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Ceres 2525

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Desperation is the father of invention.

In the year 2525, Ceres desperately searches for his parents, long held captive among the Galactic's 500 colony worlds.

When he too is kidnapped, forced to duel to save a slave with powerful secret abilities, he determines to fight his way to the top of the pirate ranks.

How can he justify this within his objective moral code? Will Ceres' faith, his soul, survive?

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 11, 2017

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About the author

Michael Lee Nelson

2 books35 followers
Lee Nelson resides near Baton Rouge, Louisiana near his son. He enjoy's the single life, Jeep Life, Cajun Cuisine, cooking, eating, and writing military scifi like it's the end of the world.

A contrarian to the mass Scifi Action & Adventure market, Lee is writing to infuse the galaxy-wide setting of his Ceres novels with a hopeful, positive, and spiritually rich flavor of life.


**Pen name of Micheal Lee Nelson, adopted due to ubiquitous misspelling issues

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5 stars
7 (58%)
4 stars
3 (25%)
3 stars
1 (8%)
2 stars
1 (8%)
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0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Steven R. McEvoy.
3,905 reviews182 followers
July 7, 2024
This story took me back 40 years to when I was first learning to overcome my dyslexia and fell in love with Science Fiction. It reminds me a lot of the Bio of a Space Tyrant by Piers Anthony, The Stainless Steel Rat Series by Harry Harrison, or the later Phule’s Company book by Robert Asprin. That is to say reading it was both fun and entertaining. It was a great read and to be honest one that left me wanting more. As a debut novel it is impressive, and a solid 4/5 stars.

The description of the book states:

“Desperation is the father of invention. In CERES 2525 you fly along on the Sci-fi Action Adventures of Ceres Tauri, 25, superstar of the zero-gravity league. He desperately searches for his mother, long held captive among the Galactic's 500 colony worlds. When he too is kidnapped by the pirate fleet, forced to duel to the death to save a slave with powerful secret abilities, he determines to fight his way to the top of the pirate ranks. Can Ceres justify this within his objective moral code? Will his faith, his soul, survive?”

An earlier description of the book says:

“In CERES 2525 you fly along on the Sci-fi Action Adventures of Ceres Tauri, 25, playboy superstar of the zero-gravity league. He desperately searches for his parents, long held captive among the Galactic's 500 worlds.

When he too is kidnapped by a pirate fleet, forced to duel to the death to save a slave with powerful secret abilities, he determines to fight his way to the top of the pirate ranks.

Will Ceres have to kill his own father to rescue his mother? Who will save his soul, from himself?”

About the author we are informed:

“Lee Nelson resides near Baton Rouge, Louisiana near his son. He enjoy's the single life, Jeep Life, Cajun Cuisine, cooking, eating, and writing military scifi like it's the end of the world.

A contrarian to the mass Scifi Action & Adventure market, Lee is writing to infuse the galaxy-wide setting of his Ceres novels with a hopeful, positive, and spiritually rich flavor of life.”

The story is written in a classic science fiction style and could be the beginning of an epic space opera. The ploy is expansive, the characters larger than life. And the action stop and go right from the beginning. This was a great summer read.

The questions outlined in the description of the book are only partially answered in this volume. But Ceres and Serenity are characters we find ourselves rooting for both in their quest for freedom but also in battling the Space Pirates that have put them in this position. The narrative is written in a visually stunning way. The reader will feel themselves a part of the fights, battles and other moments through the book. The Void Viking draw from a few mythologies and have unique structure of leadership. And much like the Riddick series you keep what you kill or defeat. And Ceres is not willing to play games he is here with his own mission and becomes a huge disruptor right from the start.

Can Ceres outwit out think and out plan his father, at his own games. Or will he become fodder in his father’s quest for conquest? This is a fun story, great for fans of classic science fiction or space opera. I can easily recommend this book.

This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
Profile Image for William Jr..
Author 34 books59 followers
July 20, 2017
This was a great story. One of those hard to find Space Opera stories where the good guy is really good, the bad guys are bad, women are beautiful and competent and did I mention the bad guys are bad?

The story is about a hero named Ceres, how he grows up and goes after the guy who had his mother kidnapped.

I particularly like the way the author weaves together the past and present culminating at the end of the novel.

An excellent read and I look forward to the sequel.
Profile Image for Patrick Ryan.
12 reviews
January 3, 2019
I enjoyed reading “Ceres 2525.” There is lots of action; I can easily see this book become a movie. The chapters go back and forth between Ceres Tarsis’ current adventure of being kidnapped by pirates, and events from his life that lead up to his being kidnapped. I believe Nelson handled this well, using chapters detailing Ceres’ past to foreshadow what’s coming up in the next present chapter. The transitions are seamless, leading the reader along and aiding the flow of the story.
Nelson incorporates stunning visuals into both past and present areas of the story. A spacewalk during a salvage mission with Ceres’ uncle from his youth gives the reader the feeling of being there. Ceres also has a clever method of breaking into a space station hidden in an asteroid that must be seen, er, read, to be believed.
Nelson’s characters can communicate to each other through networks and implants called MTR’s. This allows characters to carry on several conversations at once. While this can be potentially confusing to the reader, Nelson uses the device to create and embellish many scenes throughout the story.
I also enjoyed the way Nelson used Ceres’ Christianity as part of his character development. Ceres reflects on his life and his faith in a manner that shows growth and change, or at least the desire to change, without becoming “preachy” to the reader.
If that’s not all, there is Ceres budding romance with Serenity. Serenity is the reason I want to see this book become a movie, just to see which actress gets picked to play her. I keep thinking of Maureen O’Hara from “The Quiet Man.”
So, why four stars? I thought the story went on a little long after the climax. There is a good hook for further adventures with Ceres, so, it’s not “bad,” just long. My opinion, your mileage may vary.
In short, “Ceres 2525” is a good read with a climax that will have you on the edge of your seat and salivating for “Ceres 2526.”
Profile Image for Don Viecelli.
Author 28 books28 followers
April 2, 2017
My Book Review Number 140:

This review is on CERES 2525 by Micheal Lee Nelson. This is the first book I have read by this Writers of SciFi author.

The story starts off in the year 2525 on a planet named Nirvana in the City of Shangri-La. Sounds peaceful, right? The main character is a young, charismatic space fighter named Ceres, which also happens to be a former dwarf planet and his home planet in Earth’s solar system.

The reason why Ceres is visiting this part of the Milky Way Galaxy becomes apparent as soon as a pretty vixen named Ka’ra announces that space raiders in Raven ships are inbound. Ceres is more than ready to fight them since he relishes a good fight to the death any day. The problem occurs when Ceres is tricked and becomes incapable of defending the city from these raiders who are known as Void Viking pirates. Ceres watches in vain as the pirates attack and nearly destroy one of the giant “arcs” tower buildings along with thousands of people killed or captured and then taken away as slaves.

Ceres finds himself kidnapped by the very person he has come to find—his father named Tyrian Tauri who just so happens to be the King of the Void Viking pirates. Ceres Tauri is the abandoned son Tyrian has been waiting to show up and hopefully prove himself capable of joining Tyrian’s band of pirates who control and terrorize the local Galactic system.

Ceres in not like his father. The reason Ceres has been looking for his father is because Cere’s mother, Annemarie, was kidnapped and disappeared when Ceres was quite young. Ceres believes his father was responsible and knows where Annemarie has been taken. Ceres will do whatever it takes to find his mother, even if it means he must destroy his evil father to accomplish it.

The story weaves back and forth, chapter by chapter, from when Ceres is born to the time he is old enough to go out on his own at age twenty-five to find his mother. By this time Ceres is a trained fighter and skilled athlete famous throughout the galaxy. He has been raised by his powerful uncle, Admiral Emanuel Tarsis, Annemarie’s brother. After many years working for his uncle and learning how to defend himself at a military academy and serving in the military, Ceres is ready to confront his pirate father and demand answers. The confrontation with the Viking pirates is dramatic and merciless.

There is also a religious theme in this story, which is unusual for science fiction in that Ceres and the red-haired beauty he saves named Serenity O’Share believe in God and very often quote old Earth bible verses to judge each other’s suitability for marriage. One interesting dilemma revolves around the Seventh Commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. It seems the word “kill” was changed by man from the word “murder”, which is entirely different in God’s eyes. This distinction between killing and murdering helps to justify Cere’s actions in dealing with evil men.

I give this book Five Stars because the story is so well written and constructed you become immersed in the character’s development and motivations. Plots are arranged to let readers watch as Ceres develops as a man and fighter while the storyline alternates back and forth from current to past to present. The explanations behind the science and technology used in this story are quite advanced. The actual fight scenes are very intense and some of the best written I have read. It’s hard to put this book down once started. I look forward to reading CERES 2526 (Book 2), of which an Excerpt is provided at the end.

Keep reading good science fiction and let me know when you find an interesting novel or author.
Profile Image for Eva Ashton.
16 reviews
March 2, 2018
I wanted to like this book. Really badly. But after nine chapters I was neither invested in the story nor really digging anything about the main character, Ceres. After nine chapters you should care a little about what happens to him but even after he got shot and that girl with the butchered Irish accent started talking to him it just got even less interesting than the incredibly long build up to that point.

On a positive note It seems like a lot of care was taken with the world building which was nice, unfortunately rather than having the vibrant world sort of unfold before the reader it kind of would be dropped in large information dumps at various points. It kind of distracted me from what was going on. Which was a shame because there was a lot that was interesting.

I found the flip flopping back and forth between adult Ceres and child Ceres super difficult to follow. But because I stopped I'm not sure if there was some reason for this exchange every other chapter.

The thing that finally led me to put this down were the typos. So many weird capitalizations, misspellings and missing words it disrupted the flow of the story so much I just eventually needed to put it aside.

It was a neat concept I just found it difficult to engage with and it didn't have enough momentum for me to want to continue.
Profile Image for Lynn Hallbrooks.
Author 7 books111 followers
July 22, 2017
Not your typical Science Fiction book...at least not in my experience.

In my humble opinion, this book combines Christian Romance, Space-faring Science Fiction, Mythological Fantasy, Military, and Martial Arts genres.

Ceres is a young man who has traveled space, seen and experienced many things including the joys and losses the universe has sent along his path. Shortly after being kidnapped, he comes in contact with a redheaded beauty. Before their initial feelings can be sorted through, they must fight for their lives.

Mr. Nelson does a great job of sharing the background of Ceres as it is interspersed amongst his present circumstances. I don't know much about science and space as some people do, so I got a little lost when reading the story. Other people may really love it. Still, overall, I did enjoy the book.

Warning: There is violence as well as allusions to sexual events and some space-faring curse words.
Profile Image for R.M. Gilmour.
Author 2 books88 followers
January 15, 2018
Fast-paced and action-packed, the story is well-written, descriptive, and does not stop from start to finish. Ceres Tauri, in the year 2525, is on a mission to save his mother from the space-pirate king, his father. Along the way he crushes the bad guys in mad display of skill, determination, and unstoppable strength. And along the way, he rescues and falls in love with the woman of his dreams.

I loved how the backstory of his youth was woven through the storyline, showing his years of training, and how he came to be the man he was. Ceres Tauri is one of my new favorite heroes, and I can’t wait to read book 2.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews