant regarding his. He comments on every single character in the story,including ‘guests’, on their nationality, ethnicity, sexual persuasion, skin tone, sex...... Everything! And then, when he believes the character is a political correctness issue, he then goes on to ‘legitimize’ the person’s right to be on spaceship with that character’s Schooling, experience, expertise. This would have made more sense 50 years ago. Unbelievable!
The aliens are kinda like Wasps, thingies that real people, here and now on planet Earth, confuse w bees. A good portion of story has their POV. And authors portrayal of their thoughts, speech, etc. is like current Earth like Wasps would think and act. It takes a HUGE LEAP to believe that they are a sentient, spacefaring species.
Last, to write in Mil genre.... that’s outrageous. Don’t care if he served or not, but he could at least research like others. Mr King, just for your education, which is probably way more than mine, Small Unit TO and tactics were developed by German Stormtroopers over 100 years ago. Most current military tactics, philosophy used today were developed, refined, used over 100 years ago, such as combined arms.
And around 70% positive reviews? Good Grief.
September 19, 2016
Great read
I have enjoyed reading this book, following the trials of a young ensign and his friends. They are forced into a battle none of them expected. Meeting a new enemy who in one stroke have wiped out the officers of the fleet.
I have enjoyed reading this book, following the trials of a young ensign and his friends. They are forced into a battle none of them expected. Meeting a new enemy who in one stroke have wiped out the officers of the fleet.
October 12, 2021
The author has not a basic grasp of military tactics and operations, not nitpicking here but why write about something if your knowledge base is Hollywood movies?
DNF
DNF
October 11, 2016
Great
Yes this excellent and contains well crafted characters and very lively plot development. It is fast paced but also very detailed and highly recommended.
Yes this excellent and contains well crafted characters and very lively plot development. It is fast paced but also very detailed and highly recommended.
March 27, 2017
Entertaining Read
Fun story about an unlikely hero who makes the most of the opportunity given to him by fate. Even though it is not a classic page turner it's still worth taking the time to read.
Fun story about an unlikely hero who makes the most of the opportunity given to him by fate. Even though it is not a classic page turner it's still worth taking the time to read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews