This is an alternate cover edition - ASIN: B077RGDG26
In a galaxy where the fabric of reality can be bent and shaped by a privileged few, and almost any skill desired is a mere injection away, one young man is thrust into the fight of his life.
Tane, a hydroponics farmer with some mad cereal crop gene-splicing skills, decides to get chipped. The operation gives him full control over his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, plus the ability to install custom memories.
All seems well until a couple of days later aliens come knocking at his door. And they aren't the friendly type.
Soon Tane finds himself on a frenzied flight across the galaxy with a woman who can warp the very fabric of spacetime, her bodyguard--who’d just as soon kill Tane than protect him--and a starship that calls him snarky pet names. He's on the run not simply from the aliens but the whole damn human space navy.
He only wished he knew why.
Unfortunately for Tane, the answer might just destroy him. Not to mention the entire known universe.
Isaac Hooke is the best-selling author of the Ethan Galaal series of thriller novels, as well as the SF-themed ATLAS trilogy. When Isaac isn't writing, publishing, and blogging, he's busy cycling and taking pictures in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has a degree in Engineering Physics.
Truly enjoyable, atleast from a gamers perspective
This was refreshingly different, and still very good from one of my favourite authors... At first I wasn’t sure I was sold on the RPG style stats/skills the people in the story were classed/introduced, but as a looong time player (35 ish) years of both board and pc rpgs, in the end I just loved it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still and A+ storyline, even without the RPG parts, they were just an added bonus..
I did not expect to like 5his book as much as I did. It is a great read. The action runs throughout and never stops. It’s a rollercoaster of a ride. Highly recommended if you like the old Lensman series.
Before I begin my review, I would like to note that I have never read a single book in the LitRPG genre. I have nothing to compare the themes of this book.
It's a fun story with interesting concepts of magic/science fiction put into the world building. Could I write a better story? I've never tried. Could I invent a better world with more compelling characters? Possibly. I give it three stars for the massive info dumping dialogue between characters that seems to happen with every single question Tane inquires. I feel that could have been toned down or spread out to make it feel more like a story and less like a Q&A. The stat sheets are an interesting mix that I have not encountered before with any other author. If this is common with LitRPG, then it is a part of it that I like. I’m not sure if the reiteration of item stats throughout the book is the norm, but it’s a part of it that I feel it could do less of.
Jed could have been built better. Besides the night on the Grizz where he briefly explains some of his origins, we don't know much about the Volur warrior. Despite being with the protagonist from almost the very beginning of the book, he feels like a large shadow lurking in the background waiting for his moment. If Jed died at any point in the story I would have felt nothing emotionally. I would simply find myself wanting answers.
When the gang saves Sinive, it felt like a very emotional climax. I eagerly awaited the emotional dialogue between Tane and Sinive once she woke up, and was sorely disappointed. She was donning a space suit while acting like she had been tagging along the entire time. No embrace, tears, or emotion. Just the transition from battle, rescue, and escape, to the next battle.
“I’m glad you’re awake,” Tane said. “I was worried sick about you. We all were.”
That’s what we get from Tane, seeing someone he deeply cares about no longer on the brink of death.
In the plot I’m satisfied. The big reveal at the end was easily predictable from early on, but seeing how Tane dealt with it seemed very mature.
I will try out the next book in the series, but perhaps this LitRPG thing is not for me.
I don't know about "Star Wars" as an influence, or maybe David Eddings series. I see maybe a small resemblance, but that's all. It's like saying "Twilight" is the same as "Hunger Games". Close but no cigar. I have to admit when I opened up the book, and my kindle said something like 11 hours to the end. I panicked, cause I like to read straight through, but it worked out well for me time wise. This is not a book for someone who wants a "quick fix". What's up with that anyway, patience, like wine, is better for it's anticipation.
The characters are well thought out, and introduced in a fullness. You always know who the plot-line is talking about. It also allows for guesses by the reader about their motives. So much so that when the person does something you guessed at, it's a mental high-five. The plot-line is slow but really smooth. It locks you in, and makes it hard to put down. A plus for any author, makes you want to read more books by this author.
I will wait, with anticipation, for the next book in this series. (David Eddings had somewhere around 10 books in his series, and they were perfect, and could be stand alone books. But, you always wanted to read more.) I look for great things from this author. You are on my reading list.
Overall the book is very good. Only issue was the personality of the main character. Through most of the book it felt like I was listening to a petulant 14 year old who wasn’t getting his way. It made it hard for me to like him.
"When stealing honey, don't stir up the bees." Star Warrior has the classic Hooke ingredients: good, quirky, well written characters, detailed and visual action and an undertone of humour running throughout. Star Warrior introduces elements of LitRPG into the story. Game, a young engineer and aquaponics farmer has always dreamed of escape through discovering that he has the ability to Syphon, something many dream of but very few have. Before returning home to his parent's farm, Tane decides to get himself chipped, normally a non invasive procedure which potentially increases his prowess in almost everything (but expensive). Waking after the procedure, he learns that something had gone wrong and the mechanic had to open his head to intervene but, not to worry, all had now been solved and could not happen again. But as soon as he is home, strange events begin and he and his parents are under attack.
The opening passage where Tane gets his chip are delightful, as the reader becomes aquainted with robot humour, which congrats nicely with the more serious problems to come. The accessible RPG panels detailing precise descriptions and useful features of items encountered is a clever device to provide fast information to both the reader and the player at any given time. All of the protagonists are great with the exception, I regret to say, of Tane himself who remains a fairly two dimensional, not too bright, self obsessed teenage boy - oh, there you go, got it! He's the typical teen with add on abilities. Okay.
This is book one in what looks to be another enjoyable Isaac Hooke space extraveganza S.F. special. Definitely recommended for fun and thrills.
Much like Star Wars it takes a lot of inspiration from epic Fantasy. It's a "chosen one coming of age" type story. Which is something you don't actually see a lot of in Sci-Fi; or at least I haven't. It makes for a good epic space adventure and is the source of a lot of my favorite characteristics of the book in general.
It also features a LitRPG stat type system which is worked into the world in a pretty smooth cyberpunk way. Which is another strength. Those role playing systems can sometimes inject themselves too much into a story. That's definitely not the case here. It just treated like the sci-fi equivalent of a fitbit which works pretty well with what this story is trying to do.
Unfortunately, now we start getting into what the story doesn't do so well. Namely a lot of exposition dumps. Some necessary. Some not so much. And most of it delivered through our hero asking question after question even when asking the question makes no sense in the time and place he happens to be in at that time. It's something that occasionally undercuts what is an otherwise pretty likable main character. I think this book could have been twice as good if it had been edited down to having about half, or ideally even less, of that stuff.
Still, there is an enjoyable book here and if your willing to overlook it's a few flaws I recommend checking it out.
First off, this book had great promise in the beginning. But it started to really fall flat. The plot and the writing was the only good aspect of this story! The characters however were just ugh. I personally couldn't 'bond' with the MC in the slightest. Though the author did a good job of not immediately making him stupid overpowered, and didn't give him the annoying "knight in shining armor" complex. One of the problems that I have is that he really didn't grow , when it came to skill progression, when I thought he obviously should have. For example when he went to the Umbra universe, and gunned down dozens of mobs, and didn't gain a single skill advance. And here's a question, how do people actually level up? At 80% of completion of the book, and Tane is STILL level two?! Really?! Especially when he's personally killed dozens of mobs and elite warriors! And a warning to future readers, there is a LOT of exposition in this book. So much so, that I started 'skimming' almost entire chapters just to get to the point. I can honestly say , that I have no interest in this as a series.
This book would have worked better as a standard scifi book without the LitRPG elements. Mostly because we never got an explanation as to why levels and skills existed in this world. The author simply threw out the whole nanotech excuse without really telling us why/how any of it works, much less why it exists in the first place. Removing the LitRPG element, or placing it in a game instead of what was supposed to be the real world would have fit the plot better. With that said, I have to say that it was an excellent book, and while the storyline wasn't unique, it was handled well enough that the story was interesting and moved along at a good pace. I liked this one a lot and would welcome more of this kind of book, since scifi is my favorite genre.
Overall a nice work and worth the read. Great narrative, fantastic attention to detail, excellent editing, and a great universe. The story’s good, and although not completely predictable, surprises aren’t common. The LitRPG reasoning is really well done, and very non-invasive. In fact, the action is far more primary, such that the LitRPG side is almost unnecessary. (Almost.) However: The ending feels like some heavy deus ex machina is going on, and L&J (especially L) still felt pretty flat, even at the climax.
Those criticisms aside, it really *is* a nice read, and this author is one to watch. Good job.
I enjoyed this book, not enough action though. The other thing I did not like is the main protagonist he seem to be wishy-washy when he has a chance to save his friend he seems to become wishy-washy and at times doesn’t want to proceed with rescue. The secondary or supporting cast is great even the captain of the ship they hire. I know a character has to grow into their abilities so I will be waiting for the next book. If you like RPG style adventures you will enjoy this book this was the first one I have read and I will give others a try, so give this one a try.
For the first 90% of this book the main character was basically worthless and obnoxious and generally unlikeable. You literally could have replaced him with a backpack that had something important in it and let one of the other infinity more interesting characters carry it as they escaped the aliens and the story would have basically been the same. At 90% Mark the main character finally became magically useful so yay. There was nothing wrong with the book from a literature stand point, punctuation and grammar were fine it was just the book was boring for the first 90%
really fun read. great characters, excellent and unique world building. the 'magic system' was equally as impressive and very interesting. i emensely enjoyed the litrpg elements and the pacing was spot on. recommened to any who enjoy such things and even those who dont. the intergration of said rpg elements was seemless and believable, more like a progress benchmark for the MC than anything else. hopefully a sequel is forthcoming, id be much abliged Mr. Hooke and im sure i wouldnt be the only one. Excellent work, good game.
Yes I want a book 2. This tale of good guy vs bad guy inside your branching out from teenager to manhood makes for a wonderful story. The scfi is different maybe a little over the top but light vs dark, robots and guns, with brain enhancements was nicely mixed. Book 2 could have the girlfriend out doing the hero on some things but not on others. I leave all that to the author. Isaac..Book 2, pleas.
2.5 stars, I have liked other books by this author but this one, ah not so much. It started out great but went down hill and got a little strange. The middle of the book was full of data dumps and a weird story line. The ending was just okay and did not give me enough to make up for the middle section of the story. I may do others books by this author but just did not find the majority of this one enjoyable.
I’ve read so many Isaac Hooke books that I’ve lost track, but everything that made you love his writing before is present in this new adventure, Star Warrior, 816 pages with so much detail in the writing it reads longer.. (Think Han Solo & Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars movie). Hooke's changed it up again in this adventure! I hope to read more from Isaac Hooke in a future work.
Everyone will compare this to star wars, but that's any sci-fi with fantasy elements.
The book was well written, with good characters. I enjoyed the GameLit elements, they really worked how the author used them. I especially liked his thoughts on rank 0 skills, hah!
3.5 to be honest, but the need for some touchups in the mised key strokes makes it go to 3 stars. Star Wars is a clear inspiration but the universe is diferent in many significant ways. Any book with lightsabers is a must read. Hope to see darksabers in the next one
This is a really interesting and unique story. The magic system, for lack of a better term, is different from anything I've read before. Definitely looking forward to the next book.
I came in with low expectations but was completely sucked in to a really well done story. This story reminded me a bit of the wheel of time and i hope that it does add well as that series
Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Fast paced and attention grabbing. Couldn't put it down. I definitely recommend this to those who enjoy mix of science fiction and litrpg.
Wow this story is way out there don't know how the author thought of this subject but he pulled it off! I'm afraid to read followup because it's doubtful he will keep the interest in this story. Yet I'll read it whenever it comes out!
There is no apparent storyline to get into. I ended up skipping through the book and I still couldn't find a storyline to get into. What the what? I'm sorry but I couldn't find any interest to keep moving and so I'm setting this one down.
Very enjoyable. The characters are excellent. When are we to expect another taste?
Really enjoyed the storyline and the different universes involved. The aliens and other characters seemed to interact in a way that kept me from wanting to put it down.
I really liked this book. There was a lot going on here, but the author was able to intertwine all the various plot lines, while still crafting an entertaining story.
Star Warrior differs conceptually from the typical space saga. It offers the forces of good and evil in a RPG format. Character development is light but fully supports the plot. It is worth the cost and an enjoyable read.
The plot is very entertaining. Multiple universes have been theorized. A person with power in multilateral universes is enthralling. For the military buffs, their are weapons that have characteristics.
Starts out well then gets bogged down and boring. Lead character Tane is whiny, stupid, self-centered, immature and annoying. Full review here: http://www.morebooksthantime.com/mini...
Not a bad storyline, just not my type of story. Really not into the details of leveling up skills a Etc, but then I am of an older generation. If your into the gaming stuff then you will probably like this one. No obvious errors or grammatical errors.