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Species C1764: Book 1 of the Eridani Series
Humanity is recovering from a war between those who remained on Earth, and those who colonized Mars. In an effort to disarm themselves and restore peace to the Solar System Humanity decides to experiment with what remains of the most dangerous weapons created in the war.
Antimatter. Instead of using it to ravage planets and destroy cities it is used to try and break the one of the most steadfast rules of science. The speed of light. Unaware that other's might be watching Humanity tries to spread to the stars.
Antimatter. Instead of using it to ravage planets and destroy cities it is used to try and break the one of the most steadfast rules of science. The speed of light. Unaware that other's might be watching Humanity tries to spread to the stars.
233 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 23, 2017
17 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 8, 2017
Solid Story Strangled By Incompetent Writing/Formatting
"Species C1764: Book 1 of the Eridani Series," has a good, solid story (slow starting), that is strangled by the sadly incompetent writing (no proofreading) and formatting. It is a conundrum for this reviewer: worthy story, fully engaging, while the broken, extended "text messaging" writing style of the author, made reading a heavy lift.
The story is situated a couple of centuries in the near future. Humans have moved out into the Sol System, colonized Mars, established bases on asteroids and some of Jupiter's moons, advanced forward in genetics, nanotechnology, engineering, and physics. Further, humans have survived both wars on Earth, and a just ended, Earth-Mars, five years long, brutal conflict. A physics genius, the story's main character, "Dr. Lincoln," has created a prototype anti-matter/nuclear engine, that allows FTL (faster than light) travel. She collaborates with both militaries of Earth and Mars, to produce more engines, in defiance of the Earth and Mars governments, who desire to terminate antimatter research, pursuant to the war ending peace treaty. Unknown to all, an advanced alien race, has designated humanity as "Species C1764," periodically surveilling the Sol System, to ascertain if and when, their empire should annex Earth, a "garden planet," and eradicate the human tenants. Serendipitously for the aliens, one of their patrol ships, notes the first use of the antimatter engine during its premiere flight. The empire sees humanity as an existential threat, and the die is cast. Humanity faces extermination.
The first time author, Mr. C. G. William, a college computer science undergrad, has formed a story that uses elements familiar to most SciFi readers, added his own intelligent, imaginative, cogent, and coherent twists, creating a really decent story. Kudos to the author on his concept and story arc. With regards to the formatting and basic writing structure, the "nuts and bolts" of ANY book, it's really, really bad. The book "reads" as if it was just one long, series of text messages strung together, with spurts of software code. There is NO proofreading and/or editing. Wrong words, wrong tenses, missing words are not occasional, they are systemic. The first sense was that the author was not English speaking, and the mind boggling flaws were a product of a poor translation. Checking the author's webpage, this proved not to be the case. It made this reviewer initially debate whether to continue, investing the time and accepting the unending aggravation, to complete the story. Ultimately it was worth the trouble. The story is that good.
There are minor issues, separate and distinct from the pitiful writing structure. The author has a tendency, shared by more and more, contemporary male SciFi writers, that in order to write (a) strong female character(s), you must simultaneously emasculate (a) male character(s). It is a bewildering trend. Why cannot female characters be strong, effective, laudable, only when male characters are feckless? The villains, antagonists of the story, are somewhat one dimensional, deserving of greater exploration. The computer/software code writing style, used in the alien narratives is obnoxiously off putting. The ending is a minor "cliffhanger," more of a tease for a follow on.
"Species C1764," is recommended, strongly recommended, if a reader can stomach the broken execution [Mr. William: Please have someone READ your work(s) BEFORE publishing.]. The given three (3) star-rating would easily be a four (4) or even a potential five (5), with the simple act of competent proofreading and eliminating the "bracket" formatting used in alien dialogues. This reviewer will look for Book 2. Book 1 was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
"Species C1764: Book 1 of the Eridani Series," has a good, solid story (slow starting), that is strangled by the sadly incompetent writing (no proofreading) and formatting. It is a conundrum for this reviewer: worthy story, fully engaging, while the broken, extended "text messaging" writing style of the author, made reading a heavy lift.
The story is situated a couple of centuries in the near future. Humans have moved out into the Sol System, colonized Mars, established bases on asteroids and some of Jupiter's moons, advanced forward in genetics, nanotechnology, engineering, and physics. Further, humans have survived both wars on Earth, and a just ended, Earth-Mars, five years long, brutal conflict. A physics genius, the story's main character, "Dr. Lincoln," has created a prototype anti-matter/nuclear engine, that allows FTL (faster than light) travel. She collaborates with both militaries of Earth and Mars, to produce more engines, in defiance of the Earth and Mars governments, who desire to terminate antimatter research, pursuant to the war ending peace treaty. Unknown to all, an advanced alien race, has designated humanity as "Species C1764," periodically surveilling the Sol System, to ascertain if and when, their empire should annex Earth, a "garden planet," and eradicate the human tenants. Serendipitously for the aliens, one of their patrol ships, notes the first use of the antimatter engine during its premiere flight. The empire sees humanity as an existential threat, and the die is cast. Humanity faces extermination.
The first time author, Mr. C. G. William, a college computer science undergrad, has formed a story that uses elements familiar to most SciFi readers, added his own intelligent, imaginative, cogent, and coherent twists, creating a really decent story. Kudos to the author on his concept and story arc. With regards to the formatting and basic writing structure, the "nuts and bolts" of ANY book, it's really, really bad. The book "reads" as if it was just one long, series of text messages strung together, with spurts of software code. There is NO proofreading and/or editing. Wrong words, wrong tenses, missing words are not occasional, they are systemic. The first sense was that the author was not English speaking, and the mind boggling flaws were a product of a poor translation. Checking the author's webpage, this proved not to be the case. It made this reviewer initially debate whether to continue, investing the time and accepting the unending aggravation, to complete the story. Ultimately it was worth the trouble. The story is that good.
There are minor issues, separate and distinct from the pitiful writing structure. The author has a tendency, shared by more and more, contemporary male SciFi writers, that in order to write (a) strong female character(s), you must simultaneously emasculate (a) male character(s). It is a bewildering trend. Why cannot female characters be strong, effective, laudable, only when male characters are feckless? The villains, antagonists of the story, are somewhat one dimensional, deserving of greater exploration. The computer/software code writing style, used in the alien narratives is obnoxiously off putting. The ending is a minor "cliffhanger," more of a tease for a follow on.
"Species C1764," is recommended, strongly recommended, if a reader can stomach the broken execution [Mr. William: Please have someone READ your work(s) BEFORE publishing.]. The given three (3) star-rating would easily be a four (4) or even a potential five (5), with the simple act of competent proofreading and eliminating the "bracket" formatting used in alien dialogues. This reviewer will look for Book 2. Book 1 was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
June 26, 2018
This is a really excellent story, and a really fun read. Once you get past the grammar and spelling errors (it's a self-published book, whatever).
He's thought out the universe very well, the characters are great and well-developed - not going to find an author avatar in this series.
Again, his only real flaw is the grammar and spelling.
He's thought out the universe very well, the characters are great and well-developed - not going to find an author avatar in this series.
Again, his only real flaw is the grammar and spelling.
April 16, 2023
Entertaining premise, but the editor and proof reader must have been on holiday when this was due. I would give it four stars if it was fanfiction published on some forum or reddit, as a real book it gets two stars.
The story is interesting and I'll probably read the second one when it comes out but the errors break my suspension of disbelief.
The story is interesting and I'll probably read the second one when it comes out but the errors break my suspension of disbelief.
May 28, 2017
Good story
Good story!
Interesting characters and technology.
Could do with some more editing.
Likeable bad guys, though they did kinda fall into the generic uber tech space dudes
Good story!
Interesting characters and technology.
Could do with some more editing.
Likeable bad guys, though they did kinda fall into the generic uber tech space dudes
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews