The Shadow Order

The Shadow Order #1

by Michael Robertson

Librarian Note: Alternate Title and Cover Edition for ASIN: B01EPTM89W.

Seb Zodo lives on the dusty planet of Danu. He’s an unemployed dropout who makes his money fighting in bars and taking a cut of the winnings from the touts.

Having never lost a fight, Seb is addicted to the adrenaline of the duel. So when he makes a promise to leave brawling behind, his world’s turned on its head. Especially when he finds himself with no money on a hostile planet where the fighting pits offer more than Seb has ever won before.

Trapped and with no way out, Seb must decide whether to fight or not.

Every decision he makes with his fists seems to throw his life into deeper chaos, but he’s already hit rock bottom.

With the smell of blood and sweat from the fighting pits in his nostrils, Seb watches the current champion. The hairs on the back of his neck raise. He can win. He can claim the purse.

But, if he steps into the ring, it won’t end with the last punch.

If Seb fights again, he knows his life will spiral out of control ...




The Black Hole is a fast-paced, planet-hopping, space opera adventure.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Aliens, Amazon, Fantasy, Audiobook

175 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 23, 2016

About the author

Michael Robertson is an author and blogger. He has had several short stories published, including one with HarperCollins. He is the author of Crash - http://michaelrobertson.co.uk/crash--...

You can connect with Michael on Twitter at @MicRobertson, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelRober... and you can also contact him through his website at www.michaelrobertson.co.uk

Reviews

[Jaffa Kintigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Filtered through the lens of a selfish, short sighted man-child, the world-building for this series fails to engage. This, despite the great world-building provided by a precursor short story to this world called "The Arena" which accomplished much and to great effect.

Seb Zobo is a self-absorbed fighter by nature with the remarkable--if not superhero--ability to slo-mo his perception of time and to spot the ultimate weaknesses in any challenger's body. It doesn't matter if he's never met a species of alien before, he can discern the one spot that will bring them down with a single punch. Conveniently, every species of alien has that one spot. Nearly every species is also taller than humans, smells of feces and has bad breath.

The redundancy of every encounter is taxing. And the plot, while driven, doesn't satisfy or grow the hero to a likable level.

The strength of "The Arena" is utterly missing here. All other series by this author are recommended over this galactic tale. I've previously reviewed this author's:
      The Alpha Plague --5 stars
      The Alpha Plague 2 --4 stars
      The Alpha Plague 3 --5 stars
      The Alpha Plague 4 --4 stars
     "The Arena"--5 stars
      Crash (Crash, #1)--4 stars
      New Reality: Truth (New Reality, #1)--3 stars
      New Reality 2: Justice (New Reality, #2)--4 stars
      New Reality 3: Fear (New Reality, #3)--3 stars

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable read.

[D.S. Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

'A legacy left behind from his ancestors, Seb had to pay the price for their murderous domination of the galaxy.'

Another fantastic start to another fantastic series by Michael.

Seb is a fighter, he has abilities no others have.
He sets out on a path to stop fighting like he promised his dad. But it seems the fights always come to him.

This is like one punch man in space 👌
Another Brilliant lead character and its looking like another brilliant story.

'Welcome to the team.'

[Sander · Rating 1 out of 5]

can be described in one word: repetitive
two thirds of the book to tell us the protagonist can punch, doesn't want to punch, but still punches, which he didn't want to do
then they're suddenly in Khazad-dum, running from a balrog, diving into a passage which the monster shall not pass!
drawn out prologue for a hopefully better book 2

[Woody James · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read.

A little unbelievable at times but fun. I'm not sure if it was something I had read about the but I kept waiting for the offer of joining the secret service to come from Sparks.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall good read but with a YA feel. Could benefit from additional editing

The Good
- Great action scenes. Well-detailed, fast paced, very cinematic.
- Had a very visual Star Wars inspired feel, especially with aliens.
- Interesting environments. Loved the use of odd weather.
- I liked the backstory involving humanity and what it meant for the protagonist.
- Couldn't put the book down once it got going (about 1/3 in)
- The main character is flawed enough to be interesting. You know he's usually going to the right thing, but he messes up a lot too and is tempted by selfishness.

The Bad
- Had a very boring and non space-opera feel for first 30% of book.
- I had trouble accepting a basic premise of the story: that the main character could confidently resolve ALL fights, regardless of circumstance, with one punch.
- No major plot arc. Reads like a fantasy travel-adventure but without a quest of any kind. The main characters are young, have no goal, and are completely reactionary. There's no moment where they make a choice and set out to accomplish something beyond moment-to-moment survival.
- The most significant character change and proactive choice of the protagonist happens "off-camera" during a time jump between two chapters.

