Empaths

Pyreans #1

by S.H. Jucha

Captain Jessie Cinders faces a hazardous choice. The murderer of the governor’s nephew stands before him. But, the frightened teenager, Aurelia Garmenti, doesn’t resemble the commandant’s description of the vicious, hardened killer his security forces seek.

To complicate matters, Jessie’s mind has felt Aurelia’s mental powers. The girl is an empath, who escaped the domes below and rode the El car to reach the JOS, Pyre’s orbital station. This shouldn’t be possible. The century-old agreement between topsiders and downsiders forbids the domes to knowingly admit empaths.

If Jessie decides to protect Aurelia until he can discover the truth of the accusations against her, he risks his company and ships to the commandant’s wrath, if his actions are uncovered. In the midst of Jessie’s complicated maneuvers to keep Aurelia safe, he receives a call from one of his mining captains and learns of a strange find on Pyre’s far moon, Triton.

Meanwhile, the domes’ governor, Markos Andropov, is desperate to apprehend Aurelia and return her downside, before the girl can reveal his sordid secret. Aurelia lived her entire life imprisoned in the governor’s house with her sister and her mother, whom Markos kidnapped from the JOS seventeen years ago. If the governor’s crimes became public, it would jeopardize the Andropov dynasty’s rule of the domes.

Pyrean factions engage in a struggle against one another to possess Aurelia and use her to gain the upper hand. The ultimate prize is the complete domination of Pyre.

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Fiction, Aliens, Fantasy, Space

474 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2017

About the author

From my early years to the present, books have been a refuge. They’ve fueled my imagination. I’ve traveled to faraway places and met aliens with Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Herbert, and Le Guin. I’ve explored historical events with Michener and Clavell, and I played spy with Ludlum and Fleming.

There’s no doubt that the early sci-fi masters influenced the writing of my first two series, The Silver Ships and Pyreans. I crafted my stories to give readers intimate views of my characters, who wrestle with the challenges of living in space and inhabiting alien worlds.

Life is rarely easy for these characters, who encounter aliens and calamities, but they persist and flourish. I revel in examining humankind’s will to survive. Not everyone plays fair or exhibits concern for other beings, but that’s another aspect of humans and aliens that I investigate.

My stories offer hope for humans today about what they might accomplish tomorrow far from our home world. Throughout my books, humans exhibit a will to persevere, without detriment to the vast majority of others.

Readers have been generous with their comments, which they’ve left on Amazon and Goodreads for others to review. I truly enjoy what I do, and I’m pleased to read how my stories have positively affected many readers’ lives.

If you’ve read my books, please consider posting a review on Amazon and Goodreads for every book, even a short one. Reviews attract other readers and are a great help to indie authors, such as me.

The Silver Ships novels have reached Amazon’s coveted #1 and #2 Best-Selling Sci-Fi book, multiple times, in the science fiction categories of first contact, space opera, and alien invasion.

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hooked me right at the beginning. The book is very well written. It has something for everyone from ordinary crime such as kidnapping, rape to political intrigue, espionage, problems of youth and elderly to the problems of being an empath. The characters are interesting as is the situation they find themselves in. Cannot wait for book two of the series. If you are looking for a new sci-fi series, try this one.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is sixteen hours and six minutes. Nicole Poole does a good job narrating the book. Poole is a voice artist and audiobook narrator.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful new space opera !

I've been reading this author since the very first book and I highly recommend the silver ships saga to anyone who has appreciation for space opera /military space opera. This new series is just simply wonderful . One can tell the author also must be an empath. One can tell he has remarkable soul . I don't do autopsies on books as a critic . I'll just say if you want to get into this author and support him as I do you will not be disappointed and you'll find when you start one of his books you can't put it down .

[Sue Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empath by s h jucha.
Aurelia Garmenti killed her tormentor with the only weapon she had, her mind. Terrified of what she’d done to the governor’s nephew, Aurelia flees the domes of Pyre and seeks safety aboard the JOS, the Pyrean space station.
A fantastic read with brilliant characters. Couldn't put it down. Can't wait for next part. 5*. S h jucha.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really enjoyable read.

[Gregoire · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'irai jusqu'à 2.5 étoiles (le milieu planète vaisseau colonie etc sont vivants et bien décrits)
J'ai choisi la série The Pyréans d'un auteur inconnu de moi, parce qu'elle parle de télépathie et que les livres sur ce thème ne sont pas courants (la mode zombie et apocalyspe est passée par là hahaha)
Je pense à Les Plus qu'humains de Theodore Sturgeon ou en plus "noir" la série Mind Storm de K.M. Ruiz par ex ; livres qui m'ont vraiment marqué ...
Donc pour cette série (j'ai les 3 premiers tomes) c'est mignon tout plein Le décor est plutôt bien dressé mais c'est un futur sans surprise où les privilégiés sont plus ou moins pourris et les autres exploités ou bannis
Malgré ces clichés ( un capitaine droit dans ses bottes, une empathe super sympa, une jeune aristo qui doit fuir un policier psychopathe...) je pense que l'histoire m'aurait enchanté quand j'étais ado mais il m'a manqué, en vieux lecteur, un peu de noirceur et un peu moins de délayage ( on sent que l'auteur a vraiment envie d'en faire une (trop) longue série !) pour véritablement m'accrocher
Au final, une série distrayante J'ai les 3 premiers tomes Je lirais ceux-ci mais je doute de vouloir prolonger ma lecture au-delà à moins que l'auteur réserve de véritables surprises ... Je me fierai aux avis de mes amis GR

[Tejas · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of feel-good story with no build up, no climax, still don't see why alien installed base need to be in the story!? Why empaths not on down world, why bad people rule when empaths can see through people, so weak story. Why is this 4+ star rated 🤔

[Ciera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ouch

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a surprise, I enjoyed the author’s Silver Ships series, but this was much better. I was completely absorbed in the story and immediately after finishing the book I downloaded the second one from Amazon.

[Nancy S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this!

I love the Silver Ships series and I am impatiently waiting for the next book so, when I saw that S. H. Jucha had started another series, I decided to see if it was as good. Well I believe it is. Now I'm waiting for two books!!

Jucha writes believable stories with interesting and believable characters. Can't wait for the next ones. . . .in both series.

[Richard Shipley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow

Mr Jucha did it again! The first book in a new series and I can't wait for the next book in the series. This is now a must read series for anyone who has read the adventures of Alex and his crew.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empath revolves around Aurelia Garmenti, a young empath who has been held prisoner her entire life and Captain Jessie Cinders who rescues her when she escapes after causing the death of the person abusing her. As the story progresses the world of Aurelia and Jessie becomes more and more real. This is the first book in the Pyrean Series and all of the action and character development focuses on both back story and world building. It is a rather long book and I felt it could have been edited down some without losing the focus on the important parts of the story. Even so I really liked both the characters, the action and the world that was being built. I will be watching to see how the series develops. Some things are solved but there are many threads left hanging.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that you start reading and you don't want to put down. I immediately was transported in to this future world. I especially loved the story of the empaths and how these women use their emotions to control those around them. Can't wait to read the next one in the series!!

[Lisalena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. It had the tone of a YA fairy tale rather than Sci Fi. Although the world building was beautiful and highly imaginative, I was unable to get past the stereotyped characters and predictable plot twists.

[Adriana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dropped the book after the first page.

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

COULD NOT FINISH

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book version of this, narrated by Nicole Poole. I think Nicole did a good job Narrating, especially on some of her male character voices which were quite distinct from the women (most of the time). Forgive me if I misspell names or places from the book, I have never seen them written out, only heard them spoken.

I originally only picked this up because it I stumbled upon it when I first joined OverDrive/Libby and nothing else I wanted to read was immediately available to borrow. I'm more of a fantasy than a sci-fi kind of girl, but this did grab my attention.

It did have a SA in the opening scene which caught me off guard, but also had the immediate gratification of the abuser being killed (not a spoiler because it's in the summary)

At first I disliked the portrayal of the empath ability because it felt very much like telling with no showing. It would literally be like "Aurelia pushed happiness and reassurance to Sophie." But you get used to this pretty quick and it just makes sense for the book.

Initially I thought Aurelia would end of with Jessie but lol I was wrong. She is 17 or 18 so I guess she is too young for Jessie (who I initially thought was also fairly young). No, Jessie's love interest is Harbor

I don't know why, but I thought Harbor was going to die for like most of the book. I don't know if she just felt like a character who would die for the sake of the plot and character development of others, but I was wrong. She is actually one of the main characters and becomes pretty cool towards the end of the book.

I expected this book to focus on Aurelia and her being on the run, but honestly has a way bigger plot about politics and aliens. Half the time I forgot why Aurelia was even in space. Also, Aurelia almost becomes a side character with how few chapters are in her POV after the initial couple chapters. It becomes a lot more focused on what Jessie and Harbor are doing respectively for the rest of the book with Aurelia having been more of a spark to start the plot for everything else than a main character.

I think this is part of a series, but there was no real cliffhanger at the end of the story, so it works fine as a stand alone if you don't want the commitment of a series. I probably won't read the rest of the series because I'm not that invest, but I did like this book and was satisfied with out it ended.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to like about this story of the Pyreans, an Earth colony ship of humans who have carved out lives in a new solar system. Many back stories are woven into this tale, which I'm sure will come into play in expanded details farther along in the series.

There are power struggles, political pay-offs, physical abuses, kidnapping, rapes, the rich orchestrating lives of the less fortunate, the angst of youth learning how to cope with the onset of adulthood. There's espionage, intrigue, and emotion. I love the mix of characters, which include the young (Auriela and Sasha), and the elderly (retired empaths and spacers), the "dirty" politicians with their "dirty" cops in their pockets, the "clean" cops who struggle to make things better by working around the bought players. Even the minor characters are strong players. The two main characters, Harbour and Jessie, are wonderful! As their struggles to protect their respective citizens and spacers increase, their personas only get stronger, and better. The stars seem to be lining up for them, but you can just feel there's trouble on the horizon.

This book was so good! It's the first in a new series by one of my favorite authors, S. H. Jucha. I already know this new series is going to be a fun ride. BUT, I don't know how I'll be able to wait for the next installment to release in 2018. Write fast, Scott Jucha! Your readers are anxiously waiting!

[Roger Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great and happy surprise!

I’ve happily read and enjoyed all the Silver Ship books but to be honest, they never were quite as good as I would have liked. Especially with so many characters introduced each and every book, it was a bit daunting to keep up.
I had spotted this new series based on the Silver Ship universe a couple of years back and initially wasn’t taken with the short synopsis I’d read. Now with more time to read because of the Covid-19 situation and having read the last Silver Ship book, I decide to take the plunge. So glad I did. 5 star rating and I rarely give that to books. They really need to have all the elements I enjoy and this one does. Great characters, first contact possibilities, a touch of political machinations and interesting world building to name a few. This series so far is beating out the Silver Ship series in my mind!

[Bob Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

New people, new series

As I understand from reading the author’s site, this new series detailing the 3rd Earth colony’s story will merge with the Silver Ships series in the book Alliance. Essentially that makes the Silver Ships and Pyreans a 24 book series.

I’ve been trying to find a way to describe Jucha’s books. The best way I can come up with is happy. The stories make me happy. Sure there are battles and certainly sometimes characters die or many unnamed crew die in battles. There are also power plays and bad actors who try to destroy the good guys. But the overall feeling reading the books are the happy interactions and relationships and outcomes. I find that refreshing and more fun to read that some other giant space battles where almost everything is bad and evil.

[Craig Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been somewhat ambivalent regarding psionic powers in sci-fi. Too frequently they are an unnecessarily lazy macguffin, that if truly necessary can be far better explained with science such as implants. It is surprising then, given that the related Silver Ships series (set in the same universe) does extensively, and entertainingly, explore implants, that Jucha spins a yarn centred on the titular empaths.

Even more surprising is that it not only works, but in Empaths, Jucha has reached a level not yet met in all his previous works. The story is gritty, engaging and nothing short of excellent. I was gripped from the first page to the end. For the first time, there are mysteries here that promise for an exciting series of revelations yet to come.

[Fred Wagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have received 5 stars were it not for a horrible bit of misinformation about Empaths. Saying that they are all women is a slap in the face to us male Empaths who struggle with this accursed gift which the author further claims an all x-chromosone pairing to produce an empath potentially. I do not understand how an author can portray so much so glaringly accurate yet screw the gender issue and belittle male Empaths who already struggle in this world as male sensitive. I would appreciate a retraction of those lies. They detract from all that is on the money about our inner beings. And outward beings.

[D R Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad Mr. Jucha started a new series. He's been very prolific with the Silver Ships books but this new project is very welcome and has started off in good form. I like the recurring theme of younger people bringing hope, energy, and comfort to the older and more careworn members of their group. I felt refreshed by the positivity.

Unfortunately I have to mention that the author committed the sin of exposition early on in the story. We're told how the main character is harmed versus being shown how she was harmed. Given the subject matter I more or less understand, but I just have little or no tolerance for exposition. It's a small complaint, it happens at the beginning of the story, and it doesn't detract from the rest of an otherwise well-told, interesting, hopeful story.

I look forward to the next entry in the series. Knowing Mr. Jucha it won't be a long wait.

[Michael Venokur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow start picked up starting chapter 3

Overall I liked the book. Decided to read this book since i am addicted to Scott's other series the silver ships. At first the book starts slowly and I was having trouble getting engaged with it. However that changed with chapter 3. That is when it really gets interesting and it difficult to put the book down. Character development really begins. So if you find yourself not interested right away please don't stop after chapter 2, again chapter. 3 is where it really gets good.

[Book_joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

New series by SH Jucha, different to the Silver Ships series, and focused on a different colony ship, solar system and planet. The characters and interactions of Captain Cinders, Harbour and Aurelia together and with (sometimes against) the current authorities and ruling personages are fascinatinating. This is not a military action story in the sense of warships or marines, but there are firm stands taken against injustice. And there is evidence of aliens on one of the moons, although they are no more than introduced in this book.

[Giuseppe Turitto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jucha shows the sign of a really interesting Series with this book

First I have to say I am fan of the Silver Ships series, but this book is the initial of a really interesting an refreshing new series based on the same line that created the initial societies in the Silver Ships. Love the descriptions of three styles of societies intermingled in the same planet. Such a has a way to take simple characters that could be just one more in the line of characters and make them important for the story, as well make them grow during the narrative.

[Tiffany Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In both content and writing style, this is a much more mature aspect of the Silver Ships universe. I absolutely love the Silver Ships novels, and this new series is equally enjoyable and fun, but I also enjoy that it has a bit more depth to the story and characters.
You would not need to have read the Silver Ships novels to be able to read this and enjoy it, but I will say that as the series progresses it'd probably be best to read them. ;)
A fun and excellent read; exactly what I need when I'm looking to escape for a bit and immerse myself in a much more exciting universe than my own.

[P.M.C. Smy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am an audiobook listener. I had to stop because the reader was horrible. Her ‘voices’ were just distracting.

But it’s the story the really did me in. Terrible cliches wrapped in a completely undeveloped universe. Almost every situation or action failed the ‘why’ test: I had no idea why the society was structured as it was. No idea why characters did what they did.
And this is not sci-fi: it is poor YA.

Finally, to the author: not everyone has a cute nickname. My god that was ridiculous.

[Roger D. Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great new characters with plot detail we can dig into

People fear what they do not understand and power still corrupts. The hero stands up for his crew and any underdog that gains his locality. The interaction of empathy and normals is a great adventure with endless benefits to both. Enjoy the adventure.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Auto-Buy Author

I've read S. H. Jucha's Silver Ships novels, and now this one. I've loved them all. His imagination is highly entertaining, and his adventures in exploration are such a wonderful escape from the daily grind. I've added him to the very short list of talented authors that I trust enough to automatically buy and read any work they publish.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first time reading S.H. Jucha. I really enjoyed the story. Great characters, interesting plot, very entertaining. I can certainly recommend you check out his work.

First thing I did when I finished ... load the second book and read for another hour (late in the night). That pretty much sums up my review.