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The Dawn Saga #1
Breakers of the Dawn
Humanity has fallen from its once majestic place amongst the stars. Desperate for resources to prop up an aging galactic dynasty, humans seize every planet they find, exterminating their alien inhabitants.
Across the empire, a group of dissidents come together through happenstance. As they learn more, however, they sense a strange force directing their lives. Can they discover the truth before the empire destroys them?
Dispatched to subdue an uprising, a government operative unearths an ancient relic. It somehow knows everything about him, even his darkest secrets. The strange device promises extraordinary power, but can he trust it?
The first book in a four part saga, Breakers of the Dawn is epic science fiction, featuring a diverse cast of characters. It’s easy to read, but hard to put down.
Across the empire, a group of dissidents come together through happenstance. As they learn more, however, they sense a strange force directing their lives. Can they discover the truth before the empire destroys them?
Dispatched to subdue an uprising, a government operative unearths an ancient relic. It somehow knows everything about him, even his darkest secrets. The strange device promises extraordinary power, but can he trust it?
The first book in a four part saga, Breakers of the Dawn is epic science fiction, featuring a diverse cast of characters. It’s easy to read, but hard to put down.
Unknown Binding
First published December 4, 2014
432 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
About the author
Zachariah Wahrer
18 books14 followersSign up for Zachariah's newsletter and receive a Dawn Saga starter pack with free books and digital art! https://zachariahwahrer.com/newsletter
Zachariah Wahrer spent the first twelve years of his adult life doing various jobs around the United States, such as eBay salesman, punk rock musician, horse halter craftsman, and rock climbing gym route-setter.
Near the end of 2014, Zachariah moved into a Honda Odyssey with his wife, Sarah, and began traveling the United States and Canada, seeking inspiration and adventure while writing and rock climbing full-time. His first novel, Breakers of the Dawn: Book 1 of the Dawn Saga, was electronically published in December of 2014.
When not deeply immersed in imaginary worlds, Zachariah loves to experience the outdoors as well as read about science, futurology, and trans-humanism. He also enjoys home-brewing and creating digital art to accompany his writing.
Currently, Zachariah lives in Bozeman, Montana.
Zachariah Wahrer spent the first twelve years of his adult life doing various jobs around the United States, such as eBay salesman, punk rock musician, horse halter craftsman, and rock climbing gym route-setter.
Near the end of 2014, Zachariah moved into a Honda Odyssey with his wife, Sarah, and began traveling the United States and Canada, seeking inspiration and adventure while writing and rock climbing full-time. His first novel, Breakers of the Dawn: Book 1 of the Dawn Saga, was electronically published in December of 2014.
When not deeply immersed in imaginary worlds, Zachariah loves to experience the outdoors as well as read about science, futurology, and trans-humanism. He also enjoys home-brewing and creating digital art to accompany his writing.
Currently, Zachariah lives in Bozeman, Montana.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
October 13, 2019
A rapidly moving story
Review of Kindle edition
Publication date: December 3, 2014
Publisher: Wahrer of the Worlds
Language: English
ASIN: B00QKWMPCS
221 pages
Three and a half stars.
A story of a threat to the entire galaxy, all intelligent life. The threat emanates from the breakers, a vicious, malevolent force, being or beings who begin by subverting and changing humans to sweep across space corrupting the corruptible and killing all else. Almost nothing is revealed about the breakers in this first volume of the series.
The story is told from several points of view. Most of this volume consists of introducing the main characters, tying together the various threads and introducing the threats (some or all?) they face. The book ends before they actually face or even learn about the breakers.
There are numerous little editing or writing errors frequently involving the use of a wrong word. The writing impelled me to find out what was going to happen next rather than savour the story so very shortly, I stopped noticing the little errors. I don't know for certain that they continued past the first 20% or so.
The book held my interest to the point that I will probably read the next volume to discover what happens in the inevitable confrontation. So far there are four volumes in this series.
Review of Kindle edition
Publication date: December 3, 2014
Publisher: Wahrer of the Worlds
Language: English
ASIN: B00QKWMPCS
221 pages
Three and a half stars.
A story of a threat to the entire galaxy, all intelligent life. The threat emanates from the breakers, a vicious, malevolent force, being or beings who begin by subverting and changing humans to sweep across space corrupting the corruptible and killing all else. Almost nothing is revealed about the breakers in this first volume of the series.
The story is told from several points of view. Most of this volume consists of introducing the main characters, tying together the various threads and introducing the threats (some or all?) they face. The book ends before they actually face or even learn about the breakers.
There are numerous little editing or writing errors frequently involving the use of a wrong word. The writing impelled me to find out what was going to happen next rather than savour the story so very shortly, I stopped noticing the little errors. I don't know for certain that they continued past the first 20% or so.
The book held my interest to the point that I will probably read the next volume to discover what happens in the inevitable confrontation. So far there are four volumes in this series.
September 15, 2023
Entertaining futuristic listening 🎶🔰
This is a free novel on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!
I tried to follow the directions this book was going but just kept losing it. Give it a try it may be OK with you. 2023
This also is part of the box 📦 set Call of Courage.
I have a question: does anyone know what the breakdown is for paper novels vs e-book only?
I heard 👂 somewhere that 70% of books 📚 published were e-book only no paper. I heard a rumor that Patterson and a number of other authors announced that they will be publishing no more paper.
My granddaughter is a senior in high school and only e-books.
This is a free novel on Amazon. Oh how I love 💘 those free books 📚!
I tried to follow the directions this book was going but just kept losing it. Give it a try it may be OK with you. 2023
This also is part of the box 📦 set Call of Courage.
I have a question: does anyone know what the breakdown is for paper novels vs e-book only?
I heard 👂 somewhere that 70% of books 📚 published were e-book only no paper. I heard a rumor that Patterson and a number of other authors announced that they will be publishing no more paper.
My granddaughter is a senior in high school and only e-books.
March 21, 2018
Breakers of the Dawn is a sci-fi thriller by Zachariah Wahrer. It’s the first book in his Breakers series.
It’s an incredibly ambitious blend of the hard sci-fi, thriller, and space opera genres, and for all the big ideas Wahrer presented and the intriguing characters I saw the story through, I really wanted to love it. But let me back up a bit.
The story opens from the POV of our first protagonist, Felar, a hardcore military woman who rose to the ranks on her own merits in the Ashamine military, as she presents information about what Initiates (read: recruits) in the lower ranks can look forward to if they work hard enough. She’s immediately accosted by a former classmate who failed out of the Founder’s Commando (think of them as like Special Ops) training regiment and believes that Felar slept her way to the top. He ignites a fight between her and his top student, then she blacks out as she’s accosted again by a group of men she can’t fight off. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
Next, we meet Wake, an engineer working in the Ashamine mines who is falsely accused of sabotaging (or neglecting, the charges aren’t quite clear) lifts running up and down the mountain he works on. The accident happens off screen and in the past, though he does have a dream sequence that sort of explains it. Someone neglected safety procedures and ten miners died. He’d submitted a bunch of requests for better parts, was instructed to use the faulty parts, and the accident stopped waiting to happen.
Next on the list is Maxar, a convict (don’t recall learning his crime) forced to fight in brutal cage matches on the Bloodsport asteroid for the amusement of the upper class in Ashamine society. He plans and executes his escape later on, but here we simply learn a bit about him and his attitudes toward the empire.
