The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds

The Shadow Order #1–8 omnibus

by Michael Robertson

In a fight, Seb is unbeatable. But in this galaxy, there are a million ways to lose…
Seb Zodo has never backed down from a fist fight. After all, he’s been gifted with powers that make losing impossible. But lately, Seb’s gift seems more like a curse…

Seb’s fearlessness leads to stupid decisions, short-lived jobs, and unwanted attention in dangerous places. In a desperate bid at a fresh start, Seb swears off fighting. But it may be too late…

When a run-in with an electrifying thief and the head of a shadowy organization sends his life spiraling out of control, Seb has no choice left but to go down swinging…

Genres: Science Fiction

1915 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 16, 2018

About the author

Michael Robertson is an author and blogger. He has had several short stories published, including one with HarperCollins. He is the author of Crash - http://michaelrobertson.co.uk/crash--...

You can connect with Michael on Twitter at @MicRobertson, Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MichaelRober... and you can also contact him through his website at www.michaelrobertson.co.uk

Reviews

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why do authors have to write about heros that are idiots? Emotionally and mentally challenged idiots! Seb was yet another such case. Even when he should have learned his lesson, he regressed and was stupid again. And again. And again.

Then the authors give these idiots special powers. Which they fail to try to understand, exercise, and use properly.

I blame the current resergence of comic book stories with their inevitably flawed Heros.

Get over it and write about intelligent Heros. Please!

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the first book without reading any reviews.

Then I read the reviews, and my heart sank. I continued to read through books two and three... and sadly the reviews were right.

Some things I observed:
* The main protagonist is an idiot who does not learn.
* The author really does have a fascination with placing the characters into disgusting environments and describing those environments in excruciating detail multiple times. I mean, we get it... the guts of the slug parasites smell disgusting. We don't need to be told about it ever third paragraph.
* The portrayal of humanity as being a plague on the galaxy is reinforced over and over by a character who proclaims that humanity isn't all bad and not all humans are responsible for their reputation.
* The laws of classical physics in a classical physics environment are ignored a lot of the time, as are the concepts of just what radiation is and how it works. The fiction portion of science fiction is heavily leaned upon.
* For an "elite" black ops team, I know of weekend warriors who only play paintball that could do a significantly better job in terms of situational awareness and tactical methodologies.
* Certain word utilization indicates a young writer who uses words that are considered slang terms today but have phased out of use.

I gave up after book four. The lead-in chapter for book five had the main character doing the same old crap he had been doing throughout all of the other books, never having learned anything.

[Andrew Simms · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read, always more to draw you in!

I really liked these books, always leaving you wanting to know what's next. Seb and the crew finding trouble, it always seems that Sparks has to sort it out and that brute force (Seb's standard approach) usually isn't what's needed... Reminds me a little of Matthew Reilly's Scarecrow and Jack West series.

[juliette dempsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing military sci-fi box set

I enjoyed reading this series and I would recommend this series to any sci-fi fan.
Great characters with realistic situations and lots of action and adventure.
A dark vision of the far future but thrilling to read.
I look forward to more from this author.😀

[Pete Emmerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic series

I started off slowly, acquainting myself with the characters, them it took off, I won't give away any of the storyline because that could spoil it for others. Suffice it to say it kept me turning pages long after I should have turned in. Thanks for a great series Michael

[Keith Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent series

Great characters with heart. Great story with a futuristic last if that makes sense. Love the blend of last and future especially that humans are not considered to be the 'good guy's in the universe. Really recommend this series to anyone who wants a great addition to their library.

[Dan Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

First novels I've read of Michael Robertson, I'm very impressed.

Shadow Order is a first Class series that has wonderfully developed characters with amazing stage coherent thru out the series. Action sequences well researched exciting and believable. Mr. Robertson has written a great yarn.
Thank You Sir.

[Julie Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this fantasy /science-fiction series because there were well-developed, intriguing characters, plenty of action, thoughts and feelings, a great plot and a superb sense of place.

I have reviewed each book separately, so I will just say if you enjoy a well-told, fast-paced story in this genre, this set is for you.

