Lockheed Elite

by Tyler Wandschneider

“Never failing to entertain, Lockheed Elite establishes characters who could recur in a series that would find a loyal audience. …stands out as a captivating, well-plotted science fiction novel that’s loaded with action and intrigue. It’s a rollicking sci-fi tale with twists and turns one does not always see coming.” -Foreword Clarion Reviews

“Tyler Wandschneider’s Lockheed Elite is a thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi crime adventure akin to an episode of Firefly than anything else.” - Literary Titan

Short Bit:
After Anders Lockheed unwittingly hires an undercover operative, he takes the bait that draws the attention of the very mastermind he's been avoiding. 

Now Anders must flip the military and use them to pull off a monster heist to extract his crew from the heat mounting from both sides of the law.

Long Bit:
Working to pay off a blackmailer who has learned that a certain genius mechanic isn’t as dead as he was made out to be, Anders Lockheed takes his team on their biggest salvage op yet.
Unfortunately, Anders has hired an undercover military operative bent on using them as bait to draw out a mastermind who has been attacking the public with deadly mechs.
 
While on the scav op, things go from bad to worse as the crew of Elite One recover an abandoned woman aboard the claim. Now Anders must decide quickly—stay and fight or cut cables and run.
 
Either way, it’s too late. Someone has other plans for them. The trap has been set, they’ve rescued the woman and taken the bait, and before long Anders and what’s left of his dwindling crew must navigate with caution through the grips of the military and an especially vile outlaw.
 
But Anders doesn’t captain just another team flying the black. With a genius mechanic who uses his ragtag high-tech machine shop to aid them in getting in and out of trouble, they’ve earned a reputation as the best of the best. With Anders’s careful planning, this motley crew must band together and flip the military to use them on a monster heist and dig themselves out from the heat pressing in from both sides of the law.

Fly with them. They are clever, they are fierce, they are Lockheed Elite.

Genres: Science Fiction

414 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2017

About the author

Tyler Wandschneider was born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where he spent most of his childhood doing one of two things. He'd either watch movies or get on his bike and ride all over hell and back looking for as many wooded areas to explore as possible. Those were his two main adventures. Getting lost in a story on the screen or getting lost in the woods.

As a young boy, Tyler wasn’t too fond of reading and writing. He found his joy in stories by watching them. One summer, he watched Tango and Cash every single morning before getting on his bike. By the end of the summer he could recite the entire movie as it played. In case you didn’t know, this is very, very impressive.

Though he found it hard to enjoy reading, there were a few books that left unique impressions on him. Among those were The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, How to Eat Fried Worms, and possibly the most memorable…Where the Red Fern Grows. Thinking back, Tyler fondly remembers a story he wrote as a child. It contained a boy, in the woods, seeking adventure. If anyone finds this story, please send a copy, he is desperate to read it again.

Tyler’s formidable years are when he lost interest in reading altogether. There was no particular incident that inspired this, it just happened. Tyler hustled is way through school making sure to leave books closed and get his story fix from movies instead. Unfortunately, most books just seemed boring. Perhaps, they were simply the wrong ones. No one had yet introduced him to stories like Ender’s Game, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, and, of course, The Name of the Wind until much, much later.

Fast forward to adulthood, Tyler was walking home from a movie with his wife and found himself thinking about the story he wrote as a child. He remembers the moment fondly because a very clear desire hit him. In that moment he told his wife he wanted to create a story of his own. The very next morning he began his journey and has been reading and writing ever since. He devoured stories good and bad, new and old all while creating his own. His first attempt at a full novel was not as wonderful as he’d imagined. Not many are but he knew this one to be sub-par and wishes to say nothing more of it at this time.

So Tyler kept plugging along and discovered motivating inspiration inside two stories. The show Firefly by Joss Whedon and the book Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Tyler loved the show and missed it enough to create his own band of misfits. He threw them in a ship, surrounded them with life in space, and gave them as much trouble and adventure as possible. The book Mistborn gave him the inspiration to use the third-person-limited writing style. In this style, he found the freedom to reveal and conceal as many secrets as he saw fit. 

A few years later Lockheed Elite was published and Tyler found instant joy when others shared their love for his story. Family, personal friends, and electronic friends and strangers all seemed to take well to Lockheed Elite. Story quality was further confirmed through a Silver Book Award given by Literary Titan in September of 2017 just one month after publication. Since then Lockheed Elite has landed some great editorial and personal reviews and Tyler was invited into several interviews as well.

Moving forward to the present, Tyler has finished the rough draft of Lockheed Elite 2.0 (Dec 2018) and has made much progress in his epic sci-fi The Rift in Saela. There are also plans for Lockheed Elite 2.5 and 3.0.

If you would like to know more and stay in touch, you can sign up for updates at www.tylerwandschneider.com. We don’t share your information, nor do we flood your inbox with promotions. There are a few emails a year with book updates and a few more around a book release that will give you the opportunity to join in the fun or sit back and enjoy the ride.

Thanks for reading…

Reviews

[Kaizer [FCTO-USA] [GRG] · Rating 5 out of 5]

totally gonna read this book, definitely

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tyler’s book, Lockheed Elite, is full of adventure and mystery. Although sci-fi in nature, the characters are realistic in their belief of what is possible. This puts the reader in an intriguing state of discovery when the shipmates come upon what seems to be impossible to describe by physics and nature. The characters and the reader know this can’t be possible, yet it appears to be, so what is the explanation?! The unknowns and hints at more surrounding the discovery keep the reader grasping to know what happens next and who is hiding what. The story is peppered with unexpected twists and unexpected realities about the characters themselves, hiding right under your nose. The sense of not being able to predict the characters and the story’s future adds to the thrill and makes the book hard to put down. Tyler leaves you wanting to come back for more pieces of the puzzle and shocks you with revelations that you did not expect.

[S. Jeyran Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lockheed Elite Tyler is a sci-fi crime adventure story. The book is about a group of savages scouring for treasure and goodies. They are a good team but, deal on the edge of the law. The Galactic Command is after them and when the scavenger group ends up saving an abandoned woman who happens to be the bait. That’s when this sci-fi novel takes an interesting turn, and the adventure begins.

Anders and his crew are an interesting bunch. Each casting crew has been developed with precision. Their personalities are strong and are written in such a way that it is very easy to get attached to them.

The literature is written with care, and any person who enjoys sci-fi novels will thoroughly find this novel to be appealing. The plot is a combination of action, humor, adventure, and a mixture of secrets, gadgets, theft and interconnected twists.

The pace and world setting begins slow and then gradually picks up making it a thrilling ride to the end. Although I predicted the ending, it was still as satisfying and pleasing to read.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science Fiction is a genre I love, but don’t read often enough. Too often sci-fi is over the top, or filled with cliches. From the description of the book I thought it sounded like a good, fun read. It ticked all of the boxes in terms of what I look for in a sci-fi read. And from the very first page to the very last, Lockheed Elite delivered.

Anders Lockheed is the best scavenger crew captain around, and his crew is renowned for being the best. He seldom involved himself in anything illegal, and when he did it was never anything massively criminal, more of a grey area. He commands respect wherever he goes. He gives respect back wherever it is warranted.

His latest job offers him and his crew an opportunity for an incredible score to make a huge cash windfall. The chance to scav a decommissioned Galactic Command vessel. There would be a whole swarm of other scav crews looking to snatch a piece of the pie, but for Anders Lockheed and the crew of the Elite One this was a simple enough job. But nothing goes right for the crew from that point onwards.

Lockheed Elite offers a well-constructed sci-fi adventure. It has comedic moments that lighten the story without detracting from it. The locations are brilliantly described. The characters are well put together, relatable. This was a great read that I couldn’t put down, so much so that I found myself wanting another book to carry on the stories of Anders and his crew. This has ended up being one of the best books I've had the chance to read in a long time.

[Ingo]

Recommended by Literary, price was ok, so I bought it instantly.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun space romp with a crew I definitely fell in love with. Looking forward to more adventures.

[Kerra Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sci-fi adventure story that is a fun read! Definitely one I'll pick up again.

[Micky Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story with compelling characters and enough twists to keep you guessing

[Jkolter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb!

I read and listen to a LOT if science fiction and have since I first began to read some 60 years ago. This is an excellent well written read. The story line is strong the characters well developed; I think I would recognize them if they walked into my living room. The locations are vividly described bat of all it stands by itself. While it could certainly be a series it has a perfectly satisfactory ending.

[John P Delaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent storyline with twists and turns - very engaging!

I liked the whole story line with all its twists and turns. Wonderful characters with both (semi) good guys and bad guys. I hope this turns into a series but it may be hard to top this book.

[Faith Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lockheed Elite is a tough guys in space adventure with a smart cover and all the associated fighting and beer bottle bravado that goes with that style. Replacement crew members try out in the pub. There’s a woman who wants to make the team, who happen to be a non-military salvage crew, so she squares up her jaw and passes the minimum acceptable level of brawniness. All in all, the group is like a bunch of builders or a professional wrecking crew on Earth, except they deal in scrapping space ships. It’s their lucky days because they’ve got a tip-off, heads up and off to the next floating prize – but, like a crow when the vultures turn up, can they hang on to it?

There’s a big brother element to all of this as Galactic Command apparently run the Galaxy (can they really be everywhere?) and their representatives seem to follow their own complex agenda, which involves hijacking people’s lives and commercial missions, then using threats to life as an incentive to redirect them (is there no legal system?). There are characters who double cross other characters, passive types who might be hidden threats and threatening types who roll over when the going gets tough. The Captain seems to hold it all together and, whether they deserve it or not, makes the crew’s welfare his first concern. The crew don’t really change as a result of their experiences, just let their masks slip to reveal their true natures (and employers) over time. There’s also a sub-plot about memory loss and hidden identity.

The main threat is from a mechanical enemy and the main element of doubt is around who is sending them and what their long-game might be. Lots of places are being attacked, that’s for sure, but if the machines are that mobile and capable, why are they vulnerable too? Deliberate bad design? At last, that question is answered and amongst all the double and triple crossing, implicit duplicity and triplicity, the characters’ colours are revealed and the curtain falls of the first instalment, ending in the bar where it began. More beer bottles and recruitment interviews.

Emotional intelligence, wit and the wonder of exploration take a back seat to the army mentality in this, as the crew, the Command and all of the salvage rivals are uniformly tough eggs in an athletic age group (not many children and grannies in space). The museum staff are the only ones close to being normal civilians and, of course, they get caught up and pushed around in the heavy fighting. Most of the problems found here are solved with explosions and threatening to eject people “into the black”, so I can imagine there would be a thriving insurance and assurance industry stalking these people.

I did note that the characters are all different, apart from the twins, who are twins, so toughness is a common feature rather than their only attribute and they are individually motivated. I also realise that this is the first instalment of a series, so the crew are being introduced in this and can be developed and deepened as the series progresses. If that’s the plan, then this book has made a good start. Clearly, the author has the ability to write space mystery plots and lay out original situations, so this series is likely to grow and appeal to a lot of readers. I hope the series becomes multi-dimensional and describes a few more of the quirks and complexities of human nature, alongside the adventure mystery aspect, as that would help it appeal to a broader spectrum of science fiction followers and attract loyalty, a quality which the characters themselves are starting to learn.

Slightly too beefy for me but at the conclusion of this book, I did think “What’s next?” For a first instalment, that’s the response the author most wants to hear.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

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“Coming out on top never happens the way you plan.”
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Lockheed Elite is the first in a new sci fi series about a team of salvagers scouring the universe for treasure, righting the occasional wrong, and trying to stay out of the way of the Galactic Alliance… The book is a rip-roaring action tale full of deception, betrayal, and a superb cast of characters – all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story opens with an interview – the best salvage crew in the galaxy has an opening, and their interviewee brings more to the table than anyone (her included) could have guessed. The unfolding story is full of intrigue, theft, slavery, secrets, double-dealing, triple-dealing, and more cool interstellar gadgets than your imagination could conceive. Fortunately for all of us, Wandschneider’s imagination takes care of our shortcomings in this regard, and the resulting tale is a shifting funhouse mirror display of honor among thieves, too-good-to-be-true’s, and a handful of good old-fashioned smackdowns.

The characters are great, a perfect melding of the familiar (The Gentle Giant, The Snarky Woman with Something to Prove, The Tough Guys who Inevitably Implode, The Anti-Hero) with a handful of twists that spin the familiar on its head (I can’t explain those without giving spoilers, but trust me) and keep things interesting throughout. The plot is well paced, with plenty of rough and tumble action interspersed with tidbits of social commentary, an unexpected romance (or two), and enough cautious optimism peppered with snarky one-liners to bring a smile to even the most battle-hardened intergallactic space-veteran’s heart.

This was a fun, easy read. The writing is engaging. This is a promising beginning to a new series, and I for one look forward to seeing where Anders and his team head next…

My review copy was initially provided by the author - but I also received it through Kindle Unlimited.

[Joe McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun read, while it was easy to see where some of the plot was headed,with a few twists along the way. The characters were such that you wanted them to succeed. I would not be adverse to another outing with this crew.

[John Counsell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good fun with little death

It's nice to read a humerous and well written story that is not dependent on killing hordes of Aliens. Instead the aliens are other people some of whom are androids. Existential!

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Didn't like the conclusion much and felt it could have been stronger. But overall 4stars.

[Mr. G. W. F. Hogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good first book

Fast and action packed. Characters are likeable and hopefully will lead onto further adventures.
Plenty of scope within the original framework for just that.