Seven years ago the New Earth colony received one final message from Earth...a warning. First a global pandemic, then the emergence of a new species. A war for survival ravaged the Sol system. Now they are coming for the colony.
Many colonists don't believe it, but Connor does. They must prepare. They must fight. But how can they survive something that killed every person back on Earth?
Ken Lozito is the best-selling author of multiple science fiction series, including First Colony, Ascension, & Federation Chronicles. He writes about first contact, colonization, exploration, heroic tales, redemption stories, and old-fashion adventure stories with rich and interesting characters. He’s had over a million books sold and loves the fact he’s been able to reach so many amazing readers with his stories. Readers have lost precious hours of sleep while they read just one more page.
Ken worked in IT Security for almost twenty years before becoming a full-time author. When not writing, he enjoys hiking, reading, playing with the dog, and binge-watching shows.
You can find out more about Ken and upcoming books on his website at http://kenlozito.com
Plodding, Lifeless, Banal and Mainly Dumb Concepts
“Nemesis (First Colony Book 2),” continues both the series, and the downward spiral of its author’s writing. Mr. Ken Lozito, once showed promise, but instead of improving, his writing has devolved into lifeless, banal, and amateurish. The plotting and associated devices are foolishly dumb.
The book was fully read via Kindle Unlimited.
The book is not recommended.
This reader has stopped following Mr. Lozito, as there are not potential reasons to read his works any longer.
Rating: minus 15 on a scale of minus 15 to plus 5.
This made possible by Doctor Who/They Break My Heart, Science Insanity, North 02, Red Glasgow, Leeja Miller, DUST, UATV, Kyiv Post, A Sunny Book Nook,, Welcome to Ukraine, Depressed Russian, Willow Talks Books, Katie is Reading, Tristan and the Classics, Angelisa Reads, D'Angelo, National Centre for Military Intelligence, Fran Blanche, Guard the Leaf, TallGirl6234, Kopke613,
Rachel Oates, Haley Pham, Fit 2B Read, Kiko1006, Rowan J Coleman, May's Narrowboat Life, Abney Park, Lily Simpson, Malinda, Inside Russia, Steve Shives, Renegade Cut, Jessica Kellgren Fozard, Jessie Gender, The Confused Adipose, Cunk, Narrowboat Pirate, Nomadic Crobot, Cambrian Chronicles, Mrs Betty Bowers, Olly Richards, KernowDamo, The Dangerous Ones, Dark Side of Russia, The Vanguard,
Hannah Lee Kidder, Kaz Rowe, Morgan Donner, AllShorts, Drew Hall, Rachel Hardy, The Closet Historian, Happy Pancake, Sanctioned Ivan, OrangeRiver, Isaac Arthur, Louise DeMasi, Mark R Largent, Faun, Ukraine Matters, The Stitchery, Political CUSTARD, Philosophy Tube, Miniminuteman, Planarwalker, Geo Girl, Naughty Nana DUZ, AuroraTrek, Answer in Progress, ThePrimeChronus, Keffals,
Amie's Literary Empire, Discourse Minis, Democratic Penguins Republic, Raw News and Politics, Steve Shives, Russian Media Monitor, linguaBerry, Rise of Burkina, Radio Retrofuture, The Military Show, The Icarus Project, The Narrowboat that James Built, Subha Reads, Twinshangout Kenya, Words Unravelled, WokeGardener, Lauren the Mortician, The Armourer's Bench.
I saw an idiot, who in the midst of insulting an essayist, complain to her that I list trans female creators. The arrogance of the Snowflake (poorly educated, emotionally damaged US man-baby) no longer surprises. A trigger warning then.
I list channels whose creators include the tall, cis, Irish, literary critic, architect, bi, archaeologist, linguist, marine biologist, cosplayer, trans, Iranian, older, socialist, sewist, asexual, economist, redhaired, farmer, theoretical physicist, queer, WOC, Canadian, communist, miniatures painter, horticulturalist, intersex, lumber yard worker, miniatures wargamer, Chinese, het, fashion historian, engineer and others known as Women.
Almost as threatening to the intellectually stunted are the channels with anarchist, other BIPOC, Welsh, anthropologist, miniatures landscape builder, paleontologist, science fiction commentator, Indian, other LGBTQIA+, other fashion historian, wood worker, Danish, socialist, neurodivergent, boater, Australian, military boardgamer, tailor, mathematician, writer, science educator, Ugandan, botanist and other creators known (outside the US) as Human Beings.
Should the voices insist, I recommend emergency pastoral counselling and/or developing a new skill, such as reading and/or repeating several times daily "I'll not be a bellend today" .
My feelings towards these self-involved morons is similar to that of the 13 Ukrainian marines defending Snake Island, when their surrender was demanded by the Russian Navy. Their response was "Russian warship, go f@ck yourself.". Slava Ukraini. Slava Heroyam. Crimea is Ukraine. Greenland is Denmark.
The book's characters are as flat as the dialogue but if you read the first book, you will be pleasantly surprised that he has about five good pages at the beginning of this book. I hesitate to call it a novel.
These spacey-space boom-boom books tend to over-the-top weapons and ships, exotic tactics, magic tech and the manliest men. These are boy's adventures based on computer games. Worldbuilding is usually non-existent and no effort is made to research historical examples for these future settings. They tend to be repetitive and boring.
A Battleship Carrier is a silly ship type. Historically there were battleships and carriers, no hybrids.
The fleet carrier is the heart of power projection squadrons/flotillas. The carrier uses an air wing to strike at a distance.
The Battleship and its predecessor (Ship of the line) were the arbiters of victory. These were big guns on big, armoured vessels meant to engage the enemy's equivalent.
For most of history, all ships were armed, some more heavily, others less so.
Ship types have been historically nebulous, even arbitrary. Channels to visit are Templin Institute, Spacedock, Central Crossing, Battle Order, Military History Visualised, Emperor Tigerstar, Oceanliner Designs, Venom Geek Media, Alt Shift X among others.
To the YouTube before continuing. This next courtesy of Doctor Who/Be A Doctor, AllShorts, Emma Thorne, Tom Nicholas, Shannon Makes, Bobbing Along, Gemma Dyer, Kaz Rowe, Amy Lee, Moe Black, IMY2, Alyssa Matesic, Brooke's Moon, Beck Leavesly, RevolutionarythOt,
Book Chats with Shelley, Acollierastro, Physics Girl, Cruising Crafts, Cass Ellis, Caitlin Speaks Out, It's Black Friday, Girls Rock Asia, Smack the Pony, Belle of the Ranch, Wizards and Warriors, Jean's Thoughts, Alysotherlife, Tale Foundry, Emma Green, Haropones, Raya, Plant Based Bride, Joy Achill, Trae Crowder, Ana Fern, Anna from Ukraine, OliviaReadsaLatte, Books and Things, Jen the Librarian,
Jesse Dollemore, The Researcher, Myocore, Sumatha Reads, Roisin's Reading, Interior Design Hub, Dark Seas, Dark Footage, Friendly Space Ninja, No Justice, Supertanskiii, Dark Brandon, Deerstalker Pictures, The British Museum, ATP Geopolitics, Petrik Leo, Philosophy Tube, Squire, Mercado Media, Kyiv Independent, Covert Cabal, Casey Aonso, Book Furnace, Shitty Book Club, Mercado Media, Heather Cox Richardson,
Read Rant Review, Benjamin's Bookclub, SK Media, Some More News, Gemma Dyer, Sound of Music Flashmob, Munecat, Owen Jones, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Perun, Amie's Literary Empire, Truth to Power, Morgan Donner, Your True Shelf, Planet D, Kneecap, Times Radio, Autumn's Boutique, RobWords, Tom Nicholas, Reads with Rachel, Dr Fatima, France 24,
Octopus Lady, Warthog Defence, Squire, Randy Rainbow, OrangeRiver, Fun Size Reader, Kelly Loves Physics and History, Ember Green, TIKHistory, Mrs Betty Bowers, Think Ukraine, Gutsick Gibbon, Jake Broe, It's Black Friday, Shaun, RFU News, Dropkick Murphys, JohnTheDuncan, Reads with Rachel, Ryan Mcbeth, Turn Left, Raw News and Politics, NerdForge, Cecilia Blomdahl.
I also watched Doc Martin, Bodkin, Dark, Landscape with Invisible Hand and Role Play.
This and the many similar books are 1950 "US Navy in space" cringe. This type of book put me off science fiction print. The streaming services all offer some science fiction which are always more interesting and better written.
YouTube was a wonderful accidental discovery. The book channel 😍 communities are far different to that of Goodreads. There are a number of alternative reader forums such as Storygraph, Fable and others which BookTubers will discuss with the interested. The communities fostered are enthusiastic, thoughtful and enjoy the world of books.
Consider treating this as a hostile site. 🤔
Goodreads discourse does not exist. As example, my last very short original review was of Powers of the Earth by Travis Corcoran. It is a tale of the heroic struggle of a rich twat attempting to overthrow the US government with aid of the military in order that he not pay taxes. It was originally blurbed as similar to a Heinlein classic. It was instead "Atlas Shrugged" set on the moon and more poorly written.
I found it to be as the many similar books on Unlimited, to be dangerous, unhealthy and now prophetic.
Travis self-described as libertarian (now anarcho capitalist without), veteran, vocal supporter of the return of chattel slavery (popular US opinion with current prison labour to be supplemented by forced labour prisons for the unhoused, including permanent Van and RV residents. With homelessness already a crime in law, how these prisoners will be released ever is a mystery and it would seem that generational enslavement is on the cards. From Obama to Schumer, the Democratic Party have not uttered a word.), employee of an unnamed US agency, Putin admirer (no surprise and now a popular opinion in the USA).
Travis and six fellow "patriots" were outraged by my communist judgement. There followed a year-long stream of unhinged comments. I was gifted an understanding that my failure to engage evidenced narcissism, that socialism and empathy were evil (how ahead of their time), that my intelligence was lacking and much more.
I had hoped that these learned fellows might offer an analysis of the Many Worlds interpretation of Quantum physics. It was not to be. The layers of irony were painful.
A final comment was delivered by Claes Rees Jr aka cgr710 now ka Clayton R Jesse Jr who seems to no longer identify as Nazi. After referencing the contents of my last message exchange with a friend on Goodreads, he proudly proclaimed that They had "won" (?).
I discovered that They had launched a flood of vile sexual, racist and similar comments against apparently every female creator of channels, which I mentioned and it continues still. Having seen their multi-year persistence, erasing those mentions across fifteen hundred reviews seems pointless.
The German particle physicist, Swedish historical essayist, Canadian book tuber, English pensioner and the many other female creators were not particularly impressed by the Snowflake (sociopathic, barely educated, woman despising, US baby-man) charm offensive.
Despite that, the world's overabundance of unpleasantness was increased and They did broadcast a splendid self-portrait of the Snowflake (twisted, emotionally stunted, murderous, US man-child) to a multinational audience.
Quite the Victory. Goodreads discourse is quite energetic, though not what I had expected at the start.
Another stepaway to the YouTube earned. This last possible because of Doctor \Where I Fall, ScaredKetchup, Skylar Earnhardt, Irish Myths, Doxie Carter, Jordalina Reads, Chandler Ainsley, Made U Book, Captured in Words, FAFO, Times News, People Profiles, The Brothers Gwynne, Nursena Yener, Wurld, Jess Owens, Sara Elizabeth, Book Lover Laura, Diemmi Reads, Subha Reads, Professor Gerdes Explains, Jake Broe, Artur Rehi, Rick the Ukrainian, CBC News,
Broken Peach, Abby Cox, Springtime for Elon, Shannon Makes, Rachel Maksy, Engineering Knits, Linguoer Mechanic, GLOBAL Princess, Legendary Tactics, Hildegard von Blingin, Ash Clarke, Paul Warburg, Military Miniatures, Ministry of Miniatures, Dungeons and Discourse, Gingers Are Black, Kirkpattiecake, Maky Abugu, Mythical Arcana,
Dark Brandon, Biographics, Lives and Histories, AllShorts, Dark Skies, Dark Docs, Dark Footage, Professor Tim Wilson. The Pioneer, Depressed Russian, Jack Edwards, Planet D, Austin McConnell, The Roads with Belle, Elvira Bary, Ash L G, Bernadette Banner, Nicole Chilaka-Ukpo, I've Had It, Daily Soak, No Justice,
Novara Media, Supertanskiii, Tabithaspeakspolitics, Pyotr Kurzin, Red Viburnam Song, May, Alex Fleev, Democratic Penguins Republic, , Science Fiction with Damien Walter, Candlelit Tales, Enter the Book, Ellie Dashwood, Reese Waters, See U in History, The Jolly Reiver, Tod Maffin, The Kavernacle, Queen Penguin, Covert Cabal.
Ominous music begins. 😊 I discovered that Latinos voted more than 60% for "the bloodiest mass deportation in US history" (from a televised rally) believing that black US citizens were the targeted immigrants. Some are now agents of ICE.
This is the culture which birthed comment gangs, across both speculative fiction and romance/romantasy. The gangs do not limit themselves to the mere doxxing, stalking, threatening or even hacking. I will detail the Australian below.
Targets included Hailey Hughes, Authors Behaving Badly, Lily Simpson, With Cindy, Ember Green, Shades of Orange, Lily Alexandre and other YouTubers.
Goodreads shared my meagre message history with these patriotic thugs, resulting in Pine Gap Centre requesting that Australian Intelligence interrogate the one friend whom I occasionally messaged,a on Goodreads. The attempt at my personal information failed.
A tedious chore in reviewing, I could accept but that it should be dangerous I did not.
A BookTuber after posting her first Goodreads review, was treated to her first Goodreads threatening. The commenter suggested that she "should die". US culture is interesting.
A seventh EBay ex-employee was sentenced for harassment of a couple whose small ecommerce site was deemed unkind to EBay. The couple were awarded millions of pounds. The ex-employee had been EBay Chief of Global Security or some such. The examples above all occurred before the current US government formed. Things to consider when accepting friends.
I suggest some precautions. Remove all personal information from profile and avoid messaging. Remove the lurker, those who never post. They are likely monitors for gangs or employee dummies, not admirers.
My most interesting lurker was a well done legend -Dr Susan Hamilton, a Maths professor at University of Tennessee whose existence I was unable to verify. It was professionally crafted but overdone. She was the very first lurker Amazon would not Allow me to remove, was unreachable by phone and did not respond to five written requests that she remove herself from my friend list over more than a year.
Given the Goodreads penchant for Altering customer pages, the screenshot of the odd and threatening are invaluable. These should suffice.
Kindle are more serious. Do Not use Kindle Files, Calendar, Email and Contacts. They Sign Into customer Email without permission notice. Make of that what you will.
Do Not "purchase" Amazon e-books, as you own only your device, if a Kindle even that is conditional. I have had periodic 24 to 48 hours access to the internet through my Kindle. A BookTuber had her entire cloud stored library locked after she requested that Amazon reverse a double billing, obvious from Their own records. If purchased already download immediately. There are BookTubers to suggest alternative ebook and e-reader vendors, as well as alternatives to e-book purchase.
All Silk searches should be innocuous and non-critical.
The thugs of Kindle/Goodreads, both members and employees lack any non-Randian morality, normal socialisation or self-awareness but more dangerous reality is that They are US patriots. Ominous music ends. 😊
Be safe friend. May we all enjoy Good Reading. 🤗
Some of my favourite YouTube channels. National Centre for Military Intelligence, Bobbing Along, UATV, Philosophy Tube, Zoe Bee, The Juice Media, Hoots, Xiran Jay Zhao, Sarah Z, Mia Mulder, Russian Media Monitor, Tom Nicholas, Eleanor Morton, New Scientist, Some More News, The Who Addicts,
Kings and Generals, 2 Cellos, DW News, Raw News and Politics, Stanzi, Olive's Book Nook, Planarwalker, Ben G Thomas, Sabine Hossenfelder, The Narrowboat Pirate, Cruising the Cut, Patrick is a Navajo, Engineering with Rosie, Living Anachronism, Space 1889, TVP News, Double Down News, Isaac Arthur, Smack the Pony,
Atun Shei Films, Military Aviation History, Three Arrows, Knowing Better, Books with Emily Fox, The Great War, Dan Davis history, Make Better Media, Tulia, Three Arrows, Council of Geeks, Riverboat Jack, Tank Encyclopedia, Swell Entertainment, Lady of the Library, The Closet Historian, Geology Hub, Nomadic Crobot, Loren Piretra,
With Olivia, Filaxim Historia, Tibees, Jessie Gender, Peccheroni TV, Lore Reloaded, Lynn Saga, Historiograph, Steve Shives, Hailey Hughes, Physics Girl, Elina Charatsidou, Whitney Avalon, Kaz Rowe, The Stitchery, Shannon Makes, The Welsh Viking, Mrs Betty Bowers, SciFi Odyssey, Parkrose Permaculture, Julia McCoy, House of El,
Rebecca Watson, Up and Atom, Geo Girl, Quinn's Ideas, Savy Writes Books, Amanda the Jedi, 60 Minutes Australia, Emily Linge, What Vivi did next, We're in Hell, Interior Design Hub, Writing with Jenna Moreci, NFKRZ, Books and Quills, Austin McConnell, OrangeRiver, Amie's Literary Empire, A Clockwork Reader, Engineering with Rosie,
Jay Exci, SandRhoman History, Cold Fusion, Farm to Taber, Reading Wryly, Casual Navigation, Dead Good Books, TIKHistory, Verilybitchie, The Mindful Narrowboat, Northern Narrowboaters, Leena Norms, Yankee Farm Wife, Filaxim Historia, AllShorts,
Historia Civilis, Caspian Report, Chill Goblin, Cruising Crafts, Cruising the Cut, EarleWrites, Kris Atomic, Gary's Economics, Grumpy Old Crone, Unlearning Economics, The Leftist Cooks, Ship Happens, Ben and Emily, Verilybitchie, Anark, Yanis Varoufakis, Blue Faun, Politics Joe.
May you have the best possible morning, a fulfilling afternoon, a satisfying evening, a splendid night and may we all continue learning.
In every war strategy and leadership are very important, but in the end it all comes down to outproducing and outgunning the enemy. It all boils down to simple math.
So .....let’s see the math of this military conflict.
PHASE 2 (600 Enemy Vemus Starships – 1 CDF “Battlecruiser Vigilant”) + A lot of bullshit = 1 “Battlecruiser Vigilant”
I don’t know about you, but for me the math here ……sucks. It just doesn’t add up
PS.
BTW those 1000 Vemus Starships were just the reconnaissance party. The main force is on the way. The CDF had 7 Years to prepare for the first wave and lost everything in the attack now they have 2 months to prepare for the main Vemus Force …. To be continued in Book 3 I am sure you can’t wait to see how that happens :)
The first book was great, but this was trash. The plot doesn't make any sense. It skip's ahead 7 years and somehow they've created a massive space fleet. this book was disapointing to say the least.
I continued on with the First Colony series to this second book. The first book was just that interesting and I wanted to see the story continue. We’ve moved six years further in the story and New Earth is growing by leaps and bounds. What was once a survival base has now become the capital of a world-wide colonization. Cities are now springing up and the colony has devoted a lot of resources, time and energy into it’s defense based on the warning left by a cryptic message from Earth. General Conner Gates is now in charge of the Colonial Defense Forces (CDF) and has most of his original “Ghost” team back with him. For the most part, those experienced soldiers have been training volunteer colonist in the ways of combat.
General Gates finds himself fighting the political battles that he certainly doesn’t like. There has been a change in the Colony government with a new Governor elected. Stanton Parish is the new governor and he’s definitely not like his predecessor, Tobias Quinn. While Quinn supported Gate’s efforts to bolster the colonies defenses, Parish believes they’ve done enough and doesn’t believe there is even a threat any more. Six years the colony has poured valuable resources into building an orbiting missile defense system and a huge early warning space station. They are now disassembling the last pieces of the Ark and forming them into another battleship.
While this is all good, the colonies defenses are not finished. They desperately need another power generator for Space Station Titan so Gates has to go before a Congressional committee and plead his case. Of course his opposition will be Governor Parish. He has managed to convince a number of his cronies that further funding for the colonies defenses needs to take second place to the planetary development. Besides, he and a number of people no longer feel the former threat from Earth even exists.
So, having not gotten the funding he needs, General Gates decides to visit Space Station Titan to see first hand how well it is holding up. He is aboard the Vigilant and as usual sees an opportunity to test the abilities of his forces. He starts a simulated battle exercise which finds one of the two destroyer escorts lacking in leadership. He is quick to fix that issue by relieving the current commanding officer and promoting the current XO to Captain. He then decides to test the defenses of the Space Station only to find out that his friend and former Ghost member is wise to his actions. That test is passed with flying colors.
Then everything changes. With the battle exercises over, there shouldn’t be contacts on their long range sensors, but there are, if only briefly. This is the beginning of what might well be the end of the colony. That small glimpse of something showed more ships than the colony could ever defeat even if they had their own fleet. New Earth is in for a fight and they can’t let those ships anywhere near the colony planet or it could become infected just like Earth.
Good writing although I would suggest the author decided to use either the Navy or Army chain-of-command. Usually, and I could be wrong, if an Army Captain is aboard a Naval vessel, they are temporarily promoted to Major. This leaves only one true Captain on the ship and he is in command of that vessel. It seems like every officer below General Gates and his Colonels was a Captain and then there were the ships Captains. It gets a little confusing as to who the writer is referring to when he just says “Captain”. I can see a lot of promotions coming for a few key people, if they survive this first encounter with this unknown invasion fleet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I read this one in hopes that the series would improve. It didn’t. Shallow, unmemorable characters and the battle, the center of the book, has some logical problems.
When you're reading scifi, you accept that you have to suspend your disbelief for some stuff. It's science-fiction, it's not "real". But even so, this was utter garbage. You have a few hundred ships ("a scouting party", we find out in the last chapter) coming to destroy the last 300.000 humans, after totally annihilating humanity in the Sol system. And the colonists fight them with 1 star base and 3 ships. Take a wiiiiild guess what happens, when there's 2 more books after this one.
The Vemus (we find out their name just because "that's the only word they use" - what?) can mask their ships to normal detection, yet "cannot detect" 1 human ship. They have hardened exoskeletons on the ships, yet many of their ships get destroyed by 200 years old technology. They can regenerate, yet they hold back instead of overrunning with large numbers an invading party on one ship. The communication between space ships and bases that are situated millions of kms away from eachother is instantaneous (even though humanity doesn't have faster-than-light travel). And add to this a "rest of the people don't believe the threat is real" overused cliché. This was an insult to my intelligence and I'm truly ashamed I actually read 2 of these trash books.
And another problem: the goodreads rating system. How can these 2 steaming piles of trash have higher than 4 ratings? I usually pick books to read by looking at these ratings, but there's clearly a problem with them
Quick read. Entertaining in the same way that watching old reruns of the original Battlestar Galactica would be entertaining; many issues, cheesy plot devices and two-dimensional characters, but space and aliens are cool, so I'll have fun with it anyway.
Most reviews on this book are fake - there is no way anyone would think this is a five star book. I read it for free through Kindle Unlimited which helps my expectations remain low enough for me to be noncommittally entertained.
The author has a fairly unique ability for characters to lose dimension as the story progresses. Calling these characters cliche, one dimensional is unfair to such characters with even that little depth.
Another rousing adventure. When the generation ship is mysteriously rerouted to a different planet 20 year after leaving Earth there is a partial message about something happening on Earth.
Along the way the ship has been dropping communications buoys and now those buoys are dropping offline sequentially with the ones closest to Earth first.
Soon it is determined that something is coming after the colony and preparations are made for what it could be.
Great space battles and some clarity of who the enemy is.
3.5 stars. The first book's charm was in the colonisation of a new and exciting world. The second book jumps forward 7 years to a fully developed colony, which ruins some of the fun. It also takes place almost entirely in space, completely taking aspects like the new fauna and flora out of the picture.
That being said, it was an easy read and was full of action.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This mess is a poster child of lazy writing. I would like to give two stars for the narrator of the audio version, but need to balance out the inflated rating this book already has.
There are countless occurrences of the same annoying phrases for all characters, like: - "presses his lips together" - "snorted" - "frowned"
There are plenty of factual and consistency errors: - The author manages to refer to the same character's rank in the same sentence as "Sergeant" and "Lieutenant". - On board the alien ship, they plan to drop a turret which is described as "able to fire millions of tiny darts in a minute". A bit later, when deploying the turret, they check the ammunition and it's containing "thousands of tiny darts". - What the heck is a "battleship carrier" type of spaceship? The exact same ship is also referred to as "battleship cruiser" once. - The alien lifeforms conveniently utter "Vemus" as the first thing when boarding, and in the next chapter, everyone and their mom is already referring to them as Vemus without reservations. Afterwards, the aliens only converse in beeps and whistles. - Several times there is a sentence "We still don't fully understand the motives of the alien fleet". What "fully understand", not a single thing has been explained. Only that "there was some kind of virus that came from the oceans".
The story itself doesn't hold up to scrutiny either. There's an assassination plot that doesn't make any sense and the space battles are just a confusing mess. I also find it hard to believe they built up everything in 7 years, regardless of the claim that they recycled the original ARK ship they arrived in. As I recall, one unmanned ship arrived with the ARK, but they now have orbital defense systems, missile defense platforms, a shipyard on the moon of the new planet, some more ships, a space station and the crew for all of them. There were no military personnel on the ARK besides the smuggled ghost team.
I really can't give this book a high recommendation. I listened to it during my runs. It is the kind of book that can pass the miles without much effort, but the writing isn't very good. There is no development of the secondary characters at all. The holes in the plot are enormousness. If you took the time to ask yourself questions, the questions would never end. Maybe Nemesis is supposed to be geared toward adults, but it is youth science fiction. I think that my kids would like it. If you lower your expectations, the book will be fine to listen to on a long drive or run. I definitely would not recommend reading it. If you are going to take the time to read a book, it should be better than this one.
This novel continues the story of the colonization of the planet called New Earth with the main character Connor Gates now the main military head of the planet 's defensive forces. He has become friends with the person who is in charge of the police security forces on the planet after a rocky start based on mere different views to achieve the same result -- keeping the colonists safe. Connor has developed a space defense program with a space station and 3 orbital spaceships all equipped with missiles and rocket launchers. He has been denied again for building another defense satellite by the current governor Parrish who claims that those incomplete warnings sent them from Earth that changed their flight in space on the Ark to the present location of New Earth.. While on training maneuvers with the spaceships, an anomaly is noted that turns out to be the advance force of the enemy that destroyed Earth. WhIle battling these forces,Connor discovers that someone had tried to poison him but accidentally killed the captain of the ship instead. The assassin was caught but he shot himself in the head. Connor takes the initiative to board one of the enemy ships which has one of their ships attached. They find out that the enemy ship has a fungus growth coating a ship from their past called the Indianapolis where Admiral Wilkins had rescued them and placed them on the Ark. He has left them a special coded to Connor Gates file of information. They lose the space station when the Jade protocol is set in motion --which is a failsafe explosion after most have evacuated, with a few remaining to insure that nothing stops the detonation. Kasey, one of Connor 's Ghost team had remained on the station to achieve was resulting in his death. Reisman, Connor's second died when he was infected by the fungus while getting the special files left for Connor but he used his combat suit to send the files first and then activated the failsafe on his suit to kill himself to prevent anyone rescuing him. Once back on New Earth, he goes to the current governor Parrish and demands his resignation and the reinstatement of the former governor Tobias Quinn, for two reasons, one he had sent someone to kill Connor and because of him they almost were invaded.
Series seamlessly picks up 7 years after the events of the first book.
Once again I can't help but to give a 5-star rating, which is never an automatic thing with me. This story is told in third person limited point of view. They are a few chapters in which we get povs from a couple characters that allow us to see the biggest picture. Mainly though we follow our original protagonist Connor as well as Noah. The writing is crisp the pacing pulled me through the twists and turns a story that has intrigue, action, humor and the gambit of other emotions. There's only really one mistake I noticed in the book and that could have been simply the character making a mistake when he referred to a lieutenant as a sergeant. everything else the world-building and the build-up as well as the plot fitted together in such a way that I couldn't really put the story down. It was a fairly quick read despite the leaf because of how easy the story flowed.
Less time passes within the book then the previous story so there is not a lot of time for character growth but there is plenty of time to see how the characters had grown in the time jump between the books. This is a crisis story in a way because from before the halfway mark to almost the end the action never stops. it was interesting to see that the threats were not only from the outside but within. I do wish the intrigue was a little bit more expand upon but it was still enough to be interesting.
Overall the story is appropriate for young adults and above with a little bit more sci-fi in this military sci-fi.
Seven years has passed since the events of the first book, and this story is very different.
In book 1 we see a soldier struggling to find a place in a peaceful society. He eventually starts a division of the police, dedicated to helping people in trouble in the wilderness.
This book takes place years later, where the main character has gone full soldier again and created himself an army/space navy.
It was a little disappointing to dismiss almost all characters from book 1 and discard all the progress the main character made, however thats the reality of this series.
What we have is a fast paced, fun, adventure of the Colony Defense Force (cdf) protecting a bunch of people who don't really want to be defended.
The book is just the right length, at 8 hours (audiobook) it was long enough to develop the plot and environment, while not dragging on. In fact I found myself thinking I had only listed for a few hours, only to find myself a few minutes from the end.
Characters are not really well developed and most are barely 2 dimensional, let alone 3. But they tend to be just charismatic enough to care about when put in danger.
Book one started off very strong in my opinion but as you can see from just the star review the experience of reading book two versus one dropped significantly. There are certainly borrowed ideas in book two, the character development has pretty much stopped in this second book, and the writing feels mechanical. I had trouble with the main battle sequence in terms of the numbers of ships involved and it felt like little research or even thought went into how a battle like this might play out. There was definitely promise in this story with side stories and potential character development but the writer failed to take advantage of the scenarios he created for himself. I plan to read the third book (already downloaded) but if there’s not a dramatic improvement in the plot and writing it will be the last I read in the series if I even finish it. It’s rare that I just give up on a book but if #3 is as bad or worse than #2 (see what I did there?) then I won’t even finish it never mind the series. It’s an imaginative story line (so far) but the imagination is only half used or is used lazily in order crank out quantity rather than quality.
I gave the first book five stars because it was something I hadn't read before. The first book was about humans leaving Earth and discovering a new world.
However, this book is really terrible. I won't be ready any more from this series. The training of spaceships was okay, but dragged on far too long.
There was an assassination in this book terrible motive. It was a big glaring plot hole. It had no rhyme or reason for being. It just happened.
The author goes off a different track, skips past what did well in the first book, and doesn't explore any of the ruins and lifeforms of New Earth. Halfway through the book I still don't know what the aliens look like, and while the premise was intriguing, we get a mystery, like so many other mysteries in the book, that was not fully developed.
Also, an alien fleet that was so successful back home against Earth should not be struggling against several ships in a different galaxy. My suspension of disbelief was shattered.
Lozito expands the universe with sharper world-building, higher tension, and characters who feel forged in fire by the challenges they face.