The Ugly
- A few minor spelling and formatting issues, but not too many.
- The protagonist's behavior, overall theme, and narrator's use of modern slang seemed juvenile and may "draw aggro".
- The repetitious use of mixed metaphors were sharp enough to slice bread. If only the book's editor could cut so well.

[Tristan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This novella “stars” a whining man-baby with mommy and daddy issues, who has the superpower of always winning in a fistfight. So he punches people. In space. Constantly. That’s basically it.

From time to time, his superpower conveniently allows him to dodge blaster rays, find ways out of places, find his way around places ... you get the idea. It’s a computer game player aid. The descriptions of his use of the power are repetitive to the point of annoyance, as are most descriptions of places, beings, events ... There’s such a narrow range of word choice. The narrative lacks any internal logic or sense of cause and consequence even from paragraph to paragraph within a scene let alone between scenes.

Every alien is described as ugly and smelly, and all aliens hate humans. I’m not surprised when they’re this xenophobic in outlook. You can’t find a more hackneyed theme outside a bad western.

Lacking imagination and originality, this is puerile rubbish from concept to execution, just a lot of running around in guise of a Star Wars ripoff. And the Shadow Order of the title is just a Deus Ex Machina twist in the last couple of pages to close this book and set up a series.

Which I will definitely not be reading.

[Matthew O'Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like "Star Wars" (just the part about the Ragnarok) and Gladiator combined. There was a character I couldn't stand in the book. Two, technically, but they spoke one word at a time, alternating between one another, to complete a thought. I can't imagine a worse waste of dialogue and paper. it was obnoxious to try and get through. That and the dialogue was pretty unrealistic. I can't imagine a conflict where, 1) the characters are so articulate and are able to complete thoughts while tension is high, and 2) the other character sees it from their perspective well enough to diffuse themselves and continue in a copacetic working circumstance. I won't be continuing the book series after this.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good character development and a fun romp. If I think about it I don't believe some of the aliens are capable of existing but I found it easy to suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the crazy description of the aliens' looks and smells. In this universe, humans are looked down upon and not equal, let alone superior, which is an interesting change of pace. In the end our two main characters are asked to join the black ops team. This book seems to set up our characters for that purpose in subsequent books.

It isn't on my priority list budget-wise, but I do want to read the next book.

[Kyle Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad

I've read much worse. It's not a bad story and the plot was good, but the storytelling felt bland at times. I think the author will get better but a proof reader would help.

[Jas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seb Zodo has a gift in that he can see the weak spot of any enemy, knowing how to knock it out with a single blow. Unfortunately, he uses this gift to make money as a minor pugilist in a low life bar on a planet in the outer parts of space. He still lives with his Father, an ex-law enforcer, and they really both despise each other, especially since his Mother passed.
His Father is constantly telling him to stop fighting as it will one day get him into trouble.
And then, one day, it does…
There are a series of events that occur early in this story that have a life altering effect on Seb, and he swears off fighting as a result. From there he tries to make changes, but when he crosses paths with a sharp little thief, Seb finds that his life is suddenly in all sorts of strife, and the changes that are happening are not the ones that he wanted.
This is a really great read, a lot of fun, with some exceptional characters, and a plot that keeps moving and twisting and turning.
Seb is a brilliant main character, he is the likeable rogue, although he makes some really dumb decisions, which just adds to the fun of the read, and it kind of endears you to him as you shake your head at him.
The thief is a wonderful character as well and adds some excellent dialogue and amusement to the story as well as an edge at times.
There are some other fascinating and clever characters in this story that don’t just tell the story, but really bring it to life. Robertson has done an outstanding job with the secondary characters using them to create a much better atmosphere and storyline for the main characters.
As you read through this book, it becomes clear that this is an introduction story, setting up not just this book, but the remainder of the series.
This is the first in what is going to be a compelling, thrilling and exciting series, with a lot of action, humour, cool aliens, awesome tech and a story that you will not want to put down.
Shadow Order is definitely worth the read, I'm already into First Mission.

[Nessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads like it was written by a high-school-aged boy and has some weird inconsistencies with tense. I didn’t connect with the man-child protagonist. Given the tone of the writing, it was surprising that he was supposed to be in his mid-twenties. Some aspects of the plot just didn’t make sense. E.g. The ship can’t tolerate fighting so they dump him on a planet, but they give him a month’s pay for free because they “feel bad” they’re leaving him there. No matter they are now down a person and they didn’t take on anyone new to do whatever his job was on the ship? Also, there seemed to be no recourse within the ship’s chain of command to sort out interpersonal issues or discipline the superior so that they don’t keep losing personnel for fighting in the future? Nope. Suspension of disbelief only works to a limited extent, and with this one it crashed and burned. Too much basic stuff was glossed over or seemed unrealistic, when it could have been used instead to grow the tension. For example, he gets to the first hotel he comes across, says his stay will be open-ended, but doesn’t even ask about the cost of the hotel because he “can’t face the reality”. Maybe for the first night, but seriously, that would be the first thing he'd need to sort out. The cost of living could have been used to push him toward that choice to fight, but no. Instead he gets dropped there with a month's pay. It makes the later robbery less impactful as well. Also, a planet with no rules at all could have been an interesting setting to explore, but we don't see any real everyday life examples of what the actual ramifications of that could be.

The fact that Seb “holds himself back” from fighting until "forced" into it by bullies was really dumb. I guess the author was trying to set him up as an underdog human in a universe that hates humans and an "honourable" guy because he's only ever defending himself when he beats everyone in fights. Sigh. When he finally fights, it's because the champion mockingly laughs at him and thus “signs her own demise”. It's is a repeating theme of “they bring it on themselves”. That is really lame. The author had a great opportunity to make a really complex protagonist but completely shied away from any sort of moral greyness that would have made his protagonist more complex and the conflict more interesting.

It didn’t get better. I got 73% through this and gave up.

*Edit - Okay, so I did finish it and I wish I hadn't. The ending definitely wasn't worth it.

[Marc Yergin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seb Zodo is an unusual human. When stressed, like when he is in isn arena facing an opponent that should send shudders through him, the world around him slows down and he can “see” where it might be m most vulnerable. He then hits it at that spot and brings it down.

After one such event he finds himself in debt to Moses, the hidden leader of the Shadow Order, an organization that will undertake the impossible missions — for a price. Along the way he picked up three friends who are conscripted to be part of Seb’s team and set off on missions that will bring them va lot of credits but even more for Moses.

As the tales progress Seb finds he has some special abilities that set him apart from everybody elseHis team includes Sparks, a miniature tornado who just happens to have violet eyes and is a genius when it comes to computers, SA who is a consummate person to have on your side in a fight but not against you and is an artist with knives , and Bruke is a mild-mannered quiet being who turns into a berserker when pushed past a breaking point. Each has skills and capabilities that serve the team well.

In the first three books of the Shadow Order the team is assembled. It then goes up against a nasty queen who forces children to join her army and to prove their fealty knock off their families. They follow that with a mission to cleanse a world of parasites that turn whatever they infect into zombies. More missions follow and the action gets better and better. You can’t ask for a better space opera.

If you like your space operas fast paced and filled with action this is a series for you. It will keep you turning pages while wondering what else could go wrong to complicate a mission. The capabilities and abilities of all four team members coalesce in each adventure to find ways to complete their missions and return to the world that has become their base.

[Mayhem-RW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seb, short for Sebastion, last name of Zodo, had a reputation as a tough fighter, and his reputation had spread far and wide. This, of course, brought beings of various races to his little corner of the galaxy, wanting to test him or prove themselves against him in a fight. But see, Seb was not fully human, and his alien mother had given him a present, a gift, a talent. You see, Seb was able to move faster than everyone he faced. They would attack him, and time slowed. He was able to dodge them, and when time slowed, his knack showed him their weak point. It showed him where to hit them and knock them out. And because of his tough guy reputation, beings sought him out to test their metal against him. He was six foot plus, but some of these aliens were larger, much larger. Little did he know what troubles his quick temper and fast fists would get him into.

This is a reality of humans much into the future, after the arrogance of the human race and their empire that fell. The humans in this verse are despised by all the other races because of human expansionism. The character’s interaction seemed believable. The character’s history is part of the story. The physical world-building is at best, vague. The ethereal world-building helps describe the surrounding conditions better than the physical.

This science fiction imagination is a great universe to start many a story with. I give this telling four stars out of five stars.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing

When I started reading this book I expected it to be a better read than it is, and I have to be honest, I did enjoy it to a point. I have given it three stars for that reason, but no more than that.

The problem for me is that the story has no real plot, no real character development and no real emotional attachment.

The story involves a young MC whose only real skill seems to be fist fighting, for which he appears to have a superhuman ability (unexplained.) Despite being so good at it, he resists the temptation due to a promise made to his father. That's it for the character of the MC, and for emotional involvement.

He teams up with a young woman whose only skills seem to be theft, skill with electronics and escapology. That's it for her character development. He chases after her to retrieve items she stole from him, and more or less teams up with her.

They are captured, escape and are captured again, then told by their captor that the whole thing was a test, to see if they have what it takes to join a sort of galactic peace keeping force called the Shadow Order. Please! If this is the kind of person the Order hires, I would not want to live in that galaxy. That's pretty much it for the plot. The whole concept is beyond belief. Two stars off for all that.

I give it three stars only

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a book swap and although it's not my usual genre.. I think this I actually the first science fiction book I've read. It was highly recommended so I decided to give it a go.

Seb is always in trouble for fighting, when his dad dies and he makes the promise to stop fighting but he finds that promise harder and harder to keep. And when people take notice of a special skill he seems to have life becomes and adventure he didn't plan for.

For first time sci-fi reader I actually really enjoyed this story. The plot was easy to follow and although Michael Robertson included a lot of different terrain and species it was easy to follow. I enjoyed sebs character and his dilemma of wanting to keep hi promise but also needing to survive. The addition of sparks fun personality added a level of humor to the book and I really enjoyed the friendship build up between seb and sparks.

If your new to sci-fi I would definitely recommend this one as an easy way to ease into the genre. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

[Red Tide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good opera

I liked this a lot. With a human and an alien paired up as the main characters, it makes for an interesting story. This space opera takes advantage of the leeway built into the genre carefully with some real humor, fast pace and a charming background vagueness.

It's a buddy story that I didn't see coming. The cheesiness factor is well within acceptable limits for this type of story. The main characters are very interesting. Humans being despised for a pattern of crazed warmongering is definitely worth reading. Everything about this novel is the opposite of the blaster wielding idiot, killing aliens for no apparent reason in every chapter, whose charms captivate every human female within two miles of the main character. Which together with the flashy spaceship passes for space opera in a lot of novels.

Fun read and reminds me of the Stainless Steel Rat. I am looking forward to reading the next installment of the series.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I had to describe this book with a single word that would be repetitive.

Writing wise this was one of the most tedious books I've read in quite a while. My biggest gripe with it was the descriptors the author choose to not use. All the three planets Seb, the main character, visited were windy and if you ask me if there is something that distinguishes one planet from another I could not tell you to save my life because all I can remember is my annoyance with the lack of ambiance. Which is somehow even more egregious considering this is a sci-fi. Another word that made it to the top was "sores". Yes we understand, the salt and wind combined caused sores, we don't need to be reminded every two sentences. Other issue I personally had was the op power of the mc and the lack of explanation. If he is human then how does he have a super power? And do other beings have them as well? (This might be explained further in the series this book didn't convince me to continue it). The fact that he also always solved everything with a single punch that knocked out the opponents got old very fast.

Personally the writing was simple to a fault. It did not keep me engaged to continue the series and finishing the book felt more like a chore. There was no deep reflection on the characters' actions, the execution of Sparks past reveal felt forced as if the author was ticking a box on the check list so that we can feel sympathetic towards the character since it seems she will become one of the central characters alongside Seb throughout the series. I also never felt the stakes in the more breath holding scenes but that might have more to do with my lack of concern with whatever happened to the characters.

Overall, it was just an ok book.

[Margaret Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to use for studying character building. We get the nice back story of Seb Zodo and then we pick up his story on the planet Aloo, a place where humans are hated because of the chaos their ancestors caused throughout the galaxy. Here he meets Sparks, a purple eyed being about three feet tall who manages to rob him. He's already been in a fight in the arena, which he won, and tried to tell the boss of the fight pit that he won't fight any more. Sparks, however, gives us a taste of how each of us sometimes feels trying to make a new friend. She turns out to be very competent in many ways and she leads Zeb on quite a chase, even after he catches up to her. They get locked into a prison ship where they are guaranteed death within 30 days, and they manage to get out and get teamed up again. This book is what good character building is like.

