Lost With Nothing to Lose

Not-Quite Human #2

by Vincent Berg

Unable to find a home and acceptance on Earth, an intrepid band of misplaced youth seeks their ancestral home among the stars. Unfortunately, their reception is not quite what they hoped. The home they discover is a hostile place, involved in a huge interstellar war with a hostile alien species. Everyone is on guard, and the newcomers are viewed as untrusted interlopers. They search for a place in a world with no use for them, and with no place to turn for assistance.Faced with an unwinnable situation, they seek to change the rules, risking arrest, trial and even death in hopes of fixing a world they know little about. To win friends they much prove the unprovable, face down an unstopable enemy, and convince those ready to kill them that they known Tandorians better than they know themselves.

Genres: Science Fiction

255 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 12, 2018

About the author

Vincent Berg (1957) was born in New Jersey but, being a military dependent, grew up on 'more or less the East Coast'. Working in Systems Engineering in the Financial Services in Chicago and New York City, he never considered himself a writer, but after retiring and moving closer to his family, he wanted to explore the kinds of books he enjoyed.

His writings aren't typical, with the writing style harking back to the early twentieth Century, and the stories being complex and meandering. Without action heroes, antiheroes or even clear conflicts, the stories are more character based, as the central characters try to figure out where they are and where they're going. The reader gets sucked along, as they try to piece together where they fit in the world.

His work includes 5 series (ranging from 2 to 6 books), for a total of 16 original books published to date.

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

It starts out as a fairly average sci fi novel, about humans finding their way to a vast galactic empire, only to find they are not as welcome as they expect.

There's a section on the culture shock, then without warning, it devolves into a sex novel.

If interspecies sex is your kind of thing, give it a shot.

[Read Ng · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a GoodReads giveaway of a Kindle ebook version of this story.

This book follows events of book 1. It supposedly reads independently from the previous book. I have not read the previous book, but I did not get the impression that I needed to to enjoy book 2. It appears to me to read independently from book 1.

I assume I missed it in the giveaway synopsis, but there is a fairly erotic alien sex scene that caught me by surprise. Not a segment that I have see in any science fiction that I have read to date. I would not recommend this book to younger readers or those offended by erotica.

Aside from that caution, I thought this book to be a bit too much of a fairy tale. The bad guys were just too stupid and did not care enough of their situation, not to be idiots and fairly easily dispatched. The underlying military theme and the 'truth, justice, and the American way' tone, a bit over the top.

I would guess that the ship AI played a very pivotal role in book 1. If so, the AI in this book is but a minor character. I would read book 1, just to see how strongly written the AI was in book 1.

Have a GoodReads.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the story and the characters. Al was so enlightening with a great sense of logic and inclusiveness. The book had

an enabled group of forward thinkers that all had such a positive attitude. Also, I recommend reading the wonderful quotes, they are so pertinent to the story and our current time.

[Jesse Deleon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great 2nd book!

I really enjoyed this 22nd book to the series and am looking forward to the 3rd. Thank you Vincent Berg! A fan.

[Chez Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

good read need the first one though.