Collected together for the first time, read the opening six-book arc of USA Today Bestseller Kevin McLaughlin's epic starship Satori series! Dan Wynn thought he was grounded forever, but was given one last shot at the stars. Beth Wynn figured she'd never see her ex-husband again, until the adventure of a lifetime brought them back together. John Carraway, billionaire businessman with a an ancient starship with an intact wormhole drive. Charline Foster, rogue hacker with a brilliant past. Andrew Wakefield, former elite soldier and the son John never had. Together they would embark on a journey that launched humanity into the stars, and face perils that threaten not only their lives, but the future of everyone on Earth.
When not practicing hobbies which include sailing, constructing medieval armor, and swinging swords at his friends, Kevin McLaughlin can usually be found in his Boston home. Kevin’s award-winning short fiction is now available in digital form at all major ebook retailers. He writes fantasy in settings both historical and contemporary, and science fiction in both the near and distant future.
Author sets time where Mars trips aren’t as novel and very intelligent business man has exclusive mining of rare energy resources . He also finds alien starship and although Earth desperately needs these resources , he spends these six books ignoring his low capacity mining of this problem solving resources and focuses on ship.
He gathers small, elite team of mixed gender best and brightest. Scientists, Engineers — there is an astronaut and a forever spec op bodyguard. Regardless — IQ trumps common sense. IQ trumps fighting aptitude and training. The Presumptuous, Pretentious, Arrogance throughput I as the small group of best n brightest decide that Technology is best w them. Towards end MC’s comment how their humanities last hope. If they shared tech months earlier situation of saving Earth didn’t , wouldn’t have been big issue. I was skimming after book 1, and just stopped when I read that.
Author lost meaningful credibility by end of first book and candidly I skimmed thru rest of books. Small group of Mixed gender best,brightest can out fight, out think Guerdian, Mannstein, etc
Reminds me of today’s society, culture and impact, continuance of late 60’s. ‘Heck no we won’t go’— the enlightened, the entitled who decide which wars they’ll fight in. Instead of protesting allies and alliances, they wait and then think their too good to die , it’s a no.
Frustrating BS when high IQ scientist, engineer w no experience, but high IQ, can out fight WWI conscripted German Stormtroopers . Can’t wait to see lines of millions to enlist if South Korea ever is invaded.
I gave up at the 23% mark. The characters were just as simple minded in volume 2 as in Vol 1. The plot and the action got more weird and silly with each page. I really thought it would be a fast space adventure with a little originality and maybe an alien or two worth reading about. So much for USA Today writers, again.
A prisoner who attempted to kill his crewmates, wasn't smart enough to realize he'd also kill himself, was captured and then left unguarded. The three men agonize over the safety of their two female crew only after they push or lead them into one danger after another. The plucky crew including the mining colony owner take a leisurely stroll on an alien planet during their secret test flight, since no one will notice that the head engineer, the owner, the famous pilot or the genius programmer are all missing from the solar system for a day or two?
I almost stopped reading at 10% in. The story setup requires that only the US military invests in building a lunar mining base, even though every other country is desperate to mine lunar material. Then a lunar secret is discovered which is successfully hidden from the military. An engineer on the mining colony, who isn't even smart openly argues with his employer that the secret be turned over to the U.S. government but isn't isolated or closely monitored (at least). A foreign power is already aware of the secret which if revealed will cause a global war. It's very Flash Gordon and poor plotting.
The characters aren't as complex as those in Flash Gordon, the plot isn't as engaging as that in Flash Gordon and the action makes less sense than that of a weak Star Trek episode. Why did the writer bother to write this and how can I contact his publisher (my ten year old niece has some adventure stories that compare favorably to this series).
This is a review for the first 6 books in the series, which now come in a single collection. I liked the character and relationship development. I became invested in the main characters and so was not at all pleased with the loss at the end of the sixth book. I liked the slowly advancing science tech linked with alien tech. I did not like that the capabilities of some of that tech was dependent on the plot, rather than the science - i.e. more capable when it suited the plot, less capable when that suited.
The story definitely is action filled, though it is not always enjoyable. There is much death and destruction throughout and there were some extreme liberties taken at times with characters’ physical abilities, which resulted in several examples of SMH unbelievability. These were, of course, plot points defined to achieve a specific need without regard to the science tech previously established in the story. The best example was the character Paul, and the alien Kassresh was a close second. Both were subjected to life terminating procedures and yet, mysteriously, reappear when the author needed them. I found the action disingenuous. On a more personal level, I was disgusted by the treatment of Paul’s character. He is morphed from a duplicitous and conniving human into a ridiculous parody of a villain.
There is a preview of book 7 at the end of the collection. The preview was enough to let me know that there was no reason for me to continue with the series. It quickly spins off into that same "fantastic villain, science-yet-changeable-when-author-needs-change" realm, with lots of needless death and destruction. Nothing I want to read.
It is a fun story reminiscent of E.E.Smith or John Campbell. The antics of our little team is more along the lines of stories at the turn of the last century. The technology is updated, but the Doc Savage type of hero with his collection of uniquely different individuals willing to join together as friends to defeat the wicked aliens without the help of any stinking government getting in the way is just not the way things are done in today's bureaucratic world. Still that's what happens when John Carraway billionaire industrialist goes searching for some mineral deposits on the moon and discovers an ancient war damaged spaceship. He gathers his crew like Howard Hughes, and proceeds to rebuild the ship. Something goes wrong on the first test cruise, and there they are facing the lizard people. The set is just loaded with editing errors. Misspelled words, incorrect words, extra words, missing words. The story is good enough to overlook these problems, but come on! I recommend the book merely because of the old romantic science fiction of the good old days.
Alien technology, more or less indistinguishable from magic, yet controllable by our protagonists? Check. Poor strategic choices leading to crises situations? Check. Intermittently questionable or allegedly brilliant tactics, bolstered by truly extraordinary competence? Check. Evil, powerful, yet darned incompetent aliens? Check. Yup, looks like we've got a classic space opera here.
Although there were times when I was waiting for one of the characters to say "hey gang, let's put on an interstellar war" [apologies to mickey rooney, judy garland, et al], I though that Kevin McLaughlin did a fine job of setting up and running through action scenes in a way that kept my attention.
This particular title is an omnibus of six novella/novels which begin the Starship Satori series. I found it entertaining and will look to pick up additional works in the series when they're discounted on Amazon.
Overall I thought this was a really good series. The characters were very well written and developed. The story was unique. The concept was similar to the story of the Roswell crash. An alien spacecraft is discovered and then reverse engineered and then adapted to human technology. The adventures begin with the first test run, when a well meaning saboteur sends the crew off to another star system. The crew sets down a dead planet to effect repairs and runs into a mystery and then hostile aliens arrive. Unfortunately, this is not the complete series, as I had hoped. It is only the first six books of a thirteen book series. At least it concludes the entire first story arc. Keeping that in mind, that this is only the first six books of the series, I can highly recommend it.
Despite the fact that the Americans save the world again all by themselves, this is an ok book. I wouldn’t have wanted to read each book while knowing that I’d be waiting for the next one! This was really just one story. I had hopes towards the end that all the earth nations would win through together but it was not to be. Regardless, forget that every character in this book is American and enjoy it for the non stop action and adventure. Took a tip from Heinlein with Majel I think but that’s ok. Suitable for teens and older.
I just finished book 6 of the series. I really enjoyed it . The good guys were good and oomplex and delightful to root for. The bad guys were BAD, with absolutley no redeeming values. The individual books were a little on the short side for me but hubby prefers it when I come up for air a couple times a day. When I am involved in a 1,200 page book he tends to get a litle hostile when I am reading for 24 to 36 hours straight. But he knew I was a reader before we married over 38 years ago. Again I hope you take the time to read ths series it is a delight! ,,,
These are shot books so having 6 in a bundle was great. I went through this over the weekend and have already finished the 7th book in the series. Action is good, romance is really light (ok with me) and the plot is plausable. Nice charicter development as well. Author argues you could start with book 7 but I wouldn't recommend it, too many foundational elements in the first 6 books. There are 9 books in the series (don't know if there will be more) but 9 books are done I'm on 8 now.
This is everything I want in a science fiction adventure: space ships, mysterious vanished aliens, new planets, dangerous aggressive aliens, a great crew that becomes a family, an emergency that forces the nations of Earth to work together however briefly. It is a refreshing change to have non military people handling first contact competently. This is a collection of the first six books in this series. I am hungry for more!
Brave series that strikes a cord with me as the characters show their best. I also liked the way they dealt with the threats from an alien species and of course the humanisation of AIs. The box set also helped as it was very easy to carry on page turning straight away.
Started to read on a weeks holiday well the end of the holiday came and went still could not put it down but as all things come to an end so did the fabulous book only to find an other waiting for me to carried on reading I felt like I was part of the crew please keep on with the plot I love it
Lot of good Science Fiction. Lot of fast going action that will keep.you reading !
It's a very good story. Who said we are alone in the Universe ? And of course artifacts from alien science can be discovered. Put those two into a good story and you have this good reading. Some of the characters are too well explained, but hey, it explains the going actions. Don't miss it!
Read the six volume collection. Liked the introduction and development of the leading characters and gradual filling in with background information. The introduction of sentience in the AI was well done. The discovery of the alien groups,alien attitudes and space warfare holds your interest throughout the books. Read it in four days and went on to book 7.
The books are very much like taking a joyride in a fast car. The story is very different to any of the books I've read previously and comes with plenty of action and surprises as the books progress. I would encourage anyone to read these books as I found it compelling and quite addictive. Great characters.
A good read of all 6 novels a billionaire money buys a lot of things lunar based mining operation for an undercover rebuild of a alien vessel earths own resources used no government involvement and off we go for test run adventure starts thing’s go wrong Humans have a way of sticking their noses into where not wanted getting into bigger trouble when trying to fix thing.
This set of books was a hard one to put down. One chapter at a time it draws you in. The dynamics between the Crew of the Satori is wonderful. You have happy moments and sad ones too. There is quite a bit of trouble that they manage to get into. I highly recommend this series to any fan of Space Opera.
I lost interest after the first section. I am interested in space exploration and discovery, not reptile-like aliens that are just like the Klingons. Arthur C. Clark, Carl Sagan, Jack McDevitt, Carl Sagan - their books contain pure wonder for me - about what might be, minus the same-old space cowboys. More ‘Rama’ type books, somebody?
While the editing leaves a lot too be desired the storytelling is 1st class.Younger readers will have a hard time putting down the book unless they have reached the last page.Be warned there are more books in this series.
I thourly enjoyed this set of books and cannot wait for the next episode of their adventure to take me into space with them again. I heartily recommend these books to anyone who enjoys alien adventure and surprise space adventure.
I could have written this earlier but I had the 6 book set and I wasn't stopping to write a review inbetween each one. I thoroughly enjoyed these books. Band G on!
Fast paced action, and people that are very relatable. You find a small crew trying to keep earth safe. At time things become a little bit coincidental. But all in all I liked the books very much.
Wonderful story of Earth's brush with total annihilation and the mixed team of heroic people willing to sacrifice everything to save the people of Earth. Scientifically sound, well-written, and with an interesting group of characters.
Really good books better than most keeps the story going on and it seems like the story is going to end and then there is another twist and you read some more hard to put down
Review of: Adventures of the Starship Satori : Book 1-6
I enjoyed the series. The characters and story line made you want to keep reading to find out what happens next. It influenced me to buy book 7 of the series. I think if you enjoy reading Sci-Fi, you enjoy this series.
Love the characters. Really enjoyed getting to know the crew of the Satori. Great to see the beginnings of new life and the possibilities that are there. Really recommend this series to anyone looking to add to their library.
An enjoyable read if a little short on character detail and motivation. It felt there were some borrowed ideas and some lines from films but I would read more by this author