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Donovan #2
Abandoned
The second book in a thrilling sci-fi action adventure, set on Donovan, a treacherous alien planet where corporate threats and dangerous creatures imperil the lives of the planet's colonists.
New York Times bestselling author W. Michael Gear returns us to the world he laid out with such sure purpose in Outpost . The struggle for survival sharpens as resources dwindle, technology fails, and the grim reality of life on Donovan unfolds.
Supervisor Kalico Aguila has bet everything on a fragile settlement far south of Port Authority. There, she has carved a farm and mine out of wilderness. But Donovan is closing in. When conditions couldn't get worse, a murderous peril descends out of Donovan's sky--one that will leave Kalico bleeding and shattered.
Talina Perez gambles her life and reputation in a bid to atone for ruthlessly murdering a woman's husband years ago. Ironically, saving Dya Simonov may save them all.
Lieutenant Deb Spiro is losing it, and by killing a little girl's pet alien, she may have precipitated disaster for all. In the end, the only hope will lie with a "lost" colony, and the alien-infested reflexes possessed by Security Officer Talina Perez.
On Donovan, only human beings are more terrifying than the wildlife.
New York Times bestselling author W. Michael Gear returns us to the world he laid out with such sure purpose in Outpost . The struggle for survival sharpens as resources dwindle, technology fails, and the grim reality of life on Donovan unfolds.
Supervisor Kalico Aguila has bet everything on a fragile settlement far south of Port Authority. There, she has carved a farm and mine out of wilderness. But Donovan is closing in. When conditions couldn't get worse, a murderous peril descends out of Donovan's sky--one that will leave Kalico bleeding and shattered.
Talina Perez gambles her life and reputation in a bid to atone for ruthlessly murdering a woman's husband years ago. Ironically, saving Dya Simonov may save them all.
Lieutenant Deb Spiro is losing it, and by killing a little girl's pet alien, she may have precipitated disaster for all. In the end, the only hope will lie with a "lost" colony, and the alien-infested reflexes possessed by Security Officer Talina Perez.
On Donovan, only human beings are more terrifying than the wildlife.
438 pages, Hardcover
Published November 27, 2018
80 people are currently reading
498 people want to read
About the author
W. Michael Gear
181 books729 followersW. Michael Gear was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on the twentieth of May, 1955. A fourth generation Colorado native, his family had been involved in hard-rock mining, cattle ranching, and journalism. After his father's death in 1959, Michael's mother received her Master's degree in journalism and began teaching. In 1962 she married Joseph J. Cook, who taught tool and die making, and the family lived in Lakewood, Colorado, until 1968. At that time they moved to Fort Collins so that Joe could pursue his Ph.D.. During those years the family lived in the foothills above Horsetooth Reservoir.
It was there that Mike developed a love of history, anthropology, and motorcycles. They would color his future and fill his imagination for the rest of his life. During summers he volunteered labor on local ranches or at the farm east of Greeley and landed his first real job: picking up trash at the lake and cleaning outhouses. It has been said that his exposure to trash led him into archaeology. We will not speculate about what cleaning the outhouses might have led him to. On his first dig as a professional archaeologist in 1976 he discovered that two thousand year old human trash isn't nearly as obnoxious as the new stuff.
Michael graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1972 and pursued both his Bachelor's (1976) and Master's (1979) degrees at Colorado State University. Upon completion of his Master's - his specialty was in physical anthropology - he went to work for Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs as a field archaeologist.
It was in the winter of 1978 that he wrote his first novel. Irritated by historical inaccuracies in Western fiction, he swore he could do better. He was "taking retirement in installments," archaeology being a seasonal career, in the cabin his great uncle Aubrey had built. One cold January night he read a Western novel about a trail drive in which steers (castrated males) had calves. The historical inaccuracies of the story bothered him all night. The next morning, still incensed, he chunked wood into the stove and hunkered over the typewriter. There, on the mining claim, at nine thousand feet outside of Empire, Colorado he hammered out his first five hundred and fifty page novel. Yes, that first manuscript still exists, but if there is justice in the universe, no one will ever see it. It reads wretchedly - but the historical facts are correct!
Beginning in 1981, Michael, along with two partners, put together his own archaeological consulting company. Pronghorn Anthropological Associates began doing cultural resource management studies in 1982, and, although Michael sold his interest in 1984, to this day the company remains in business in Casper, Wyoming. During the years, Michael has worked throughout the western United States doing archaeological surveys, testing, and mitigation for pipelines, oil wells, power lines, timber sales, and highway construction. He learned the value of strong black coffee, developed a palate for chocolate donuts, and ferreted out every quality Mexican restaurant in eight states. He spent nine months of the year traveling from project to project with his trowel and dig kit, a clapped-out '72 Wonder Blazer, and his boon companion, Tedi, a noble tri-color Sheltie.
That fateful day in November, 1981, was delightfully clear, cold, and still in Laramie, Wyoming. Archaeologists from all over the state had arrived at the University of Wyoming for the annual meetings of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists. It was there, in the meeting room, way too early after a much too long night, that Mike first laid eyes on the most beautiful woman in the world: Kathleen O'Neal Gear. The BLM State Archaeologist, Ray Leicht, introduced him to the pretty anthropologist and historian, and best of all, Ray invited Mike to lunch with Kathleen. It was the perfect beginning for a long and wondrous relationship.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/wmicha...
It was there that Mike developed a love of history, anthropology, and motorcycles. They would color his future and fill his imagination for the rest of his life. During summers he volunteered labor on local ranches or at the farm east of Greeley and landed his first real job: picking up trash at the lake and cleaning outhouses. It has been said that his exposure to trash led him into archaeology. We will not speculate about what cleaning the outhouses might have led him to. On his first dig as a professional archaeologist in 1976 he discovered that two thousand year old human trash isn't nearly as obnoxious as the new stuff.
Michael graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1972 and pursued both his Bachelor's (1976) and Master's (1979) degrees at Colorado State University. Upon completion of his Master's - his specialty was in physical anthropology - he went to work for Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs as a field archaeologist.
It was in the winter of 1978 that he wrote his first novel. Irritated by historical inaccuracies in Western fiction, he swore he could do better. He was "taking retirement in installments," archaeology being a seasonal career, in the cabin his great uncle Aubrey had built. One cold January night he read a Western novel about a trail drive in which steers (castrated males) had calves. The historical inaccuracies of the story bothered him all night. The next morning, still incensed, he chunked wood into the stove and hunkered over the typewriter. There, on the mining claim, at nine thousand feet outside of Empire, Colorado he hammered out his first five hundred and fifty page novel. Yes, that first manuscript still exists, but if there is justice in the universe, no one will ever see it. It reads wretchedly - but the historical facts are correct!
Beginning in 1981, Michael, along with two partners, put together his own archaeological consulting company. Pronghorn Anthropological Associates began doing cultural resource management studies in 1982, and, although Michael sold his interest in 1984, to this day the company remains in business in Casper, Wyoming. During the years, Michael has worked throughout the western United States doing archaeological surveys, testing, and mitigation for pipelines, oil wells, power lines, timber sales, and highway construction. He learned the value of strong black coffee, developed a palate for chocolate donuts, and ferreted out every quality Mexican restaurant in eight states. He spent nine months of the year traveling from project to project with his trowel and dig kit, a clapped-out '72 Wonder Blazer, and his boon companion, Tedi, a noble tri-color Sheltie.
That fateful day in November, 1981, was delightfully clear, cold, and still in Laramie, Wyoming. Archaeologists from all over the state had arrived at the University of Wyoming for the annual meetings of the Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists. It was there, in the meeting room, way too early after a much too long night, that Mike first laid eyes on the most beautiful woman in the world: Kathleen O'Neal Gear. The BLM State Archaeologist, Ray Leicht, introduced him to the pretty anthropologist and historian, and best of all, Ray invited Mike to lunch with Kathleen. It was the perfect beginning for a long and wondrous relationship.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/wmicha...
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December 17, 2018
4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2018/12/17/...
Talk about being late to the party. W. Michael Gear has been a name in science fiction for a while, though I only read him for the first time a few weeks ago with Outpost, the first book in his Donovan trilogy that took me completely by surprise. By the time I finished, I already had the sequel in hand and ready to go, so for once, I wasted no time in diving in.
Abandoned takes readers back to Donovan, a colony planet that humans have been trying to tame for the last thirty years. Despite the settlers’ best efforts, Donovan’s wildlife has continued to hold back any real development. Over time, the colonists have come to accept the dangers and learned to adapt to the planet’s harsh environment. But now, a Corporation ship has arrived to take stock of the situation, making the people of Donovan nervous, worried that their way of life is now being threatened. When we last left things in Outpost, things were in a state of flux, with high tensions between the new arrivals and the original Donovanians. And space travel being as risky as it is right now, it’s not even certain that the Corporation ship will be able to make the return trip home to the solar system.
Some familiar faces return, while some new characters are also introduced. Representing the planet’s hub of Port Authority is Security Officer Talina Perez, the de facto leader of the Donovan colonists. Keeping the peace in her town has gotten a little more difficult since the new Corporation settlement has been established nearby in the south. Leading them is Supervisor Kalico Aguila, a rising star in the Corporation, until she made what she figured was the biggest mistake of her life by asking to head this mission to Donovan. Her head of security is now dead, forcing her to rely on the hotheaded and volatile Lieutenant Deb Spiro instead, whose aggressive way of doing things is stirring no small amount of trouble with the people of Port Authority. Resident troublemaker Dan Wirth is back as well, taking advantage of the Donovanian’s libertarian ideology to set up a casino and brothel, fleecing the naïve colonists for everything they have. A ruthless killer, he’s also found that it’s much easier to get away with murder on a planet like Donovan.
As if all this excitement wasn’t enough, this sequel also shines a light on a third faction—the people of the wild. The first book touched upon them briefly, but Abandoned finally gives us a chance to see how these rogue settlers really lived. A new perspective character enters the scene in the form of Mark Talbot, a Marine who didn’t really mean to desert, but it seemed Donovan had other plans for him. Following the crash of his ship and death of his companions, Mark stumbles upon a group of hardy women and their children who have been maintaining their own secret farm settlement in the wilderness. Rebecca, Su and Dya harbor strong animosities towards Port Authority and want nothing to do with the other colonists and the Corporation. They heal Mark and take him in, and before long, he becomes a part of their family.
If there is one message that this book sends, it is that Donovan changes people. Talina, a long-time local, was one of the first to figure this out and accept that there’s no set of rules to follow when it comes to surviving on this planet. Those who come trying to conquer it with rigidity and order are often the first to die. This is a fate that nearly befalls Kalico Aguila, before she was forced to admit she’s in way over her head. Of all the characters in this novel, Mark Talbot was probably the most affected by Donovan, followed next by Aguila. Of course, she wouldn’t be a Corporation supervisor if she didn’t involve herself in some manipulation and scheming, but overall, I was glad she didn’t turn out to be as horrible as once thought.
But then, of course, there are the people who don’t change, but simply get better at hiding their true colors. This is Dan Wirth in a nutshell, though his part was relatively lowkey in this installment, to my slight disappointment (yes, I actually wanted to see him cause more trouble!) The role of main villain was instead hoisted upon Lieutenant Spiro, and boy, was she a piece of work who quickly became the most hated person in the series.
In a way though, Gear’s handling of the characters and the fact they are always shifting, evolving is why I am enjoying these books so much; this is very much a human story involving the triumph of the will to survive, despite the trying circumstances. You gotta love how much the Donovanian colonists take pride in their home, even though it has killed so many of them. Amazingly too, the planet itself feels like a character in its own right, taking on its own life and personality. Donovan’s strange fauna and flora are key to this perception, the way the story describes them as constantly pushing back attempts to domesticate it. And speaking of which, this interaction between Donovan and the human settlers also gets a bit of attention, revealing some of its inner workings which are truly alien in its nature. We get a lot more information about the lizard-like creatures called quetzals, which may yet play a larger role in the understanding of the planet.
But most notably, this volume did not really touch upon the subject of the ghost ship that suddenly appeared back in orbit (which felt like a glaring oversight, considering the big deal that was made of it back in the first book), nor did it go into the mystery of why more and more ships were getting lost in space, though I suppose the author needs to save at least a few aces up his sleeve for the big finale.
All in all, I have to say Abandoned was a sequel that does what sequels generally do—that is, continue the threads established by the previous book while adding some more to expand the world-building and further build upon the plot. On the whole, the novel accomplished this in all the right ways, and I couldn’t be happier with the direction of this trilogy.
Talk about being late to the party. W. Michael Gear has been a name in science fiction for a while, though I only read him for the first time a few weeks ago with Outpost, the first book in his Donovan trilogy that took me completely by surprise. By the time I finished, I already had the sequel in hand and ready to go, so for once, I wasted no time in diving in.
Abandoned takes readers back to Donovan, a colony planet that humans have been trying to tame for the last thirty years. Despite the settlers’ best efforts, Donovan’s wildlife has continued to hold back any real development. Over time, the colonists have come to accept the dangers and learned to adapt to the planet’s harsh environment. But now, a Corporation ship has arrived to take stock of the situation, making the people of Donovan nervous, worried that their way of life is now being threatened. When we last left things in Outpost, things were in a state of flux, with high tensions between the new arrivals and the original Donovanians. And space travel being as risky as it is right now, it’s not even certain that the Corporation ship will be able to make the return trip home to the solar system.
Some familiar faces return, while some new characters are also introduced. Representing the planet’s hub of Port Authority is Security Officer Talina Perez, the de facto leader of the Donovan colonists. Keeping the peace in her town has gotten a little more difficult since the new Corporation settlement has been established nearby in the south. Leading them is Supervisor Kalico Aguila, a rising star in the Corporation, until she made what she figured was the biggest mistake of her life by asking to head this mission to Donovan. Her head of security is now dead, forcing her to rely on the hotheaded and volatile Lieutenant Deb Spiro instead, whose aggressive way of doing things is stirring no small amount of trouble with the people of Port Authority. Resident troublemaker Dan Wirth is back as well, taking advantage of the Donovanian’s libertarian ideology to set up a casino and brothel, fleecing the naïve colonists for everything they have. A ruthless killer, he’s also found that it’s much easier to get away with murder on a planet like Donovan.
As if all this excitement wasn’t enough, this sequel also shines a light on a third faction—the people of the wild. The first book touched upon them briefly, but Abandoned finally gives us a chance to see how these rogue settlers really lived. A new perspective character enters the scene in the form of Mark Talbot, a Marine who didn’t really mean to desert, but it seemed Donovan had other plans for him. Following the crash of his ship and death of his companions, Mark stumbles upon a group of hardy women and their children who have been maintaining their own secret farm settlement in the wilderness. Rebecca, Su and Dya harbor strong animosities towards Port Authority and want nothing to do with the other colonists and the Corporation. They heal Mark and take him in, and before long, he becomes a part of their family.
If there is one message that this book sends, it is that Donovan changes people. Talina, a long-time local, was one of the first to figure this out and accept that there’s no set of rules to follow when it comes to surviving on this planet. Those who come trying to conquer it with rigidity and order are often the first to die. This is a fate that nearly befalls Kalico Aguila, before she was forced to admit she’s in way over her head. Of all the characters in this novel, Mark Talbot was probably the most affected by Donovan, followed next by Aguila. Of course, she wouldn’t be a Corporation supervisor if she didn’t involve herself in some manipulation and scheming, but overall, I was glad she didn’t turn out to be as horrible as once thought.
But then, of course, there are the people who don’t change, but simply get better at hiding their true colors. This is Dan Wirth in a nutshell, though his part was relatively lowkey in this installment, to my slight disappointment (yes, I actually wanted to see him cause more trouble!) The role of main villain was instead hoisted upon Lieutenant Spiro, and boy, was she a piece of work who quickly became the most hated person in the series.
In a way though, Gear’s handling of the characters and the fact they are always shifting, evolving is why I am enjoying these books so much; this is very much a human story involving the triumph of the will to survive, despite the trying circumstances. You gotta love how much the Donovanian colonists take pride in their home, even though it has killed so many of them. Amazingly too, the planet itself feels like a character in its own right, taking on its own life and personality. Donovan’s strange fauna and flora are key to this perception, the way the story describes them as constantly pushing back attempts to domesticate it. And speaking of which, this interaction between Donovan and the human settlers also gets a bit of attention, revealing some of its inner workings which are truly alien in its nature. We get a lot more information about the lizard-like creatures called quetzals, which may yet play a larger role in the understanding of the planet.
But most notably, this volume did not really touch upon the subject of the ghost ship that suddenly appeared back in orbit (which felt like a glaring oversight, considering the big deal that was made of it back in the first book), nor did it go into the mystery of why more and more ships were getting lost in space, though I suppose the author needs to save at least a few aces up his sleeve for the big finale.
All in all, I have to say Abandoned was a sequel that does what sequels generally do—that is, continue the threads established by the previous book while adding some more to expand the world-building and further build upon the plot. On the whole, the novel accomplished this in all the right ways, and I couldn’t be happier with the direction of this trilogy.
March 18, 2022
This second installment in the Donovan Trilogy was as page turning and compulsively readable as its predecessor, Outpost.
I loved the fact that the characters are growing out of their stock forms and into something more. Talisa and Kalico are different people than they were in the first book, and getting them from there to here has been an interesting journey.
The setting of Donovan and its central settlement, Port Authority, continue to act as important characters too. The main thread that runs through these books is that Donovan is a catalyst for change, and the result can be either deadly or transformative for the people who live there.
The book continues to have a bit of a Wild West feel to it, complete with the notion that it's fine to shoot someone if they shoot first and public showdowns in the street. The central villain this time around, Deb Spiro, is as stone cold crazy and deadly as any you might wish for.
Abandoned also adds in some new characters, a splinter group of settlers living deep in the forest, apparently with little to no interference by one of the deadlier creatures of Donovan, quetzals. Why the settlers are able to live securely without fences and in apparent harmony with the quetzals is of course of great interest and forms an engrossing part of the story.
The next book in the series, Pariah, is due out next month, and given how entertaining the first two books have been, I will definitely be picking it up soon.
I loved the fact that the characters are growing out of their stock forms and into something more. Talisa and Kalico are different people than they were in the first book, and getting them from there to here has been an interesting journey.
The setting of Donovan and its central settlement, Port Authority, continue to act as important characters too. The main thread that runs through these books is that Donovan is a catalyst for change, and the result can be either deadly or transformative for the people who live there.
The book continues to have a bit of a Wild West feel to it, complete with the notion that it's fine to shoot someone if they shoot first and public showdowns in the street. The central villain this time around, Deb Spiro, is as stone cold crazy and deadly as any you might wish for.
Abandoned also adds in some new characters, a splinter group of settlers living deep in the forest, apparently with little to no interference by one of the deadlier creatures of Donovan, quetzals. Why the settlers are able to live securely without fences and in apparent harmony with the quetzals is of course of great interest and forms an engrossing part of the story.
The next book in the series, Pariah, is due out next month, and given how entertaining the first two books have been, I will definitely be picking it up soon.
April 28, 2020
Personally, this was even better than the first book. I've come to love and care for the characters and the world that they currently find themselves stranded on. I appreciate that this series is more of a character study than it really is about non stop action. I find it very compelling. Only a few minor complaints keep me from giving this a full five stars. Can't wait to see what happens next!
Full RTC
Full RTC
January 30, 2024
Off to a fine start. #2 picks up directly after #1, suggesting it was written as a single novel, or at least was already in advanced-draft form by the time #1 was turned in. Gear is an old pro, so the pages turn and the tensions build. The rogue Supervisor from the Earth Corporation, who stayed behind rather than face death (or worse) if her scheduled return starship was lost in Inversion Space, is reaching a wary accommodation with both planet Donovan and her local Nemesis, Security Officer Perez, who she had planned to execute early in #1. And "Dan" the psychopathic killer, who killed another transportee to assume his identity in Book 1, is running a thriving casino, brothel and loan-sharking business....
Cute episode when a lost Corporate Marine makes his way to a cut-off research base that is down to 3 adult women, equipment that is on its last legs, and a bunch of half-grown kids. The kid who found the marine has partnered with a quetzal of about her own age, 9 or so. The women want the marine to, well, carry on the species (Donovan being hard on both adults and kids). He impregnates one of the women and, rather unexpectedly, they become friends. As does the 9-year old, who asks Talbot not to betray the base and family. "The intensity with which she said it hit him like a thrown stone. "Not on your life, Kylee," he said.
@ p.333: I can't remember the last time a book brought me to tears, and never when one of the Aliens gets killed! I'm still sniffling, and you won't be reading the details here! But this is the rare sequel that blows past vol. 1. Almost surely headed for the full 5 stars!
OK, finished, in a truly dramatic shootout. You've seen "High Noon"?* One Bad Guy, a renegade Marine, is laid in the cold, cold ground. No tears are are shed for her. Dealer Dan, the psychotic Big Mushroom‡ of the town casino, regrettably, survives. And the book (of course!) ends on a cliff hanger. On to #3!
Gear actually comes up with a half-reasonable way for co-evolution to happen on his alien world. Which, for sauce, has a 3-strand DNA analog for genetics! He's done some darn good biology homework here. Not common in SF. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coevolu... -- and idea that goes back (at least) to Darwin. "Coevolution is primarily a biological concept, but researchers have applied it by analogy to fields such as computer science, sociology, and astronomy."
While I highly recommend "Abandoned, " you most definitely need to read "Outpost" first! The best classic planetary SF adventure I've read in years. Easy 5 stars!
--------
* HIGH NOON: the version you saw very likely didn't have both gunslingers as women!
‡ We'll see how many of you pick up on this nod to a classic Sturgeon (I'm pretty sure) gambling tale.
