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Rise of Mankind #4
Conflict
Disaster strikes
The Behemoth, en route home after a successful mission liberating a mining facility from pirates, finds itself drifting in an uncharted sector of space. As the crew comes to, made ill by this jump drive malfunction, they spring into action to restore the ship to operational status so they can get home.
However, they quickly find they are not alone. Surrounded by a native fleet of warships, they are viewed with suspicion as an alien force infringing on another culture’s space. They attempt to communicate but find themselves moving toward a conflict they do not want. The Behemoth may find themselves stuck in the far reaches of space with no hope of getting home.
The Behemoth, en route home after a successful mission liberating a mining facility from pirates, finds itself drifting in an uncharted sector of space. As the crew comes to, made ill by this jump drive malfunction, they spring into action to restore the ship to operational status so they can get home.
However, they quickly find they are not alone. Surrounded by a native fleet of warships, they are viewed with suspicion as an alien force infringing on another culture’s space. They attempt to communicate but find themselves moving toward a conflict they do not want. The Behemoth may find themselves stuck in the far reaches of space with no hope of getting home.
265 pages, ebook
Published January 7, 2017
108 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
John Walker
1,214 books163 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 16, 2017
We’re back with the Behemoth, Earth’s only starship that just completed a mission eradicating a bunch of terrorist that took over a vital orbital mine. The ship and crew are on their way back to Earth traveling through jump-space at many times the speed of light. Then something happened and their unceremoniously dump back into real space, not something that is supposed to happen on it’s own.
Captain Gray Atwell (who names their kid “Gray”?) commands the Behemoth and he’s feeling the effects of the sudden drop just as much as the rest of the crew. It’s not a pleasant feeling and a number of recovering crew members are staggering to sick bay. The Captain and senior bridge staff don’t have time for sick bay, they need to get their ship powered up again and find out what happened, why, how much damage did they sustain, and most importantly, where are they? It would have been most fortunate if this “event” had dropped them back in the Solar System, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It seems that every major ship system is down and at first it wasn’t possible to even contact Engineering to see what they were doing to restore power. So, the Captain is staggering towards Engineering to get them moving.
Since the Behemoth is so dependent on technology and power to run it, they are basically drifting in space in a giant tube with no way to see out or even hear what’s going on around them. Little do they know that they have dropped into the middle of a system-wide war and into a current hotly contested battle. Both of these “alien” antagonist are temporarily blinded by the abrupt appearance of the Behemoth. They have no idea what it is or where it came from, but they automatically stop fighting each other and begin to assess this new “threat”.
So, now it’s up to the crew of the Behemoth to get their ship back to normal function. They need to find out what awaits them on the outside and figure out how to deal with it. Will these new “aliens” be friend or foe, and if foe, how badly can they affect the Behemoth? Can they repair the damage sustained their jump drive enough to get back home? That’s the big question. And a second question that doesn’t want to be asked, is “How did the damage happen? or “Who did it?”. That second part would indicate that they have a saboteur on-board among the crew. Not a pleasant thing to think about your fellow crew mates.
Once again the writing is great. The story moves along quite well. We get to meet and know another set of not really aliens, but human-type people that have been at war with each other for a long time. Two habitable planets in the same system that seem to have nothing better to do than try and destroy one another. Maybe they will find a common ground to join together now that they know they are not alone in the universe. One can only hope.
This series does continue with the next book, “Pursuit” which I’m eagerly looking forward to reading.
Captain Gray Atwell (who names their kid “Gray”?) commands the Behemoth and he’s feeling the effects of the sudden drop just as much as the rest of the crew. It’s not a pleasant feeling and a number of recovering crew members are staggering to sick bay. The Captain and senior bridge staff don’t have time for sick bay, they need to get their ship powered up again and find out what happened, why, how much damage did they sustain, and most importantly, where are they? It would have been most fortunate if this “event” had dropped them back in the Solar System, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It seems that every major ship system is down and at first it wasn’t possible to even contact Engineering to see what they were doing to restore power. So, the Captain is staggering towards Engineering to get them moving.