[Mike Mackey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book was a good Read! It has Great Character and a very wild Story! Zeb Dodo is unemployed and his best skills are fighting. His Dad an ex-cop is disappointed in his Son's lifestyle and when Zed is brought home again He is Furious, and during the argument He tells Zeb he only has a month to Live. Before he Dies he gives his son a silver Snake necklace passed down from his father. After he gets kicked of the space freighter he is working on the leave him on the closest space station. While her he meets Sparks, a purple haired tiny female. She manages to steal his Necklace and Credit card. Their adventures in this book are a reminder of the Golden Age Space Operas!! So Grab this book and settle back for a good time. This a very Good Read!!!
Santa Mike

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book starts with Seb being dragged into a fight he tried to void, in fact he was attacked twice in front of many witnesses, but he is the one arrested, why? It turned out that quite a lot of what happens in this book is fairly arbitrary.
The most of the first half of the book seemed to be just the author telling us that Seb can fight, but doesn’t want to and the universe hates humans. He didn’t even explain Seb’s ability to spot his opponents weaknesses and apparently slow down time.

The introduction of ‘Sparks’ added a little more interest to the last third of the book, but a lot of the what happened was fairly ridiculous. However after finishing the book I felt compelled to at least try the next one.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I felt that this book was pretty enjoyable and easy to read. Michael's colorful and vivid description of things was welcome, and I liked the initial depth of Sebastion. What I didn't like was that the plot could be rather meandering and unclear at times. The major plot twist made much of the rest of the story seem unnecessary, and the plot twist itself seemed a little unbelievable. The writing and the character of 'Seb' were interesting enough to keep me reading, but I felt the point of this book was simply to set up the rest of series, and forgot to be good on its own. Still worth a read, but nothing spectacular.

[Ethan Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel wanders a bit, and doesn't necessarily have a clear goal in sight. It's clear that this is the first of a series of books, because it does feel like the story doesn't wrap up nicely at the end. And honestly, the whole idea of "The Shadow Order" barely features in this book, making me think that the author could have been better off making a few books longer in length, rather than stretching it to 8. Still, it was an entertaining enough read to wile some time away and has some good character development at points. The issue is, sometimes it feels like things are rushed over, and sometimes it feels like the book dwells on something for a bit too long. But still enjoyable enough.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seb is an angry ,disrespectful young man who is a sore disappointment to his cop father and initially to readers . The author does an amazing job with the plot to keep the readers' attention and to become invested in Seb's struggle to learn to resolve problems without first and only using his fists. And Seb has problems ! As Seb races from one problem to another we find the other characters, like Seb are not as they initial are perceived and the surprises and action does not stop until the end . An engrossing first in the series.

[Christopher J. Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, fast paced and slightly whimsical

I went through this book fast! It was a whole lot of fun to read.
I'm glad that it was tagged as a "space opera" and did not spend a great deal of time explaining how hyperspace works or what sort of ammunition is being shot at what velocity... That kind of cerebral sci-fi is fine, but it sure is nice to read one that is just about good character development and plot.

[Bill Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story but......

It started out fine and as time went on I was having flashbacks to "The Perils of Pauline." Instead of holding me on the edge of my seat it fad me flipping forward to the next peril. I lost count how many cliff hangers there were but, it was what hotel many. Haven't made up my mind if I am gonna ::) to try the next one. Depends on the price. Maybe he will read this and cut back on the perils. I hope so.

[Julie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the box set so will just say that book one is filled with action, intrigue and the promise of great things.

I like Seb, who has a secret power, though a mystery and maybe changing? Sparks is fascinating and it will be interesting to find out more about her.

I think that book one is more of an introduction to this sci-fi world, its history, inhabitants and the Shadow Order, and it's not surprising that humans are despised.

Well-written and enjoyable.

Recommended.

[Tim Nolte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Chapter Ends With Anticipation for the Next One

It was definitely and enjoyable storyline that borrows from some well established sci-fi tropes but doesn't disappoint in their delivery and packaging for a good story with unique elements that keep you wanting to read the next chapter. I'm not a very fast reader and I finished the first book within a day as I just couldn't put it down.

[Julian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp - first of a series (and originally subtitled 'The Black Hole') this has elements of The Stainless Steel Rat and Eric Frank Russell. Here humans are a despised race, remanants of a former colonial/imperial power gone to seed, the lowest of the low dregs in an interstellar community. An engaging read!

[Ann Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-drawn characters and world, lots of different aliens, but why do they all smell so awful? Seb's gift is a good one and I enjoyed his nemesis the thief. I was a little disappointed in the reveal at the end (no spoilers), so I won't be reading the next book, but I enjoyed this one. Others may feel differently and look forward to what follows.