Cute episode when a lost Corporate Marine makes his way to a cut-off research base that is down to 3 adult women, equipment that is on its last legs, and a bunch of half-grown kids. The kid who found the marine has partnered with a quetzal of about her own age, 9 or so. The women want the marine to, well, carry on the species (Donovan being hard on both adults and kids). He impregnates one of the women and, rather unexpectedly, they become friends. As does the 9-year old, who asks Talbot not to betray the base and family. "The intensity with which she said it hit him like a thrown stone. "Not on your life, Kylee," he said.
@ p.333: I can't remember the last time a book brought me to tears, and never when one of the Aliens gets killed! I'm still sniffling, and you won't be reading the details here! But this is the rare sequel that blows past vol. 1. Almost surely headed for the full 5 stars!
OK, finished, in a truly dramatic shootout. You've seen "High Noon"?* One Bad Guy, a renegade Marine, is laid in the cold, cold ground. No tears are are shed for her. Dealer Dan, the psychotic Big Mushroom‡ of the town casino, regrettably, survives. And the book (of course!) ends on a cliff hanger. On to #3!
Gear actually comes up with a half-reasonable way for co-evolution to happen on his alien world. Which, for sauce, has a 3-strand DNA analog for genetics! He's done some darn good biology homework here. Not common in SF. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coevolu... -- and idea that goes back (at least) to Darwin. "Coevolution is primarily a biological concept, but researchers have applied it by analogy to fields such as computer science, sociology, and astronomy."
While I highly recommend "Abandoned, " you most definitely need to read "Outpost" first! The best classic planetary SF adventure I've read in years. Easy 5 stars!
--------
* HIGH NOON: the version you saw very likely didn't have both gunslingers as women!
‡ We'll see how many of you pick up on this nod to a classic Sturgeon (I'm pretty sure) gambling tale.
December 7, 2018
Everything by W Michael Gear is great. I am really digging this new science fiction trilogy. It's not quite the total badass space opera stuff you'd find in his Spider & Forbidden Borders trilogies...this is more Alien/Preditor with a dash of Starship Troopers. That said this is still killer story-telling here!!
November 15, 2018
I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: Welcome back to Donovan, where the human population is just as dangerous as the killer alien species on the planet.
Abandoned is the sequel to Outpost , a book that completely surprised me when I read it earlier this year. And because of that, you should definitely read Outpost first. I love this series, and if you enjoy science fiction stories about establishing colonies on new planets, then I hope you’ll try this out. I’m giving Abandoned a slightly lower rating than I did for Outpost , simply because I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection with some of the characters, but it’s a fantastic sequel nonetheless. Also, be aware that there are some spoilers for the first book.
Thirty years ago, settlers landed on the planet of Donovan, but out of the thousands who originally settled in the town of Port Authority, only a few hundred have survived. Because of the dangerous—and hungry—lifeforms, many have died over the years, and now the survivors are facing different challenges. Supplies and raw materials are dwindling, and they know that it’s only a matter of time before they run out and won’t be able to repair equipment or charge batteries. But not everyone has remained in Port Authority. After a shift in power, Supervisor Kalico Aguila has started a settlement to the south called Corporate Mine, where her loyal followers work to extract Donovan’s bounty of rich minerals and precious metals.
And miles away, a handful of rogue settlers have managed to grow a thriving farm at the old Mundo Base, long thought abandoned. Rebecca, Su and Dya have figured out how to keep the deadly quetzal at bay, but they know their simple way of life would be threatened if Corporate ever found out about their existence. Until one day, Marine Mark Talbot stumbles into their camp, barely alive, and changes everything.
All three groups will soon find out that Donovan’s native flora and fauna are not the only killers on the planet, as their paths inevitably cross. People are desperate, and desperate people will do anything to protect their way of life.
I loved the alien species-versus-humans action, and trust me, there are some harrowing scenes in this story, but there is just as much to love about the way Gear pits his characters against each other. Abandoned might take place on another planet, but this story feels like it’s set in the Wild West. The original commanding force in Port Authority has disintegrated and the population has fractured into various groups who set their own rules and enforce those rules in their own way. Deserters are shot and arguments are sometimes settled with duels. There’s even a saloon/bordello/casino in Port Authority called the Jewel, owned by one of the more slimy characters, a man named Dan Wirth, which added to the overall “Wild West” atmosphere. There’s an interesting mix of those who adhere to Kalico’s authority, a group of Marines who are still expected to fulfill the contracts they signed before leaving Solar System, and the denizens who have fallen prey to lack of power and have ended up as laborers or prostitutes. This disparate group was endlessly fascinating to me, and I loved how Gear explores the highs and lows of human nature when people of different walks of life are thrown together and expected to survive.
My only real issue with this story was that I just couldn’t connect emotionally to all of the characters. Out at Mundo Base there is a little girl named Kylee who has, miraculously, bonded with a baby quetzal. Kylee names him Rocket and Rocket follows her everywhere. Their relationship is so unique, and I thought Kylee and Rocket would end up being two of my favorite characters. But despite a really good story line, they both fell flat for me. I wanted to love them, wanted my heart to race whenever they were in danger (which happens a lot!), but I just couldn’t dredge up any emotions. Maybe the author has trouble writing children, because even Kylee’s dialog seemed unnatural to me.
But I didn’t have trouble with the adults at all. I loved Mark Talbot’s journey, finding a home and an unexpected family with the women and children of Mundo Base, and half-way through the story their idyllic situation changes and I was on pins and needles knowing what this change was going to do to them. I also loved the rivalry and almost bitter hatred between Talina and Lieutenant Spiro, and even Talina and Kalico have some very tense moments in the story. It isn’t often you see the focus on the female characters, so hats off to Mr. Gear for creating such complex and volatile relationships among these three strong women.
In the last book, a missing ship called the Freelander appears in orbit, and upon investigation, it’s discovered that the entire crew is dead. I won’t go into all the details, but it was a fantastic plot point and I was hoping the author would continue to explore the mystery of what happened to this ship. Gear doesn’t really address it in this book, but I have a feeling that the final book in the series will answer all my questions—I hope! Honestly, there was so much tension among characters on the planet’s surface, that the space element wasn’t really necessary.
The final book in the series, Pariah , already has a description up on Goodreads, and I can’t wait to read it. It sounds like we’ll be back in space for at least part of the next book, and that makes me very happy indeed.
Big thanks to the publisher for supply a review copy.
My review of Outpost
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy
Abandoned is the sequel to Outpost , a book that completely surprised me when I read it earlier this year. And because of that, you should definitely read Outpost first. I love this series, and if you enjoy science fiction stories about establishing colonies on new planets, then I hope you’ll try this out. I’m giving Abandoned a slightly lower rating than I did for Outpost , simply because I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection with some of the characters, but it’s a fantastic sequel nonetheless. Also, be aware that there are some spoilers for the first book.
Thirty years ago, settlers landed on the planet of Donovan, but out of the thousands who originally settled in the town of Port Authority, only a few hundred have survived. Because of the dangerous—and hungry—lifeforms, many have died over the years, and now the survivors are facing different challenges. Supplies and raw materials are dwindling, and they know that it’s only a matter of time before they run out and won’t be able to repair equipment or charge batteries. But not everyone has remained in Port Authority. After a shift in power, Supervisor Kalico Aguila has started a settlement to the south called Corporate Mine, where her loyal followers work to extract Donovan’s bounty of rich minerals and precious metals.
And miles away, a handful of rogue settlers have managed to grow a thriving farm at the old Mundo Base, long thought abandoned. Rebecca, Su and Dya have figured out how to keep the deadly quetzal at bay, but they know their simple way of life would be threatened if Corporate ever found out about their existence. Until one day, Marine Mark Talbot stumbles into their camp, barely alive, and changes everything.
All three groups will soon find out that Donovan’s native flora and fauna are not the only killers on the planet, as their paths inevitably cross. People are desperate, and desperate people will do anything to protect their way of life.
I loved the alien species-versus-humans action, and trust me, there are some harrowing scenes in this story, but there is just as much to love about the way Gear pits his characters against each other. Abandoned might take place on another planet, but this story feels like it’s set in the Wild West. The original commanding force in Port Authority has disintegrated and the population has fractured into various groups who set their own rules and enforce those rules in their own way. Deserters are shot and arguments are sometimes settled with duels. There’s even a saloon/bordello/casino in Port Authority called the Jewel, owned by one of the more slimy characters, a man named Dan Wirth, which added to the overall “Wild West” atmosphere. There’s an interesting mix of those who adhere to Kalico’s authority, a group of Marines who are still expected to fulfill the contracts they signed before leaving Solar System, and the denizens who have fallen prey to lack of power and have ended up as laborers or prostitutes. This disparate group was endlessly fascinating to me, and I loved how Gear explores the highs and lows of human nature when people of different walks of life are thrown together and expected to survive.
My only real issue with this story was that I just couldn’t connect emotionally to all of the characters. Out at Mundo Base there is a little girl named Kylee who has, miraculously, bonded with a baby quetzal. Kylee names him Rocket and Rocket follows her everywhere. Their relationship is so unique, and I thought Kylee and Rocket would end up being two of my favorite characters. But despite a really good story line, they both fell flat for me. I wanted to love them, wanted my heart to race whenever they were in danger (which happens a lot!), but I just couldn’t dredge up any emotions. Maybe the author has trouble writing children, because even Kylee’s dialog seemed unnatural to me.
But I didn’t have trouble with the adults at all. I loved Mark Talbot’s journey, finding a home and an unexpected family with the women and children of Mundo Base, and half-way through the story their idyllic situation changes and I was on pins and needles knowing what this change was going to do to them. I also loved the rivalry and almost bitter hatred between Talina and Lieutenant Spiro, and even Talina and Kalico have some very tense moments in the story. It isn’t often you see the focus on the female characters, so hats off to Mr. Gear for creating such complex and volatile relationships among these three strong women.
In the last book, a missing ship called the Freelander appears in orbit, and upon investigation, it’s discovered that the entire crew is dead. I won’t go into all the details, but it was a fantastic plot point and I was hoping the author would continue to explore the mystery of what happened to this ship. Gear doesn’t really address it in this book, but I have a feeling that the final book in the series will answer all my questions—I hope! Honestly, there was so much tension among characters on the planet’s surface, that the space element wasn’t really necessary.
The final book in the series, Pariah , already has a description up on Goodreads, and I can’t wait to read it. It sounds like we’ll be back in space for at least part of the next book, and that makes me very happy indeed.
Big thanks to the publisher for supply a review copy.
My review of Outpost
This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy
July 21, 2019
If you haven't read the first, don't read this, although it's every bit as good. There's a lot of character & world development. Oh, you'll get the basics, but you'll miss out on some of the best parts. If you did read the first, you shouldn't need much of a review. You know the world & it expands a bit, but not too much. Mostly the characters & situations come to some conclusions. I'm really looking forward to the third book, though.
May 30, 2023
9 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com...
Please beware spoilers for Donovan #1—Outpost.
Welcome to Donovan.
Supervisor Kalico Aguila has been on fragile terms with Port Authority since she decided to remain planetside, rather than inverting on the Turalon. Rather than join the settlement and perpetually butt heads with the council, Aguila has chosen to carve out a mine in the wilds—one the wilderness is slowly but surely reclaiming. The trees take a more active approach on Donovan, often rootching forwards, covering miles in a single day. To make matters worse, a murderer is hanging out in Aguila’s camp, one pushing Dan Wirth’s agenda. As if Donovan wasn’t enough.
Mark Talbot is a dead man walking. Marooned in the middle of the bush, he’s alive at all solely because of his armor, which thus far has survived every threat Donovan has thrown at him, from quetzals, to nightmares, to death-fliers. But what it can’t do is feed him, or—something that’s his larger issue—keep a charge. The battery packs were tested and maintained for combat; somewhere around 1000 hours. So far Talbot’s has seen twice that, and the cells are slowly depleting. So when he sees his first sign of human habitation, Talbot has no choice but to throw himself on their mercy. What he’s confronted with, however, are three scientists with a flock of children—and the quetzal that one of them has bonded.
Lieutenant Deb Spiro is losing it. A marine with a head for taking orders but not giving them, she has been suddenly thrust into command, a position that sees her instability and lust for violence take center stage. In Port Authority she sees everything that’s the problem with Donovan, especially one Talina Perez. And Spiro isn’t great at talking through her problems.
Talina Perez has made mistakes. In this case it’s the woman whose husband she killed during her time as the supervisor’s assassin. A mistake she’s desperate to atone for. But she’ll have to do far more than that if she wants to survive what Donovan has in store.
For when Spiro makes a mistake that might just threaten to kill them all, Perez will gamble everything on an outcast, an alien, and an infection in her TriNA. As sides are chosen and tensions run high it becomes very clear that the two sides can’t live together. But with Donovan mounting an offensive, neither might survive at all.
On Donovan, only humans are more terrifying than the wildlife.
—
“At this rate, how long before the forest reclaims the whole farm and smelter?” Kalico asked woodenly.
“Maybe a couple months?” Ghosh hazarded. “But that’s just a guess. I’m not a biological science kind of guy.”
“Remember how you laid out a line of that toxic smelter waste?” Ituri gave her a sidelong glance. “I don’t know what to say except this is Donovan. The trees never even hesitated. Radioactive or not, they just rootched their way across.”
“Rootched?”
“That’s what we’ve been calling it. Sort of a mix between roots and ruts and wiggling through the ground.”
—
A great return trip to Donovan, Abandoned tells an excellent followup story to the science fiction debut, Outpost. Turalon has departed. The planet is once again on its own. It’s up to the people to band together—us against them—and survive all the planet has to throw at them.
Only, people are, well, people. They don’t always get along. Honestly, I feel like this is an understatement. Just look at the history of humanity: I don’t see why it should be any different on an alien world.
And neither, it appears, does W. Michael Gear. Humans are the most terrifying part of Donovan, though the planet tries hard to give them some competition. A conspiracy of quetzals, on a molecular level. A horde of death-fliers. Trees that eat people, spaceships, and, apparently, toxic waste. And yet even in the face of all that, the humans continue to squabble and kill one another.
The problem, such that it is, is Dan Wirth. The best villain you love to hate. And yet NOT the villain of Abandoned. I guess the author thought it was too early in the series to put a bullet in the bastard’s head. A shame, that.
Anyway, instead of Wirth, we’re given Spiro, who is a bit one-sided as villains go. Or indeed, as people. Now, I’m not saying Spiro is poorly written, as I’ve met a number of marines I feel could encapsulate her perfectly. Suited to violence, good at taking orders, but little else. And no, this is not me saying that all marines are psychos—just some of them. Some very, very few of them. The point is that Spiro, while being a bit boring as a villain, isn’t a bust as a character. Nor is she poorly written. Just I think we could’ve done better.
Spiro aside, I flew through this book! I binged the final 250 pages in a night, and had to resist going immediately to the next one as it was 6am and I needed to sleep. But I wanted to go back to Donovan. And that’s what I’d recommend you doing; don’t just GO to Donovan, go back, time after time. I sure hope this series continues to deliver like I expect it to!
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com...
Please beware spoilers for Donovan #1—Outpost.
Welcome to Donovan.
Supervisor Kalico Aguila has been on fragile terms with Port Authority since she decided to remain planetside, rather than inverting on the Turalon. Rather than join the settlement and perpetually butt heads with the council, Aguila has chosen to carve out a mine in the wilds—one the wilderness is slowly but surely reclaiming. The trees take a more active approach on Donovan, often rootching forwards, covering miles in a single day. To make matters worse, a murderer is hanging out in Aguila’s camp, one pushing Dan Wirth’s agenda. As if Donovan wasn’t enough.
Mark Talbot is a dead man walking. Marooned in the middle of the bush, he’s alive at all solely because of his armor, which thus far has survived every threat Donovan has thrown at him, from quetzals, to nightmares, to death-fliers. But what it can’t do is feed him, or—something that’s his larger issue—keep a charge. The battery packs were tested and maintained for combat; somewhere around 1000 hours. So far Talbot’s has seen twice that, and the cells are slowly depleting. So when he sees his first sign of human habitation, Talbot has no choice but to throw himself on their mercy. What he’s confronted with, however, are three scientists with a flock of children—and the quetzal that one of them has bonded.
Lieutenant Deb Spiro is losing it. A marine with a head for taking orders but not giving them, she has been suddenly thrust into command, a position that sees her instability and lust for violence take center stage. In Port Authority she sees everything that’s the problem with Donovan, especially one Talina Perez. And Spiro isn’t great at talking through her problems.
Talina Perez has made mistakes. In this case it’s the woman whose husband she killed during her time as the supervisor’s assassin. A mistake she’s desperate to atone for. But she’ll have to do far more than that if she wants to survive what Donovan has in store.
For when Spiro makes a mistake that might just threaten to kill them all, Perez will gamble everything on an outcast, an alien, and an infection in her TriNA. As sides are chosen and tensions run high it becomes very clear that the two sides can’t live together. But with Donovan mounting an offensive, neither might survive at all.
On Donovan, only humans are more terrifying than the wildlife.
—
“At this rate, how long before the forest reclaims the whole farm and smelter?” Kalico asked woodenly.
“Maybe a couple months?” Ghosh hazarded. “But that’s just a guess. I’m not a biological science kind of guy.”
“Remember how you laid out a line of that toxic smelter waste?” Ituri gave her a sidelong glance. “I don’t know what to say except this is Donovan. The trees never even hesitated. Radioactive or not, they just rootched their way across.”
“Rootched?”
“That’s what we’ve been calling it. Sort of a mix between roots and ruts and wiggling through the ground.”
—
A great return trip to Donovan, Abandoned tells an excellent followup story to the science fiction debut, Outpost. Turalon has departed. The planet is once again on its own. It’s up to the people to band together—us against them—and survive all the planet has to throw at them.
Only, people are, well, people. They don’t always get along. Honestly, I feel like this is an understatement. Just look at the history of humanity: I don’t see why it should be any different on an alien world.
And neither, it appears, does W. Michael Gear. Humans are the most terrifying part of Donovan, though the planet tries hard to give them some competition. A conspiracy of quetzals, on a molecular level. A horde of death-fliers. Trees that eat people, spaceships, and, apparently, toxic waste. And yet even in the face of all that, the humans continue to squabble and kill one another.
The problem, such that it is, is Dan Wirth. The best villain you love to hate. And yet NOT the villain of Abandoned. I guess the author thought it was too early in the series to put a bullet in the bastard’s head. A shame, that.
Anyway, instead of Wirth, we’re given Spiro, who is a bit one-sided as villains go. Or indeed, as people. Now, I’m not saying Spiro is poorly written, as I’ve met a number of marines I feel could encapsulate her perfectly. Suited to violence, good at taking orders, but little else. And no, this is not me saying that all marines are psychos—just some of them. Some very, very few of them. The point is that Spiro, while being a bit boring as a villain, isn’t a bust as a character. Nor is she poorly written. Just I think we could’ve done better.
Spiro aside, I flew through this book! I binged the final 250 pages in a night, and had to resist going immediately to the next one as it was 6am and I needed to sleep. But I wanted to go back to Donovan. And that’s what I’d recommend you doing; don’t just GO to Donovan, go back, time after time. I sure hope this series continues to deliver like I expect it to!
April 18, 2020
Brilliant and exciting!
I couldn't put the book down. It gripped me from the very beginning.
If you've read "Outpost" (which you should read before this one) then you know you're in for a roller-coaster ride (as they say). The sheer malevolence of the planet Donovan hits you from the very start as we watch hardened troopers trying to survive in the jungles. You've just got to be insane to actually be there - in fact you're taking your life into your hands just READING about being there! Deadly slugs that bore into your foot and eat you from the inside out is bad enough... and they're the safe creatures!
My one complaint is how the scenario is really the Wild West on another planet. That may be an unfair criticism because on a planet this evil you have to carry weapons but the American libertarian approach to life (exploit everyone, cheat everyone and shoot everyone) seems insane on a planet this dangerous. To be fair some of the characters have a very short discussion about how much control one should impose but (like all American Rednecks) it's not convincingly argued... and I think the outcomes in the story prove that you can't allow unbalanced gun-toting idiots free rein.
The humans don't really come across as all that nice and, to be honest, the nasties of the planet (the quetzels) don't end up looking that evil... or have I just got a soft spot for exceedingly dangerous alien life-forms?
Loved it, I'm going to read the next in the series very soon... I can't wait.
I couldn't put the book down. It gripped me from the very beginning.
If you've read "Outpost" (which you should read before this one) then you know you're in for a roller-coaster ride (as they say). The sheer malevolence of the planet Donovan hits you from the very start as we watch hardened troopers trying to survive in the jungles. You've just got to be insane to actually be there - in fact you're taking your life into your hands just READING about being there! Deadly slugs that bore into your foot and eat you from the inside out is bad enough... and they're the safe creatures!
My one complaint is how the scenario is really the Wild West on another planet. That may be an unfair criticism because on a planet this evil you have to carry weapons but the American libertarian approach to life (exploit everyone, cheat everyone and shoot everyone) seems insane on a planet this dangerous. To be fair some of the characters have a very short discussion about how much control one should impose but (like all American Rednecks) it's not convincingly argued... and I think the outcomes in the story prove that you can't allow unbalanced gun-toting idiots free rein.
The humans don't really come across as all that nice and, to be honest, the nasties of the planet (the quetzels) don't end up looking that evil... or have I just got a soft spot for exceedingly dangerous alien life-forms?
Loved it, I'm going to read the next in the series very soon... I can't wait.
February 9, 2021
Notes:
3.5 Stars
Several interesting developments, but the overall plot flow was not as good or cohesive as the first story. Hopefully, more stuff about the alien animals/people/plants will be explored in the next book.
3.5 Stars
Several interesting developments, but the overall plot flow was not as good or cohesive as the first story. Hopefully, more stuff about the alien animals/people/plants will be explored in the next book.
April 1, 2023
Nice development of the plot and storyline world that builds on book 1. Enjoyable twist in the archenemy. Really enjoyed the 9year old costar!
February 23, 2019
After reading and thoroughly enjoying Outpost which was the first novel of this series I needed no extra encouragement to pick up the next book of the trilogy at the very first opportunity. Again, it's a quick-moving beauty that follows on directly from the first book with more of the same "space-western" style action set on the faraway planet of Donovan. This planet is full weird and wonderful ecology which is resisting human attempts to plunder its resources, and we're given more alluring clues about this fascinating place as the engaging story progresses.
The same characters are present, plus a few new ones and the development of these players seems to step up a notch. As is often the case with me, I found that my favourite characters were the not-so-nice ones. There's a number of scoundrels in this story but their contemptible and underhanded deeds really do spice up the story nicely. To be honest, I'm expecting book three to be quite climactic because this one definitely seemed to be mostly concerned with continuing to prepare the scene by offering many more small yet supremely tantalizing hints about motivations and plans. The world-building is again excellent and W. Michael Gear's skills have really come as a pleasant surprise to me, his use of adjectives being superb and easily understood yet not overdone. Each time that I sat down to read this I was immediately drawn into the setting and to the people therein, the real world becoming faint and blurry until I came back out again. This is the mark of great storytelling and it usually doesn't really bother me all that much how good the story is if the author can successfully drag me into their yarn where I can almost become part of it. This book is very much like (while being of excellent quality) that even though it's told in the third person and past tense.
So, if you've read Outpost, you will get into this and probably love it as I did. If you haven't read Outpost, then you need to because it's required reading to set you up for this book. Book three Pariah is due out mid-May 2019 and you can quite safely bet your last SDR (the unit of currency on Donovan) that I will be getting it for myself. I might even write a review of it for you if it's any good, but somehow I think it'll be another beauty if the first two are any indication. A great sci-fi yarn.
The same characters are present, plus a few new ones and the development of these players seems to step up a notch. As is often the case with me, I found that my favourite characters were the not-so-nice ones. There's a number of scoundrels in this story but their contemptible and underhanded deeds really do spice up the story nicely. To be honest, I'm expecting book three to be quite climactic because this one definitely seemed to be mostly concerned with continuing to prepare the scene by offering many more small yet supremely tantalizing hints about motivations and plans. The world-building is again excellent and W. Michael Gear's skills have really come as a pleasant surprise to me, his use of adjectives being superb and easily understood yet not overdone. Each time that I sat down to read this I was immediately drawn into the setting and to the people therein, the real world becoming faint and blurry until I came back out again. This is the mark of great storytelling and it usually doesn't really bother me all that much how good the story is if the author can successfully drag me into their yarn where I can almost become part of it. This book is very much like (while being of excellent quality) that even though it's told in the third person and past tense.
So, if you've read Outpost, you will get into this and probably love it as I did. If you haven't read Outpost, then you need to because it's required reading to set you up for this book. Book three Pariah is due out mid-May 2019 and you can quite safely bet your last SDR (the unit of currency on Donovan) that I will be getting it for myself. I might even write a review of it for you if it's any good, but somehow I think it'll be another beauty if the first two are any indication. A great sci-fi yarn.
July 30, 2024
The main plot line in this second book wasn’t nearly as compelling as the first book was, but I’m hoping this is sort of planting the seeds (pun intended) for big things in the next book? The whole “man stumbles out of the wilderness into the arms of a group of lonely scientist women, with empty, aching wombs - all he can hope to provide is his fertile seed” thing was sort of wack, haha. I’m hoping to see more of the spooky space ship in the next novel too, because I was expecting that here and it was barely mentioned at all.
February 25, 2023
Did not finish
More misogynistic, libertarian crap.
Every man is a manly man that can literally be forced into slavery when presented slavery or death if they aren’t strong enough to survive the ‘libertarian paradise.’
Every woman is presented with a description of her hair and body.
More misogynistic, libertarian crap.
Every man is a manly man that can literally be forced into slavery when presented slavery or death if they aren’t strong enough to survive the ‘libertarian paradise.’
Every woman is presented with a description of her hair and body.
August 22, 2025
Just as compelling at the first book in the series; a worthy sequel and a well crafted story in its own right.
May 24, 2020
Gear, W. Michael. Abandoned. Donovan No. 2. Daw, 2018.
Would you share spit with an alien, who usually gets to know visitors to his planet by eating them? Sounds like a silly question, I know, but somehow W. Michael Gear makes us take it seriously in Abandoned. This second volume of the Donovan series is a lot less like Alien or Predator than was Outpost, the first novel in the series. This time it is more of a survival story than a battle. To his credit, Gear has created an intriguingly difficult ecology to challenge his indentured labor force, their corporate masters, struggling science geeks, and marine contingent. Some unknown glitches in the faster than light drive that gets people to the Capella system mean that no one can predict if or whether a supply ship will arrive or how much subjective or planetary time it will take if it does. This means it is even money whether the best strategy is to go native and try to find out how to make terrestrial plants grow in the Donovan jungle, struggle to mine metals for the corporation that sent you, or just hang out at the bar and play a rigged game. All this is made more problematic by the alien population, who have their own challenges dealing with the earthers. One alien is an unwilling guest inside a security agent’s body, and another is bonded as a pet to a nine-year-old girl living in the jungle. All this would be made much easier, if the humans could figure out who is actually running their show and quit killing each other. Good story. I enjoyed it.
Would you share spit with an alien, who usually gets to know visitors to his planet by eating them? Sounds like a silly question, I know, but somehow W. Michael Gear makes us take it seriously in Abandoned. This second volume of the Donovan series is a lot less like Alien or Predator than was Outpost, the first novel in the series. This time it is more of a survival story than a battle. To his credit, Gear has created an intriguingly difficult ecology to challenge his indentured labor force, their corporate masters, struggling science geeks, and marine contingent. Some unknown glitches in the faster than light drive that gets people to the Capella system mean that no one can predict if or whether a supply ship will arrive or how much subjective or planetary time it will take if it does. This means it is even money whether the best strategy is to go native and try to find out how to make terrestrial plants grow in the Donovan jungle, struggle to mine metals for the corporation that sent you, or just hang out at the bar and play a rigged game. All this is made more problematic by the alien population, who have their own challenges dealing with the earthers. One alien is an unwilling guest inside a security agent’s body, and another is bonded as a pet to a nine-year-old girl living in the jungle. All this would be made much easier, if the humans could figure out who is actually running their show and quit killing each other. Good story. I enjoyed it.
May 31, 2019
Quite different than the first book in the series. While #1 was more about new sets of colonists and ships arriving at Donovan, this novel in the series is more about the new colonist mix getting into equilibrium with the planet, themselves and the society. Therefore, this is more a sociological novel than spaceship sci-fi, although the descriptions of the alien surroundings and animals (?) on Donovan are great. The characters are strong, and that is what the story fuels page after page. What I missed was the factor of the ship in orbit. I think that if shuttles can fly that easily, getting an space taxi into place and hauling more stuff out of space would have been logical, even orbital bombardement to clear land space would have made sense.
I like the writing style of Michael Gear. Short chapters, jumping from protagonists and multiple storylines and easy language. I will certainly read #3. Four stars.
I like the writing style of Michael Gear. Short chapters, jumping from protagonists and multiple storylines and easy language. I will certainly read #3. Four stars.
August 10, 2025
Abandoned, the second novel in the Donovan series, certainly lived up to my expectations!
The unexpected deaths and drama that followed throughout this novel! The knowledge of Mundo Base and the very unwelcoming reunion. The way the different regions “depended” on each other.
The story follows Mark Talbot and the unexpected turn of events as he stumbles across Mundo Base where the habitants welcome him. However things down at Port Authority and Corporate Mine leave you in anticipation as someone tries to kill Talina Perez on multiple occasions and Donavan continues to strike back at Corporate Mine.
The string of events that happen throughout the novel always leave you wanting more and I have to say my favourite bit was the final stand off between Spiro and Perez not to mention the little diary entry at the end of the novel as we got to understand how Kylee felt.
The unexpected deaths and drama that followed throughout this novel! The knowledge of Mundo Base and the very unwelcoming reunion. The way the different regions “depended” on each other.
The story follows Mark Talbot and the unexpected turn of events as he stumbles across Mundo Base where the habitants welcome him. However things down at Port Authority and Corporate Mine leave you in anticipation as someone tries to kill Talina Perez on multiple occasions and Donavan continues to strike back at Corporate Mine.
The string of events that happen throughout the novel always leave you wanting more and I have to say my favourite bit was the final stand off between Spiro and Perez not to mention the little diary entry at the end of the novel as we got to understand how Kylee felt.
May 29, 2021
This second book in the series, in my opinion, was way better than the first. This was the book I was using to decide if i was in for the long haul or not. Looks like I'm in. As this story moves along I find it interesting on what it would actually take to start a civilization from scratch. Can't wait to find out where it's going from here.
August 14, 2019
Nice setting. Spectacularly bad in writing, plot, and character.
November 23, 2018
I almost did not read this book. After I read book 1 in this series, Outpost, I was not sure I wanted to continue with the series because, to be frank, there were no characters that I felt deserving of my empathy. However, after I let the story churn around in my head for a few days, I came to realize I had invested my brain in a truly amazing story. I had to continue.
I am very glad that I did. Abandoned continues what was a fantastic mesh of individual story lines and expands it to include a critical group of people. The Mundo Research Station, though abandoned long ago, has actually been home to a group of people who have managed to live, if not in comfort, at least a substantial step above eking out a living. The Mundo people are cut off from Port Authority and they like it that way. I liked this group. Among the group is Kylee and her pet quetzal Rocket. I like Rocket for his bond with Kylee. But before you get all mushy about Rocket, you need to know that quetzals are apex predators. They eat anything they like, including humans. Also part of the Mundo group is newcomer Mark Talbot. His journey is dangerous and during it, he engaged me as the reader. He is a great character.
These intertwined stories make Abandoned a truly compelling, complex novel. Talina, with her quetzal DNA silently egging her on, is perhaps the most interesting character. She has always had a pivotal role in the series and it continues in Abandoned. Her relationship with the people of Mundo station was critical and as a reader, I was glad to see her involve herself in it even though her past relationship with Mundo was extremely contentious. Teaching us all that life is a series of compromises, especially on a planet like Donovan.
Off planet, there is something just as intriguing going on. Freelander is the ship that just popped into orbit after being missing for three years, but actually being gone for over a century in transit. Freelander is just plain creepy. In Abandoned, you don’t learn anything new about what happened to Freelander, but, since it did not go away, I assume that story will continue in a future book. I hope so. Unanswered questions are annoying.
Like Outpost, Abandoned has a disturbing cover. Take a look. It depicts key aspects of the story. It is a great cover!
There are so many things going on in this book, my review would be three times as long if I were to comment on all the stuff I liked. So I will leave it at this. This Scifi story that plays out on a frontier world has me hooked on the Donovan series, and yes, even the characters. I will be reading more. No doubt about that.
Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I am very glad that I did. Abandoned continues what was a fantastic mesh of individual story lines and expands it to include a critical group of people. The Mundo Research Station, though abandoned long ago, has actually been home to a group of people who have managed to live, if not in comfort, at least a substantial step above eking out a living. The Mundo people are cut off from Port Authority and they like it that way. I liked this group. Among the group is Kylee and her pet quetzal Rocket. I like Rocket for his bond with Kylee. But before you get all mushy about Rocket, you need to know that quetzals are apex predators. They eat anything they like, including humans. Also part of the Mundo group is newcomer Mark Talbot. His journey is dangerous and during it, he engaged me as the reader. He is a great character.
“Hey, did you hear me?” Talbot cried. “I’ve been lost in the toilet-sucking forest for months. I’m half-starved, and without my armor…”In the meantime, supervisor Kalico is trying to set up a mining operation for the Corporation, constantly fighting the planet. Wirth is trying to run the town through his less than legit gambling operation. And Talina and the rest of her Triune are just trying to keep the peace while making sure the settlement doesn’t fall down around them. Survival on Donovan is never guaranteed. Donovan can be considered the supporting planetary character. You can never let your guard down on Donovan. Okay, I am a little mesmerized by Donovan.
“Such a crier. Don’t bawl. Follow us. But stay back. I don’t trust you. And if you try anything, Rocket will know.”
“I’m not going to try anything. And what kind of animal is Rocket, anyway? It looks like something that tried to kill me.”
“He’s a quetzal.” She glanced back at him as she turned away. “Don’t you know anything?”
A quetzal?
Talbot warily inspected the creature as it turned to keep pace with Kylee. Sure enough, it was a miniature version of the thing he’d shot in the forest.
“Isn’t it a little dangerous for you to be wandering around out here in the forest? With a, um, quetzal, no less?”
Again she shot that irritated glance over her shoulder. “I’m not the one who walked under the nightmare. It’s not like anyone doesn’t know about the nightmare. He’s been there for as long as any of us remember.”
“I’m not from here. Get it?”
“As Rebecca would say, no shit.” She was headed slightly northwest, away from the direction he was headed when he encountered the nightmare.
“Which way is Mundo Base?”
“This way.”
“How do you tell in all the trees?”
From the look she gave him, he might have been an idiot. The quetzal hissed, the sound almost like laughter.
—–From Abandoned by W. Michael Gear.
These intertwined stories make Abandoned a truly compelling, complex novel. Talina, with her quetzal DNA silently egging her on, is perhaps the most interesting character. She has always had a pivotal role in the series and it continues in Abandoned. Her relationship with the people of Mundo station was critical and as a reader, I was glad to see her involve herself in it even though her past relationship with Mundo was extremely contentious. Teaching us all that life is a series of compromises, especially on a planet like Donovan.
Off planet, there is something just as intriguing going on. Freelander is the ship that just popped into orbit after being missing for three years, but actually being gone for over a century in transit. Freelander is just plain creepy. In Abandoned, you don’t learn anything new about what happened to Freelander, but, since it did not go away, I assume that story will continue in a future book. I hope so. Unanswered questions are annoying.
Like Outpost, Abandoned has a disturbing cover. Take a look. It depicts key aspects of the story. It is a great cover!
There are so many things going on in this book, my review would be three times as long if I were to comment on all the stuff I liked. So I will leave it at this. This Scifi story that plays out on a frontier world has me hooked on the Donovan series, and yes, even the characters. I will be reading more. No doubt about that.
Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
August 23, 2022
DONOVAN
NOTE: This is one and the same review for all the books in this series. Why? Because the quality of the whole series is very consistent, and I more or less spilled everything I had to say about it. The specifics of each book are in the blurb anyway, anything else would be a spoil. And last, but not least, I believe great books such as these deserve an exposure. So there.
THIS. INCREDIBLE. SERIES.
I've read some sci-fi colonization books in my days, but this is epic beyond comparison, except maybe The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. And execution is just right. Nothing is too little or too much. These books, all five of them, are the perfect inhabitants of Goldilocks zone of written universe.
In cases like this, it’s important to pay the tribute to narrators. Maybe that’s because they contribute to your overall experience almost as much as the creator of the book. Is that a blasphemy? Maybe, but that’s how impressed I am. So, Alyssa Bresnahan. She puts another layer of „creation” on top of the written source. Just incredible. Male and female voices switching incredibly smooth. All the nuances in emotional variation induced by subtle use of words and phrases, which you would probably miss if you were reading this in written form, in the silence of your mind... Yeah, that’s why I prefer audio.
And what an interesting twist it is with their unique brand of space travel. They’re traveling by means of technology called „inverting of symetry”. For said symetry to be inverted a formula is used that nobody really understands how it works. It needs to be just right or the ship is going to take forever to reach its destination. Or end up in a limbo between the universes so crew will have to revert to some unpopular measures, such as cannibalism just for a handful of them to survive. Or there will be significant or huge discrepancy between ship's time and "outside" time, resulting in all kinds of royal fuckups. Like, whole dynasty of royal families-level fuckups. Basically, on Earth, they don't know if their ships ever reach the target, and on Donovan, they can't be sure if it ever got back to Earth. And they're arriving in almost random order. The first ship launched from Earth could very well arrive the last, although it might seem the transition was instantaneous to the crew. In fact, 30 or so years have passed, but because there's miscommunication, the ship coming from Earth never brings needed equipment the colonials miss desperately.
There's just perfect amount of tech to call it a sci-fi. More than enough of tragedy and loss to call it drama or epic. And just right amount of mystique and inner turmoil induced by good probability that the most beloved character will be taken away from you due to the fact that literally everything on the planet can and will kill you if you’re not super careful, equipped, informed, lucky, or just naturally super savvy, preferably all of the above. The planet is a beast, but interestingly, the Donovans, as they now call themselves, chose that beast over the other one, waiting for them on Earth if they ever come back: humanity and what has become of it.
TLDR; This is fantastic book without much competition. However, I’m reading the Dune these days while trying to assemble my thoughts around this series, and yeah, there trully is similarity. Planet with an atmosphere that can support human life, but more dangerous and unhospitable than anything anybody could have predicted? Check. Ab original inhabitants (organisms) that give you zero chance of survival if faced? Check. Colonists that somehow find their modus vivendi and manage to thrive in impossible conditions? Check. Charismatic members among them who somehow become one with the planet through digestion of the very tissue of it and/or of its natural inhabitants? Check. Yeah the Dune is up there as legendary achievement, but this too is excellent book the lovers of that perennial masterpiece might appreciate very much. The writing style is completely different, but there’s certain... template, executed in original manner. Read it.
NOTE: This is one and the same review for all the books in this series. Why? Because the quality of the whole series is very consistent, and I more or less spilled everything I had to say about it. The specifics of each book are in the blurb anyway, anything else would be a spoil. And last, but not least, I believe great books such as these deserve an exposure. So there.
THIS. INCREDIBLE. SERIES.
I've read some sci-fi colonization books in my days, but this is epic beyond comparison, except maybe The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. And execution is just right. Nothing is too little or too much. These books, all five of them, are the perfect inhabitants of Goldilocks zone of written universe.
In cases like this, it’s important to pay the tribute to narrators. Maybe that’s because they contribute to your overall experience almost as much as the creator of the book. Is that a blasphemy? Maybe, but that’s how impressed I am. So, Alyssa Bresnahan. She puts another layer of „creation” on top of the written source. Just incredible. Male and female voices switching incredibly smooth. All the nuances in emotional variation induced by subtle use of words and phrases, which you would probably miss if you were reading this in written form, in the silence of your mind... Yeah, that’s why I prefer audio.
And what an interesting twist it is with their unique brand of space travel. They’re traveling by means of technology called „inverting of symetry”. For said symetry to be inverted a formula is used that nobody really understands how it works. It needs to be just right or the ship is going to take forever to reach its destination. Or end up in a limbo between the universes so crew will have to revert to some unpopular measures, such as cannibalism just for a handful of them to survive. Or there will be significant or huge discrepancy between ship's time and "outside" time, resulting in all kinds of royal fuckups. Like, whole dynasty of royal families-level fuckups. Basically, on Earth, they don't know if their ships ever reach the target, and on Donovan, they can't be sure if it ever got back to Earth. And they're arriving in almost random order. The first ship launched from Earth could very well arrive the last, although it might seem the transition was instantaneous to the crew. In fact, 30 or so years have passed, but because there's miscommunication, the ship coming from Earth never brings needed equipment the colonials miss desperately.
There's just perfect amount of tech to call it a sci-fi. More than enough of tragedy and loss to call it drama or epic. And just right amount of mystique and inner turmoil induced by good probability that the most beloved character will be taken away from you due to the fact that literally everything on the planet can and will kill you if you’re not super careful, equipped, informed, lucky, or just naturally super savvy, preferably all of the above. The planet is a beast, but interestingly, the Donovans, as they now call themselves, chose that beast over the other one, waiting for them on Earth if they ever come back: humanity and what has become of it.
TLDR; This is fantastic book without much competition. However, I’m reading the Dune these days while trying to assemble my thoughts around this series, and yeah, there trully is similarity. Planet with an atmosphere that can support human life, but more dangerous and unhospitable than anything anybody could have predicted? Check. Ab original inhabitants (organisms) that give you zero chance of survival if faced? Check. Colonists that somehow find their modus vivendi and manage to thrive in impossible conditions? Check. Charismatic members among them who somehow become one with the planet through digestion of the very tissue of it and/or of its natural inhabitants? Check. Yeah the Dune is up there as legendary achievement, but this too is excellent book the lovers of that perennial masterpiece might appreciate very much. The writing style is completely different, but there’s certain... template, executed in original manner. Read it.
August 24, 2021
So through out the whole book 1 and 2, I hade just one simple feeling, I understand why game of thrones is considered a masterpiece.
So let me explain, and don't worry no spoliers.
First of all, there some reviews regarding women chars in the book, and how they are portrayed as just sex meat.
That is not the case, other than the first time introduction of the so called main villian, there is barely any kind of gender discrimination, most of the main char are women, and it's almost as if the writer is afraid to put a man is any position other than a cheap villian element, and has gone out of his way to portray all women as powerful and all that feminist mumbo jumbo u know. But that part aside, the women are portrayed quite competently and dare I say could have been even natural.
Now comes my main gripe, it's fake and I can see the lack of imagination and the pains the writer has gone out his way to make sure that we hate the villian, cause plot, and the large number of pov struggle with the story, and the whole political scene as to call it, is again just plot forced, people who are supposed to be smart behave dumb, otherwise the story would end in and instant.
Now lest talk about the main villian till book 2 atleast, he is portrayed as an opportunistic scum, now that's now the problem, the problem is that during the introduction, we learn that he supposedly assaulted a women, but during his introduction in the colony, even after the mc says that if she were to go and look up his record she would find enough dirt to put him down for good, but cause plot, she never does and it's never brought up again.
Second point, the writer went out of his way to establish that the people living on the planet are hard people, who live with death every second against monsters that can kill u in a second, so how exactly do these people fear a new dude and his 1 goon,(I am trying to not spoil any part, and as such also trying to not impose my opinions on that char, if I were to say talk about specific incidents, then it can passively shift your behaviour by just reading this review, so I kept it vague.), I will tell u how, it's called plot, if this was the mc, then they would have been in so much trouble, but ofcourse since the book needs a mainish villian, there he is. It's luck the first time, and then it's just stupid.
Third, every char is bland, people who get threatened don't act out as any normal person would do, cause plot reason, even though the writer painfull established that these people don't take shit.
All I can say is that I have a much better appreciation of writers who put actual effort in their side chars, and actually have more imagination that bad guy bad, gets away with all the shit, cause plot, good girl good, cause plot, and gets in trouble even if she is the only reason ppl are even alive, cause plot,.u know, shit like that.
The premise was quite brilliant, the execution could not have been more botched. It was as forced plot as it comes.
I am giving 2 stars cause the premise was good, would give 1 but that would be unfair.
So let me explain, and don't worry no spoliers.
First of all, there some reviews regarding women chars in the book, and how they are portrayed as just sex meat.
That is not the case, other than the first time introduction of the so called main villian, there is barely any kind of gender discrimination, most of the main char are women, and it's almost as if the writer is afraid to put a man is any position other than a cheap villian element, and has gone out of his way to portray all women as powerful and all that feminist mumbo jumbo u know. But that part aside, the women are portrayed quite competently and dare I say could have been even natural.
Now comes my main gripe, it's fake and I can see the lack of imagination and the pains the writer has gone out his way to make sure that we hate the villian, cause plot, and the large number of pov struggle with the story, and the whole political scene as to call it, is again just plot forced, people who are supposed to be smart behave dumb, otherwise the story would end in and instant.
Now lest talk about the main villian till book 2 atleast, he is portrayed as an opportunistic scum, now that's now the problem, the problem is that during the introduction, we learn that he supposedly assaulted a women, but during his introduction in the colony, even after the mc says that if she were to go and look up his record she would find enough dirt to put him down for good, but cause plot, she never does and it's never brought up again.
Second point, the writer went out of his way to establish that the people living on the planet are hard people, who live with death every second against monsters that can kill u in a second, so how exactly do these people fear a new dude and his 1 goon,(I am trying to not spoil any part, and as such also trying to not impose my opinions on that char, if I were to say talk about specific incidents, then it can passively shift your behaviour by just reading this review, so I kept it vague.), I will tell u how, it's called plot, if this was the mc, then they would have been in so much trouble, but ofcourse since the book needs a mainish villian, there he is. It's luck the first time, and then it's just stupid.
Third, every char is bland, people who get threatened don't act out as any normal person would do, cause plot reason, even though the writer painfull established that these people don't take shit.
All I can say is that I have a much better appreciation of writers who put actual effort in their side chars, and actually have more imagination that bad guy bad, gets away with all the shit, cause plot, good girl good, cause plot, and gets in trouble even if she is the only reason ppl are even alive, cause plot,.u know, shit like that.
The premise was quite brilliant, the execution could not have been more botched. It was as forced plot as it comes.
I am giving 2 stars cause the premise was good, would give 1 but that would be unfair.
November 7, 2022
Life is better in Port Authority on Donovan, thanks to the supplies and equipment the Turalon But at Corporate Mine, where the new people under the direction of Supervisor Kalico Aguila have set up a serious mining and smelting operation, is struggling. Lacking the 35 years of experience that the people at Port Authority have, the Corporate endeavor is struggling to keep its clear land - on Donovan, the trees move, and in a single day Corporate Mine can lose four acres of ground.
And then there's Mark Talbot, the sole survivor of what was supposed to be a quick trip into the bush to see what Donovan's like, and wound up at Mundo Base, part of a family which no one knows is there. At Mundo the people have learned to live with Donovan, without fences and without having to constantly fight the quetzals. Indeed, one of the children has bonded with a juvenile quetzal, which instead of hunting the humans is their friend - at least, that's how the people think of the matter, though whether quetzals think in those terms is a question.
All this leads to conflict between groups and individuals - and all this while trying to survive on a planet which might have been designed to kill people. In Dune there's a saying - God created Arrakis to train the faithful. We could paraphrase that to say, God created Donovan to wipe out the unfortunate. Between bems and quetzals and nightmare and sidewinders and mobbers and roots and slugs and gotcha vines and everything else - since just about everything on Donovan, plant and animal alike, engages in predation - just surviving is tough, never mind intriguing and conflict.
And W. Michael Gear does a magnificent job of depicting this planet. It's certainly interesting watching - for instance - the interactions between Talina Perez, Dan Wirth, Kalico Aguila, and Deb Spiro - but if they were absent we might not miss them too much. Donovan itself, named after the first man to die there (eaten by a quetzal within an hour of setting foot on the planet), is so fascinating that a book just about the planet could very well be worth reading.
But of course we wouldn't know about Donovan if it weren't for The Corporation setting up the colony there...
And then there's Mark Talbot, the sole survivor of what was supposed to be a quick trip into the bush to see what Donovan's like, and wound up at Mundo Base, part of a family which no one knows is there. At Mundo the people have learned to live with Donovan, without fences and without having to constantly fight the quetzals. Indeed, one of the children has bonded with a juvenile quetzal, which instead of hunting the humans is their friend - at least, that's how the people think of the matter, though whether quetzals think in those terms is a question.
All this leads to conflict between groups and individuals - and all this while trying to survive on a planet which might have been designed to kill people. In Dune there's a saying - God created Arrakis to train the faithful. We could paraphrase that to say, God created Donovan to wipe out the unfortunate. Between bems and quetzals and nightmare and sidewinders and mobbers and roots and slugs and gotcha vines and everything else - since just about everything on Donovan, plant and animal alike, engages in predation - just surviving is tough, never mind intriguing and conflict.
And W. Michael Gear does a magnificent job of depicting this planet. It's certainly interesting watching - for instance - the interactions between Talina Perez, Dan Wirth, Kalico Aguila, and Deb Spiro - but if they were absent we might not miss them too much. Donovan itself, named after the first man to die there (eaten by a quetzal within an hour of setting foot on the planet), is so fascinating that a book just about the planet could very well be worth reading.
But of course we wouldn't know about Donovan if it weren't for The Corporation setting up the colony there...
July 23, 2024
I took a couple of days off from reading and unfortunately like all suspenseful books it lost some of its steam and presence. Even with that in mind I'd still rate this a 4 star read, for a multitude of reasons.
When I first picked up these books I was expecting sci-fi, instead we have a weird mash of dystopian - frontier life - thriller - action with snippets of sci-fi, mostly in the form of aliens and references to previous lives before Donovan happened.
Let me start this with saying, don't read the blurb. Wish I hadn't. Total spoilers. Even with the spoilers, I balled my eyes out about two thirds of the way through the book. Bloody Gear sure isn't afraid to kill off favourite characters. Fairly certain the only safe character is Talia. At least until the end of the series...... maybe....
With the break neck speed these books somehow manage to trick you, and having you stumbling all over the place. Gear's masterful at changing POV's and storylines without losing the ooomph. I have no idea how we can be over three (plus) sites covering a multitude of people and never get lost, confused or bored. There's ALWAYS something happening, and half of it is a surprise. The characters are really well fleshed out, even if some of them are extremely annoying. The town gives off western vibes with a strange mix of unpleasant characters, people just trying to survive and some odd few thriving. I feel the same as the Donovan survivors, I wish the ship and its crew didn't ruin everything with their invasion, somehow slowly they start growing on you, some in a pleasant way and some you hate but you can't imagine them not being there any longer.
There are still times you can tell this series is written by a straight man. Lots of details of females and their appearance and how they're attractive, skims a lot of the appearance of men and apparently non of them are particularly attractive outside of the psychopath. Joy. Fortunately its not so OTT to put you off reading, however personally, if youre going to overly sexualise one group id prefer you overly sexualise all groups. (Adults only of course).
Very interested to see where the town(s) go from here, and the future dramas that occur.
When I first picked up these books I was expecting sci-fi, instead we have a weird mash of dystopian - frontier life - thriller - action with snippets of sci-fi, mostly in the form of aliens and references to previous lives before Donovan happened.
Let me start this with saying, don't read the blurb. Wish I hadn't. Total spoilers. Even with the spoilers, I balled my eyes out about two thirds of the way through the book. Bloody Gear sure isn't afraid to kill off favourite characters. Fairly certain the only safe character is Talia. At least until the end of the series...... maybe....
With the break neck speed these books somehow manage to trick you, and having you stumbling all over the place. Gear's masterful at changing POV's and storylines without losing the ooomph. I have no idea how we can be over three (plus) sites covering a multitude of people and never get lost, confused or bored. There's ALWAYS something happening, and half of it is a surprise. The characters are really well fleshed out, even if some of them are extremely annoying. The town gives off western vibes with a strange mix of unpleasant characters, people just trying to survive and some odd few thriving. I feel the same as the Donovan survivors, I wish the ship and its crew didn't ruin everything with their invasion, somehow slowly they start growing on you, some in a pleasant way and some you hate but you can't imagine them not being there any longer.
There are still times you can tell this series is written by a straight man. Lots of details of females and their appearance and how they're attractive, skims a lot of the appearance of men and apparently non of them are particularly attractive outside of the psychopath. Joy. Fortunately its not so OTT to put you off reading, however personally, if youre going to overly sexualise one group id prefer you overly sexualise all groups. (Adults only of course).
Very interested to see where the town(s) go from here, and the future dramas that occur.
December 11, 2018
Early on in W. Michael Gears Abandoned, a newcomer to the planet Donovan marvels at the beauty of its alien forest: “He could have imagined nothing like it short of a VR holo fantasy come to life. The stuff of dreams and exotic special effects.” Unfortunately, Donovan—named for the first of many humans to die on its surface—bears less resemblance to James Cameron’s Pandora than to its mythological eponym, the holder of a box of unlimited horrors. Flesh-burrowing slugs, tentacled tree-dwelling “nightmares” and snakelike “sidewinders” are all constant threats to the lives of Donovan’s luckless colonizers.
This second installment of Gear’s Donovan series picks up where its predecessor Outpost Left off, as Donovan’s settlers adjust to the presence of a group of stranded terrestrial officials who arrived to enforce order and found their means of return less reliable than expected. Talina Perez, the unofficial leader of the settlers, continues to grapple with the mental presence of “her quetzal,” a raptor-like creature whose psychic ghost has haunted her ever since she killed it. Kalico Aguila, the once-unflappable supervisor of the newcomers, longs for her former rank in the totalitarian Earth she left behind, even as she finds herself growing strangely comfortable in her new surroundings. Unbeknownst to either of them, Mark Talbot, a marine lost in Donovan’s lethal wilderness, finds a small community of Donovan's living far from the epicenter, who may have found a way to work with their deadly environment rather than against it.
Gear alternates between these and other threads with flipbook swiftness, successfully maintaining the atmosphere of casual horror that characterized Outpost. (The settlers’ vocabulary for the threats that surround them recalls the Southern U.S. with its slangy deadpan: “gotcha vines” are scarier than they sound.) At the same time, he introduces a new wrinkle to the situation by asking whether the creatures of Donovan are thinkers as well as devourers. Starved summer-action movie enthusiasts would do well to start at the beginning, but established fans of Outpost will find a satisfying expansion of Gear’s perilous universe.
This second installment of Gear’s Donovan series picks up where its predecessor Outpost Left off, as Donovan’s settlers adjust to the presence of a group of stranded terrestrial officials who arrived to enforce order and found their means of return less reliable than expected. Talina Perez, the unofficial leader of the settlers, continues to grapple with the mental presence of “her quetzal,” a raptor-like creature whose psychic ghost has haunted her ever since she killed it. Kalico Aguila, the once-unflappable supervisor of the newcomers, longs for her former rank in the totalitarian Earth she left behind, even as she finds herself growing strangely comfortable in her new surroundings. Unbeknownst to either of them, Mark Talbot, a marine lost in Donovan’s lethal wilderness, finds a small community of Donovan's living far from the epicenter, who may have found a way to work with their deadly environment rather than against it.
Gear alternates between these and other threads with flipbook swiftness, successfully maintaining the atmosphere of casual horror that characterized Outpost. (The settlers’ vocabulary for the threats that surround them recalls the Southern U.S. with its slangy deadpan: “gotcha vines” are scarier than they sound.) At the same time, he introduces a new wrinkle to the situation by asking whether the creatures of Donovan are thinkers as well as devourers. Starved summer-action movie enthusiasts would do well to start at the beginning, but established fans of Outpost will find a satisfying expansion of Gear’s perilous universe.
July 9, 2022
Man, if ever there was a mixed bag of garbage with some silver nuggets here and there, this is it.
Where to begin? There are some elements of this story that I really like. Donovan, as a planet, is intriguing and its unique flora and fauna is, hands down, the best aspect of the story. In particular, the quetzal and their relationship with both Talina and Kylee is what kept me going when I wanted to DNF this on a few occasions. The idea of lateral information transfer through these alien's equivalent of DNA is fascinating.
So, let's get into the problematic parts of the book. Are we all really not going to acknowledge the fact that the blurb is a damn lie? This is not a book about Talina Perez, Supervisor Aguila, and Lieutenant Spiro. This is a story about Mark Talbot, Gear's avatar for living his incel power fantasy. Mark Talbot, the clueless marine who stumbles in the Donovan woods for months, survives because he has both literal and plot armor, only to find a lost colony with only women and children. Then, because he is the only man around, all the women, who have survived for years alone in the Donovan wilderness, mind you, proceed to not only rely on him for everything and anything, but to also immediately start having sex with him and calling themselves this wives.
Then there's Mark talking about his sex life with a nine year old, a scene that literally made me cringe. And character constantly referring to women as "females". And women written to act and talk like no actual woman has acted and talked in the history of the human species. And I can go on, but I don't want to.
I... did not like Outpost, to put it mildly. That was primarily due to the human sack of offense that is Dan Wirth. Thankfully, he has a much reduced role here, but the fact that he is still not quetzal shit is not doing wonders for my goodwill towards the series.
At this point, there are aspects of the story I want to see the conclusion of. But I don't know if I can suffer through the literal pain that comes with reading about everything around those aspects.
Where to begin? There are some elements of this story that I really like. Donovan, as a planet, is intriguing and its unique flora and fauna is, hands down, the best aspect of the story. In particular, the quetzal and their relationship with both Talina and Kylee is what kept me going when I wanted to DNF this on a few occasions. The idea of lateral information transfer through these alien's equivalent of DNA is fascinating.
So, let's get into the problematic parts of the book. Are we all really not going to acknowledge the fact that the blurb is a damn lie? This is not a book about Talina Perez, Supervisor Aguila, and Lieutenant Spiro. This is a story about Mark Talbot, Gear's avatar for living his incel power fantasy. Mark Talbot, the clueless marine who stumbles in the Donovan woods for months, survives because he has both literal and plot armor, only to find a lost colony with only women and children. Then, because he is the only man around, all the women, who have survived for years alone in the Donovan wilderness, mind you, proceed to not only rely on him for everything and anything, but to also immediately start having sex with him and calling themselves this wives.
Then there's Mark talking about his sex life with a nine year old, a scene that literally made me cringe. And character constantly referring to women as "females". And women written to act and talk like no actual woman has acted and talked in the history of the human species. And I can go on, but I don't want to.
I... did not like Outpost, to put it mildly. That was primarily due to the human sack of offense that is Dan Wirth. Thankfully, he has a much reduced role here, but the fact that he is still not quetzal shit is not doing wonders for my goodwill towards the series.
At this point, there are aspects of the story I want to see the conclusion of. But I don't know if I can suffer through the literal pain that comes with reading about everything around those aspects.
May 27, 2024
8.0 out of 10.
This series is a fun surprise. It is not the greatest thing in the world but for the life of me I just continuously am interested in the planet, the colonists, the crazy predators and trying to get to the bottom of what the hell happened to the missing spaceships.
This book does not have any more on the spaceship front unfortunately. The missing space ship angle was the strongest part of the last book in my opinion. But this book more than makes up for this with really strong character work and progression and the additional of another POV character and all the things surrounding Mundo base.
While reading this book I kept thinking this would be a great TV-MA HBO or Amazon type show. Basically Deadwood but Sci-Fi on an alien planet. I would watch that show and I think this series would be good to adapt. There are several characters to root for and root against.
None of the bad guys are mustache twirling and they have believable motivations behind how they act.
Ultimately the main antagonist in this book is the planet itself, which I found really interesting. Unravelling more about the animal species and how they are more intelligent that at first glance is also really interesting.
This book improved on limiting the POVs from the Dan Wirth character. He is very unpalatable. I know this is by choice but it is better with him being a side character as opposed to one of the main POVs.
My only criticisms are that they did not answer a lot of lingering questions from the first book and there is a build to a nice confrontation and climax but then we spent a bit on this other stuff for awhile before the end confrontation. I understand that the other stuff is building for future novels but I felt like it took away from the pace a bit. Also some of the language towards women is a bit rough. I get it for some people like Wirth but others using the identical language felt a bit off or cringey to me.
I will for sure continue to read this series.
This series is a fun surprise. It is not the greatest thing in the world but for the life of me I just continuously am interested in the planet, the colonists, the crazy predators and trying to get to the bottom of what the hell happened to the missing spaceships.
This book does not have any more on the spaceship front unfortunately. The missing space ship angle was the strongest part of the last book in my opinion. But this book more than makes up for this with really strong character work and progression and the additional of another POV character and all the things surrounding Mundo base.
While reading this book I kept thinking this would be a great TV-MA HBO or Amazon type show. Basically Deadwood but Sci-Fi on an alien planet. I would watch that show and I think this series would be good to adapt. There are several characters to root for and root against.
None of the bad guys are mustache twirling and they have believable motivations behind how they act.
Ultimately the main antagonist in this book is the planet itself, which I found really interesting. Unravelling more about the animal species and how they are more intelligent that at first glance is also really interesting.
This book improved on limiting the POVs from the Dan Wirth character. He is very unpalatable. I know this is by choice but it is better with him being a side character as opposed to one of the main POVs.
My only criticisms are that they did not answer a lot of lingering questions from the first book and there is a build to a nice confrontation and climax but then we spent a bit on this other stuff for awhile before the end confrontation. I understand that the other stuff is building for future novels but I felt like it took away from the pace a bit. Also some of the language towards women is a bit rough. I get it for some people like Wirth but others using the identical language felt a bit off or cringey to me.
I will for sure continue to read this series.
February 15, 2023
Gear is a mixed bag as a writer. This is only the second book of his I've read (the first was the first Donovan book). Some of the criticism of him is on point: his near-constant use of deeply offensive misogynist statements (couched in the voice of characters, sure, but still, the consistency of these simultaneously offensive and awkward epithets is just weird); a pot-boiler approach to plot and characters; villains who seem almost cartoonish in their vileness. OTOH, though, damn, the man can write stories with an impressive forward momentum, and the kind of thing that can make space opera drag (lengthy, incomprehensible action sequences and/or interminable descriptive passages) is just not a feature in the Donovan books...you'll find yourself turning pages furiously. Further, his horror-based SF elements are both fun and terrifying. The guy can write a good story and push it faster and further than you'd expect. These books are a lot of fun.
Ultimately though that misogynist crap really gets under my skin. I don't mind profanity at all, but phrases like "scum sucking slit" just sound ridiculous, especially repeated frequently by multiple characters. The dude clearly has some issues with women he needs to work out.
I have the third Donovan book and I'll definitely read it, but if he doesn't lighten up on some of the worst aspects of his writing it may be my last by him. 2 stars for the writing style and tone, 4 for the outstanding story and pacing....leaves me with a 3 average.
Ultimately though that misogynist crap really gets under my skin. I don't mind profanity at all, but phrases like "scum sucking slit" just sound ridiculous, especially repeated frequently by multiple characters. The dude clearly has some issues with women he needs to work out.
I have the third Donovan book and I'll definitely read it, but if he doesn't lighten up on some of the worst aspects of his writing it may be my last by him. 2 stars for the writing style and tone, 4 for the outstanding story and pacing....leaves me with a 3 average.
March 2, 2023
My biggest complaint with the first book in this series it that it plateaued, and plateaued, and plateaued, and then just kind of ends. This book decided to mix that up by adding in an outlying tribe of polygamous scientists and their children. While that did help with the pacing, it created its own problems in that it just kind of… was gross? Yeah gross, I’m sticking with gross. Nevertheless though, I pushed on and kept reading, and was just accepting the logic of the story and getting back into it, when the graphic french kiss between an adult and a minor really drove home the whole “gross” vibe.
Now if you’ve read the book, you may object to my objection there. After all, both characters involved in the frenching have at that point in the story had their DNA altered by Alien TriNA, and it was the only way one of them could communicate to the other. Okay fair point, except that one of the characters is an adult. And the other is a minor. And the author could have just as easily written a different way for their alien DNA to interact.
So all in all, I’m out. I gave this series a more than fair chance. The world building was exceptional, the aliens were well written. The characters were interesting (though none of them are particularly likable), and there’s an outright cartoonishly evil villain. You’d think all of those elements would make for a good trilogy; but Gear doesn’t weave them together well enough to offset the weird and gross elements he builds into all the books.
Now if you’ve read the book, you may object to my objection there. After all, both characters involved in the frenching have at that point in the story had their DNA altered by Alien TriNA, and it was the only way one of them could communicate to the other. Okay fair point, except that one of the characters is an adult. And the other is a minor. And the author could have just as easily written a different way for their alien DNA to interact.
So all in all, I’m out. I gave this series a more than fair chance. The world building was exceptional, the aliens were well written. The characters were interesting (though none of them are particularly likable), and there’s an outright cartoonishly evil villain. You’d think all of those elements would make for a good trilogy; but Gear doesn’t weave them together well enough to offset the weird and gross elements he builds into all the books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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