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Big Sigma #1-3.5
The Big Sigma Collection: Volume 1
The Big Sigma Series is a science fiction adventure written by Joseph R. Lallo, author of the Book of Deacon and Free-Wrench.
This anthology, set approximately four hundred years in the future, shows the state of the galaxy through the eyes of a marvelously skilled but terribly unlucky former racer named Trevor “Lex” Alexander. It collects three full novels of his adventures, describing his rise from the ashes of his own poor judgement to repeatedly become the lynchpin in missions with dire consequences for failure. The stories are often comic, sometimes dark, but always thrilling as Lex gets mixed up with the likes of mad engineers, quirky AIs, loose cannon mercenaries, faceless megacorporations, and organized criminals.
In The Big Sigma Volume 1 you get three full
Bypass Gemini - In a distant future, Trevor "Lex" Alexander was shaping up to be the next great race pilot until a fixed race got him banned from the sport. Reduced to making freelance deliveries, he thinks his life can't get any worse. That's when a package manages to get him mixed up with mobsters, a megacorp, and a mad scientist. Now his life depends on learning what their plans are, and how he can stop them.
Unstable Prototypes - Eight months have passed since the Bypass Gemini incident, and Karter Dee - a brilliant inventor and dangerous sociopath - has been kidnapped by group of desperate extremists. To prevent the group responsible from unleashing Karter's lethal ingenuity, the inventor's quirky AI "Ma" convinces ex-Racer "Lex" Alexander to help assemble a team of former allies in order to mount a rescue.
Artificial Evolution - Third in the Big Sigma series, Artificial Evolution begins with our heroes facing the bureaucratic wrath of VectorCorp. Thanks to a vindictive corporate operative, Lex is without a reliable job and Michella's network won't support her investigations. Checking out a supposed alien seems to be the perfect cover for some subversive journalism, but it might turn out to be her biggest story yet.
In addition, you’ll get three shorter works never before
Squee’s Day Out – An unlikely short story about Squee the Funk’s mischievous adventure while Lex and Michella are away.
Building the Perfect Pet – The untold story of how Solby the Funk came to be.
Beta Testers – A novella detailing the first time Garotte and Silo worked together in an unsanctioned military operation.
This anthology, set approximately four hundred years in the future, shows the state of the galaxy through the eyes of a marvelously skilled but terribly unlucky former racer named Trevor “Lex” Alexander. It collects three full novels of his adventures, describing his rise from the ashes of his own poor judgement to repeatedly become the lynchpin in missions with dire consequences for failure. The stories are often comic, sometimes dark, but always thrilling as Lex gets mixed up with the likes of mad engineers, quirky AIs, loose cannon mercenaries, faceless megacorporations, and organized criminals.
In The Big Sigma Volume 1 you get three full
Bypass Gemini - In a distant future, Trevor "Lex" Alexander was shaping up to be the next great race pilot until a fixed race got him banned from the sport. Reduced to making freelance deliveries, he thinks his life can't get any worse. That's when a package manages to get him mixed up with mobsters, a megacorp, and a mad scientist. Now his life depends on learning what their plans are, and how he can stop them.
Unstable Prototypes - Eight months have passed since the Bypass Gemini incident, and Karter Dee - a brilliant inventor and dangerous sociopath - has been kidnapped by group of desperate extremists. To prevent the group responsible from unleashing Karter's lethal ingenuity, the inventor's quirky AI "Ma" convinces ex-Racer "Lex" Alexander to help assemble a team of former allies in order to mount a rescue.
Artificial Evolution - Third in the Big Sigma series, Artificial Evolution begins with our heroes facing the bureaucratic wrath of VectorCorp. Thanks to a vindictive corporate operative, Lex is without a reliable job and Michella's network won't support her investigations. Checking out a supposed alien seems to be the perfect cover for some subversive journalism, but it might turn out to be her biggest story yet.
In addition, you’ll get three shorter works never before
Squee’s Day Out – An unlikely short story about Squee the Funk’s mischievous adventure while Lex and Michella are away.
Building the Perfect Pet – The untold story of how Solby the Funk came to be.
Beta Testers – A novella detailing the first time Garotte and Silo worked together in an unsanctioned military operation.
- GenresScience Fiction
1144 pages, ebook
First published March 2, 2017
57 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 10, 2017
The Big Sigma Collection includes three novels (Bypass Gemini, Unstable Prototypes, and Artificial Evolution) and three novellas (Squee's Day Out, Building the Perfect Pet, and Beta Testers). I've already read and reviewed the three novels, so this review is about the novellas.
Squee's Day Out was an adorable little tale about Squee as Trevor's little construct as she follows a pair of guys who broke into Trevor's apartment. The adventure was a fun little romp, which felt plausible given the character that the author has established in the other novels.
Building the Perfect Pet: Like Squee's Day Out, this novella enhances some of the secondary characters in the novel, in specific both the Ma and Solby, the original funk. I really liked this one mainly because it shows some of the softening of Ma's personality as Karter creates and develops Solby. This has the best character developments in the collection and makes it worth it for me.
Beta Testers: This was an enjoyable novella building up more of the characters. The back story was appealing and entertaining. Anything dealing with Karter's insanity is appealing regardless, but how others respond to him is always a pleasure to read.
Squee's Day Out was an adorable little tale about Squee as Trevor's little construct as she follows a pair of guys who broke into Trevor's apartment. The adventure was a fun little romp, which felt plausible given the character that the author has established in the other novels.
Building the Perfect Pet: Like Squee's Day Out, this novella enhances some of the secondary characters in the novel, in specific both the Ma and Solby, the original funk. I really liked this one mainly because it shows some of the softening of Ma's personality as Karter creates and develops Solby. This has the best character developments in the collection and makes it worth it for me.
Beta Testers: This was an enjoyable novella building up more of the characters. The back story was appealing and entertaining. Anything dealing with Karter's insanity is appealing regardless, but how others respond to him is always a pleasure to read.
October 6, 2018
What a great collection.
Having really enjoyed 'Bypass Gemini' i jumped straight into the rest of the books.
This collection also features 3 short stories that give more background to some characters in the main novels, which were really enjoyable to read.
I really can't say enough about Joseph's writing, i'm a total fan and totally hooked. Even though the known universe is about to end if nothing's done, Joseph still manages to get lots of fun and shenanigans in the stories and makes it work so well.
Really good sci-fi as well. Pushing the boundaries but never overstepping.
And now all that's left to do is read the last book in the series...
'Temporal Contingency'
Having really enjoyed 'Bypass Gemini' i jumped straight into the rest of the books.
This collection also features 3 short stories that give more background to some characters in the main novels, which were really enjoyable to read.
I really can't say enough about Joseph's writing, i'm a total fan and totally hooked. Even though the known universe is about to end if nothing's done, Joseph still manages to get lots of fun and shenanigans in the stories and makes it work so well.
Really good sci-fi as well. Pushing the boundaries but never overstepping.
And now all that's left to do is read the last book in the series...
'Temporal Contingency'
February 23, 2018
I really enjoyed the first story when I first read it several years ago. I was looking for other books by the author after ready the Book of Deacon series. At some point I forgot all about the book but kept remembering the story line and wanted to see if there were more. Since I couldn't remember any specifics I couldn't find it. Then one day I decided to pick up the collection and was pleased to discover it was the book I had been looking for! I've thoroughly enjoyed the main stories in the collection. I've also enjoyed the short stories included for their background material on some of the characters. But I'm partial to Lex and his way of getting into and out of trouble. I'm looking to reading the 4th book next!
June 2, 2019
At first I thought the story was a bit too much for my taste but I decided to give it another try. It’s all about time, the investment in a story and the will to read on. That soon gave way to a growing need to know what’s going to happen next. I was actually looking forward to my reading time so I could find out what the author had planned for me today. I got into the story and I was very disappointed when I read the last page.
When’s the next book coming out?
I was hooked.
A
When’s the next book coming out?
I was hooked.
A
February 16, 2019
The Big Sigma Collection is a great read. I had bought the individual books and wanted to read the included new short stories. I was not disappointed. This is an entertaining series and I look forward to more from Joseph Lallo.
October 7, 2022
I'd read the first three novels already, so I skipped to the short stories. And loved each of them! Great additional material for any fan of the books.
September 7, 2024
Since I had already read the three novels, this is about the novel-sized bonus material.
The stories about funks and Garotte and Silo were great background material.
The stories about funks and Garotte and Silo were great background material.
October 22, 2019
50% and I'm done. I really enjoyed the first third or so. It just got to be too stupid. Sorry.
July 22, 2017
This omnibus combines the first three novels in Lallo’s “Big Sigma” with three new stories, which are substantial enough to publish as a short collection. The series is very much “space opera with a sense of humor and a bit of milSF” – a hotshot racer/pilot hero, his investigative reporter girlfriend, a couple of mercenaries, a mad engineer (don’t insult him by calling him a mad scientist!), a maternal AI, and a very smart pet round out the main cast. The books generally focus on the pilot stumbling into the middle of some world-shattering situation, which naturally requires him to call on the others for assistance.
The plots and use of language are just plain fun, more than enough to make up for the copyediting issues. (See below.) The pet I mentioned is a cross between a fox and a skunk, explaining why its creator dubbed it a “funk.” (The collective term is “parliament” – as in “a parliament of funks.” Gotta love it.) The enemies range from mobsters and big corporations to a rogue military faction with planet-eradicating weaponry, and the stories seldom get boring. Content-wise, there are a couple of risqué comments, such as references to an accidental sex tape, but no sex scenes or (to my recollection) cursing.
As with most indie fiction, this could use another edit pass. On average, I noticed about one or two things per chapter that I’d call errors – more than I’d want from a Big Five book, but not bad for indie work, and most of those are minor – dropped commas, wrong homophones, and the like. For instance, the hero’s ship is named the Son of Betsy, usually referred to by its initials, but one book calls it the S.O.B. while another calls it the SOB – a little thing, but jarring. The most significant goof I recall is in a space battle scene where the number of shots fired doesn't make sense, and that's a pretty small thing. I will say that the author fixed some issues in the first book between the time I picked it up and its compilation here, so maybe this is a temporary concern.
Overall, I’m rating this one four stars: four as a baseline for the story, minus one for editing, plus one for literal LOL moments. (How can you not like that the mad inventor solves his pooper-scooper problems with an orbital laser?)
If you’re interested in checking out the series to see if it’s your style, the first novel, Bypass Gemini, is available as a freebie and is an accurate representation of the overall series. I recommend getting the omnibus rather than buying books two and three separately, though – the extra content is definitely worth the extra penny.
The plots and use of language are just plain fun, more than enough to make up for the copyediting issues. (See below.) The pet I mentioned is a cross between a fox and a skunk, explaining why its creator dubbed it a “funk.” (The collective term is “parliament” – as in “a parliament of funks.” Gotta love it.) The enemies range from mobsters and big corporations to a rogue military faction with planet-eradicating weaponry, and the stories seldom get boring. Content-wise, there are a couple of risqué comments, such as references to an accidental sex tape, but no sex scenes or (to my recollection) cursing.
As with most indie fiction, this could use another edit pass. On average, I noticed about one or two things per chapter that I’d call errors – more than I’d want from a Big Five book, but not bad for indie work, and most of those are minor – dropped commas, wrong homophones, and the like. For instance, the hero’s ship is named the Son of Betsy, usually referred to by its initials, but one book calls it the S.O.B. while another calls it the SOB – a little thing, but jarring. The most significant goof I recall is in a space battle scene where the number of shots fired doesn't make sense, and that's a pretty small thing. I will say that the author fixed some issues in the first book between the time I picked it up and its compilation here, so maybe this is a temporary concern.
Overall, I’m rating this one four stars: four as a baseline for the story, minus one for editing, plus one for literal LOL moments. (How can you not like that the mad inventor solves his pooper-scooper problems with an orbital laser?)
If you’re interested in checking out the series to see if it’s your style, the first novel, Bypass Gemini, is available as a freebie and is an accurate representation of the overall series. I recommend getting the omnibus rather than buying books two and three separately, though – the extra content is definitely worth the extra penny.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews