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Arrival
The Eden Project was a dream.
To start the first extra-solar colony…
To avoid the mistakes of our past…
To start anew.
Three generations, born and raised on a starship hurtling through space.
To never know an open sky…
To never feel the wind on their face…
To never witness the sun rise or set.
It is up to the advance team to set foot on each of these worlds, conduct their surveys, and send their findings back to the colony ship.
So many questions…
So little time…
Such an enormous responsibility.
Everything must go as planned, for the welfare of all the colonists depends on them.
“Arrival” is a 170,000 word, stand-alone novel.
To start the first extra-solar colony…
To avoid the mistakes of our past…
To start anew.
Three generations, born and raised on a starship hurtling through space.
To never know an open sky…
To never feel the wind on their face…
To never witness the sun rise or set.
It is up to the advance team to set foot on each of these worlds, conduct their surveys, and send their findings back to the colony ship.
So many questions…
So little time…
Such an enormous responsibility.
Everything must go as planned, for the welfare of all the colonists depends on them.
“Arrival” is a 170,000 word, stand-alone novel.
18 pages, Audiobook
First published March 17, 2016
435 people are currently reading
718 people want to read
About the author
Ryk Brown
62 books859 followersBorn in 1960 and raised on an overdose of television, NASA, and science fiction, Ryk Brown has worked as a cook, rock guitarist, stage lighting technician, and paramedic. He currently resides in Northern California with his wife, daughter, and cat. By day he fixes computers, and by night he creates stories.
Having spent his entire life "thinking stuff up", the advent of digital publishing has finally given him an excuse to write it all down and share it with others. ("Others" meaning someone other than his poor wife and daughter.)
A long-time fan of all things science and space, his goal is to write and publish an on-going series of sci-fi adventures. To be set in his own version of humanity's future, his characters will explore the vast reaches of the galaxy, and perhaps even the universe. He invites you all to join him on this journey through his vivid imagination.
Having spent his entire life "thinking stuff up", the advent of digital publishing has finally given him an excuse to write it all down and share it with others. ("Others" meaning someone other than his poor wife and daughter.)
A long-time fan of all things science and space, his goal is to write and publish an on-going series of sci-fi adventures. To be set in his own version of humanity's future, his characters will explore the vast reaches of the galaxy, and perhaps even the universe. He invites you all to join him on this journey through his vivid imagination.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews
April 20, 2021
I have enjoyed reading Ryk Brown’s books over the past few years. I came across this book when searching to see what Brown had written. It is an earlier book as it was published in March of 2016.
The book has an interesting plot as well as characters. The book is obviously one of his early attempts as it is not as polished as his current books. I think this could make an interesting series if Brown brings it up to current standards. I did enjoy the book as well as observing how he has improved his writing skills.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is fourteen hours and fifty-seven minutes. Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job narrating the book. Kafer has narrated all of Brown’s books.
The book has an interesting plot as well as characters. The book is obviously one of his early attempts as it is not as polished as his current books. I think this could make an interesting series if Brown brings it up to current standards. I did enjoy the book as well as observing how he has improved his writing skills.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is fourteen hours and fifty-seven minutes. Jeffrey Kafer does an excellent job narrating the book. Kafer has narrated all of Brown’s books.
February 26, 2017
Pulp grade sci-fi. I can suspend my disbelief as much as anyone else but the author doesn't even try. Antimatter drive - fine, 40% light-speed - sure, I don't mind. There is a line however between implausible for lack of current scientific knowledge and just straight up crazy stupid. They arrive on some random planet that happens to have breathable atmosphere, edible vegetation, recognisable animals complete with viruses (with magical side-effects) that affect humans. The military personnel behave like a bunch of 10yo boyscouts on a hiking trip. I read sci-fi pulp from several decades ago with better science.
The writing itself is overly verbose with the author laboriously describing every handle turned and button pressed like it mattered. The plot is wholly unoriginal from start to finish (maybe except the virus, but that's the dumbest part of the book) and characters are easily recognisable stereotypes. Generational ship, hijacking a ship to set out to colonise a planet, a landing gone wrong, stranded on an alien planet trying to find the rest of your team, the wacky one, the born leader, the quiet one who dies, the complete-opposites couple (who would've thought?!) etc. - if you're playing cliche bingo you must've won by now. Not worth it.
The writing itself is overly verbose with the author laboriously describing every handle turned and button pressed like it mattered. The plot is wholly unoriginal from start to finish (maybe except the virus, but that's the dumbest part of the book) and characters are easily recognisable stereotypes. Generational ship, hijacking a ship to set out to colonise a planet, a landing gone wrong, stranded on an alien planet trying to find the rest of your team, the wacky one, the born leader, the quiet one who dies, the complete-opposites couple (who would've thought?!) etc. - if you're playing cliche bingo you must've won by now. Not worth it.
June 14, 2017
I was 9 out of 17(!) hours into this audiobook last year when my Hoopla app abruptly stopped working. The issue was finally resolved a few months ago, so I figured, why not get back to this sci-fi tale. It's a longggggg book ...and it had no reason to be. Maybe the folks over at Hoopla were trying to tell me something.
Author Ryk Brown's writing is painfully descriptive; he sets out detailing every single character action--opening a door, getting out of bed, looking in the mirror, putting on shoes--but the action never propels the story forward. When you look at the sum of the story, all 17 hours could've been boiled down to pretty tight, entertaining short story, an hour and a half at most. That's a hell of a lot of missed editing opportunities.
The premise sounded solid: The earth is past its prime, with only a bleak future ahead of it. A group sets out on an interstellar voyage to explore one of three potentially hospitable planets in the Tau Ceti system--about seven months ahead of a group of settlers--in the hopes of determining which planet to colonize.
I was disappointed with how little time was spent explaining why planets in the Tau Ceti system might have an Earth-like environment. We just jump right in and assume that readers will be on board in believing Tau Ceti 5 has edible animals and fauna, a breathable environment, and similar topography to Earth. I'm no expert in space or sci-fi, so for a good portion of the audio, I thought the reader was saying some make-believe word, "Tau City." It wasn't until this year, when I read another book (I think it was Le Guin's The Dispossessed) that I realized Tau Ceti was a real star, 12 light-years from our Solar System, with five planets orbiting it--two in a potentially habitable zone. ...this would've all been welcome knowledge (couldn't Brown remove some of the shoe-tying-talk and focus more on science?), and would've helped me take the environment more seriously.
It also didn't help that the whole crew of the ship behaved like a bunch of immature assholes: from their dialogue to their actions, to their very final decision. Holy eff, did I hate this entire crew.
I'm not sure why I soldiered on for the full 17 hours. When the ship does come crashing down on Tau Ceti 5, the crew is separated, and all are tasked to survive. I suppose curiosity, the hopes it would turn into a good survival story like The Martian, or there would be some sort of massive payoff in the end, kept me plowing forward. Alas, this was a 1-star book through and through.
Author Ryk Brown's writing is painfully descriptive; he sets out detailing every single character action--opening a door, getting out of bed, looking in the mirror, putting on shoes--but the action never propels the story forward. When you look at the sum of the story, all 17 hours could've been boiled down to pretty tight, entertaining short story, an hour and a half at most. That's a hell of a lot of missed editing opportunities.
The premise sounded solid: The earth is past its prime, with only a bleak future ahead of it. A group sets out on an interstellar voyage to explore one of three potentially hospitable planets in the Tau Ceti system--about seven months ahead of a group of settlers--in the hopes of determining which planet to colonize.
I was disappointed with how little time was spent explaining why planets in the Tau Ceti system might have an Earth-like environment. We just jump right in and assume that readers will be on board in believing Tau Ceti 5 has edible animals and fauna, a breathable environment, and similar topography to Earth. I'm no expert in space or sci-fi, so for a good portion of the audio, I thought the reader was saying some make-believe word, "Tau City." It wasn't until this year, when I read another book (I think it was Le Guin's The Dispossessed) that I realized Tau Ceti was a real star, 12 light-years from our Solar System, with five planets orbiting it--two in a potentially habitable zone. ...this would've all been welcome knowledge (couldn't Brown remove some of the shoe-tying-talk and focus more on science?), and would've helped me take the environment more seriously.
It also didn't help that the whole crew of the ship behaved like a bunch of immature assholes: from their dialogue to their actions, to their very final decision. Holy eff, did I hate this entire crew.
I'm not sure why I soldiered on for the full 17 hours. When the ship does come crashing down on Tau Ceti 5, the crew is separated, and all are tasked to survive. I suppose curiosity, the hopes it would turn into a good survival story like The Martian, or there would be some sort of massive payoff in the end, kept me plowing forward. Alas, this was a 1-star book through and through.
April 5, 2016
This is a difficult book to review because I went into it with the wrong expectations.
In the first 20 pages I thought it would be like The Marian, but with more people surviving. It wasn't, and the complete disregard for logic and sound science really turned me off (really, there's not a single communication-capable satellite in orbit despite the fact that the crew have detailed satellite imagery? And no one thought that sending a rover ahead of time might be a good idea? Or that sending a single crew of misfits might not be the best plan?). If you want more Martian, this isn't it.
In the next two-thirds of the book, it was basically Deepsix from The Academy series, minus the wonder and Hutch. A team of supposed scientists repeatedly do really stupid things and get themselves into trouble as a result... On a planet that's so unimaginatively Earth-like it may as well have been made specifically for humans. This part of the book is really more about the characters and their interpersonal relationships than about survival, exploration, or more hard sci-fi themes.
Then the last third of the book turned into... I don't even know how to describe it. An examination of man's bond with nature and the meaning of belonging, encapsulated in a completely unexplained physical transformation. The last pages were heartbreaking and well-written, but I just kept asking myself, "Why? How? This makes no sense!". Warning: you won't get any answers.
So basically I was left with three separate stories all bound together in a single novel that, to me at least, didn't match the potential of any one of them individually. It's definitely not a bad novel by any means, but you need to go in expecting a sci-fi adventure requiring a bit of suspension of disbelief, not a hard-sf survival story.
In the first 20 pages I thought it would be like The Marian, but with more people surviving. It wasn't, and the complete disregard for logic and sound science really turned me off (really, there's not a single communication-capable satellite in orbit despite the fact that the crew have detailed satellite imagery? And no one thought that sending a rover ahead of time might be a good idea? Or that sending a single crew of misfits might not be the best plan?). If you want more Martian, this isn't it.
In the next two-thirds of the book, it was basically Deepsix from The Academy series, minus the wonder and Hutch. A team of supposed scientists repeatedly do really stupid things and get themselves into trouble as a result... On a planet that's so unimaginatively Earth-like it may as well have been made specifically for humans. This part of the book is really more about the characters and their interpersonal relationships than about survival, exploration, or more hard sci-fi themes.
Then the last third of the book turned into... I don't even know how to describe it. An examination of man's bond with nature and the meaning of belonging, encapsulated in a completely unexplained physical transformation. The last pages were heartbreaking and well-written, but I just kept asking myself, "Why? How? This makes no sense!". Warning: you won't get any answers.
So basically I was left with three separate stories all bound together in a single novel that, to me at least, didn't match the potential of any one of them individually. It's definitely not a bad novel by any means, but you need to go in expecting a sci-fi adventure requiring a bit of suspension of disbelief, not a hard-sf survival story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2017
2/5 The plot
1/5 Character development
1/5 Environment (Really a near perfect Earth analog with "edible" flora and fauna?)
2/5 Research
4/5 Writing
The plot seemed cool at the start, but the characters were not appropriate for the roles the author put them in.
Captain Jake (original) who has more training than anyone else (Unlikely) and cannot delegate.
The Second in Command is the least experienced out of the all but questions everyone (Unlikely).
The Maintenance expert is a chauvinist pig, but has a soft gooey inside.
The Medical expert is a stereotypical "motherly" type for the team and apparently a geneticists.
The Agricultural expert is a feminist who hates to be lead around by men unless she is desperate and then she turns into a housewife (Unlikely and sexist).
The rest of the team are also as stereotypical as can be.
Our small team of "experts" are sent to a new solar system to find a habitable planet for their ark spaceship; home to hundreds of humans set to arrive soon. After the exploration ship miscalculates their speed, they have to airbrake hard around the first of three planets they are supposed to explore. As with any major undertaking, something bad comes up. Equipment failures, Natural disaster, Human error. Because of this oversight, our team now is faced with life or death. From this point on, they do one stupid thing after another for no apparent reason.
If you are looking for a book that explains how a professional team of experts handle a crisis, stay away from this book.
If you want to read how a random group of inexperienced "Joe's" navigate surviving on a strange new world this is for you.
Prepare to have nothing explained and end with questions still unanswered.
1/5 Character development
1/5 Environment (Really a near perfect Earth analog with "edible" flora and fauna?)
2/5 Research
4/5 Writing
The plot seemed cool at the start, but the characters were not appropriate for the roles the author put them in.
Captain Jake (original) who has more training than anyone else (Unlikely) and cannot delegate.
The Second in Command is the least experienced out of the all but questions everyone (Unlikely).
The Maintenance expert is a chauvinist pig, but has a soft gooey inside.
The Medical expert is a stereotypical "motherly" type for the team and apparently a geneticists.
The Agricultural expert is a feminist who hates to be lead around by men unless she is desperate and then she turns into a housewife (Unlikely and sexist).
The rest of the team are also as stereotypical as can be.
Our small team of "experts" are sent to a new solar system to find a habitable planet for their ark spaceship; home to hundreds of humans set to arrive soon. After the exploration ship miscalculates their speed, they have to airbrake hard around the first of three planets they are supposed to explore. As with any major undertaking, something bad comes up. Equipment failures, Natural disaster, Human error. Because of this oversight, our team now is faced with life or death. From this point on, they do one stupid thing after another for no apparent reason.
If you are looking for a book that explains how a professional team of experts handle a crisis, stay away from this book.
If you want to read how a random group of inexperienced "Joe's" navigate surviving on a strange new world this is for you.
Prepare to have nothing explained and end with questions still unanswered.
May 3, 2016
A SIMPLE MAN'S REVIEW:
A story about humanity reaching a new planet in the hopes of colonization - sound familiar? Yes, this has been done before but this book actually does it quite well.
You get a bit of life on the spaceship, a dramatic landing, and the efforts to survive. There are likable characters, a bit of humor, and plenty of adventure. And you get a surprise, although you'll probably figure it out well before getting to the end. But still, it is touching when it happens.
Honestly, movies have ruined me because I couldn't keep the images of the Na'vi out of my head (from Pandora). They aren't even furry but the common blue color just lodged that picture in my brain!
This is a good sci-fi read without all the sci-fi jargon. Yes it's a space odyssey but mostly it is about camping and surviving. So even if you normally steer clear of epic space adventures, you might actually enjoy this read.
A story about humanity reaching a new planet in the hopes of colonization - sound familiar? Yes, this has been done before but this book actually does it quite well.
You get a bit of life on the spaceship, a dramatic landing, and the efforts to survive. There are likable characters, a bit of humor, and plenty of adventure. And you get a surprise, although you'll probably figure it out well before getting to the end. But still, it is touching when it happens.
Honestly, movies have ruined me because I couldn't keep the images of the Na'vi out of my head (from Pandora). They aren't even furry but the common blue color just lodged that picture in my brain!
This is a good sci-fi read without all the sci-fi jargon. Yes it's a space odyssey but mostly it is about camping and surviving. So even if you normally steer clear of epic space adventures, you might actually enjoy this read.
May 31, 2016
The first part of story does not mesh with the rest. It seems to be someone spying on a woman who’s just found out something that has devastated her. By the very end of the book this will make sense, but frankly it’s so far apart that I found the piece openly annoying at first because it was so coy with details. By the end it was shrug-worthy because that first piece didn’t tell us anything that we didn’t learn later. It adds little and increases initial confusion. At least if it had come last then it would have made immediate sense.
Particularly toward the beginning of the book, many of the characters (especially all the woman excluding the doctor) act like children. It’s hard to imagine how someone could have thought that these characters could possibly accomplish this mission. All the women whine and complain. Some of the men are assholes. There’s a situation where a woman may well have a broken rib, but the man she’s stranded with makes her do a lot of crap work because she was rude to him. And she seems to take this as her due (although with some grumbles), as though being mean to him was something that should be punished with pain and possible further injury. This section in particular really grated on me. Most of the characters are pretty shallow, and some of them are oddly unobservant (a character notices that his hair is turning blue and doesn’t seem to think anything is weird with that). When one woman manages to become drunk on virtually no alcohol, she acts and talks like a three-year-old (“Are you takin’ a wee-wee?”). We do eventually get a glimpse of the Daedalus, and every person who speaks up seems completely stereotypical and shallow.
It seems like the landing ship these guys used was practically designed to fail catastrophically. However, the inevitable landing calamities are handled well as tension-builders. Once everyone sets up a perimeter alarm, there’s no explanation for how a local creature gets past it without setting off the alarms.
The survivalist plot core is interesting and captivating. (I admit to a fondness for survival plots.) I just wish the characters measured up to that. When dealing with Sara and Mac being stranded by a sudden flood, I actually so disliked the stranded characters and how they handled this plot twist that I wrote “I hate these characters” in my notes.
The survivalism was handled well and was fun to read, but the character issues were so terrible that I couldn’t justify a rating higher than two.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/05/r...
Particularly toward the beginning of the book, many of the characters (especially all the woman excluding the doctor) act like children. It’s hard to imagine how someone could have thought that these characters could possibly accomplish this mission. All the women whine and complain. Some of the men are assholes. There’s a situation where a woman may well have a broken rib, but the man she’s stranded with makes her do a lot of crap work because she was rude to him. And she seems to take this as her due (although with some grumbles), as though being mean to him was something that should be punished with pain and possible further injury. This section in particular really grated on me. Most of the characters are pretty shallow, and some of them are oddly unobservant (a character notices that his hair is turning blue and doesn’t seem to think anything is weird with that). When one woman manages to become drunk on virtually no alcohol, she acts and talks like a three-year-old (“Are you takin’ a wee-wee?”). We do eventually get a glimpse of the Daedalus, and every person who speaks up seems completely stereotypical and shallow.
It seems like the landing ship these guys used was practically designed to fail catastrophically. However, the inevitable landing calamities are handled well as tension-builders. Once everyone sets up a perimeter alarm, there’s no explanation for how a local creature gets past it without setting off the alarms.
The survivalist plot core is interesting and captivating. (I admit to a fondness for survival plots.) I just wish the characters measured up to that. When dealing with Sara and Mac being stranded by a sudden flood, I actually so disliked the stranded characters and how they handled this plot twist that I wrote “I hate these characters” in my notes.
The survivalism was handled well and was fun to read, but the character issues were so terrible that I couldn’t justify a rating higher than two.
Original review on my site: http://www.errantdreams.com/2016/05/r...
August 24, 2017
This book has problems, but I gave it five stars because I enjoyed it as much as I've ever enjoyed any book, which means more than anything else. That's what books are for, after all. Not to be perfect, but to make people feel, to let them live in another world, and to give them enjoyment. So five stars it is. None of the book's issues kept me from enjoying it.
I'll start with the problems. First, it's hard to get through the beginning. It is a very extended scene in which the crew of an exploration craft crash lands on a planet. After a few pages, it was like, "Okay, I get it, things are going wrong, blah blah, how much more of this do I have to slog through?" The answer is...a lot. If I had it to do over again, I'd skip the entire crash landing scene and start when they're already on the surface. It's well written, it's just too long, and it's the sort of predictable "everything that can go wrong does" stuff that is a tired trope in fiction. In addition, the plot elements are simplistic and you can tell from the writing and/or editing that this is a self published book that would never have been allowed to see the light of day had it gone through the traditional publishing industry.
And that is why the traditional publishing industry can go to hell, because this book is fantastic.
It may be simple, but it is a great story. Once the crash landing was done, it kept me engrossed the entire time. I read slow, and so sometimes I loose interest in books that are paced too slowly or have characters I don't care about. This book never lost me, I always wanted to come back to it. Some of the characters are hard to distinguish from one another, but not the important ones, so I didn't care. I loved the exploration and "survive on an alien world" bits, as that is my favorite type of science fiction. Politics-in-space and ugly-side-of-humanity-never-changes stories like The Expanse are great too, but sometimes you want a good old fashioned space/alien world exploration story without the usual space opera elements.
If you like science fiction, if you want a good alien world exploration/survival story, read this book. It's really, really good. But if you're like me...skim through the beginning.
I'll start with the problems. First, it's hard to get through the beginning. It is a very extended scene in which the crew of an exploration craft crash lands on a planet. After a few pages, it was like, "Okay, I get it, things are going wrong, blah blah, how much more of this do I have to slog through?" The answer is...a lot. If I had it to do over again, I'd skip the entire crash landing scene and start when they're already on the surface. It's well written, it's just too long, and it's the sort of predictable "everything that can go wrong does" stuff that is a tired trope in fiction. In addition, the plot elements are simplistic and you can tell from the writing and/or editing that this is a self published book that would never have been allowed to see the light of day had it gone through the traditional publishing industry.
And that is why the traditional publishing industry can go to hell, because this book is fantastic.
It may be simple, but it is a great story. Once the crash landing was done, it kept me engrossed the entire time. I read slow, and so sometimes I loose interest in books that are paced too slowly or have characters I don't care about. This book never lost me, I always wanted to come back to it. Some of the characters are hard to distinguish from one another, but not the important ones, so I didn't care. I loved the exploration and "survive on an alien world" bits, as that is my favorite type of science fiction. Politics-in-space and ugly-side-of-humanity-never-changes stories like The Expanse are great too, but sometimes you want a good old fashioned space/alien world exploration story without the usual space opera elements.
If you like science fiction, if you want a good alien world exploration/survival story, read this book. It's really, really good. But if you're like me...skim through the beginning.
April 4, 2017
I wish half ratings were possible. I'm rounding this one up.
I downloaded this from Hoopla before a road trip thinking it was the book the movie was based on. It turned out not to be, but it's an interesting story. Some things were pretty original and engaging though the first half was significantly better than the second. The prologue would have been better served as an epilogue.
I downloaded this from Hoopla before a road trip thinking it was the book the movie was based on. It turned out not to be, but it's an interesting story. Some things were pretty original and engaging though the first half was significantly better than the second. The prologue would have been better served as an epilogue.
September 14, 2024
Slow start, wish the planet were a little more detailed, it did have me hooked though
October 10, 2016
The unexpected twist at the end was everything. I thought it was possible to begin a space travel across light years to discover a new home for human to stay and live there. My mind is full of imaginations of outer space :")
August 6, 2016
Over all the story was okay, looking back I'm not sure it was worth my time but I was able to finish it. In my opinion the book, to use a cooking analogy was over done in some places and underdone in others. It could really use a thorough going over. Now for some details, avoiding spoilers, the opening scene was unnecessary and didn't grab me like the author apparently hoped. The following scene was slow to build the action and get the readers attention which is probably why the author chose to insert the opening scene. The main, opening was slow to build, then when it got hot and heavy, I got frustrated, there was unnecessary detail, and flashbacks in the middle of action that could have and should have been held for later. These things only caused the opening to bog down and seem clunky. I thought that the characters were shallow, and the names not very original, making it a little difficult to keep track who was who, at least at first. The dialog was predicable and full of cliche's. The measurements seemed off, some of the measurements sited seemed like the distances should have been numbers of feet, not meters. Then there were many incongruencies, I could site some but wanting to avoid spoiling, I'll just say that things didn't work in one place in the book that did work in others, and people often did way too stupid of things, after making them out to be pretty smart in other places. It made the characters unbelievable and prevented me from bonding with them very well. Sorry this couldn't have been more positive, it was an okay read and better than some that I've read, however that's not saying much. Hopefully a revised edition might fix many of the problems I've sighted.
March 29, 2016
Another epic scifi novel rivaling the genius of the Frontier Saga
I was very impressed with Ryk Brown's latest scifi novel... I have read all of his books, from the mediocre to his brilliant action packed and super fun Frontier Saga. But what "Arrival" lacks in action (at least in comparison to the Frontier Saga, which is practically pure action), it makes up for it with a very realistic story about Earth seeking out a new home across light years and 4 generations of explorers in the hope of beginning civilization anew with a fresh start. It has action, love, adventure, metamorphosis, survivalism, humor, friendship, a killer plague, new strange life, and a touch of philosophical introspection about how we live today and where it might take us if we don't wake up and change before it's too late. This novel marks a new chapter in Mr. Brown's career - one that shows a sense of maturity, balance, depth and finesse that is rare to find in today's active scifi authors.
I strongly recommend this novel to anyone even remotely interested in reading about what it might be like to explore beyond our solar system in search of a new home for the human race...
Now get back to finishing the next chapter in the Frontier Saga!!! And when is the TV series going to come out??? You're ready to take this to the next level!
I was very impressed with Ryk Brown's latest scifi novel... I have read all of his books, from the mediocre to his brilliant action packed and super fun Frontier Saga. But what "Arrival" lacks in action (at least in comparison to the Frontier Saga, which is practically pure action), it makes up for it with a very realistic story about Earth seeking out a new home across light years and 4 generations of explorers in the hope of beginning civilization anew with a fresh start. It has action, love, adventure, metamorphosis, survivalism, humor, friendship, a killer plague, new strange life, and a touch of philosophical introspection about how we live today and where it might take us if we don't wake up and change before it's too late. This novel marks a new chapter in Mr. Brown's career - one that shows a sense of maturity, balance, depth and finesse that is rare to find in today's active scifi authors.
I strongly recommend this novel to anyone even remotely interested in reading about what it might be like to explore beyond our solar system in search of a new home for the human race...
Now get back to finishing the next chapter in the Frontier Saga!!! And when is the TV series going to come out??? You're ready to take this to the next level!
March 26, 2016
What an excellent read!
Every now and then you pick a book from a new author or even one you know quite well and realize you have a gem. Same thing happened when I first read Andy Weir's "The Martian", James Corey's "The Expanse", or most any book by John Scalzi, to mention some recent writers I've read.
I have enjoyed Ryk's Frontier saga so knew that I would be interested in this stand alone book. I just didn't know how much. Wonderful character development and fascinating storyline and such a great break from the space opera's I've been reading lately.
He has wrapped this story around mans first step on a new world they hope to colonize. What wonders or horrors will await them? Always a fascinating part of any book or series and Ryk has woven an exciting ,yet bitter sweet tail centered solely on this aspect of exploration.
I specifically mentioned Andy Weir's "The Martian" because I felt the same halfway through this book that I did with that one. What a great movie you could make out of the "Arrival"! I hope some film producer out there considers this one! In the meantime, enjoy a great read!
Every now and then you pick a book from a new author or even one you know quite well and realize you have a gem. Same thing happened when I first read Andy Weir's "The Martian", James Corey's "The Expanse", or most any book by John Scalzi, to mention some recent writers I've read.
I have enjoyed Ryk's Frontier saga so knew that I would be interested in this stand alone book. I just didn't know how much. Wonderful character development and fascinating storyline and such a great break from the space opera's I've been reading lately.
He has wrapped this story around mans first step on a new world they hope to colonize. What wonders or horrors will await them? Always a fascinating part of any book or series and Ryk has woven an exciting ,yet bitter sweet tail centered solely on this aspect of exploration.
I specifically mentioned Andy Weir's "The Martian" because I felt the same halfway through this book that I did with that one. What a great movie you could make out of the "Arrival"! I hope some film producer out there considers this one! In the meantime, enjoy a great read!
December 12, 2016
First and foremost, don't confuse this with the new "Arrival" movie. Not the same story or author. As for this one, my wife and I spent 12 hours listening to it on a couple of long trips. We hung on, hoping for a big payoff at the end. Ultimately, we found it a waste of time. Here come the spoilers, so you may want to tune out now. The spoiler is that there's nothing to reveal that would spoil anything. There's really no explanation of the cause of the virus, and the "cure" was developed overnight. One of the characters mutated into a simian being overnight, and communicated telepathically with his best friend. The most ridiculous part, however, was the part where he lost the ability to communicate and started to speak in the same idiotic way that Tanto xommunicated in the Lone Ranger in the 50's. Nothing was really revealed or resolved in the end. Don't waste your time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 17, 2017
The premise is good, a generational colony ship. The story starts out with good science. By that I mean existing technology advanced given the time frame. No warp drive, no replicator/transporter, no energy beams. Simple thrust, orbital mechanics, fuel, electricity, gravity, etc. Really started out great. Then...
First crisis comes along, and all of the characters are behaving like untrained passengers on a long distance busride. Really? This is the best that humanity has to reach out to the stars? Planetside, and one dumb decision after the next. I understand that if you let one character do something stupid one time, you have a useful line to hang a story on. Once. But every flipping chapter? No. Just no.
I finished it, only because I hate not knowing how a story ends. Even a bad one. And I drive for a living, at night, hundreds of miles.
First crisis comes along, and all of the characters are behaving like untrained passengers on a long distance busride. Really? This is the best that humanity has to reach out to the stars? Planetside, and one dumb decision after the next. I understand that if you let one character do something stupid one time, you have a useful line to hang a story on. Once. But every flipping chapter? No. Just no.
I finished it, only because I hate not knowing how a story ends. Even a bad one. And I drive for a living, at night, hundreds of miles.
July 15, 2016
2.5 maybe even a 3, but someone needs to curb the unrealistic reviews.
I hate it when I don't enjoy a book that so many others do like, it makes me feel like I'm missing something. This book was pretty boring, the dialog and situations seem forced, the science is crap, and unless I missed it there is never a reference to the character's ages. Ryk Brown's Frontiers series is pretty awesome, so I don't know what happened here.
I don't care for the narrator, he makes all the characters seem really old.
I hate it when I don't enjoy a book that so many others do like, it makes me feel like I'm missing something. This book was pretty boring, the dialog and situations seem forced, the science is crap, and unless I missed it there is never a reference to the character's ages. Ryk Brown's Frontiers series is pretty awesome, so I don't know what happened here.
I don't care for the narrator, he makes all the characters seem really old.
April 9, 2016
Surprise !
I downloaded this story by accident, believe it or not. But, it was bedtime, I had nothing to read , and WTF, I usually go to sleep pretty fast, so I just went with it.
Well, I stayed up late that nite, and used some daylight finishing it. I liked it, and would recommend this story to anyone.
I downloaded this story by accident, believe it or not. But, it was bedtime, I had nothing to read , and WTF, I usually go to sleep pretty fast, so I just went with it.
Well, I stayed up late that nite, and used some daylight finishing it. I liked it, and would recommend this story to anyone.
July 28, 2016
Un-good. Don't understand the high reviews unless some sort of racket is going on. Childish, annoying and unrealistic characters with behavior and responses that don't match the situations they are in. Everything else is of bad 80's cartoon literary quality. Don't waste your time on this unless you have time to waste.
March 31, 2016
A great old fashioned adventure mystery - tightly paced, interesting characters, emotional well written ending - I was left with warm thoughts of these individuals' futures - what would they be like? How would their experiences impact their descendants?
December 27, 2017
Did not finish. Ridiculous "action" sequence based on problems encountered during an atmospheric reentry. If the "science" in the fiction is this terrible in the opening scene of the book, I'm afraid it will continue and I will not subject myself to poorly researched, poorly conceived fiction.
August 1, 2018
This book was decidedly awful. The writing, in particular, is just bad. The author spends more time telling us what the characters are thinking or feeling vs showing us. The plot could have been interesting, but there wasn't really enough there to make it more than 'meh'. Hard pass.
September 12, 2018
Found the characters flat and old-fashioned, as if they'd been taken from a 40's or 50's dime paperback. Events were dramatic, but my inability to care about the characters at all finally made me drop this story.
February 23, 2021
Casually sexist and rapey, with a side of sexual assault apologism in the first few pages. I won’t be finishing this book or reading more of Ryk Brown.
Can someone get me some good sci-fi authors that don’t depend on sexist tropes instead actual writing ability, please?
Can someone get me some good sci-fi authors that don’t depend on sexist tropes instead actual writing ability, please?
April 1, 2016
OMG
Best science fiction I've read so far. Like many other reviewers, I cried at the end. Opened my eyes to the humane aspects of space travel. Well worth the read!
Best science fiction I've read so far. Like many other reviewers, I cried at the end. Opened my eyes to the humane aspects of space travel. Well worth the read!
August 22, 2016
Just couldn't go past the first hour of the Audiobook. Characters behaved very child like for a crew of elites and it just didn't work for me.
September 26, 2016
Good premise, needs a prequel, would love more about the back story of the people who fled earth.
December 30, 2016
I really, REALLY wanted to love this book. I tried very hard to love this book. I kept reading it every day based on the pure hope that I would love this book.
I never grew to love this book.
This is your general sci-fi space colonization/survival story, with tons of great twists and ideas that seemed to be half thrown together at the last minute without strong connections or logic holding them together. In other words, this was a great idea that was tragically wasted.
The bad:
The plot connections. The plot had great, GREAT potential, but it was poorly executed. I mean, c'mon, ape-like aliens that are semi-intelligent, but the colonists show absolutely NO interest in them. Nothing more than simple shoulder-shrugs? No. That would have been a top priority in a real colonization situation. They would have went out to capture one, or attempt contact with one, immediately after Mac reported it. Also, the one that sneaked into the camp didn't set off a single perimeter alarm, yet Jack did when he passed the perimeter.
Also, what's up with how Laura noticed the genetic mutations in her specimens? How do you detect mutations when you don't have an original? And, why was Jack turning into the beast after being in contact/injured by one without getting sick (presumably because of the roots), yet the other crew members were able to stop death with the roots and stop their transformation into the same creature that Jack became? There was a huge lack of development in that plot point, which was an extremely important plot point. If the root stopped the other crew from both dying and becoming the ape-like alien, why didn't that work for Jack? It just didn't add up.
Horrible dialogue. Just...terrible. The characters are shallow and reminiscent of 9th grade English level of writing. I know that's harsh, but seriously. The dialogue is completely unrealistic and includes too much petty talk. Ryk even writes out the characters walking into rooms and greeting each other, leaning against walls and just completely unnecessary information. Outside of the unnecessary adverbs, the dialogue is hard to follow at times. When three or more characters are involved in a conversation the dialogue runs from line to line with no dialogue tags whatsoever, leaving the reader to have to go back 10 lines and count out (Jack, Frank, Jack again, Frank again, now Maria, is this Jack again?, maybe Maria now?). It's super frustrating. Then, the dialogue is unrealistic.
There was a point in the story where an engineer (Frank) was talking with the lead doctor with a background in bio-engineering/genetics about the sickness everyone was contracting. Repeatedly Frank would say, "Engineer here, I'm not following you" when Maria would use extremely simple terminology like "molecular bonds" or "proteins that make up the DNA strand". I'm sorry, an engineer would understand precisely what molecular bonds are or a DNA strand - that's freakin' basic science in high school, let alone specialized training for engineers selected to go colonize a planet. Then, to top it off, Maria broke what DNA does down to him on a level I'd talk to my 6 year old. "So, imagine you have to fix a machine, and the instructions are all jumbled and garbled," Maria tells Frank, regarding how DNA works, because he can't seem to grasp it.
I almost deleted the book from my Kindle right then...but since I was so close to the end, I kept going.
Horrible character behavior. If these were a bunch of people thrown together from your everyday population on Earth, I could maybe...MAAAYYYBE see some of the behavior. But these are self-proclaimed scientists that hold multiple degrees, with years of sim training, and decades of time travelling through space to learn. The entire mission is botched only because they behave like a bunch of mid-puberty teenagers, especially the women (except the Dr.) and most of the men, outside of Jack and Frank (most of the time). For highly educated, trained, and experienced people, they do the most idiotic and ridiculous stuff imaginable, like sneaking into a hut with an alien without weapons or protection, or seeing their own blue hair and not questioning it, or going off in groups of two (something no highly-trained survivalists would do), or bickering over idiotic stuff like little babies.
Characters are too stereotypical. Mac the jackass jock, Sara the whiny feminist who at one point felt the need to flip out on a guy who saved her life from a flood, but accidentally cracked her ribs in the process (I agree, Mac should of let her drown), Adia that we know literally nothing about, Frank the old-man type who knows best all of the time, Jack the born leader, Maria the mother, Laura the presumably smokin' hot scientist, Lynn the unexperienced tough-girl who has to prove she can roll with the men, Will the nerdy, soft guy who turns tough and manly. I mean...it's almost unbearable.
The good:
The story-line. The idea behind the plot was great, I thought. If the above "bad" points didn't exist and the story was more streamlined and connected, it would have been a great book. But there was just too much disconnect. I mean, why in the hell would you send a crew to a planet without first surrounding that planet with satellites and probes to provide communications and evaluation? That would have eliminated the entire situation with Jack and Will to begin with. They could have found them via GPS and retrieved them. Why not send a robot to the ground to test plants and rocks? For crying out loud, we do this in 2016 on planets. As if they wouldn't do it in another 100 years... Yet, the crew has to go out in small groups and risk their lives to get rock and plant specimens.
I can handle sci-fi and shut off my logic for things that science doesn't currently exist for (like light-sabers), but to totally ignore technology and precautions we take TODAY and act like they couldn't/wouldn't do it in 100+ years, during interplanetary travel? C'mon...
What happened Ryk?
I never grew to love this book.
This is your general sci-fi space colonization/survival story, with tons of great twists and ideas that seemed to be half thrown together at the last minute without strong connections or logic holding them together. In other words, this was a great idea that was tragically wasted.
The bad:
The plot connections. The plot had great, GREAT potential, but it was poorly executed. I mean, c'mon, ape-like aliens that are semi-intelligent, but the colonists show absolutely NO interest in them. Nothing more than simple shoulder-shrugs? No. That would have been a top priority in a real colonization situation. They would have went out to capture one, or attempt contact with one, immediately after Mac reported it. Also, the one that sneaked into the camp didn't set off a single perimeter alarm, yet Jack did when he passed the perimeter.
Also, what's up with how Laura noticed the genetic mutations in her specimens? How do you detect mutations when you don't have an original? And, why was Jack turning into the beast after being in contact/injured by one without getting sick (presumably because of the roots), yet the other crew members were able to stop death with the roots and stop their transformation into the same creature that Jack became? There was a huge lack of development in that plot point, which was an extremely important plot point. If the root stopped the other crew from both dying and becoming the ape-like alien, why didn't that work for Jack? It just didn't add up.
Horrible dialogue. Just...terrible. The characters are shallow and reminiscent of 9th grade English level of writing. I know that's harsh, but seriously. The dialogue is completely unrealistic and includes too much petty talk. Ryk even writes out the characters walking into rooms and greeting each other, leaning against walls and just completely unnecessary information. Outside of the unnecessary adverbs, the dialogue is hard to follow at times. When three or more characters are involved in a conversation the dialogue runs from line to line with no dialogue tags whatsoever, leaving the reader to have to go back 10 lines and count out (Jack, Frank, Jack again, Frank again, now Maria, is this Jack again?, maybe Maria now?). It's super frustrating. Then, the dialogue is unrealistic.
There was a point in the story where an engineer (Frank) was talking with the lead doctor with a background in bio-engineering/genetics about the sickness everyone was contracting. Repeatedly Frank would say, "Engineer here, I'm not following you" when Maria would use extremely simple terminology like "molecular bonds" or "proteins that make up the DNA strand". I'm sorry, an engineer would understand precisely what molecular bonds are or a DNA strand - that's freakin' basic science in high school, let alone specialized training for engineers selected to go colonize a planet. Then, to top it off, Maria broke what DNA does down to him on a level I'd talk to my 6 year old. "So, imagine you have to fix a machine, and the instructions are all jumbled and garbled," Maria tells Frank, regarding how DNA works, because he can't seem to grasp it.
I almost deleted the book from my Kindle right then...but since I was so close to the end, I kept going.
Horrible character behavior. If these were a bunch of people thrown together from your everyday population on Earth, I could maybe...MAAAYYYBE see some of the behavior. But these are self-proclaimed scientists that hold multiple degrees, with years of sim training, and decades of time travelling through space to learn. The entire mission is botched only because they behave like a bunch of mid-puberty teenagers, especially the women (except the Dr.) and most of the men, outside of Jack and Frank (most of the time). For highly educated, trained, and experienced people, they do the most idiotic and ridiculous stuff imaginable, like sneaking into a hut with an alien without weapons or protection, or seeing their own blue hair and not questioning it, or going off in groups of two (something no highly-trained survivalists would do), or bickering over idiotic stuff like little babies.
Characters are too stereotypical. Mac the jackass jock, Sara the whiny feminist who at one point felt the need to flip out on a guy who saved her life from a flood, but accidentally cracked her ribs in the process (I agree, Mac should of let her drown), Adia that we know literally nothing about, Frank the old-man type who knows best all of the time, Jack the born leader, Maria the mother, Laura the presumably smokin' hot scientist, Lynn the unexperienced tough-girl who has to prove she can roll with the men, Will the nerdy, soft guy who turns tough and manly. I mean...it's almost unbearable.
The good:
The story-line. The idea behind the plot was great, I thought. If the above "bad" points didn't exist and the story was more streamlined and connected, it would have been a great book. But there was just too much disconnect. I mean, why in the hell would you send a crew to a planet without first surrounding that planet with satellites and probes to provide communications and evaluation? That would have eliminated the entire situation with Jack and Will to begin with. They could have found them via GPS and retrieved them. Why not send a robot to the ground to test plants and rocks? For crying out loud, we do this in 2016 on planets. As if they wouldn't do it in another 100 years... Yet, the crew has to go out in small groups and risk their lives to get rock and plant specimens.
I can handle sci-fi and shut off my logic for things that science doesn't currently exist for (like light-sabers), but to totally ignore technology and precautions we take TODAY and act like they couldn't/wouldn't do it in 100+ years, during interplanetary travel? C'mon...
What happened Ryk?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2021
This is a good story about survival on an alien planet and two very different people getting to understand each other (actually, two sets of two) by throwing them together into a survival situation that required them to cooperate. It reminded me somewhat of "Shards of Honor" by Lois McMaster Bujold but without the romantic aspects of the Bujold story.
The story: An ark ship is soon to reach Tau Ceti to colonize one of three planets so they send our a forward team to scout each planet and if suitable begin crops and generally prepare an area for colonization. Unfortunately, the scout ship is stranded on Tau Ceti 5. Two members of the crew manage to survive in an escape pod and begin a survival trek across an alien world to get back to their colleagues in the scout ship if it had managed to land. If fact, it had managed to land and the crew began their preparations for colonization even though the ship itself could no longer fly. In the mean time everyone gets a lesson in leadership and humanity.
Any problems with this story? The crew of the scout ship seemed too loose on discipline to be a military structure. They said the right words, but they fought discipline at little too much to be believable as a military group.
Any modesty issues? The F-word was used. There was also a scene describing nudity and sex. It was not detailed. Simply embarrassing.
Overall, I liked the ending. I was worried there for a while, but the author managed to avoid painting himself into a corner. It wasn't the most pleasant of endings, but not bad either. It also left some room for a sequel although I think this was written as a standalone novel.
I'll probably read this book again.
The story: An ark ship is soon to reach Tau Ceti to colonize one of three planets so they send our a forward team to scout each planet and if suitable begin crops and generally prepare an area for colonization. Unfortunately, the scout ship is stranded on Tau Ceti 5. Two members of the crew manage to survive in an escape pod and begin a survival trek across an alien world to get back to their colleagues in the scout ship if it had managed to land. If fact, it had managed to land and the crew began their preparations for colonization even though the ship itself could no longer fly. In the mean time everyone gets a lesson in leadership and humanity.
Any problems with this story? The crew of the scout ship seemed too loose on discipline to be a military structure. They said the right words, but they fought discipline at little too much to be believable as a military group.
Any modesty issues? The F-word was used. There was also a scene describing nudity and sex. It was not detailed. Simply embarrassing.
Overall, I liked the ending. I was worried there for a while, but the author managed to avoid painting himself into a corner. It wasn't the most pleasant of endings, but not bad either. It also left some room for a sequel although I think this was written as a standalone novel.
I'll probably read this book again.
May 13, 2017
Yes and no. Yes, I immediately thought it was THAT Arrival, and no, it's not.
At first, the writing reminded me of Cathryn Asaro. Lots of blow-by-blow, pedestrian details that don't lend an SF feel. The characters are flat, annoyingly stupid ingenues. I don't mind flat characters, but inappropriately stupid is annoying, esp when they are supposedly scientists, engineers, and adventurers. So I'm not a great fan of this book.
But I kept coming back at it. You ever sniff a carton of milk and it's sorta off, and yet you keep sniffing it? And then you get others to sniff it, too? And you come back and sniff it even more? It's not awful, but it is off and pretty cheesy.
Yes, I'm ashamed to say, I stayed with it till it to the end. Is this an SF novel? It was actually an adventure story for a long while. The SF part is a long wait and pretty silly when it arrives. The book itself actually uses the word "silly" quite a bit throughout. Hmmm. But the SF-related story does illuminate a tiny aspect of alienation, the pain of changes, and a fear of the new and unknown that actually tug on the heart strings. Would be a cool story if this pivot point had been kept and the rest done slightly differently.
The audiobook narrator has a wonderful voice, and I appreciate him creating unique character voices, but I didn't like his characters. He made them silly, dull-witted, and overwrought, just like they are written.
It's not vulgar or violent, so it might be a fun read for a child or juvenile reader.
At first, the writing reminded me of Cathryn Asaro. Lots of blow-by-blow, pedestrian details that don't lend an SF feel. The characters are flat, annoyingly stupid ingenues. I don't mind flat characters, but inappropriately stupid is annoying, esp when they are supposedly scientists, engineers, and adventurers. So I'm not a great fan of this book.
But I kept coming back at it. You ever sniff a carton of milk and it's sorta off, and yet you keep sniffing it? And then you get others to sniff it, too? And you come back and sniff it even more? It's not awful, but it is off and pretty cheesy.
Yes, I'm ashamed to say, I stayed with it till it to the end. Is this an SF novel? It was actually an adventure story for a long while. The SF part is a long wait and pretty silly when it arrives. The book itself actually uses the word "silly" quite a bit throughout. Hmmm. But the SF-related story does illuminate a tiny aspect of alienation, the pain of changes, and a fear of the new and unknown that actually tug on the heart strings. Would be a cool story if this pivot point had been kept and the rest done slightly differently.
The audiobook narrator has a wonderful voice, and I appreciate him creating unique character voices, but I didn't like his characters. He made them silly, dull-witted, and overwrought, just like they are written.
It's not vulgar or violent, so it might be a fun read for a child or juvenile reader.
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