Seeded

by Benjamin Descovich

Listening Length: 12 mins 17 seconds

Five years travelling faster than light in a colony transport goes slower than you think, but the credits are worth it. Captain Ona and her crew are ready to collect a tidy sum for delivering the Flock to Paradise. On the cusp of seeding the colony, they encounter a force that will forever change them. This is what happens when science collides with fantasy. (Flash Fiction)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

1 pages, Audiobook

First published November 22, 2014

About the author

Benjamin Descovich is a long name for a fellow better known as Ben. As a boy he rolled dice, adventuring through magic worlds with dragons, wizards and warriors. He feasted upon epic fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Anne McCaffrey then devoured the multitude of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books among many others.

Ben’s an author who’s passionate about the environment and social justice and holds a degree in Political Science. Born in Australia and well travelled through Europe and Asia, he’s been spoilt with inspiration for his fiction. While the dramatic landscapes, political intrigue and epic battles will captivate your imagination; the dragons and magic will take your breath away.

Ben tried growing up and walked life’s path in many different shoes. Along the way, he discovered the spice of politics, a kaleidoscope of culture and most of all the wonders of language. Burning in his heart are hundreds of fantasy tales, powerful stories of struggle and sacrifice, honour and treachery, love and loss. Every day, Ben works the forge, bringing magic to the world of Oranica, unveiling imperfect heroes and heroines in a clash against evil and injustice. Monsters and mythic beasts abound, so sharpen your sword and open your spell book!

Join the Dragon Choir Newsletter for updates and some sorcery stuffed in an ebook!
www.benjamindescovich.com

Reviews

[Chris Haught · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little piece of flash fiction that serves to introduce the author's style. I'm definitely interested in checking out some of his longer works. This little teaser was a great first chapter in what could be a pretty good novel.

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
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Tomorrow was the big day for Captain Ona and her crew. After initiating the colonisation protocols, they would be very rich indeed. Their cargo may be raving cultists, but they were wealthy raving cultists who would have no need of their credits once they reached their made-to-order Paradise. Captain Ona was was very amenable to assist them in the lightening of their economic burden.

Half a billion credits on acceptance of the consignment and half again on delivery; it was a dream job worth the long haul.

One of those 'freebies' I downloaded on a whim and turned out very well...wouldn't have minded it being longer to see what happened next but will definitely check out his other work soon hopefully.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story is my first introduction to author Benjamin Descovich and displays vivid imagination and characterizations with a Twilight Zone plot. Just enough detail to get your imagination working overtime! I understand this is a prequel to a series so am looking forward to an odyssey of fun reading!

[Kandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a tease! I can't wait for the actual book. I was very, very disappointed to turn the page to...nothing.

[Rosemary Standeven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reminded me of the first dragons of Pern book (the whole series of which I love), where a scifi story melds effortlessly into fantasy. However, unlike on Pern (also an attempt at seeding a new paradise, robot-free planet), the fantasy is not at all planned – at least not by those in charge of the colony ship, nor those intended for the new colony. It just goes to show, what you might get, if you let a geek (with a sense of humour) design your future. The book is just long enough to pique my interest in the story to come. I cannot let it go. Onto “Dead Letter”.

[Denise Weldon-siviy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too short...

Too short but otherwise awesome. There's always something magical about the birth of dragons. In this case, that magic seeds (and is seeded by) imaginative technology, boredom, and the endless permutations of DNA...

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pulse pounding sci-fi fantasy!

There's nothing like a good plan gone wrong and when it involves a space trip with FTL drives failing and the ship falling to an alien planet full of mystery then you know it's going to be a thrilling read.
Can't wait to see what comes next!

[Robert Zimmermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story surprised me. I was reading most of it, enjoying it, yet wasn’t sure if it was going to strike me as something special. At first it seemed a simple “Here’s a crew on a ship with a mission. Something’s going to go wrong.” type story. And, yes, that’s what it is, but there was an element added toward the end that made the story a little less self-contained, a little better for me as a reader.

Even though I saw part of the ending coming, I wasn’t able to predict where the author raised the stakes and really grabbed me. It was a fun twist on a colonization theme.

[Carolyn Injoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeded: Flash Fried Fiction by Benjamin Descovich Seeded: Flash Fried Fiction by Benjamin Descovich is a science fiction story. It's about seeding a colony. It was a short story with an abrupt ending. I gave it almost four stars.
 
I received a complimentary copy from the author. That did not change my opinion for this review.
 
Link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Seeded-Flash-F...
 
"Well, it does have you’re DNA.” "your" page 11

[Sarah Fairbairn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a short and sweet story. I knew that something was going to go wrong with the ships mission, it always does, but I really enjoyed reading it. In fact the only downer was that it was so short, I wanted the story to keep going. I would loved to have gotten to explore the magical world on which they were about to crash land. I'll definitely be reading more by Benjamin :-).

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this exciting and fun read. It captivated me straight from the outset.
The crew of a colony seeding ship find themselves closing in on the final part of their five year haulage trip to seed a new colony on a far away planet.

Everything is running very smoothly and Captain Ona and her crew are confident that they have enough backup contingency protocols in place to deal with any unforeseen eventualities as they deliver their cargo to the planet to initiate seeding.

But things go spectacularly wrong, and they are forced to do something they have no wish to do. A sequence of events are set into motion that are unstoppable and unpredictable.

This story is exciting and fun to read. The pace gradually builds until the ending, which has a wonderful twist in it that fuels your imagination and feeds it ideas that are purely a mixture of scifi and fantasy.

If you like drama, excitement and really cool characters with clearly defined personalities, then this book will be right up your street.

There is no anti-climax in this story, only a thrilling ending which makes you want to read more.

Now I am hungry and I have to find out what happens next! On to the next book - Dead Letter.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a huge reader of SF, but I decided to give this a go since it was short, and because I like the author's fantasy series (which gave me a fun surprise at the end of this).

I didn't quite understand everything (again, I'm not a huge SF reader), but Benjamin's writing allowed me to comprehend enough to get the gist and put it all together in the end. Now I have a hankering for the next installment in his fantasy series.

[Tena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this ebook 'Seeded: Flash Fried Fiction' with audio narrated by the author, Benjamin Descovich. -- Wow! I downloaded this on a whim and glad I did! It's a tasty little tidbit at only 9 printed pages & 13 minutes long. The author reading his own story to me made a short sci fi/ fantasy come alive. Bravo!

[Richard Goodrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction. Captain Ona and her crew are preparing to drop off a colony on the planet of Oranica. They have been traveling for five years to make this delivery. The story ends in a manner which is never foretold and seems to indicate that this is actually the beginning of a much larger story.

Easy-to-read. Entertaining. Tragic. Twisted. Unpredictable. Wonderful characters.

[Gabby · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting idea that I am not 100% sure I understand what was going on or what happened. It was so short and that left very little room for full explanations. It is a prequel to the prequel which sets a very early scene into the series but a good taster for the writing style.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received from Author for honest review.

A good little story to start the series off. A little gem of a book to get us started.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmm. Interesting. Starting. I want more. Book #3 for #deweys24hourreadathon

[Emmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with the rating. It's fantastically written, but didn't feel like a flash fiction with a known-yet-untold ending. That piece was drastically disappointing.
The world building and character/relationships were swiftly intricately stable, which held much promise to a better, bigger story.
Three stars for a strong teaser.

[Marti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this short story! Droll humor explained the high tech origins of a magical world.

[Bonnie Dale Keck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this as permafree and/or led here for permafree from one of my book sites. Very 'odd', very short, possibly a prequel for more to come, very good.

[Kris Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty cool. A neat little sci-fi story with a good twist. I had already read Dragon Choir (really good!) and this story is actually about how that world was created. I really like the style of this writer and will be definitely checking out more of his work

[Julian White · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short prequel to the prequel (Dead Letter) to Dragon Choir. Engaging, well written - and answers the question of how a terrestrial fantasy ecosystem exists on an alien world.

A free copy from the author's website.