Then, we meet Tremmilly, a foolish and rather naive woman from a backwater planet who grew up underneath the thumb of one of the many Ashamine cults not officially recognized by the government. Her caretaker tells her a prophecy involving 5 people (you can see where this is going) and that she happens to be one of them and must bring them together to stop the mysterious Breakers. We don’t yet know what or who the Breakers are, but the beginning of the prophecy sounds menacing enough to Tremmilly to spur her on her later adventures.
POV number 5 is Lothis, a young boy who has lived his entire life in a single room, with a single routine, and knows nothing but that room, that routine, and the AI training him. He becomes far more important later, but this chapter simply introduces him.
POV 6 is the Founder, the dictatorial leader of the Ashamine empire. We find out right away that all is not as it seems with both the war against the psychic insect race the Entho-la-ah-mines, nor with government as it’s supposed to be run in this world. He orders an underling to put down a rebellion, but we don’t find out much about the plan until later, when the underling leads a chapter of his own.
POV 7 is Cazz-ak-tak, an Entho who has been sent back to the human-overtaken Entho homeworld on a special mission. In his introductory chapter we’re introduced to the concept of the Great Thought, a psychic pool where all the Entho minds in the universe can meet, and where collective joy and sorrow is shared across the peaceful species. We also find out that the Ashamine empire has acted as an effective terrorist cell against the Entho species, and that this has turned out terribly for all involved.
The aforementioned Founder’s underling is also a POV character far later, but for spoiler reasons I can’t speak much about his role in the plot. His chapters along with Cazz’s, Lothis’s, and Maxar’s were among the more vivid and interesting in the book. That’s about all I can say about him.
As I mentioned earlier, I love a lot of the cool ideas and tropes Wahrer played with in this book, but the whole thing ended up bogged down by passive language and telly storytelling. As soon as I started getting invested in a character or scenario, I ended up dealing with a barrage of over-explaining about how they felt or thought about something, or passive recounting of what the “had done” prior to the chapter. Overuse of gerunds (“ing” verbs) abounded and all in all, the clumsy writing style made it hard to read. It’s nothing a good writing group or competent line editor couldn’t fix, but since I had to read it as written, it did drag down the whole experience.
Also, Felar is raped in that first chapter, but apart from being a reason for her transfer to another planet, the trauma is never really addressed later in the book. She just kinda… forgets it. And that upset me being a rape survivor myself. I’ve known women in the military who were raped. No amount of training makes you just “shake it off.”
All of that said, the world Wahrer built is what pushed me through to the end. I won’t spoil much, but I will say he did leave a bunch of dangling plot threads for the sequel.
3/5 stars. If you can get through the clumsy writing style and some of the problematic themes, I think it has potential.
It’s an incredibly ambitious blend of the hard sci-fi, thriller, and space opera genres, and for all the big ideas Wahrer presented and the intriguing characters I saw the story through, I really wanted to love it. But let me back up a bit.
The story opens from the POV of our first protagonist, Felar, a hardcore military woman who rose to the ranks on her own merits in the Ashamine military, as she presents information about what Initiates (read: recruits) in the lower ranks can look forward to if they work hard enough. She’s immediately accosted by a former classmate who failed out of the Founder’s Commando (think of them as like Special Ops) training regiment and believes that Felar slept her way to the top. He ignites a fight between her and his top student, then she blacks out as she’s accosted again by a group of men she can’t fight off. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
Next, we meet Wake, an engineer working in the Ashamine mines who is falsely accused of sabotaging (or neglecting, the charges aren’t quite clear) lifts running up and down the mountain he works on. The accident happens off screen and in the past, though he does have a dream sequence that sort of explains it. Someone neglected safety procedures and ten miners died. He’d submitted a bunch of requests for better parts, was instructed to use the faulty parts, and the accident stopped waiting to happen.
Next on the list is Maxar, a convict (don’t recall learning his crime) forced to fight in brutal cage matches on the Bloodsport asteroid for the amusement of the upper class in Ashamine society. He plans and executes his escape later on, but here we simply learn a bit about him and his attitudes toward the empire.
Then, we meet Tremmilly, a foolish and rather naive woman from a backwater planet who grew up underneath the thumb of one of the many Ashamine cults not officially recognized by the government. Her caretaker tells her a prophecy involving 5 people (you can see where this is going) and that she happens to be one of them and must bring them together to stop the mysterious Breakers. We don’t yet know what or who the Breakers are, but the beginning of the prophecy sounds menacing enough to Tremmilly to spur her on her later adventures.
POV number 5 is Lothis, a young boy who has lived his entire life in a single room, with a single routine, and knows nothing but that room, that routine, and the AI training him. He becomes far more important later, but this chapter simply introduces him.
POV 6 is the Founder, the dictatorial leader of the Ashamine empire. We find out right away that all is not as it seems with both the war against the psychic insect race the Entho-la-ah-mines, nor with government as it’s supposed to be run in this world. He orders an underling to put down a rebellion, but we don’t find out much about the plan until later, when the underling leads a chapter of his own.
POV 7 is Cazz-ak-tak, an Entho who has been sent back to the human-overtaken Entho homeworld on a special mission. In his introductory chapter we’re introduced to the concept of the Great Thought, a psychic pool where all the Entho minds in the universe can meet, and where collective joy and sorrow is shared across the peaceful species. We also find out that the Ashamine empire has acted as an effective terrorist cell against the Entho species, and that this has turned out terribly for all involved.
The aforementioned Founder’s underling is also a POV character far later, but for spoiler reasons I can’t speak much about his role in the plot. His chapters along with Cazz’s, Lothis’s, and Maxar’s were among the more vivid and interesting in the book. That’s about all I can say about him.
As I mentioned earlier, I love a lot of the cool ideas and tropes Wahrer played with in this book, but the whole thing ended up bogged down by passive language and telly storytelling. As soon as I started getting invested in a character or scenario, I ended up dealing with a barrage of over-explaining about how they felt or thought about something, or passive recounting of what the “had done” prior to the chapter. Overuse of gerunds (“ing” verbs) abounded and all in all, the clumsy writing style made it hard to read. It’s nothing a good writing group or competent line editor couldn’t fix, but since I had to read it as written, it did drag down the whole experience.
Also, Felar is raped in that first chapter, but apart from being a reason for her transfer to another planet, the trauma is never really addressed later in the book. She just kinda… forgets it. And that upset me being a rape survivor myself. I’ve known women in the military who were raped. No amount of training makes you just “shake it off.”
All of that said, the world Wahrer built is what pushed me through to the end. I won’t spoil much, but I will say he did leave a bunch of dangling plot threads for the sequel.
3/5 stars. If you can get through the clumsy writing style and some of the problematic themes, I think it has potential.
March 1, 2019
This is a great science fantasy series! It only took book one for me to tell. We have a universe colonized by humanity, an alien species who’d rather not fight but must stand against the human aggressor, and the Breakers of the Dawn. Real evil. Of the creepy variety.
Luckily, there’s a prophecy! Six heroes will stand against the Breakers of the Dawn. I don’t want to rattle them all off, instead I want you to stop wading through book reviews and pick yourself up a copy of this. You don’t even have to buy it, it’s free on Amazon! Yeah, that’s my favorite price too!
I kept thinking of the Fifth Element while reading this book! Which is good, because I LOVE that movie. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was pretty good, but I LOVE Fifth Element.
Anyhow, this book was cool like that but unique in that it draws all six of these would be heroes together and gives us scenes from the baddie’s points of view as well.
Remember when you were a little boy in the 1980s and all the bad guys were much cooler than the good guys? No? Well, I do. Anyway, the main baddie here, (no I won’t say who, I don’t want to spoil) the main Breaker, is the coolest! Except for all the bad stuff he does. What a D-bag!
I feel like this series is a High Fantasy set in a space faring society. Nothing could make the guy who created a fanboy shrine called Science Fantasy Hub any happier. Squee!
Luckily, there’s a prophecy! Six heroes will stand against the Breakers of the Dawn. I don’t want to rattle them all off, instead I want you to stop wading through book reviews and pick yourself up a copy of this. You don’t even have to buy it, it’s free on Amazon! Yeah, that’s my favorite price too!
I kept thinking of the Fifth Element while reading this book! Which is good, because I LOVE that movie. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was pretty good, but I LOVE Fifth Element.
Anyhow, this book was cool like that but unique in that it draws all six of these would be heroes together and gives us scenes from the baddie’s points of view as well.
Remember when you were a little boy in the 1980s and all the bad guys were much cooler than the good guys? No? Well, I do. Anyway, the main baddie here, (no I won’t say who, I don’t want to spoil) the main Breaker, is the coolest! Except for all the bad stuff he does. What a D-bag!
I feel like this series is a High Fantasy set in a space faring society. Nothing could make the guy who created a fanboy shrine called Science Fantasy Hub any happier. Squee!
August 16, 2016
I have tried to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but I do reveal a few minor plot points in order to discuss certain aspects of Breakers in depth. Major spoilers are only hinted at and not discussed in detail.
Things that are good
The book's fast pacing will never leave the reader bored.
Distinctive and interesting characters.
Sympathetic bug aliens.
Cyber zombies.
Things I did not like
Some content is not appropriate for all ages. Specifically a suggested rape. Also children die and it is shown in detail, but feels gratuitous.
The ending, while not bad, feels unsatisfying.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
Breakers of the Dawn is soft science fiction. This isn't an exploration on the viability of technology or a study on how technology shapes culture, but a more character focused narrative. Those looking for hard science fiction will likely feel shortchanged by the lack of focus on technology. Breakers is more like Star Wars; a fantasy story with science fiction trappings. I worry that a few Star Wars fans may find some of the content too dark for their tastes, but Game of Thrones fans may recognize the structure and grim tone. Wheel of Time fans should consider giving Breakers a chance since it matches the tone.
The Review
Breakers of the Dawn feels like it has a slow start, but that's because of its structure rather that its pacing which is actually fast. The story jumps between points of view and locations each chapter Game of Thrones style. Consistent pacing does an excellent job of setting up most of the characters and their respective conflicts as each separate character's story moves closer to intersecting during the climax. Around six heroes and two villains each get their own POV chapters. At times it verges on overwhelming, but the story wisely pulls back before becoming over saturated with characters.
All characters feel distinctive and there is plenty of variety. Tremmilly and Cazz-ak-tak stand out as particularly good. Tremmilly is the best character of the book in my opinion and recipient/victim of a long prophecy. She is young and inexperienced, but she throws herself into her adventure without a lot of fuss. Her role seems to be that of a leader who is to gather a bunch of heroes of prophecy and to make sure the tone of the story doesn't become so dark that it alienates the reader. I think she works because the tone in her chapters is the most consistent.
Cazz-ak-tak is the reader's window into the culture of the Entho-la-a-mines, a peaceful race of telepathic bug aliens. Entho culture and their telepathic abilities are given far more attention than human technology. Their chapters tend to showcase a deeper level of detail and world building than the other sections spent on various human planets. It also helps that I am a sucker for bug aliens in general and I adore their rare sympathetic portrayals in fiction.
Other characters have interesting angles as well. Lothis, a kid around 10 years old who lives in an isolated room in a secret lab whose story reminds me of Plato's allegory of the cave. Maxar, a futuristic gladiator, and Wake, a competent engineer, are both characters who give the reader a critical perspective on depths of corruption within the human government called the Ashamine.
The Founder and his right hand man Crasor give the reader a villainous POV. Crasor is of particular note since he stumbles onto the meta narrative of the series, but I won't spoil anything here. Both Crasor and the Founder do okay at selling themselves as villains and they get the job done, but they are not as engaging as the heroic characters.
Felar is the only problematic character. She is supposed to be a highly competent, dangerous, and elite Founder's Commando. Much of the first chapter is spent building up her character and showcasing her skill only for the tables to suddenly turn and end in her possibly being raped. Maybe. It's suggested that something else might be going on, but nothing is resolved by the end of the book and the event in question doesn’t come up again. Regardless, I feel the end of her introduction undermines her character and calls her competence into question.
The early story quickly establishes the setting. The “totally not corrupt” and “definitely not an evil empire” Ashamine is the central human government featured in Breakers. Aging, bloated, corrupt, mismanaged, and overly militarized, the Ashamine is an empire in all but name. They are led by the Founder who is a huge fan of government cover ups and false flag operations. Since cover ups and false flags are expensive, the Ashamine is waging a war of expansion on the only other major power in Breakers, the Entho-la-a-mines
The Entho-la-a-mines is where the meat of the world building is. The Entho have a communal hive mind called the Great Thought and are mostly peaceful to the point where they really don't know how to even fight a war. Although they are bug aliens, they really are more like Hollywood's post western Native Americans with a 'one with nature' theme. Or in science fiction terms, think Na'vi from Avatar rather than the bugs from Starship Troopers. I don’t think the 'one with nature' aspect gets overplayed like in a lot of fiction. Thank goodness, because too much nature worship in fiction makes me want to become a Captain Planet villain. The Entho provide a sharp contrast with the warlike Ashamine, but as the story unfolds it becomes clear that something greater is on the horizon.
While the story's tone wavers quite a bit, there is little ambiguity as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. This straight forward hero vs villain narrative is consistent throughout the book and resonates well with the story's simplistic approach to technology. It makes for an easy learning curve for new readers since there is no need to wade knee deep through pointless techno babble.
That said, the climax feels a bit weak. The book just kind of ends right when it was starting to come together and does not feel complete. Breakers is fairly short. I would guess around 70K words long. I would have preferred around 10K more words to see some of the characters finally interact with one another since the story ends with them meeting and not really getting to know each other. I guess there had to be room for a sequel, but I like books in a series to stand on their own while still leaving room for a sequel. But, I suppose I can't begrudge a book that is wise enough to not bite off more than it can chew.
Ending aside, it's still not bad. The simple and direct writing style is accessible and easy to read. Breakers manages to still feel epic without becoming a sprawling mess like so many other stories that feature a large cast. For those put off by the first chapter, I would highly recommend they keep going since the story gets really good near the end. Breakers of the Dawn is a good quick read and an excellent match for anyone who likes science-fantasy.
Things that are good
The book's fast pacing will never leave the reader bored.
Distinctive and interesting characters.
Sympathetic bug aliens.
Cyber zombies.
Things I did not like
Some content is not appropriate for all ages. Specifically a suggested rape. Also children die and it is shown in detail, but feels gratuitous.
The ending, while not bad, feels unsatisfying.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
Breakers of the Dawn is soft science fiction. This isn't an exploration on the viability of technology or a study on how technology shapes culture, but a more character focused narrative. Those looking for hard science fiction will likely feel shortchanged by the lack of focus on technology. Breakers is more like Star Wars; a fantasy story with science fiction trappings. I worry that a few Star Wars fans may find some of the content too dark for their tastes, but Game of Thrones fans may recognize the structure and grim tone. Wheel of Time fans should consider giving Breakers a chance since it matches the tone.
The Review
Breakers of the Dawn feels like it has a slow start, but that's because of its structure rather that its pacing which is actually fast. The story jumps between points of view and locations each chapter Game of Thrones style. Consistent pacing does an excellent job of setting up most of the characters and their respective conflicts as each separate character's story moves closer to intersecting during the climax. Around six heroes and two villains each get their own POV chapters. At times it verges on overwhelming, but the story wisely pulls back before becoming over saturated with characters.
All characters feel distinctive and there is plenty of variety. Tremmilly and Cazz-ak-tak stand out as particularly good. Tremmilly is the best character of the book in my opinion and recipient/victim of a long prophecy. She is young and inexperienced, but she throws herself into her adventure without a lot of fuss. Her role seems to be that of a leader who is to gather a bunch of heroes of prophecy and to make sure the tone of the story doesn't become so dark that it alienates the reader. I think she works because the tone in her chapters is the most consistent.
Cazz-ak-tak is the reader's window into the culture of the Entho-la-a-mines, a peaceful race of telepathic bug aliens. Entho culture and their telepathic abilities are given far more attention than human technology. Their chapters tend to showcase a deeper level of detail and world building than the other sections spent on various human planets. It also helps that I am a sucker for bug aliens in general and I adore their rare sympathetic portrayals in fiction.
Other characters have interesting angles as well. Lothis, a kid around 10 years old who lives in an isolated room in a secret lab whose story reminds me of Plato's allegory of the cave. Maxar, a futuristic gladiator, and Wake, a competent engineer, are both characters who give the reader a critical perspective on depths of corruption within the human government called the Ashamine.
The Founder and his right hand man Crasor give the reader a villainous POV. Crasor is of particular note since he stumbles onto the meta narrative of the series, but I won't spoil anything here. Both Crasor and the Founder do okay at selling themselves as villains and they get the job done, but they are not as engaging as the heroic characters.
Felar is the only problematic character. She is supposed to be a highly competent, dangerous, and elite Founder's Commando. Much of the first chapter is spent building up her character and showcasing her skill only for the tables to suddenly turn and end in her possibly being raped. Maybe. It's suggested that something else might be going on, but nothing is resolved by the end of the book and the event in question doesn’t come up again. Regardless, I feel the end of her introduction undermines her character and calls her competence into question.
The early story quickly establishes the setting. The “totally not corrupt” and “definitely not an evil empire” Ashamine is the central human government featured in Breakers. Aging, bloated, corrupt, mismanaged, and overly militarized, the Ashamine is an empire in all but name. They are led by the Founder who is a huge fan of government cover ups and false flag operations. Since cover ups and false flags are expensive, the Ashamine is waging a war of expansion on the only other major power in Breakers, the Entho-la-a-mines
The Entho-la-a-mines is where the meat of the world building is. The Entho have a communal hive mind called the Great Thought and are mostly peaceful to the point where they really don't know how to even fight a war. Although they are bug aliens, they really are more like Hollywood's post western Native Americans with a 'one with nature' theme. Or in science fiction terms, think Na'vi from Avatar rather than the bugs from Starship Troopers. I don’t think the 'one with nature' aspect gets overplayed like in a lot of fiction. Thank goodness, because too much nature worship in fiction makes me want to become a Captain Planet villain. The Entho provide a sharp contrast with the warlike Ashamine, but as the story unfolds it becomes clear that something greater is on the horizon.
While the story's tone wavers quite a bit, there is little ambiguity as to who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. This straight forward hero vs villain narrative is consistent throughout the book and resonates well with the story's simplistic approach to technology. It makes for an easy learning curve for new readers since there is no need to wade knee deep through pointless techno babble.
That said, the climax feels a bit weak. The book just kind of ends right when it was starting to come together and does not feel complete. Breakers is fairly short. I would guess around 70K words long. I would have preferred around 10K more words to see some of the characters finally interact with one another since the story ends with them meeting and not really getting to know each other. I guess there had to be room for a sequel, but I like books in a series to stand on their own while still leaving room for a sequel. But, I suppose I can't begrudge a book that is wise enough to not bite off more than it can chew.
Ending aside, it's still not bad. The simple and direct writing style is accessible and easy to read. Breakers manages to still feel epic without becoming a sprawling mess like so many other stories that feature a large cast. For those put off by the first chapter, I would highly recommend they keep going since the story gets really good near the end. Breakers of the Dawn is a good quick read and an excellent match for anyone who likes science-fantasy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2018
The seeds of a good story exist here, and in a few places, they even surface - the child rescue sequence comes to mind.
Unfortunately, the naming conventions (if I had to read another hyphenated name, I was going to throw my Kindle out a window) and - ah - questionable decision making prowess of the characters left something to be desired. The writing, while not terrible, didn’t quite reach “adequate” either.
I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t read it again, and I’ll pass on the sequels.
Unfortunately, the naming conventions (if I had to read another hyphenated name, I was going to throw my Kindle out a window) and - ah - questionable decision making prowess of the characters left something to be desired. The writing, while not terrible, didn’t quite reach “adequate” either.
I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t read it again, and I’ll pass on the sequels.
June 13, 2020
I've settled on 3.75 stars, which I've rounded up to 4 for goodreads purposes. I've had a few days to think about my review and still don't know how to go about it or where to start, so...let's just get to the rambling, yeah? haha.
One random day off, I drained my phone battery sifting through tons of free ebooks via book bub, and this was one of them. A lot of books seem to be offered for free because they're poorly written and it's obvious why there were no takers among any major publishers. But sometimes, free books, self-published books, and books from smaller publishers are hidden gems. I think there must be a lot of bullshit going on behind the corporate scenes of what people think will sell and then just buying up a whole bunch of the same books by tons of different authors. So a lot of times (probably most of the time), the stories I want to read aren't the ones getting all kinds of hype on social media and being sold for like $26 just because they know people will pay. Here's what i really want: an engaging and thoughtful plot, twists I don't always see coming, characters that feel real and who don't make dumb fucking decisions all the time (yeah, I'm looking at you, YA fantasy protagonists), interesting world-building, something worth fighting for, and PLEASE minimal or no romance omg can we not. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I end up reading a lot of middle grade fantasy because sometimes I just need to go on a fucking adventure and not worry about some dude's muscles or how beautiful some girl is. Also, everything is better in space. It's a fact, not an opinion. Okay, it's an opinion. But it's a good one. *awkward smile*
This book started out with a shit ton of perspectives, and I've seen a few reviews that list this as a negative. I personally love books with multiple POVs - when done well. Which it was here. Each character had a distinct voice, and I often found myself skipping over the chapter headers that signified the POV. Even when characters start coming together, all the perspectives still feel necessary. Every character has different information, different life experiences, and they all feel important. I think it was especially important to have Cazz-ak's POV, as a lot of(/most) humans have no idea wtf the Entho-la-ah-mines are up to. Also, please excuse any spelling errors bc I don't feel like looking up all the hyphenated stuff right now. The names are hard to remember but easy to recognize when they come up in text, which is all that matters to me. This is also a really bleak future for humanity, forced away from earth and being conquerors and destroyers of planets and civilizations...but I don't think it's seriously all that far-fetched. There are a lot of awful humans, and they're usually the ones who get to make big decisions like whether to cooperate with or annihilate aliens we might encounter in the future. I'm just saying.
