The first three books of JJ Green’s Shadows of the Void space opera serial, in one discounted bundle.
Generation (Shadows of the Void 1)
Humankind entered the age of deep space travel two decades ago, and Earth’s megacorps rushed to exploit the rich resources to be found on unclaimed planets. Prospecting starships roam the galaxy, racing to be the first to lay their hands on the new-found source of wealth.
But unknown horrors lie at the reaches of the great expanse, ready to be awakened by unsuspecting starship crews.
Chief Security Officer Jas Harrington’s job is to protect her shipmates from hostile aliens on new worlds. For the efficient if quick-tempered Jas, that hasn’t been too hard up till now. But her captain is drug-addled, and he’s hungry for the bonuses he gets from finding valuable resources.
When the captain won’t listen to Jas’ fears about a mysterious planet, he is compromised by contact with a strange life form—a life form that threatens to take over the entire ship and return to Earth, where it can spread its deadly infection.
Now Jas is in a race against time, struggling to quarantine the alien infection and prevent the aliens from achieving their goal: Generation. She doesn't realize it yet, but as she fights to save her crew, the future of all humanity hangs in the balance.
Stranded (Shadows of the Void 2)
The starship Galathea has crash-landed on a planet inhabited by deadly aliens, but Polestar, the megacorp that owns the ship, isn’t in a hurry to rescue the crew. Some of the officers were infected by the hostile life forms, and the company may not want to take responsibility or waste money on a lost cause.
Unknown to Polestar, many of the possessed officers died in the crash. But Jas Harrington isn’t convinced that they were all killed. She thinks that infected personnel remain aboard ship, impossible to detect, and hoping to hitch a ride to a populated planet.
Now the ship’s life support systems aren’t working, the one remaining engineer doesn’t know how to fix the engines, and the crew is threatening to mutiny.
Can Jas combat the dangers outside and within the ship? Can she can get the Galathea off the planet? And if she does, how can she be sure she isn’t spreading the deadly aliens to the rest of the galaxy?
Dawn (Shadows of the Void 3)
Under orders from Earth’s Global Government, the crew of the Galathea set out for the colony world of Dawn, where the hostile aliens that infested their ship can be rooted out.
Jas Harrington learns the aliens are called Shadows, and that there has been a conspiracy of silence surrounding the threat they pose to the galaxy. She also finds that there’s more to Dawn than meets the eye.
On the new world, she discovers the horrible truth of what the Shadows do to victims caught in their traps.
She discovers what Dawn’s inhabitants are hiding.
She discovers that the planet’s security has been penetrated.
As the Shadows draw near, Jas battles desperately to free the people of Dawn from their dark secrets. If she doesn’t succeed, no one can survive.
J.J. Green is a British-Australian science fiction author with a lifelong love of distant landscapes, intriguing cultures and fascinating places. She was born within the sound of the bells of Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside, London, making her a bona fide Cockney, and she lived in Australia, Laos and Taiwan before returning to the UK to settle down in Cambridge.
Green’s novels weave science-based speculation with richly personal stories. Her works explore themes of environmental degradation, political conflict, mythical resonance, human resilience, and the ethics of technology and expansion. Her characters—often strong women—navigate future worlds grounded in both scientific plausibility and mythic imagination.
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The three volumes more or less cover Harrington’s battle for control of the ship; the struggle to survive on the planet’s surface and get back to space; and finally, events after they reach a nearby planet and discover they might not have escaped the Shadows entirely. It’s a bit of a declining return. The first section is really good, an absolute page-turner as Harrington, along with shuttle pilot Carl Lingiari and navigator Sayen Lee try to out-think the aliens, and prevent them from infecting both the rest of the ship and other planets. The various story elements interlock nicely, right up to the craft plummeting through the atmosphere to the surface. It packs so many thrills in the first third, I wondered how Green could possibly keep up this pace.
Sadly, the answer is, she can’t. Volume #2 suffers from a serious case of “middle book syndrome,” with the characters largely circling in place. One of them gets shunted off into stasis, and is replaced by an alcoholic trainee engineer: without being too spoilerish, the eventual solution to their situation turns out to be the spaceship equivalent of “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” Things do perk up again in the third book, as they arrive for quarantine and testing purposes on Dawn, a frontier planet largely inhabited by religious colonists. There, Harrington has to handle a tricky situation of abuse, unconnected to the Shadows: How far should freedom of worship be permitted to go?
Generation: Chief Security Officer Jas Harrington’s job is to protect her ship’s crew from hostiles on alien planets. When she realizes there is something wrong on the planet where her crew is exploring, she has to work to convince others to help her save them from harm. Although she doesn’t make much headway in getting help, Jas is determined to save the crew, even though they all believe her to be insane. After finally convincing two of her crewmates, pilot Carl Lingiari and navigator Sayen Lee, they work to prevent the aliens who have taken over the officers on the ship from achieving their goals. I liked that Jas was tough and resourceful, but was smart enough to know she needed help and couldn’t do everything all on her own. Carl and Sayen were pretty realistic in that they were reluctant to put themselves in danger, but once caught up in the situation, they surprised themselves with what they could accomplish. The story ends at a resolution of the fight against the possessed officers, but with the ship and it’s crew in a precarious position. I’m looking forward to finding out how they fare going forward, so on to the next book, Stranded.
Stranded: In this second of the Shadows of the Void series, Jas Harrington and the crew of the Galathea are stranded on the planet where hostile aliens had infected all the officers and tried to take over the ship. Jas and the crew have managed to defeat them but then crash landed on the planet and they’re not sure if they’ll be able to leave. As members of the crew cause trouble, Jas and a few of her trusted crewmates work to find a solution to their problems. This was a quick read with plenty of action and suspense as they figure out what to do. On to the next episode where the story continues after a great conclusion to their predicament on the hostile planet.
Dawn: As the adventure continues, Jas Harrington and the rest of the Galathea’s crew arrive at the colony world of Dawn. They discover the inhabitants are not what they were lead to believe, and none of them are safe from the Shadows on Dawn - neither the ship’s crew, the soldiers there to keep order, or the colonists. There is a side story about a young boy Jas and Carl try to help, and that turned out differently than I thought it would, with a few twists. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next to the Galathea’s crew as they continue to fight the alien Shadows.
A GOOD BOOK But too bad the author had to break the story up into different books.
. . My Recurrent Desire: To Become Powerful And SMART Like A Woman!
“…Hands gripped her arms. The situation was getting annoying. She back-fisted one man, breaking his nose, and drove her elbow into the solar plexus of the other. As the men staggered back, she turned and kicked the head of the man holding his stomach. He fell down senseless. The one whose nose she’d broken drew his weapon. Blood dripped from his chin, and his eyes watered. Jas put her hands on her hips. ‘Frank, really?’ Frank quailed under her stare, and in his momentary distraction, she kicked the weapon from his hand and moved in for a headlock. ‘Sorry,’ she said, as she knocked his skull just hard enough against a rail that he dropped, unconscious, to the floor….”
“…She could take down any of her on-ship guards. Being better than them….”
“…Jas’s shoulders sagged, and she took a step toward the man. Interpreting her movement as acquiescence, his eyes flicked triumphantly to his friends. At that instant, Jas lunged forward and under his weapon, forcing him against the wall. The laser gun fired and scorched a line across the ceiling. The man’s companions stepped back in alarm. Jas grabbed his arm and wrist and twisted them so his weapon was pointing at his face. Her forearm was across his throat, and she held him immobile, his gun centimeters from his nose. The man gave a cry and thrashed his legs, kicking Jas’s shins. She didn’t blink. With her full weight and strength on him….”
Jas is the security officer aboard The Galathea, a prospecting vessel sent out to explore star systems looking for valuable materials. She was born on Mars and is a full two meters tall, but the units she controlled were even taller, just as she was taller than most men. This made most men insecure around her, including her boss, Loba, who was also a Myth addict and in charge of the ship. Of course, this made things between Loba and Jas difficult. Loba was goal-oriented, and his goal was to make as much profit off this mission as possible. Jas was safety-oriented and would not give an all-clear on the planet they were above. She didn’t know why yet, but her intuition told her there was something dangerous down there, but she had no proof. Not releasing the planet for resource assessment made Loba angry, and the decisions he was about to make could put everyone at risk.
The book I downloaded says it is books one to three. If so, then these are three short stories put together to make a nice-length novel of almost four hundred pages, which I enjoyed very much. The physical world-building makes your imagination fill in the blanks. The ethereal world-building adds some sensation to the physical. The character’s interactions are believable. The character’s history, what there is of it, is part of the story.
This science fiction-based manuscript reads a little like a soap opera in places, but yeah, I need to get the next installment in this space opera. I give this read five stars out of five stars.
A company that harvests resources on planets throughout the universe, an alien entity that can shape-shift body and mind and is hell-bent on universal control, a protagonist with crazy instincts and wicked determination; all these combine to form an amazing adventure space opera.
When the Galathea arrives on another routine LIV (Locate, Investigate, Vacate) on a new planet, the Chief Security Officer Jas Harrington has a foreboding feeling about the planet. Since her intuition is unproven, the Galathea's master ignores her warning and sends officers to the planet's surface. An alien entity that has long awaited other species is eager to infect all of the crew of the Galathea. Will Jas Harrington find a way to rescue the Galathea crew? Will she destroy the alien entity already inhabiting some of the officers? Read this space opera to find out. The book has a steady pace that builds to a climactic confrontation, humans or the hive-minded alien entity? A must-read for marvel AoS fans.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The Galathea Chronicles (Shadows of the Void #1-3) I enjoyed this stunning page turner thoroughly. The constant surprises and shifts of perspective, moving from each of the principal characters, relentlessly pull the reader along...the surprises come throughout . I was hooked from the first page. The descriptions of the land and the paranormal background added so much to the intrigue of the story line. This is a brilliant read! It pulled me in from beginning and held my attention. The world building is detailed and imaginative. This novel has strong, well developed characters and an intriguing story line that kept you turning the pages. The Galathea Chronicles is a disturbing paranormal suspense novella that expertly brings a hostile environment to lifee. You won’t be able to put it down. I recommend this novel and would read more novels by this author. An excellent read.
Jas Harrington is the Chief Security Officer on a corporate prospecting space ship, The Galathea, tasked with resource assessment of underexplored and newly discovered planets. Planet K 67092d is uninhabited, yet has numerous curious structures that were obviously constructed, but by whom and for what purpose? The first exploration effort of these structures introduces a new terror to the crew and the ship, with possible consequences to all humanity. This book has an original and engaging plot, with relatable characters (likable, but with warts), creative lifeforms, and intriguing science fiction technology. One of the subplots concerned a drug problem with a sci-fi type drug on both the ship and in the culture-at-large. This was a very good read! This is the first 3 books in a 10-book series and I plan to continue reading in the series. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving this review.
I received a complimentary review copy of the book and I am voluntarily leaving a honest review. Generation: OOH! This story is strange, very strange. Captain not paying attention to his security officer, that's bad Then going off with a crew member, bad things. Stranded: I hope they can get the ship working. This Karrev guy is something else. Nuts if you ask me. Good story. Dawn: This story is creepy. The other stories did not explaine what happens to people this one does. It is scary too. I hoe they can find all the bad aliens. Good story.
A great boxset featuring 1 to 3 of the Shadows of the Void stories. The setting for this is well situated in a believable corporate push for colonisation with all too real stresses and events. It takes 1 honest, dedicated individual with a belief and the care in protecting her ship mates to save them from an insidious alien threat. I enjoyed a lot of the supporting characters and the addition of a helpful alien pet is great. Green does this type of world building very well and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the stories in her series.
It was able to keep my attention the whole way which isn’t always easy. There was a lot of denial from crew workers and the main character insisting something was wrong (like half the series) and I think the author could have written a little less of that. I also wished a real romantic interest would have developed but I can tell this was written by a man in that aspect. Lol. Lots of almost something’s that fizzled out. Great book though and just purchased the second one.
A cool sci-fi story which is suitable for teens and adults as it contains no profanities and very little blood and gore. It does, however have a lot of fast paced action. Division amongst the crew, strange alien lifeforms and the possibility of death at every corner make for a heart pumping read, I enjoyed it a lot.
The main character is Jaz. She comes across as a strong woman that has really good survival instincts. The story moves along well introducing new characters as the story progresses. I am looking forward to reading the next one.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The puppetmasters have nothing on these guys. Talking about taking over others and replacing them. It's an interesting story. Nothing new, but still an interesting story nonetheless. I'll probably read more in this series, need to see where it goes, and if they find out how to defeat these invaders.
I finished the first book, started the second but at 60% of the bundle I got bored of the story. Not much happening, and I don't find Harrington as kick-ass as advertised. She's pretty timid in my opinion.
I liked the theme of this story and overall this first trilogy set was a good read. I found the science and some of the situations slightly lacking, but the characters and overall story made up for it. Four of five stars on Goodreads.
I love a good space opera. This book is not it. Space ship crash lands and the crew is stuck on a strange planet. Has no one thought to reboot the computer? Oops. Reboot. We’re outta here! There’s more. But don’t read this book. It’s so lean on detail. It’s just high school drop out bad writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Did this on audio version and took me a bit of time. Three books. Mostly with earbuds while choring around the house and/or yard. Good storyline, but maybe it would have been better to actually read. I got bored in parts of it and found I wasn't following as close sometimes.
Jas and Carl are the first of the crew to be sent to Dawn's surface and submit to testing. While on planet they find out what the inhabitants are doing. Jas visits with a military officer and then something partially unexpected happens.
The Galathea Chronicles is an exciting and immersive space opera. Jas Harrington’s fight against alien threats and corporate greed kept me hooked, and the story’s twists and high stakes make it impossible to put down.
I enjoyed the story. Amusing and unusual characters and interesting plot. Found it strange that it was advertised as 3 books when the total page count was 357 pages.
Limited time offer from @bookbub this action sci-fi book was memorable. I will say is the concept of the saying "Nothing is as dangerous as the enemy you cannot recognize" is something.
The story held my interest. Earth has destroyed by (take your pick there's a new climate emergency every five to ten years) so they need to find new planets to destroy.