Since the Behemoth is so dependent on technology and power to run it, they are basically drifting in space in a giant tube with no way to see out or even hear what’s going on around them. Little do they know that they have dropped into the middle of a system-wide war and into a current hotly contested battle. Both of these “alien” antagonist are temporarily blinded by the abrupt appearance of the Behemoth. They have no idea what it is or where it came from, but they automatically stop fighting each other and begin to assess this new “threat”.
So, now it’s up to the crew of the Behemoth to get their ship back to normal function. They need to find out what awaits them on the outside and figure out how to deal with it. Will these new “aliens” be friend or foe, and if foe, how badly can they affect the Behemoth? Can they repair the damage sustained their jump drive enough to get back home? That’s the big question. And a second question that doesn’t want to be asked, is “How did the damage happen? or “Who did it?”. That second part would indicate that they have a saboteur on-board among the crew. Not a pleasant thing to think about your fellow crew mates.
Once again the writing is great. The story moves along quite well. We get to meet and know another set of not really aliens, but human-type people that have been at war with each other for a long time. Two habitable planets in the same system that seem to have nothing better to do than try and destroy one another. Maybe they will find a common ground to join together now that they know they are not alone in the universe. One can only hope.
This series does continue with the next book, “Pursuit” which I’m eagerly looking forward to reading.
January 16, 2017
Great resad
Couldnt put it down until I finished it. Hope there will be more books in this series. Really enjoyable reading
Couldnt put it down until I finished it. Hope there will be more books in this series. Really enjoyable reading
March 3, 2017
Another great book
This writer is the best, he keeps the story going all the way to the end. Will read all his books.
Yes
This writer is the best, he keeps the story going all the way to the end. Will read all his books.
Yes
October 4, 2020
It was a good action flick, I can't say anymore than I've said previously, you come to know what to expect with these books.
If you want deep, three dimensional and compelling characters than don't look here I'm sorry, if you want awesome space battles and black and white morality than you've got it!
The characters aren't even bad, there's nothing wrong with them as in they're not unlikable, but the author does struggle a little bit to show emotion, at one scene in this towards the end the Captain, Gray, is being told something which happened which I won't reveal for spoilers but we kinda see how he reacts through the eyes of the guy telling him, Adam I think it was, but the author doesn't really describe how the Captain reacts, he tells us, oh he's "boiling underneath the surface" and something something about his rage and all of that.
Show don't tell.
I don't know what a lot of the characters look like because he barely describes them and also there's too many to know about and keep track of and man oh man is the dialogue cringy at certain points, pretty much when it's anything emotional and has nothing to do with military or logic.
Which is fine, everything else he handles he handles well I'm just disappointed that the author doesn't seem to be interested in upping his skill with every new book, he's pretty stale. I think he knows what he wants and likes and sticks to that which is okay I guess but why have the emotional stuff in there in the first place if you can't execute it well?
The worldbuilding for this universe is also pretty sub-par tbh we still don't even have a name for "The Enemy" kinda cheap tbh but yeah.
What I did like, the action, the technical knowhow this guy makes it feel like he knows how to run a spaceship or how it would run, the battles are exciting and they do seem to carry the damn story. That and I am sort of invested in the characters, I've come to have a soft spot for Clea and Gray.
I keep wondering why they don't bang though but this author seems to be playing shit fairly safe which is disappointing like try something spicy for gods sake! Haha.
I loved the idea and the plot though about the Earth ship randomly jumping into an unknown system and having to face off against two warring cultures it was pretty cool I thought these books might have been getting stale but he kept it interesting, the plot is always good with these.
If you want deep, three dimensional and compelling characters than don't look here I'm sorry, if you want awesome space battles and black and white morality than you've got it!
The characters aren't even bad, there's nothing wrong with them as in they're not unlikable, but the author does struggle a little bit to show emotion, at one scene in this towards the end the Captain, Gray, is being told something which happened which I won't reveal for spoilers but we kinda see how he reacts through the eyes of the guy telling him, Adam I think it was, but the author doesn't really describe how the Captain reacts, he tells us, oh he's "boiling underneath the surface" and something something about his rage and all of that.
Show don't tell.
I don't know what a lot of the characters look like because he barely describes them and also there's too many to know about and keep track of and man oh man is the dialogue cringy at certain points, pretty much when it's anything emotional and has nothing to do with military or logic.
Which is fine, everything else he handles he handles well I'm just disappointed that the author doesn't seem to be interested in upping his skill with every new book, he's pretty stale. I think he knows what he wants and likes and sticks to that which is okay I guess but why have the emotional stuff in there in the first place if you can't execute it well?
The worldbuilding for this universe is also pretty sub-par tbh we still don't even have a name for "The Enemy" kinda cheap tbh but yeah.
What I did like, the action, the technical knowhow this guy makes it feel like he knows how to run a spaceship or how it would run, the battles are exciting and they do seem to carry the damn story. That and I am sort of invested in the characters, I've come to have a soft spot for Clea and Gray.
I keep wondering why they don't bang though but this author seems to be playing shit fairly safe which is disappointing like try something spicy for gods sake! Haha.
I loved the idea and the plot though about the Earth ship randomly jumping into an unknown system and having to face off against two warring cultures it was pretty cool I thought these books might have been getting stale but he kept it interesting, the plot is always good with these.
January 26, 2022
This book had some honest potential, but it fell short.
We start off the story with the Behemoth having undergone some sort of malfunction during their hyper jump. This has them arriving in an uncharted star system drifting and disabled, in the midst of a war between two factions of a previously unknown and technologically inferior race.
I thought this was a very interesting scenario, wondering both how the new aliens would react and what actually happened with the jump drive.
But don't you worry, any thoughts you had about the malfunction are quickly thrown out since the captain is worried there might be the possibility of sabotage for literally no reason, other than, and I kid you not, it wasn't a "normal malfunction"
It is later confirmed that the jump drive was tampered with. The captain had no reason to initially suspect sabotage, all that did was limit the readers imagination.
And is as typical with every installment of this series so far, there are a number of noticeable grammatical/spelling mistakes. (Read on kindle)
The book has similar structure as the rest.
Heros have a problem, Heros come up with an (sometimes) interesting solution, the plan implements with little to no consequence. And repeat as many times as necessary till the completion of the story.
We start off the story with the Behemoth having undergone some sort of malfunction during their hyper jump. This has them arriving in an uncharted star system drifting and disabled, in the midst of a war between two factions of a previously unknown and technologically inferior race.
I thought this was a very interesting scenario, wondering both how the new aliens would react and what actually happened with the jump drive.
But don't you worry, any thoughts you had about the malfunction are quickly thrown out since the captain is worried there might be the possibility of sabotage for literally no reason, other than, and I kid you not, it wasn't a "normal malfunction"
It is later confirmed that the jump drive was tampered with. The captain had no reason to initially suspect sabotage, all that did was limit the readers imagination.
And is as typical with every installment of this series so far, there are a number of noticeable grammatical/spelling mistakes. (Read on kindle)
The book has similar structure as the rest.
Heros have a problem, Heros come up with an (sometimes) interesting solution, the plan implements with little to no consequence. And repeat as many times as necessary till the completion of the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 15, 2017
traitor aboard
With his ship on it's way home, Captain Atwell and his crew find themselves in a new region of space. Traitors among the crew have damaged the jump engines, hoping that it would destroy the ship. But to find one of the bridge crew included is a shock.
With his ship on it's way home, Captain Atwell and his crew find themselves in a new region of space. Traitors among the crew have damaged the jump engines, hoping that it would destroy the ship. But to find one of the bridge crew included is a shock.
March 2, 2021
Fourth book in the series with no let down!
Another very well written story of space battles. This time in a previously unknown universe with not one space fleet, not two space fleets but THREE space fleets! Throw in potential saboteur(s), and you have a very interesting plot!
Another very well written story of space battles. This time in a previously unknown universe with not one space fleet, not two space fleets but THREE space fleets! Throw in potential saboteur(s), and you have a very interesting plot!
May 27, 2017
As always brilliant.
Good story to follow can't wait to read the next book and the story continues to the next epic adventure.
Good story to follow can't wait to read the next book and the story continues to the next epic adventure.
July 28, 2017
Space Battles are what I Enjoy!
Easily relatable characters and some tense action make this a fun read.
Enjoying the whole series and look forward to book five.
Easily relatable characters and some tense action make this a fun read.
Enjoying the whole series and look forward to book five.
March 25, 2018
I'm really enjoying the story.
Good character development and the story is definitely developing nicely. I plan on reading the entire story. It is definitely a good space drama.
Good character development and the story is definitely developing nicely. I plan on reading the entire story. It is definitely a good space drama.
December 23, 2019
I really love this entire series of books. The world building is so good and the characters are easy to get behind.
March 22, 2020
Even thoough this book follows the same pattern as the three previous, I liked it better. The narrative got better and overall the book was much more interesting and enjoyable. +1 star
October 10, 2020
Great series
I enjoyed reading this book. Looking forward to the next one. Thanks.
Have a nice week, looking forward to see what else you write.
I enjoyed reading this book. Looking forward to the next one. Thanks.
Have a nice week, looking forward to see what else you write.
February 13, 2023
Walker seems to find ways to put the Behemoth crew in harm's way and here we go again. He sometimes has to stretch, but it's usually worth it.
February 25, 2017
One great Story!
This is a great serial saga that I highly recommend. I will now go onto book number 5 but I know it will be just as great,
This is a great serial saga that I highly recommend. I will now go onto book number 5 but I know it will be just as great,
February 20, 2017
Great series
I'm really enjoying this series. Character development is excellent. Story line continues to be excellent, with no letdown . Thanks to the author for sharing his skills and imagination with me.
I'm really enjoying this series. Character development is excellent. Story line continues to be excellent, with no letdown . Thanks to the author for sharing his skills and imagination with me.
January 31, 2017
Short but sweet
Like all the other Rise of Mankind books in the series, it was a good read. Was able to knock it out in a few hours. My only complaint is that it felt way too short, which it probably is and is why he can bring out a new book every few months. I do wish we saw more ground action or boarding of the enemy vessel.
*Spoilers*
Shouldn't the traitors be shot because their in a time of war not peace?
Also I would think they would stay at the that location longer to officially meet with the aliens or at least meet the captain if the alien fleet in person before leaving.
The book is just too short for my liking. It covers only a day if that on board the ship.
Like all the other Rise of Mankind books in the series, it was a good read. Was able to knock it out in a few hours. My only complaint is that it felt way too short, which it probably is and is why he can bring out a new book every few months. I do wish we saw more ground action or boarding of the enemy vessel.
*Spoilers*
Shouldn't the traitors be shot because their in a time of war not peace?
Also I would think they would stay at the that location longer to officially meet with the aliens or at least meet the captain if the alien fleet in person before leaving.
The book is just too short for my liking. It covers only a day if that on board the ship.
January 31, 2017
Another gpod read and this whole serries has been greatt. I spent the whole night reading this and it kept me excited and interested all the way through i am an ild fart and come from the hienlin and azimof dates in science fiction but this has been truly fun and intetestingce fictionh
Keep up the good work and you have a fan. Bull shit on your ten more words needed not even two
Keep up the good work and you have a fan. Bull shit on your ten more words needed not even two
January 10, 2017
Expect to be excited!
Expect to be excited as I was by another great adventure story. Thank you John Walker for a outstanding series.
Expect to be excited as I was by another great adventure story. Thank you John Walker for a outstanding series.
January 11, 2017
Good book.
This is a very good author. I thoroughly enjoy this series and recommend it to anyone. Good scifi fun for all.
This is a very good author. I thoroughly enjoy this series and recommend it to anyone. Good scifi fun for all.
January 11, 2017
Real good book
Very action packed well wrote. Makes u want to keep reading hard to put down
Recommend you read this book
Very action packed well wrote. Makes u want to keep reading hard to put down
Recommend you read this book
January 12, 2017
Very intense
Couldn't, put it down. I have enjoyed this series very much hope for another book soon.
Best of luck and speed in writing it John walker .
Couldn't, put it down. I have enjoyed this series very much hope for another book soon.
Best of luck and speed in writing it John walker .
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews