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Galaxy Mavericks #1
Honor's Reserve
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It should have been just another routine spaceship boarding.
For Petty Officer Grayson McCoy, it's his last mission in the Galactic Guard: board a suspicious spaceship with no registration, perform a safety check, and write up a citation or two.
Then he can return home, pick up where he left off in his swimming career, maybe start dating.
But there's something on that rogue ship more deadly than Grayson ever imagined.
And it's taking over the galaxy.
Honor's Reserve is the first book in the Galaxy Mavericks space opera series. It's the story of six ordinary people from different walks of life who have to band together to save the galaxy.
It should have been just another routine spaceship boarding.
For Petty Officer Grayson McCoy, it's his last mission in the Galactic Guard: board a suspicious spaceship with no registration, perform a safety check, and write up a citation or two.
Then he can return home, pick up where he left off in his swimming career, maybe start dating.
But there's something on that rogue ship more deadly than Grayson ever imagined.
And it's taking over the galaxy.
Honor's Reserve is the first book in the Galaxy Mavericks space opera series. It's the story of six ordinary people from different walks of life who have to band together to save the galaxy.
- GenresScience Fiction
168 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 15, 2017
29 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Michael La Ronn
80 books167 followersScience fiction and fantasy on the wild side!
Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Android X, Eaten, and The Last Dragon Lord series.
In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that life is too short. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. He’s also a total Final Fantasy geek.
If you're new to Michael's work, visit this link to grab his $1 Series Starters--->www.michaellaronn.com/seriesstarters
Michael La Ronn is the author of many science fiction and fantasy novels including the Android X, Eaten, and The Last Dragon Lord series.
In 2012, a life-threatening illness made him realize that life is too short. He’s devoted his life to writing ever since, making up whatever story makes him fall out of his chair laughing the hardest. He’s also a total Final Fantasy geek.
If you're new to Michael's work, visit this link to grab his $1 Series Starters--->www.michaellaronn.com/seriesstarters
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 14, 2022
I’m sorry. This just did not hold my attention.
More than a year ago, I read Phantom Planet, which is the second book in the Galaxy Mavericks series but came out before the first one. Near the end of that, Grayson, the main character in Honor’s Reserve, shows up to rescue Keltie (he’s in the space equivalent of the Coast Guard). At the time, the vibes I got were definitely eyebrow-raise-what-have-we-here-man-in-uniform-potential-romantic-interest-alert. So it’s disappointing to find that Grayson’s back story is, so far, more boring than Keltie’s.
I don’t have a problem with the fact that this space opera takes liberties with science. In fact, the author includes a hilarious disclaimer at the beginning announcing that he is planning to do just that. Some other Goodreads reviewers actually DNF’d this book because of perceived inaccuracies with hyperspace travel and the like. I would just like to remind my fellow science-fiction readers that hyperspace travel, no matter how convincingly it is “explained,” is FICTION. Travel that even approaches the speed of light probably physically destroys the object traveling. All hyperspace travel is fiction. So is evolution. And boy, is there some fictional evolution in Honor’s Reserve!
“Scientists think that the nanocraft [carrying a selection of DNA from humans and various animals] collided with an asteroid that had some kind of molecular life on it, and that that asteroid crashed onto an Earthlike planet that supported carbon life. The two life forms mixed, rapidly evolved, and Arguses were born.”-page 36
Arguses are aliens that basically have human bodies and the heads of pigs. And this entire, intelligent species evolved in … how long? “Nine hundred and fifty years.” Actually less, if you count the transit time for the nanocraft. Wow, that really gives a new meaning to “rapidly evolved.” But frankly, if you look into molecular biology, an intelligent species evolving from bacteria at all is just as unlikely as it evolving in 950 years. So, why not? Remember, this is science FICTION.
I also don’t mind the things in this series that might be considered anachronisms. The year might be in the 3000s, but human nature remains the same. So, Grayson and his fellow crewmembers getting onto a private spacecraft and giving it a bureaucratic-style safety inspection seems refreshingly realistic. I’m sure bureaucracy is not going to decrease with the advance of technology. And, perhaps my favorite moment in the book is when the heroes are trying to jump into hyperspace to escape the villains, and the computer keeps asking them, “Are you sure you want to jump into hyperspace?” and making them click a bunch of permissions, causing them to get caught by the people chasing them.
So then, why did this book keep losing my interest and why did I nearly DNF it at about 40%? Maybe it’s something about the writing. Although I am willing to put up with unrealistically easy jumping into and out of hyperspace, I do like the logistics of my action scenes to be nice and clear, and in Honor's Reserve, they often weren’t. For example, it was sometimes not clear to me that a character had put their helmet back on (or never taken it off) before, say, the airlock was depressurized. That seems kind of important. There’s a scene near the beginning where Grayson is holding on to the outside of a space ship (or the edge of the airlock door, which is open? Not sure?) where the logistics were just not clear. The scene moved too fast. Show, don’t tell is great, but sometimes with sci-fi we need a little telling, or the scene actually loses drama.
Speaking of losing drama, there was definitely some untapped potential for character development here. I am speaking of Rina, the female villain of the story. [spoilers ahead] She is found to be human trafficking: helping the odious Arguses to kidnap people so they can enslave them. Then we find out that she is doing this in exchange for a promise from the Arguses to protect her and her family. She was at first enslaved, and she has the burn marks to prove it. Well, even if it’s not ultimately excusable, this seems like a pretty understandable motivation. It might bear looking into a little further. Rina has evidently been through some pretty heavy trauma recently and is in a desperate situation. We might want to examine that, no?
No. Rina is consistently portrayed as a sociopath. “You can’t trust anything she says.” She even comes right out and says, “It didn’t really bother me to enslave a bunch of other people, as long as it wasn’t me.” So Rina is thoroughly bad and we can safely hate her and turn her over to the Arguses.
Even this character arc might have been OK if it had been written with a little more complexity: if, say, Grayson had been tempted to feel sorry for Rina when he heard her tragic back story, had tried to turn her, and had then been double-crossed and we find her doubling down on her evil. But that’s not how it goes down. It’s as if Rina is barely a character at all.
To sum up, a bland, one-dimensional villain (and consequently, hero); aliens that don’t seem spooky, just like grosser, evil-er people; and action scenes that sometimes felt rushed and inadequately explained are all the reasons that I found the author’s notes at the end, about his philosophy of space operas, much more interesting than the book itself.
I will say that Phantom Planet, while it had some of these same problems on a smaller scale, was better than Honor’s Reserve. It had some spooky, unexplained things that promised more terror later in the series. I might give this series one more book before I give up on it.
More than a year ago, I read Phantom Planet, which is the second book in the Galaxy Mavericks series but came out before the first one. Near the end of that, Grayson, the main character in Honor’s Reserve, shows up to rescue Keltie (he’s in the space equivalent of the Coast Guard). At the time, the vibes I got were definitely eyebrow-raise-what-have-we-here-man-in-uniform-potential-romantic-interest-alert. So it’s disappointing to find that Grayson’s back story is, so far, more boring than Keltie’s.
I don’t have a problem with the fact that this space opera takes liberties with science. In fact, the author includes a hilarious disclaimer at the beginning announcing that he is planning to do just that. Some other Goodreads reviewers actually DNF’d this book because of perceived inaccuracies with hyperspace travel and the like. I would just like to remind my fellow science-fiction readers that hyperspace travel, no matter how convincingly it is “explained,” is FICTION. Travel that even approaches the speed of light probably physically destroys the object traveling. All hyperspace travel is fiction. So is evolution. And boy, is there some fictional evolution in Honor’s Reserve!
“Scientists think that the nanocraft [carrying a selection of DNA from humans and various animals] collided with an asteroid that had some kind of molecular life on it, and that that asteroid crashed onto an Earthlike planet that supported carbon life. The two life forms mixed, rapidly evolved, and Arguses were born.”-page 36
Arguses are aliens that basically have human bodies and the heads of pigs. And this entire, intelligent species evolved in … how long? “Nine hundred and fifty years.” Actually less, if you count the transit time for the nanocraft. Wow, that really gives a new meaning to “rapidly evolved.” But frankly, if you look into molecular biology, an intelligent species evolving from bacteria at all is just as unlikely as it evolving in 950 years. So, why not? Remember, this is science FICTION.
I also don’t mind the things in this series that might be considered anachronisms. The year might be in the 3000s, but human nature remains the same. So, Grayson and his fellow crewmembers getting onto a private spacecraft and giving it a bureaucratic-style safety inspection seems refreshingly realistic. I’m sure bureaucracy is not going to decrease with the advance of technology. And, perhaps my favorite moment in the book is when the heroes are trying to jump into hyperspace to escape the villains, and the computer keeps asking them, “Are you sure you want to jump into hyperspace?” and making them click a bunch of permissions, causing them to get caught by the people chasing them.
So then, why did this book keep losing my interest and why did I nearly DNF it at about 40%? Maybe it’s something about the writing. Although I am willing to put up with unrealistically easy jumping into and out of hyperspace, I do like the logistics of my action scenes to be nice and clear, and in Honor's Reserve, they often weren’t. For example, it was sometimes not clear to me that a character had put their helmet back on (or never taken it off) before, say, the airlock was depressurized. That seems kind of important. There’s a scene near the beginning where Grayson is holding on to the outside of a space ship (or the edge of the airlock door, which is open? Not sure?) where the logistics were just not clear. The scene moved too fast. Show, don’t tell is great, but sometimes with sci-fi we need a little telling, or the scene actually loses drama.
Speaking of losing drama, there was definitely some untapped potential for character development here. I am speaking of Rina, the female villain of the story. [spoilers ahead] She is found to be human trafficking: helping the odious Arguses to kidnap people so they can enslave them. Then we find out that she is doing this in exchange for a promise from the Arguses to protect her and her family. She was at first enslaved, and she has the burn marks to prove it. Well, even if it’s not ultimately excusable, this seems like a pretty understandable motivation. It might bear looking into a little further. Rina has evidently been through some pretty heavy trauma recently and is in a desperate situation. We might want to examine that, no?
No. Rina is consistently portrayed as a sociopath. “You can’t trust anything she says.” She even comes right out and says, “It didn’t really bother me to enslave a bunch of other people, as long as it wasn’t me.” So Rina is thoroughly bad and we can safely hate her and turn her over to the Arguses.
Even this character arc might have been OK if it had been written with a little more complexity: if, say, Grayson had been tempted to feel sorry for Rina when he heard her tragic back story, had tried to turn her, and had then been double-crossed and we find her doubling down on her evil. But that’s not how it goes down. It’s as if Rina is barely a character at all.
To sum up, a bland, one-dimensional villain (and consequently, hero); aliens that don’t seem spooky, just like grosser, evil-er people; and action scenes that sometimes felt rushed and inadequately explained are all the reasons that I found the author’s notes at the end, about his philosophy of space operas, much more interesting than the book itself.
I will say that Phantom Planet, while it had some of these same problems on a smaller scale, was better than Honor’s Reserve. It had some spooky, unexplained things that promised more terror later in the series. I might give this series one more book before I give up on it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
books-read-in-2021
January 27, 2021Disclaimer:
I follow this author on youtube and got this book for free on his website (not an arc, anyone can get this book for free by joining the author's fan club). I do not know the author personally, but I was predisposed to liking the book as I enjoy his content on other platforms.
Link to my philosophy on reviewing books.
Overall Thoughts:
Overall this book was a fun campy sci-fi adventure. You really have to suspend a lot of disbelief on the science front to enjoy this book, but if you can do that, it's a good read. This gave me huge Star Trek the Original Series meets Doctor Who vibes. The main character is earnest, and easy to love. The morality is a bit more black and white than what I usually enjoy, but grounding my expectations in the realm of campy sci-fi, I was able to let that slide. The world building is interesting if you ignore science. I really enjoyed the blending of common sci-fi tropes with modern tech. The main character flys through space for his dayjob, but his mom still has a landline phone. The settings were well thought out and I was able to easily visualize them.
Deeper Dive:
My biggest complaint about this book was that it felt disjointed. It's fairly short, but there were three distinct parts to the story, and they didn't blend together well. Particularly near the middle, there is a large plot point that comes out of nowhere and doesn't seem to have any bearing on the rest of the story. The first third and the last third make sense together, but there is an intermission that doesn't really land for me and interrupts the flow of the action.
There are some cheesy scenes in here, both cheesy dialog and action. For me, this went along with the campy flavor of the book, but readers who can't stomach cringy dialog might want to pass on this one.
There is also some heavy leaning on the 'evil race is evil and does evil things' trope in this book. This again calls back to the black and white morality issues. The book has a tight point of view focused on one character. It's easy enough for me to hand wave this as the character's perspective, but it was a bit overblow at times. I think it can be bundled into the campy nature of the story, but it was present throughout and got a bit uncomfortable in some places.
This is the first book in a series. It does read like a complete story. It doesn't necessarily lead me into the next book very cleanly. I don't know if I'll continue with the series, but I will read more by the author.
I follow this author on youtube and got this book for free on his website (not an arc, anyone can get this book for free by joining the author's fan club). I do not know the author personally, but I was predisposed to liking the book as I enjoy his content on other platforms.
Link to my philosophy on reviewing books.
Overall Thoughts:
Overall this book was a fun campy sci-fi adventure. You really have to suspend a lot of disbelief on the science front to enjoy this book, but if you can do that, it's a good read. This gave me huge Star Trek the Original Series meets Doctor Who vibes. The main character is earnest, and easy to love. The morality is a bit more black and white than what I usually enjoy, but grounding my expectations in the realm of campy sci-fi, I was able to let that slide. The world building is interesting if you ignore science. I really enjoyed the blending of common sci-fi tropes with modern tech. The main character flys through space for his dayjob, but his mom still has a landline phone. The settings were well thought out and I was able to easily visualize them.
Deeper Dive:
My biggest complaint about this book was that it felt disjointed. It's fairly short, but there were three distinct parts to the story, and they didn't blend together well. Particularly near the middle, there is a large plot point that comes out of nowhere and doesn't seem to have any bearing on the rest of the story. The first third and the last third make sense together, but there is an intermission that doesn't really land for me and interrupts the flow of the action.
There are some cheesy scenes in here, both cheesy dialog and action. For me, this went along with the campy flavor of the book, but readers who can't stomach cringy dialog might want to pass on this one.
There is also some heavy leaning on the 'evil race is evil and does evil things' trope in this book. This again calls back to the black and white morality issues. The book has a tight point of view focused on one character. It's easy enough for me to hand wave this as the character's perspective, but it was a bit overblow at times. I think it can be bundled into the campy nature of the story, but it was present throughout and got a bit uncomfortable in some places.
This is the first book in a series. It does read like a complete story. It doesn't necessarily lead me into the next book very cleanly. I don't know if I'll continue with the series, but I will read more by the author.
July 6, 2017
Childish and Childlike Writing-DNF at 16%
Galaxy Guard pulls over a private starship, as if it was a traffic stop by a police officer. The Petty Officers ask for driver licenses and registration (sic). No plates on starship as it is a new purchase. Hyperdrive is fueled by gasoline.
Childish and childlike is being kind.
Bailed at end of Chapter 4, 16% in.
"Honor's Reserve," is not recommended and was accessed by Kindle Unlimited.
Galaxy Guard pulls over a private starship, as if it was a traffic stop by a police officer. The Petty Officers ask for driver licenses and registration (sic). No plates on starship as it is a new purchase. Hyperdrive is fueled by gasoline.
Childish and childlike is being kind.
Bailed at end of Chapter 4, 16% in.
"Honor's Reserve," is not recommended and was accessed by Kindle Unlimited.
June 14, 2021
I enjoyed getting into the characters and this world. A must read for middle-grade and young adult fiction readers alike. My main question I ask is whether a timeline is designed for this universe or is it best to just grab a collection and separate into galaxies? So many questions and more exploring to venture through the universe known as Michael La Ronn
April 22, 2019
Avoid This
Bad dialogue he said she said style
Little are no content
A poor rip off of Star Trek and teen comic book scenes and situations
Self publish when real publishers will turn you down - poor quality
Lucky I only spent a dollar
Not recommended
Bad dialogue he said she said style
Little are no content
A poor rip off of Star Trek and teen comic book scenes and situations
Self publish when real publishers will turn you down - poor quality
Lucky I only spent a dollar
Not recommended
February 4, 2022
I have some problems with this, but it's a fun and quick read.
September 9, 2019
Bad.
I picked up the book after seeing the author's content on YouTube, where he boasted about writing 40 books, attending law school, having a 40-hour corporate job and tending to his family during the last few years. He also gave the advice of not spending too much time on research, and just figure things out as he goes forward. Kids, don’t be like the author.
I stopped early, after reading about half-pig, half-men creatures that reached a distant galaxy in less than 950 years while traveling at twice the light speed. They also wield AK-47s. If this was a light-hearted, well-written comedy in a weird world, like Beyond Good and Evil, I would ignore these glaring mistakes. Sadly, it’s neither well-written, not funny. To be fair, you might end up with a few laughs at how misguided is the science in the book.
Just avoid.
I picked up the book after seeing the author's content on YouTube, where he boasted about writing 40 books, attending law school, having a 40-hour corporate job and tending to his family during the last few years. He also gave the advice of not spending too much time on research, and just figure things out as he goes forward. Kids, don’t be like the author.
I stopped early, after reading about half-pig, half-men creatures that reached a distant galaxy in less than 950 years while traveling at twice the light speed. They also wield AK-47s. If this was a light-hearted, well-written comedy in a weird world, like Beyond Good and Evil, I would ignore these glaring mistakes. Sadly, it’s neither well-written, not funny. To be fair, you might end up with a few laughs at how misguided is the science in the book.
Just avoid.
April 17, 2018
Impressively bad
I mean, it’s like nothing about space is actually real. Why would you hang ‘emergency spacesuits’ right next to your regular spacesuits? What kind of spaceship fuel would be containerized and kept in the berthing spaces? Why couldn’t the spacer simply pull himself up...gravity in space?
If you know nothing about space or the Coast Guard, you may be able to tolerate the almost comically bad plot. I could not.
Normally, burning books is bad. If I had gotten this as a paperback, I would make an exception. Even a used bookstore shouldn’t stock this.
I mean, it’s like nothing about space is actually real. Why would you hang ‘emergency spacesuits’ right next to your regular spacesuits? What kind of spaceship fuel would be containerized and kept in the berthing spaces? Why couldn’t the spacer simply pull himself up...gravity in space?
If you know nothing about space or the Coast Guard, you may be able to tolerate the almost comically bad plot. I could not.
Normally, burning books is bad. If I had gotten this as a paperback, I would make an exception. Even a used bookstore shouldn’t stock this.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews