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Mandarin Doom
Captain Hudson Meyer and his team are on a deep space exploration mission. Part of a coordinated effort to monitor and catalogue the universe, the team are on the return leg of their mission when they are woken by catastrophe that plunges the team into crisis. As Hudson and his team face up to the stark choices ahead of them, so they become exposed to new risks and challenges that test the team’s abilities. Can Hudson harness his crew to battle the increasingly overwhelming odds as terror takes control and exposes them to a series of deadly events that question their resolve and their faith in each other?
417 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 2, 2018
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November 30, 2025
A book about a spaceship that crashes lands on a mysterious planet that is inhabited by dinosaurs should be right up my street. The description on the back says, “aliens meets Jurassic park” and I can see that's what the author was going for. Unfortunately, it doesn't get close to the level of one of those let alone both of them at once.
The Mandarin is a deep space research ship, collecting samples from a variety of worlds that could possibly be exploited later for a profit. On the way home, it is catastrophically damaged by a meteor strike. The ships has to be evacuated, and the crew will have to split between six cramped into the escape pod, as captain Hudson decides who will survive better in the escape pod, and who would work better marooned on planet. The planet they’ve settled on, Scarasta has been surveyed but no information is available, all has been classified. But with the only inhabitable planet in the vicinity is the only option. As they prepare to evacuate, Ella, one of the researchers attempts to sneak out a sample she believes could be a big payout for her, but this ‘creature’ escapes and precedes to devour a chunk of crew. As this alien being grisly absorbs crew members the evacuation is rushed, the escape pod is abandoned, and everyone is forced to land on Scarasta. As soon as they hit planetfall they are attacked by Pteranodons. Dinosaurs somehow inhabit this planet. Now Hudson has to lead his crew awaiting rescue while trying to avoid being eaten by dinosaurs.
While it might be a bit harsh to criticise an indie author, but this definitely needed more and/or better editing and more proof reading. I watched an interview with a successful scriptwriter once, and he said he would rewrite and rewrite, until whatever the person was saying was reduced to the smallest amount of words possible, to make it seem more believable and natural. The author must have never seen that interview, as the characters will say about seven words too many each time, and use some really awkward ill-suited words that just feel odd and out of step with the tone and really jars the storytelling. The choice of words used, can feel a bit try hard and it, for me anyway, acted as a brake on the story, as it just didn’t feel realistic or match the situation and broke any attempt of immersion I may have had.
'Hudson looked back at Lucas and Adam. “same for you guys. Adam, get those guns prepared and ready to fire – we may have to use them in earnest'.
See what I mean? The wording doesn't seem to fit and can seem robotic or robotic trying to be human. This is extended further with explanations going on too much and descriptions that seem to go on forever. Every button, light on device is described and the process of turning them on. OK we get it, and this goes on for paragraphs. Maybe this was done to kind of create a depth to the events and to lull you into the story, but many of these overly described sections, its dragged out that any tension that may have supposed to be there gets lost and many times the act being described so trivial that its just eating up time and patience.
The other thing hindering the writing is poor attempts at humour. It’s not meant to be a funny book, these jokes pop up here and there, like attempts at quips from a buddy action movie from the eighties. Yet none are funny and just cause mild eye-rolling with how cringey they are. You lose any sense of dread or tension, with the characters making painful jokes or comments minutes after a friend or colleague was just killed in usually a very brutal fashion. Like read the room. It just drops in and kills any emotion or feeling of danger. It doesn’t come across as a black humour or to relieve the tension, just as a poor attempt at humour.
And now the story and characters. I think this book could be summed up as a whole mess of missed opportunities, weird choices taken and failure to focus on just one or two main things, rather than throw in enough material and half-baked ideas for at least 2 or 3 books. While I think the big selling point of this book is one of a crew crash landing on a planet of dinosaurs, you don’t get to this part at least to past a third of the way in. The whole beginning is about an escaped alien massacring the crew. Rather than something like Alien, or even the Thing, this creature is more like the Blob; it’s an amorphous glob that eats or absorbs the crew, growing larger each time. Now this is a story by itself. But this is dumped a third of the way through to change to a different story, the dinosaur part. The planet they are stranded on is inhabited by dinosaurs. How is a planet on the other side of the galaxy populated by dinosaurs? Don't think about it. After a few crew members mention this is never brought up or resolved again. Perhaps it will be in the sequels, but you are left with no hints or potential revelations that could be picked up later; the whole thing is just left hanging. Despite over explaining almost everything, the world of Scarasta is strangely blank. No descriptions of lush jungle, tall forests, or desolate desert. Thinking back, I can't remember what Scarasta was supposed to look like. I remember something about water somewhere but that’s about it. While we have paragraphs on turning on a switch or opening a door, you get next to nothing on describing a primeval world. And while the main story is supposed to be about dinosaurs the effort taken to describe and bring this to life feels very like minimal. You get no sense of wonder, of seeing giant animals that have been obsessed about for centuries that have been extinct for sixty-five million years. Do you know that scene in Jurassic park when they first see the brachiosaurs and you see the vista of dinosaur herds? Yeah, you get nothing like that here. They are attacked by dinosaurs (well a Pteranodon) straight off the ship, and then it becomes a never-ending series of deadly and gory attacks. All you ever see are carnivorous dinosaurs, no herbivores at all. Even video games aren’t this bad and will at least have a triceratops turn up somewhere. There's some brontosaurs mentioned very briefly, which for a dinosaur fan like me is telling, as brontosaurus has a convoluted history, from being named in the 1900s then around in the sixties it was believed to be a misidentified specimen and the name was discontinued up until a few decades ago when it was found to be a valid species and the name became legitimate again. Now I have a feeling with how basic the dinosaurs are described in here, the author knew none of this dinosaur’s nerd stuff. The dinosaurs we get are Tyrannosaurus and Ceratosaurus. Plus, Pteranodon and Dimetrodon. Those aren’t dinosaurs; one is a pterosaur, and the other is synapsid from before dinosaurs had first appeared. But the biggest crime is that they are just so bland. It barely gets more than a brown colour and sharp teeth description. I mean there’s a lot to criticise Primitive War for, but at least the dinosaurs leap off the page, with imaginative descriptions on the appearance and behaviours, from the tree climbing Deinochyus and the camouflaged Utahraptors. Here, they get nothing close to that. It normally goes like this; Hudson's crew is surprised by a group of non-specific predatory dinosaurs, in this barren landscape somehow, they eat a number of crew before being machine gunned to death. While the dinosaurs don't get much of an imaginative description, the deaths are bloody and gory, either being ripped apart by dinosaurs or consumed by the amorphous alien.
A lot of crew members are killed, there’s so many, you have no idea how many crews there actually are or really who they are, other than a name for most of them. There are about five characters that get mentioned more than a few times, but the two that dominate are Hudson and his senior crew member Alex (girl Alex not boy Alex). And they not really much to write home about, and they are about as deep as a puddle. Hudson, the secure dependable captain while Alex is the knowledgeable and proper (and attractive don’t forget that) loyal crew member. They go from work colleagues to desperately in love with one another in like no time whatsoever. It’s made a little bit creepy by
1.) Just being creepy as its written, he is catching glances and watching her
2.) Him being her superior officer and the whole power dynamic, a potential workplace harassment claim right there. Taking those issues out, it just badly written. It goes from 0 to 100 in no time, from pining looks by Hudson, to his declaration of love, sleeping together and then being a firm in love couple in something like 3 days. It reads at a poor attempt at building a relationship or something that needs to be protected with this ‘so in love’ couple, who were working colleagues less than 3 days before. It was hard to get swept up with it. There’s repeated attempts to force getting an antagonist, it happens with at least two different crew members with two separate plans before you enter the third act, when a whole new antagonist is thrown in. While the last antagonist is more fleshed out the previous 2, despite them being on Hudson’s crew, it’s all a bit much, with the blob-like alien and the dinosaurs, it should have really settled on just one or two things and focus on them, but that seems to be a problem that runs through this book.
Despite me typically giving any book with dinosaurs in it an extra star, I can't justify with this one. For a story about an interstellar crew that crash land on dinosaur planet, the whole dinosaur part is so boringly put together with a lack of any imagination. The escaped alien goo on the ship, had more energy to it than the whole dinosaur part, and this is a major problem with the book. With a plot that is both quite simple and convoluted at the same time, characters that might not be as bad as one dimensional, but they aren’t three dimensional. The writing when the action kicks off has a pace and energy to it, but outside of that can feel dull and a stale sense of humour and drama, with references that just felt wrong. Like Jurassic park is mentioned when they discover the dinosaurs. Really? Over one hundred years into the future with FTL ships and aliens and Jurassic park is still a thing? Maybe it’s been remade and rebooted at least five times by now on the future. As the first of a trilogy, I don’t think I'll be dragged back. Maybe if I see it on sale I might be tempted, but I'm not going to be out actively looking for it. It’s hard for me to recommend, if you’re after a dinosaur fix, obviously Jurassic Park but Primitive War and Raptor Red run with the idea more creatively, the sci-fi part of the story doesn’t add enough to carry the story. Shame.
The Mandarin is a deep space research ship, collecting samples from a variety of worlds that could possibly be exploited later for a profit. On the way home, it is catastrophically damaged by a meteor strike. The ships has to be evacuated, and the crew will have to split between six cramped into the escape pod, as captain Hudson decides who will survive better in the escape pod, and who would work better marooned on planet. The planet they’ve settled on, Scarasta has been surveyed but no information is available, all has been classified. But with the only inhabitable planet in the vicinity is the only option. As they prepare to evacuate, Ella, one of the researchers attempts to sneak out a sample she believes could be a big payout for her, but this ‘creature’ escapes and precedes to devour a chunk of crew. As this alien being grisly absorbs crew members the evacuation is rushed, the escape pod is abandoned, and everyone is forced to land on Scarasta. As soon as they hit planetfall they are attacked by Pteranodons. Dinosaurs somehow inhabit this planet. Now Hudson has to lead his crew awaiting rescue while trying to avoid being eaten by dinosaurs.
While it might be a bit harsh to criticise an indie author, but this definitely needed more and/or better editing and more proof reading. I watched an interview with a successful scriptwriter once, and he said he would rewrite and rewrite, until whatever the person was saying was reduced to the smallest amount of words possible, to make it seem more believable and natural. The author must have never seen that interview, as the characters will say about seven words too many each time, and use some really awkward ill-suited words that just feel odd and out of step with the tone and really jars the storytelling. The choice of words used, can feel a bit try hard and it, for me anyway, acted as a brake on the story, as it just didn’t feel realistic or match the situation and broke any attempt of immersion I may have had.
'Hudson looked back at Lucas and Adam. “same for you guys. Adam, get those guns prepared and ready to fire – we may have to use them in earnest'.
See what I mean? The wording doesn't seem to fit and can seem robotic or robotic trying to be human. This is extended further with explanations going on too much and descriptions that seem to go on forever. Every button, light on device is described and the process of turning them on. OK we get it, and this goes on for paragraphs. Maybe this was done to kind of create a depth to the events and to lull you into the story, but many of these overly described sections, its dragged out that any tension that may have supposed to be there gets lost and many times the act being described so trivial that its just eating up time and patience.
The other thing hindering the writing is poor attempts at humour. It’s not meant to be a funny book, these jokes pop up here and there, like attempts at quips from a buddy action movie from the eighties. Yet none are funny and just cause mild eye-rolling with how cringey they are. You lose any sense of dread or tension, with the characters making painful jokes or comments minutes after a friend or colleague was just killed in usually a very brutal fashion. Like read the room. It just drops in and kills any emotion or feeling of danger. It doesn’t come across as a black humour or to relieve the tension, just as a poor attempt at humour.
And now the story and characters. I think this book could be summed up as a whole mess of missed opportunities, weird choices taken and failure to focus on just one or two main things, rather than throw in enough material and half-baked ideas for at least 2 or 3 books. While I think the big selling point of this book is one of a crew crash landing on a planet of dinosaurs, you don’t get to this part at least to past a third of the way in. The whole beginning is about an escaped alien massacring the crew. Rather than something like Alien, or even the Thing, this creature is more like the Blob; it’s an amorphous glob that eats or absorbs the crew, growing larger each time. Now this is a story by itself. But this is dumped a third of the way through to change to a different story, the dinosaur part. The planet they are stranded on is inhabited by dinosaurs. How is a planet on the other side of the galaxy populated by dinosaurs? Don't think about it. After a few crew members mention this is never brought up or resolved again. Perhaps it will be in the sequels, but you are left with no hints or potential revelations that could be picked up later; the whole thing is just left hanging. Despite over explaining almost everything, the world of Scarasta is strangely blank. No descriptions of lush jungle, tall forests, or desolate desert. Thinking back, I can't remember what Scarasta was supposed to look like. I remember something about water somewhere but that’s about it. While we have paragraphs on turning on a switch or opening a door, you get next to nothing on describing a primeval world. And while the main story is supposed to be about dinosaurs the effort taken to describe and bring this to life feels very like minimal. You get no sense of wonder, of seeing giant animals that have been obsessed about for centuries that have been extinct for sixty-five million years. Do you know that scene in Jurassic park when they first see the brachiosaurs and you see the vista of dinosaur herds? Yeah, you get nothing like that here. They are attacked by dinosaurs (well a Pteranodon) straight off the ship, and then it becomes a never-ending series of deadly and gory attacks. All you ever see are carnivorous dinosaurs, no herbivores at all. Even video games aren’t this bad and will at least have a triceratops turn up somewhere. There's some brontosaurs mentioned very briefly, which for a dinosaur fan like me is telling, as brontosaurus has a convoluted history, from being named in the 1900s then around in the sixties it was believed to be a misidentified specimen and the name was discontinued up until a few decades ago when it was found to be a valid species and the name became legitimate again. Now I have a feeling with how basic the dinosaurs are described in here, the author knew none of this dinosaur’s nerd stuff. The dinosaurs we get are Tyrannosaurus and Ceratosaurus. Plus, Pteranodon and Dimetrodon. Those aren’t dinosaurs; one is a pterosaur, and the other is synapsid from before dinosaurs had first appeared. But the biggest crime is that they are just so bland. It barely gets more than a brown colour and sharp teeth description. I mean there’s a lot to criticise Primitive War for, but at least the dinosaurs leap off the page, with imaginative descriptions on the appearance and behaviours, from the tree climbing Deinochyus and the camouflaged Utahraptors. Here, they get nothing close to that. It normally goes like this; Hudson's crew is surprised by a group of non-specific predatory dinosaurs, in this barren landscape somehow, they eat a number of crew before being machine gunned to death. While the dinosaurs don't get much of an imaginative description, the deaths are bloody and gory, either being ripped apart by dinosaurs or consumed by the amorphous alien.
A lot of crew members are killed, there’s so many, you have no idea how many crews there actually are or really who they are, other than a name for most of them. There are about five characters that get mentioned more than a few times, but the two that dominate are Hudson and his senior crew member Alex (girl Alex not boy Alex). And they not really much to write home about, and they are about as deep as a puddle. Hudson, the secure dependable captain while Alex is the knowledgeable and proper (and attractive don’t forget that) loyal crew member. They go from work colleagues to desperately in love with one another in like no time whatsoever. It’s made a little bit creepy by
1.) Just being creepy as its written, he is catching glances and watching her
2.) Him being her superior officer and the whole power dynamic, a potential workplace harassment claim right there. Taking those issues out, it just badly written. It goes from 0 to 100 in no time, from pining looks by Hudson, to his declaration of love, sleeping together and then being a firm in love couple in something like 3 days. It reads at a poor attempt at building a relationship or something that needs to be protected with this ‘so in love’ couple, who were working colleagues less than 3 days before. It was hard to get swept up with it. There’s repeated attempts to force getting an antagonist, it happens with at least two different crew members with two separate plans before you enter the third act, when a whole new antagonist is thrown in. While the last antagonist is more fleshed out the previous 2, despite them being on Hudson’s crew, it’s all a bit much, with the blob-like alien and the dinosaurs, it should have really settled on just one or two things and focus on them, but that seems to be a problem that runs through this book.
Despite me typically giving any book with dinosaurs in it an extra star, I can't justify with this one. For a story about an interstellar crew that crash land on dinosaur planet, the whole dinosaur part is so boringly put together with a lack of any imagination. The escaped alien goo on the ship, had more energy to it than the whole dinosaur part, and this is a major problem with the book. With a plot that is both quite simple and convoluted at the same time, characters that might not be as bad as one dimensional, but they aren’t three dimensional. The writing when the action kicks off has a pace and energy to it, but outside of that can feel dull and a stale sense of humour and drama, with references that just felt wrong. Like Jurassic park is mentioned when they discover the dinosaurs. Really? Over one hundred years into the future with FTL ships and aliens and Jurassic park is still a thing? Maybe it’s been remade and rebooted at least five times by now on the future. As the first of a trilogy, I don’t think I'll be dragged back. Maybe if I see it on sale I might be tempted, but I'm not going to be out actively looking for it. It’s hard for me to recommend, if you’re after a dinosaur fix, obviously Jurassic Park but Primitive War and Raptor Red run with the idea more creatively, the sci-fi part of the story doesn’t add enough to carry the story. Shame.
May 8, 2019
A surprising find
Usually a crime fiction fan, but I'd heard good things about this book so decided to buy it. So glad I did as I couldn't put it down. Brilliant.
Usually a crime fiction fan, but I'd heard good things about this book so decided to buy it. So glad I did as I couldn't put it down. Brilliant.
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