Highly recommended.

[Charles Kibby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good series to read

Fun series to read. Good character development and the characters are very enjoyable to read about. Lots of action and adventures. Lots or room to still do things in this universe with this team of characters and helping out the universe

[Richard Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series

Really enjoyed reading this series . The characters were likable and fresh. I could easily see more written regarding the continuance of The adventures of the Shadow Order.

[Eddie Rigby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent series

Captivating from chapter one
Many forks in the path through the stories
Characters well developed
The series flows with good storylines
After reading I had to get another box set

[Lance E Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well developed characters

Brimming with great storyline,reality driven characters and a mission to save all his beings from eternal slavery.Shadow Order constantly keeps you rooting for the team

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning

Right from the start I couldn't put these down and just had to keep going one after the other. As you go along you learn more about the characters and are drawn to their cause.

[Anne Maier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Micheal’s books are so incredible. After reading the first series I was hooked, just finished the third. Captivating, so hard to put down, every one of them! I highly recommend.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

Mr. Robertson has created a truly great series in the Shadow Order. I just wish it was longer. Maybe he will add some to let us know how everyone is doing? Read it, you won’t be disappointed.

[Cathy Scales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.

Was hooked from the start. Always love it when i can associate with the characters. Went through the entire series in about three days. Ready for more from this author.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't get over how space battles are treated just like terrestrial air battles. The put my willing suspension of disbelieve over the edge. Only read 1 1/2 books into the series and had to quit.

[Karen Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

I absolutely loved this series, I got so caught up in this universe & it's characters that I now feel slightly bereft!

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

When you see an 8 book set on sale for an absurdly low price, you don't expect excellence. And in this case, you'd be right. Imagine a universe with a large assortment of alien species, with a half-human protagonist who winds up indentured to a mysterious organization that is run by a reptilian Al Capone. Sounds interesting, right (just kidding)? Well, it's a good thing the author provides description of each species, because otherwise, you'd think they were all human. No real attempt to give them real identities. Interstellar travel, but every world visited is a luddite world where the populace appears incapable of creating, or even using any sort of technology. By the time you get to the third book, which features a planet a primitive society with a feudal society and a ruler who sadistic, but too insane to be functional, setting the stage for a lot of action in a sewer, with lots of descriptions of excrement the story really stinks. To provide for a sense of peril, an assortment of alien animals (monsters) are living in the river of excrement. Sci-Fi makes it too easy to create hazards that have never been seen or alluded to. Using such a ploy is just lazy writing. How I got through that book, I'll never know. The fourth book dealt with parasites and rotting flesh and zombies. That's where I gave up and removed the books from my kindle. I may need to disinfect it.

[Larry J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost ready, but not quite there.

It could be a good series, but we have a hero that whines to much, often acting like a petulant child & there is no consistency in his abilities. He can heal sometimes but not others, with no real explanation as to why. One moment he can fight giant steel mechanized soldiers, the next he can’t fight rock trolls that those same mechanized soldiers can defeat.

The hero has steel fist which are easily captured by magnets & make it impossible to swim. They started as purposeful, but ultimately are stupid. Why not correct them using a lightweight higher strength titanium alloy (non magnetic).

These are but a few of the fatal inconsistencies in the series. I really wanted to like this series but ultimately couldn’t even keep reading it. There are likable characters & storylines.

If you don’t mind inconsistent characters & characteristics, you might enjoy the series. If, you prefer consistent characters & story arcs, then save yourself the frustration & pass on this.

What’s most unfortunate is that a few advance readers and another 6 to 8 months editing could have produced a very good series. Maybe (hopefully) the author will rewrite the series & republish, perhaps retitled.

[Dennis Plante · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor Series

Seb, one of the main characters has the maturity of a 12 year old boy with exploding hormones. Maybe that is an insult to12 year old boys, as they mostly improve over time, Seb never does. There are many lines the author uses in book after book, like "let's do this", and "Seb clenched his jaw so hard it hurt" those are two of the most stupid. This is another series where the bad guys know where, when and what the heroes are doing before the heroes do. Got very bored with the same theme from book to book. Almost forgot to mention, most aliens in this series are huge, long, wide, taller, and twice as strong as any human. This is just a bad series that I would not recommend.

[Mike Haxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

what can I say.

I know I have followers in my rather odd reading habits.
To be honest I hate read the last three books.
For heroes these sad sacks break a mail and get incapacitated.
Seb, who is supposed to be invincible, gets winded in a two minuit run and is a fraidycat for half of the book.
SA the sexy assassin is so one dimensional that I never figured it out. It was hard for me to keep the story line straight for the sidestepping. And then the final
Book had nothing to do with the rest of the book, but instead was a horror story in a space ship.
For the last month I have been reading about ten pages at a time just to Wade they to the end.
I will never get that time back. Only read it if it’s free.

[mike hodgson Carole Hodgson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I try not to read reviews before attempting a new read, not wanting any bias. However, after persevering and completing the series it was interesting to look through a few reviews, unfortunately they were spot on with a few negative aspects ref sewers and other unsavoury areas, if that happened once you could accept it but it happened too often, the repetition of the same areas being visited was also a bit tedious. It was very twee how on almost every combat or difficult situation they were rescued with seconds to annihilation. Situational aspects to hazardous areas were planned with absolutely no regard to body armour/protection whatsoever. I gave the star score purely on the back stories of the main characters, namely Avery who it transpired had more combat/ hazardous area experience than any of them yet was treated as a rookie at introduction. Her story for me made the reading worthwhile however I had a bit of a deja Vu experience whilst reading it, couldn't make my mind up whether it was a story from star trek or similar. I've read a very similar set of books called Ghost Squadron with very much the same issues. Afraid I won't be recommending this to anyone else.

[Beach Bum · Rating 3 out of 5]

A box set with good and bad

At times good, at times painful. Not sure book 8 was even necessary, was just back fill to a story of one the characters
The best I can describe this is messy. If I had bought the books separately I would not have continued beyond book 3. I wanted to like the story and the characters, but whilst the characters were good at times at others it was just annoying. The story seemed to drift and then get back on course only to repeat the process again later

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the characters enough to finish the series, even though I realized early on that book eight essentially didn't fit, as there were exciting parts that kept me turning the pages. On the other hand, there were monotonous sections, some that I quickly flipped through to speed the plot along. I recommend this book to sci-fi addicts, but I wouldn't read it if you find blood and guts and excessive description disturbing.
Reading these books is like watching a B movie, which I find enjoyable if I am in the right mood.

[Cris · Rating 5 out of 5]

some books were great, a couple were rocky

Some great plot twists and turns, great creative solutions! A lot of death and gore, because most of the beings in this galaxy are thugs and criminals. And they really hate humans. Crumbs of insight and prophecy lead the main character to find his destiny and fight evil. I could have lived without the last book- too gruesome a read for me.

[Phillip Fielding · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic series that I could t put down

Really enjoyed this and found myself picking up the e-reader more often than the tv remote just to carry on the adventure with Seb and gang.
My only criticism is the use of the word “yeah”
This was used at the end of some of the characters sentences however it was used for multiple characters instead of sticking to just one. It’s the only thing the broke the spell for me.

[Douglas Nelson]

Quite a ride! Humans being the minority is so different, but well handled. Great character development. The author rolls out a mystery well, keeping me intrigued while revealing details in a timely and succinct manner. Honor, loyalty, deception, Faith all well done! Lots of fighting! I empathized well with the protagonist, the hero.

[Robert Godwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept me turning pages

The fact that I read all 8 books of this series testifies as to the engaging storyline. Book 8 is just the back stories for two of the characters. Reasonable level of action with an interesting cast. The villains are easy to despise which makes the heroes wins all the better.

[Cody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off good

Books 1-3 were really good. But by book 4 and then 5 Seb got so annoying I just couldn't read the rest of the series. In fact by 5 all the characters were annoying. I didn't care anymore what happened to the galaxy. One of the very few times I've not finished a series. I'm sorry I even started.