Nemesis: First Colony, Book Two by Ken Lozito is a relentless, edge-of-your-seat sequel that raises the stakes in all the right ways. Lozito expands the universe with sharper world-building, higher tension, and characters who feel forged in fire by the challenges they face. The action is fast and cinematic, but it’s the strategic depth and moral weight behind each decision that really shine.
The sense of scale grows dramatically in this installment—conflict feels inevitable, survival never guaranteed, and every victory comes at a cost. Lozito balances military sci-fi grit with genuine emotional investment, making it impossible not to care about the outcome.
If you enjoyed Book One, this sequel doesn’t just deliver—it escalates. A must-read for fans of smart, hard-hitting science fiction that blends action, strategy, and human resilience.
This book takes place seven years after the first. Connor Gates in now a General of the CDF which he formed to protect the colony from the coming threat.
The CDF seems a capable if underfunded organization. The problem comes from a General who more like a Major or a Captain. He refuses to delegate and seems to place himself right in the middle of everything. This is great from a story line point of view, but it is entirely unrealistic. Then you add in "shock waves" in space and even "EMP" in space and it borders on ridiculous.
Lozito did a great job in the first book of this series blending exploration, mystery and a bit of action. When he tries to do military Sci-fi it just falls flat.
The fate of New Earth lies in the hands of a man whose inner demons many save or doom the human race as we know it. The hero, if you could call him that, in my humble opinion is depicted as a man who questions is own self worth and ability to command to the detriment of those he's reluctantly stepped forward to lead. He's constantly at odds with politicians unwilling to acknowledge the possibility of an attack from the very solar system of their origin. He's also unwilling to let go of his tortured personal past and start a life and new family with someone who has come to love him. As for the approaching enemy from old Earth; their origin was a bit much to understand and was never fully explained. Nuff said!!!
So, in the last book we had the Ryklars, the animals on New Earth that began to attack the humans. In this book we have the aliens that killed everyone on earth and had come for the only Earthlings left.
Almost the entire book was one big battle and General Connor Gates and his men were outnumbered but since the aliens, the Vemus, were sort of animals themselves Connor and his men killed them all. BUT that was just the first wave of them so now we have to prepare for the second wave. They had 7 years to prepare but they have no idea how long they have this time.
I liked both books, maybe this one a little more.
No romance and very little swearing.
As to the narration: Again Scott Aiello was awesome. Great voices and reading with such emotion was phenomenal.
I am still hooked on the First Colony series. Several years have passed since the end of the first book and Connor is fighting a losing battle getting the colony ready if the invasion from Earth happens. People do not believe that they are in danger and just as Connor heads back from a failed mission to get more support it happens. The invasion arrives. This is a desperate battle to keep the colony from being overrun and it comes at a great cost. The same narrator does this one and he still does a great job getting the right emotions with the right people. I am already listening to the next book in the series.
This is another book that feels way shorter than expected. It jumps forward in time quite a bit for no apparent reason other than the author didn't have to fill in the blanks. The characters don't feel as if they have aged, rather the story has just fast forwarded so the plot laid out in the first book can come to fruition. Again, the writing has the feeling that this is just an installment in a greater work. The story wraps up just enough to bring it to a conclusion, but leaves so many other things wide open for the next book.
I can't help but feel that it was originally a single book that has been broken into many parts with fluff added to make them pass as stand alone pieces.
This book is definitely more interested than it was for the first one. The story plot started out seems fairly easy. I like it when they didn’t use the beginning of the story to build-up to the predictable battle. I mean I knew it was coming anyway. It just that it was less obvious. However, I cannot give it 5 stars because it has too many plot holes when the battle started and mini-roads to nowhere. I think the author could give it another 75-100 extra pages to bring in more intensity to the story. It felt as if it was cutting short with plausible won battle...
The first book in this series was fantastic had a great premise and excecated it excellently. I was expecting this book to pick up from where it left off with the impending doom from earth. They jumped a few months forward, and have a decently large military sector now under his control. However they didnt really do a good job introducing all the lead characters of the military so when people are doing well or badly in their roles I have no real reason to care. Not to mention I get the plot device of having the govt now be run by sceptics, but its really annoying to read through.
All this added up to me getting a few hours into the book and deciding I just wasn't enjoying it.
First, regarding the bucket of frogs: What 10-year-old boy has not done SOMETHING like that? Something naughty but not really harmful either. I could write a book just about those! Anyway, the book. The story is somewhat familiar. A bunch of aliens attacks humans with weapons we have never seen before. Humans eventually win the battle, thanks to our hero, yet it appears a larger force is on the way. Yet it is told in an entertaining way and is a fun story.