I think there were a lot of clever things done throughout the book, and lots of breadcrumbs left for the reader to pick up. One of the things I hate most while reading is figuring out something early on and waiting until like 95% into the book for characters to catch on/for it to be revealed. This is one of those lovely books that plants seeds, gives a few hints, and just when you're like HANG ON...I know what's going on...the characters figure it out too. It's shockingly rare, which I think is careless. Authors shouldn't insult their readers by making things SUPER obvious but assuming we haven't figured it out. If you read a lot, or observe people regularly in real life, or even if you just have common sense, you'll probably be able to see where lots of things are going.
Speaking of which, what the actual fuck is going on in the Crasor chapters?! Oh my goodness. It's an absolute clusterfuck, and it's brilliantly disturbing and creepy. Sometimes I get things into my head and kind of don't care what the narrative tells me - like how Trillion in the hitchhiker series is 100% Freema Agyeman (as Martha in Who) and I don't care how many times the books say she's blonde or white. That's what she looks like in my head. I'm not a gamer in any way, but my boyfriend is, and the day I met him he was wearing a killing floor shirt with one of those fleshpound(?) dudes on it...and that's what the creepy black-taloned killing machine creatures look like in my head. Likely inaccurate, but there it is all the same. Felar is also the blonde lady in the Mars episodes of doctor who in my head, even though I think the book says she has dark hair? Wake is also Seneca Crane from the Hunger Games movies NO IDEA WHY. My brain is weird, okay??
MOVING ON. This review is an absolute mess. LOL "review"
I particularly enjoyed Wake and Maxar, and Cazz-ak and the Great Thought (I think that's what it was called?) were fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn't really like Tremmily, and it felt like she had the longest and most chapters. Or maybe it just felt like that to me. It's to the author's credit, however, that I was still really interested in what she was up to despite not much liking her.
A thing that impacted me way more than I thought it would was the developing relationship between Felar and Lothis. I am a human who has never wanted children; I will not change my mind. The reaction upon hearing this is usually "why not?!" like there's something wrong with me as a woman because I don't want children. It's a personal choice and a huge decision. I love how Felar said she'd never thought about having children, but she's immediately drawn to Lothis and is fiercely protective of him. I'm also that person who talks to infants like they're adults, without changing my tone or speech to condescend to the child. So I liked when Felar's like.... hey kid, can you run? Good. Get ready. Haha it's just so normal to me. Yeah, she coddles him a little at first and calls him pet names or whatever, but she's just seen and fought and killed some serious monsters, so I think she's allowed to be a little horrified that a kid has been hiding among them seemingly by himself. In any case, I like how she's gentl with him but will defend and protect him no matter what. And I liked how Lothis observed her and decided he liked and trusted her despite having no interactions with humans before. But Jess, reasons. Yes yes, I know. The kid's special in lots of tricky ways I look forward to watching unfold. But I digress.
What are the negatives, you ask?! Well well. This fairly short book took me quite a while to read. I don't think i read more than 30 pages at a time until the end. I was invested and immersed when I was reading, but once I had to put my kindle down, I wasn't in a hurry to pick it back up. I'm still not entirely sure if taht's because the book was a bit "put-down-able", or if it was just me being fucking weird because I was really enjoying it and very worried it would suddenly start to disappoint me. I wasn't crazy about the somewhat rushed and abrupt ending. After the thing with the Divisionists, Crasor's chapters took a weird turn and a lot of it was really confusing. I know it was sort of supposed to be vague and mysterious, but there were times I didn't understand what was happening in that I couldn't picture it in my head. There were a few little moments where he wold start walking when I thought he'd just been lying down, and that kind of disconnect, but i'm not sure if it was my confusion or a slip-up in the writing, or something else entirely. I'm also curious about previous Founders because the current one seems to be a little mad, or at least has two very distinct and separate personalities, and I'm not sure if something is going on with him/the evolution of founders or if he's just not handling things well lately? Also wik, Maxar noticing that Tremmily is pretty about 656468451658 times toward the end really needs to stop. The fate of several races is at stake and we all need to stay focused.
This is basically a stream of consciousness type of review, but I"m trying to say despite my small issues, I really enjoyed this book. I will DEFINITELY continue the series because I really need to know what happens next! Although this book was free and I'm planning to get the next as an ebook as well, I think I'd like to invest in physical copies if I end up liking the next one even more. Wahrer seems to be one of those weird and wonderful authors who writes whatever stories he dreams up, without thought of what will sell well or look nice on instagram. Although, to be fair, I really like the covers, haha. Did I just convince myself to buy the physical books? That didn't go at all how I thought it would. Hmm.
It is entirely possible I will return to this review to edit some sense into it. If you're new to my reviews...I'm sorry what makes sense in my head doesn't always translate into writing, lol. I do hope my rambling makes people want to read this book, though. FOR FREE! Come onnnn who doesn't like free stuff... = )
One random day off, I drained my phone battery sifting through tons of free ebooks via book bub, and this was one of them. A lot of books seem to be offered for free because they're poorly written and it's obvious why there were no takers among any major publishers. But sometimes, free books, self-published books, and books from smaller publishers are hidden gems. I think there must be a lot of bullshit going on behind the corporate scenes of what people think will sell and then just buying up a whole bunch of the same books by tons of different authors. So a lot of times (probably most of the time), the stories I want to read aren't the ones getting all kinds of hype on social media and being sold for like $26 just because they know people will pay. Here's what i really want: an engaging and thoughtful plot, twists I don't always see coming, characters that feel real and who don't make dumb fucking decisions all the time (yeah, I'm looking at you, YA fantasy protagonists), interesting world-building, something worth fighting for, and PLEASE minimal or no romance omg can we not. I'm probably forgetting some things, but I end up reading a lot of middle grade fantasy because sometimes I just need to go on a fucking adventure and not worry about some dude's muscles or how beautiful some girl is. Also, everything is better in space. It's a fact, not an opinion. Okay, it's an opinion. But it's a good one. *awkward smile*
This book started out with a shit ton of perspectives, and I've seen a few reviews that list this as a negative. I personally love books with multiple POVs - when done well. Which it was here. Each character had a distinct voice, and I often found myself skipping over the chapter headers that signified the POV. Even when characters start coming together, all the perspectives still feel necessary. Every character has different information, different life experiences, and they all feel important. I think it was especially important to have Cazz-ak's POV, as a lot of(/most) humans have no idea wtf the Entho-la-ah-mines are up to. Also, please excuse any spelling errors bc I don't feel like looking up all the hyphenated stuff right now. The names are hard to remember but easy to recognize when they come up in text, which is all that matters to me. This is also a really bleak future for humanity, forced away from earth and being conquerors and destroyers of planets and civilizations...but I don't think it's seriously all that far-fetched. There are a lot of awful humans, and they're usually the ones who get to make big decisions like whether to cooperate with or annihilate aliens we might encounter in the future. I'm just saying.
I think there were a lot of clever things done throughout the book, and lots of breadcrumbs left for the reader to pick up. One of the things I hate most while reading is figuring out something early on and waiting until like 95% into the book for characters to catch on/for it to be revealed. This is one of those lovely books that plants seeds, gives a few hints, and just when you're like HANG ON...I know what's going on...the characters figure it out too. It's shockingly rare, which I think is careless. Authors shouldn't insult their readers by making things SUPER obvious but assuming we haven't figured it out. If you read a lot, or observe people regularly in real life, or even if you just have common sense, you'll probably be able to see where lots of things are going.
Speaking of which, what the actual fuck is going on in the Crasor chapters?! Oh my goodness. It's an absolute clusterfuck, and it's brilliantly disturbing and creepy. Sometimes I get things into my head and kind of don't care what the narrative tells me - like how Trillion in the hitchhiker series is 100% Freema Agyeman (as Martha in Who) and I don't care how many times the books say she's blonde or white. That's what she looks like in my head. I'm not a gamer in any way, but my boyfriend is, and the day I met him he was wearing a killing floor shirt with one of those fleshpound(?) dudes on it...and that's what the creepy black-taloned killing machine creatures look like in my head. Likely inaccurate, but there it is all the same. Felar is also the blonde lady in the Mars episodes of doctor who in my head, even though I think the book says she has dark hair? Wake is also Seneca Crane from the Hunger Games movies NO IDEA WHY. My brain is weird, okay??
MOVING ON. This review is an absolute mess. LOL "review"
I particularly enjoyed Wake and Maxar, and Cazz-ak and the Great Thought (I think that's what it was called?) were fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn't really like Tremmily, and it felt like she had the longest and most chapters. Or maybe it just felt like that to me. It's to the author's credit, however, that I was still really interested in what she was up to despite not much liking her.
A thing that impacted me way more than I thought it would was the developing relationship between Felar and Lothis. I am a human who has never wanted children; I will not change my mind. The reaction upon hearing this is usually "why not?!" like there's something wrong with me as a woman because I don't want children. It's a personal choice and a huge decision. I love how Felar said she'd never thought about having children, but she's immediately drawn to Lothis and is fiercely protective of him. I'm also that person who talks to infants like they're adults, without changing my tone or speech to condescend to the child. So I liked when Felar's like.... hey kid, can you run? Good. Get ready. Haha it's just so normal to me. Yeah, she coddles him a little at first and calls him pet names or whatever, but she's just seen and fought and killed some serious monsters, so I think she's allowed to be a little horrified that a kid has been hiding among them seemingly by himself. In any case, I like how she's gentl with him but will defend and protect him no matter what. And I liked how Lothis observed her and decided he liked and trusted her despite having no interactions with humans before. But Jess, reasons. Yes yes, I know. The kid's special in lots of tricky ways I look forward to watching unfold. But I digress.
What are the negatives, you ask?! Well well. This fairly short book took me quite a while to read. I don't think i read more than 30 pages at a time until the end. I was invested and immersed when I was reading, but once I had to put my kindle down, I wasn't in a hurry to pick it back up. I'm still not entirely sure if taht's because the book was a bit "put-down-able", or if it was just me being fucking weird because I was really enjoying it and very worried it would suddenly start to disappoint me. I wasn't crazy about the somewhat rushed and abrupt ending. After the thing with the Divisionists, Crasor's chapters took a weird turn and a lot of it was really confusing. I know it was sort of supposed to be vague and mysterious, but there were times I didn't understand what was happening in that I couldn't picture it in my head. There were a few little moments where he wold start walking when I thought he'd just been lying down, and that kind of disconnect, but i'm not sure if it was my confusion or a slip-up in the writing, or something else entirely. I'm also curious about previous Founders because the current one seems to be a little mad, or at least has two very distinct and separate personalities, and I'm not sure if something is going on with him/the evolution of founders or if he's just not handling things well lately? Also wik, Maxar noticing that Tremmily is pretty about 656468451658 times toward the end really needs to stop. The fate of several races is at stake and we all need to stay focused.
This is basically a stream of consciousness type of review, but I"m trying to say despite my small issues, I really enjoyed this book. I will DEFINITELY continue the series because I really need to know what happens next! Although this book was free and I'm planning to get the next as an ebook as well, I think I'd like to invest in physical copies if I end up liking the next one even more. Wahrer seems to be one of those weird and wonderful authors who writes whatever stories he dreams up, without thought of what will sell well or look nice on instagram. Although, to be fair, I really like the covers, haha. Did I just convince myself to buy the physical books? That didn't go at all how I thought it would. Hmm.
It is entirely possible I will return to this review to edit some sense into it. If you're new to my reviews...I'm sorry what makes sense in my head doesn't always translate into writing, lol. I do hope my rambling makes people want to read this book, though. FOR FREE! Come onnnn who doesn't like free stuff... = )
March 17, 2018
“We are going on an adventure because of a prophecy made by a religion we don’t even believe in.”
This book is free on Amazon.
From the start, Zachariah Wahrer’s story seta a hook and pulls you into a far future. His writing is clear and somewhat stripped down, and yet what he reveals – or doesn’t reveal – provides you with descriptions of places and activities and people that show he is an excellent world-builder. There is enough about each character to make him/her/it recognizable each time there is a reference to a name. Lots of thrilling action, and plenty of suspense. And there is also a cliff-hanger ending that will require the acquisition of Harbingers or the Dawn and Destroyers of the Dawn (which is presently a pre-order book) on the assumption that they are likely as good as “Breakers” or even better.
Check out the full listing of short stories and novels by Zechariah Wahrer on Amazon, and you will find several which are also free
This book is free on Amazon.
From the start, Zachariah Wahrer’s story seta a hook and pulls you into a far future. His writing is clear and somewhat stripped down, and yet what he reveals – or doesn’t reveal – provides you with descriptions of places and activities and people that show he is an excellent world-builder. There is enough about each character to make him/her/it recognizable each time there is a reference to a name. Lots of thrilling action, and plenty of suspense. And there is also a cliff-hanger ending that will require the acquisition of Harbingers or the Dawn and Destroyers of the Dawn (which is presently a pre-order book) on the assumption that they are likely as good as “Breakers” or even better.
Check out the full listing of short stories and novels by Zechariah Wahrer on Amazon, and you will find several which are also free
March 1, 2019
Wild ride coming.
I enjoyed reading your story. I especially liked the way you've done your characters chapters which makes it easier to keep track of their exploits.
I highly recommend this book and the ones that follow.
I will now start book 2
I enjoyed reading your story. I especially liked the way you've done your characters chapters which makes it easier to keep track of their exploits.
I highly recommend this book and the ones that follow.
I will now start book 2
January 28, 2019
Good book, but too many different stories going on to keep track of. I found myself getting lost in who was who a few times.
Could have been a lot better had it been thinned out a bit.
Could have been a lot better had it been thinned out a bit.
February 23, 2019
I slogged through this book and really wanted to like it. The plot was pretty good and nicely complex, but I just couldn't get on with the way it was written.
August 25, 2019
The premise is clever (though not fully revealed until well into the book), but the characters are flat.
October 4, 2020
I picked it up as an impulse purchase after reading the blurb, and I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I feel like the promises of a grand-scale, thought-provoking, cross-genre epic got in the way of telling a compelling story and hooking the reader.
Right off the bat, it was very difficult to get into this story because every chapter jumps to another character with another storyline. Just when you feel like you're getting familiar with a character and what their deal is, you get pulled away to a completely different character and his or her storyline. This repeats every single chapter, and it wasn't until I was a quarter of the way through the book that I had any sense of the characters at all, and over halfway through the book before there was any semblance of their stories intertwining.
I do respect the size and scope of the narrative the author is putting together. It's clear that he has spent a considerable amount of time in this universe thinking about all the various nuances and carefully detailing any number of things. The actual execution of the book, though, didn't really hit the mark, precisely because it did feel like it was focused more on the "bigger picture" than on telling a good story with compelling characters.
It's entirely possible that this might be one of those series where, if you stick with it to the end it really pays off and the reader appreciates the extensive worldbuilding that the author put in, but without caring too much about any of the characters and without having a defined narrative arc that I could enjoy and follow along with, this was a miss for me.
Right off the bat, it was very difficult to get into this story because every chapter jumps to another character with another storyline. Just when you feel like you're getting familiar with a character and what their deal is, you get pulled away to a completely different character and his or her storyline. This repeats every single chapter, and it wasn't until I was a quarter of the way through the book that I had any sense of the characters at all, and over halfway through the book before there was any semblance of their stories intertwining.
I do respect the size and scope of the narrative the author is putting together. It's clear that he has spent a considerable amount of time in this universe thinking about all the various nuances and carefully detailing any number of things. The actual execution of the book, though, didn't really hit the mark, precisely because it did feel like it was focused more on the "bigger picture" than on telling a good story with compelling characters.
It's entirely possible that this might be one of those series where, if you stick with it to the end it really pays off and the reader appreciates the extensive worldbuilding that the author put in, but without caring too much about any of the characters and without having a defined narrative arc that I could enjoy and follow along with, this was a miss for me.
November 22, 2024
: It’s an incredibly ambitious blend of the hard sci-fi, thriller, and space opera genres, and for all the big ideas Wahrer presented and the intriguing characters I saw the story through. A story of a threat to the entire galaxy, all intelligent life. The threat emanates from the breakers, a vicious, malevolent force, being or beings who begin by subverting and changing humans to sweep across space corrupting and killing all else.
The story is told from several points of view. There’s a prophecy! Six heroes will stand against the Breakers of the Dawn. Most of this volume consists of introducing the main characters, tying together the various threads and introducing the threats they might face in upcoming series. This book volume ends before they actually learn about the breakers.
The writing impelled reader to find out what was going to happen next rather than savour the story so very shortly, I stopped noticing the little errors like editing few things and dragged some part that can be omitted.The book's fast pacing will never leave the reader bored ,Distinctive and interesting characters, Sympathetic bug aliens and Cyber zombies.
Something i hate in it Some content is not appropriate ,Specifically a suggested rape. Also children die and it is shown in detail, but feels gratuitous.
The book held my interest to the point that I will probably read the next volume to discover what happens in the inevitable confrontation. The ending, while not bad, feels unsatisfying
The story is told from several points of view. There’s a prophecy! Six heroes will stand against the Breakers of the Dawn. Most of this volume consists of introducing the main characters, tying together the various threads and introducing the threats they might face in upcoming series. This book volume ends before they actually learn about the breakers.
The writing impelled reader to find out what was going to happen next rather than savour the story so very shortly, I stopped noticing the little errors like editing few things and dragged some part that can be omitted.The book's fast pacing will never leave the reader bored ,Distinctive and interesting characters, Sympathetic bug aliens and Cyber zombies.
Something i hate in it Some content is not appropriate ,Specifically a suggested rape. Also children die and it is shown in detail, but feels gratuitous.
The book held my interest to the point that I will probably read the next volume to discover what happens in the inevitable confrontation. The ending, while not bad, feels unsatisfying
August 14, 2022
I'm a little disappointed in this book which has a very good story idea, but which has not been executed very well. The author gives way too much away, meaning you can already figure out the general plot for the whole book at 10% in. That's just bad form. There are no significant plot twists to make up for this.
Secondly, there are far too many characters. Considering we have to get used to the idea of this world and culture, plus the alien species' culture, having eight characters to keep track of is a bit of an ask. This is made worse by the weird names it took me 75% of the book to get used to, meaning I was constantly knocked out of the flow of the story. Since the author lacks the skill of George R.R. Martin, this was a serious flaw in Breakers of the Dawn.
I'm not intrigued enough to keep on with this series. More's the pity, because, like I said, the idea is pretty good.
Secondly, there are far too many characters. Considering we have to get used to the idea of this world and culture, plus the alien species' culture, having eight characters to keep track of is a bit of an ask. This is made worse by the weird names it took me 75% of the book to get used to, meaning I was constantly knocked out of the flow of the story. Since the author lacks the skill of George R.R. Martin, this was a serious flaw in Breakers of the Dawn.
I'm not intrigued enough to keep on with this series. More's the pity, because, like I said, the idea is pretty good.
September 6, 2018
Set far in the future, humans have colonised many worlds and while they have interacted with another species that found and helped them, they have since conquered many of their worlds successfully as this other race is a peaceful one.
Now, something else is happening, a race so alien has emerged and threatens all species on all planets across the galaxy. Yet, a prophecy is also woken at the same time and a small band of people who have never before met will come together, holding the fate of all races in their control...
This first book is the start of the prophecy and the dire emergence of the alien race out to consume all life. We get to meet all of the major characters and the events that have shaped their lives.
Now, something else is happening, a race so alien has emerged and threatens all species on all planets across the galaxy. Yet, a prophecy is also woken at the same time and a small band of people who have never before met will come together, holding the fate of all races in their control...
This first book is the start of the prophecy and the dire emergence of the alien race out to consume all life. We get to meet all of the major characters and the events that have shaped their lives.
November 24, 2018
Civilizations Collide in Breakers of the Dawn
Breakers of the Dawn is a science fiction novel that explores both the interactions between alien species and the inner thoughts of both the protagonists and the antagonists. As a criminal psychologist myself, I appreciate plots and storylines the reveal the historical origins contributing to the ways in which each character perceives the nature of the challenges before her, him or it and the success or failure of the eventual choices made. I especially like reading the inner thoughts of the creatures who are part of a hive mind colony. In today's world our species is suffering from conflicts based upon racial and ideological factors. Maybe we can learn something from Zachariah Wahrer.
Breakers of the Dawn is a science fiction novel that explores both the interactions between alien species and the inner thoughts of both the protagonists and the antagonists. As a criminal psychologist myself, I appreciate plots and storylines the reveal the historical origins contributing to the ways in which each character perceives the nature of the challenges before her, him or it and the success or failure of the eventual choices made. I especially like reading the inner thoughts of the creatures who are part of a hive mind colony. In today's world our species is suffering from conflicts based upon racial and ideological factors. Maybe we can learn something from Zachariah Wahrer.
December 2, 2019
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Breakers of the Dawn through the Voracious Readers Only mailing list.
Breakers of the Dawn is a solid opener to what promises to be a grand space opera tale, though readers should be aware that this book is the first in a much larger series and largely sets the scene for the coming events.
Overall well written, with developed characters and an extensive setting that has clearly had a lot of thought put into it. My only real criticisms would be the introduction of Felar, which came across as uncomfortable and forced, and the regular use of hyphenated alien names which tended to break the flow of reading.
Despite that I suspect I will be picking up the next book in the series once I clear my current reading list.
Breakers of the Dawn is a solid opener to what promises to be a grand space opera tale, though readers should be aware that this book is the first in a much larger series and largely sets the scene for the coming events.
Overall well written, with developed characters and an extensive setting that has clearly had a lot of thought put into it. My only real criticisms would be the introduction of Felar, which came across as uncomfortable and forced, and the regular use of hyphenated alien names which tended to break the flow of reading.
Despite that I suspect I will be picking up the next book in the series once I clear my current reading list.
July 1, 2019
Great start to a series - a colony of planets connected by wormholes, a one leader (Founder) , bent on dominating the pre-existing species on the planets, a prophecy, and several characters connected by the prophecy. Fairly fast paced, but not a lot of character development as there were quite a few main characters, but since this is a series I imagine there will be more development . I enjoyed this book. I received this in exchange for an honest review from Voracious Readers Only.
January 15, 2025
The ideas out forward are very creative and interesting, metaphysical, psychic/consciousness development.
The plot, writing and characters leave room for improvement. The writing is more of young adults level.
But in an age where nearly all published books are clean cut genres with the same old tropes, it's very refreshing to read someone material who is capabale of thinking outside the box and put forward ideas innovative, creative ways.
The plot, writing and characters leave room for improvement. The writing is more of young adults level.
But in an age where nearly all published books are clean cut genres with the same old tropes, it's very refreshing to read someone material who is capabale of thinking outside the box and put forward ideas innovative, creative ways.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2017
The characterization is pleasantly intriguing and the pace is good. I specially liked the descriptions of the Enthos. I enjoyed the read and look forward to the second book. Though the storyline is interesting and plotted well, there is a sense of completion lacking in the narration, especially at the ending.
November 5, 2018
Pretty good
I didn't actually read it but I'm sure it's gud. 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍫🍪🍫🍵🍦🍰🍻🍝🍦🍫🍨🍵🍸🍶🍺🍰🍻🍝🍦🍫🍨☕🍺🍪🍻🍪🍦🍰🍦🍕🍟🍖🍟🍗🍺☕🍺🍶🍻🍝🍦🍫🍧🍪🍦🍝🍻🍫🍔🍶🍦🍰🍻🍕🍩🍫🍦🍶🍰🍻🍝🍦🍩🍦🍶🍦🍫🍦🍝🍦🍪🍦🍕🍻🍝🍦🍶🍔🍶🍸🍰🍸🍪🍴🍫🐾🍪🍧🍰🍧🍰🍧🍫🍦🍶🍧🍰🍦🍪🍦🍫🍧🍶🍧🍰🍦🍝🍦🍰🍔🍪🍦🍪🍺🍕🍳🍫🍯🍯🍊🍲🍱🍊🍠🍊🍈🍒🍠🍲🍇🍊🍌🍒🍞🍋🍈🍊🍠🍏🍉🍛🍠🍚🍌🍑🍜🍋🍞🍛🍌🍏🍜🍒🍞🍲🍠🍊🍌🍒🍌🍋🍊🍌🍒🍌🍒🍌🍋🍌🍲🍌🍛🍌🍛🍌🍊🍞🍛🍞🍊🍜🍒🍕🍻🍫🍔🍶🍦🍝🍧🍫🍫🍺🍝🍻🍫🍧🍪🍧🍵🍧🍪🍸🍬🍺🍪🍧🍕🍦🍫🍧🍝🍻🍪🍦🍕🍻🍝🍺🍪🍺🍪🍺🍕 i i i i i i i if i
I didn't actually read it but I'm sure it's gud. 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍫🍪🍫🍵🍦🍰🍻🍝🍦🍫🍨🍵🍸🍶🍺🍰🍻🍝🍦🍫🍨☕🍺🍪🍻🍪🍦🍰🍦🍕🍟🍖🍟🍗🍺☕🍺🍶🍻🍝🍦🍫🍧🍪🍦🍝🍻🍫🍔🍶🍦🍰🍻🍕🍩🍫🍦🍶🍰🍻🍝🍦🍩🍦🍶🍦🍫🍦🍝🍦🍪🍦🍕🍻🍝🍦🍶🍔🍶🍸🍰🍸🍪🍴🍫🐾🍪🍧🍰🍧🍰🍧🍫🍦🍶🍧🍰🍦🍪🍦🍫🍧🍶🍧🍰🍦🍝🍦🍰🍔🍪🍦🍪🍺🍕🍳🍫🍯🍯🍊🍲🍱🍊🍠🍊🍈🍒🍠🍲🍇🍊🍌🍒🍞🍋🍈🍊🍠🍏🍉🍛🍠🍚🍌🍑🍜🍋🍞🍛🍌🍏🍜🍒🍞🍲🍠🍊🍌🍒🍌🍋🍊🍌🍒🍌🍒🍌🍋🍌🍲🍌🍛🍌🍛🍌🍊🍞🍛🍞🍊🍜🍒🍕🍻🍫🍔🍶🍦🍝🍧🍫🍫🍺🍝🍻🍫🍧🍪🍧🍵🍧🍪🍸🍬🍺🍪🍧🍕🍦🍫🍧🍝🍻🍪🍦🍕🍻🍝🍺🍪🍺🍪🍺🍕 i i i i i i i if i
May 10, 2019
Rebirth of the Breakers
The Ashamine and breakers are evil personified and the significant six are the good personified. It is interesting that evil destroys or converts good to evil and devours itself in the image of the snake biting or eating its tail. Yet the Good prevail via challenges and change.
The Ashamine and breakers are evil personified and the significant six are the good personified. It is interesting that evil destroys or converts good to evil and devours itself in the image of the snake biting or eating its tail. Yet the Good prevail via challenges and change.
April 30, 2018
Thoroughally enjoyable
Keeps you wanting to swipe left.
The characters are detailed enough to be believeable without becoming ridiculous.
Theocracy meets Starwars and the Walking dead and no Jaja Binks.
Keeps you wanting to swipe left.
The characters are detailed enough to be believeable without becoming ridiculous.
Theocracy meets Starwars and the Walking dead and no Jaja Binks.
August 25, 2018
Wow! What a great read, I do about 120 books a year and when I find one that is worth going on to the next one. It is great.
(I read a lot) and this is with out a doubt on of the best books I have discovered. I will be on to the next book..!
(I read a lot) and this is with out a doubt on of the best books I have discovered. I will be on to the next book..!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2020
It is the first of a series but reaches a good finish point.
A priest shares a prophecy - 6 will come together to save the world. The six are on different worlds and most are in danger.
This book gathers the 6 so that the main story can happen - but this precursor is still a good story.
A priest shares a prophecy - 6 will come together to save the world. The six are on different worlds and most are in danger.
This book gathers the 6 so that the main story can happen - but this precursor is still a good story.
January 27, 2025
Prophecy Begun
There are lots of threads that are joining the Prophecy together, good and bad. The characters are well written with lots of depth to them.
The Prophecy going forward is intriguing, it will be good to read.
There are lots of threads that are joining the Prophecy together, good and bad. The characters are well written with lots of depth to them.
The Prophecy going forward is intriguing, it will be good to read.
June 1, 2018
For a first from this author, this book is absolutely fantastic. I’m definitely ready for more. Couldn’t put it down.
August 31, 2018
Excellent, imaginative book. I was captured at the beginning to the end.
September 1, 2018
Parasitic Overlords
So many intertwined species and zealots and prophecies to sort through. Lots of corruption to be dealt with and new friends to meld.
So many intertwined species and zealots and prophecies to sort through. Lots of corruption to be dealt with and new friends to meld.
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