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Remnants of the Future #1
Unexpected Destiny
When it comes to saving the galaxy from an apocalyptic force, Kyren would’ve picked anyone to be the hero…
Anyone, but himself.
With half the sector in ruin and whole star systems filled with the husks of starfleets that failed to stop the Deathbots, one self-taught robot boxer will attempt what no one thought possible.
He’ll save the galaxy. But he won’t do it alone.
Aided by a cat-girl engineer, an eccentric alien scientist, and a child oracle, they will search the galaxy for the key to victory against the unstoppable juggernaut that is the Deathbots.
With a maniacal cyborg dogging their tail, and space pirates around every moon, will Kyren find a way to defeat his foe?
Or will the galaxy burn as all life is snuffed out… one planet at a time.
Anyone, but himself.
With half the sector in ruin and whole star systems filled with the husks of starfleets that failed to stop the Deathbots, one self-taught robot boxer will attempt what no one thought possible.
He’ll save the galaxy. But he won’t do it alone.
Aided by a cat-girl engineer, an eccentric alien scientist, and a child oracle, they will search the galaxy for the key to victory against the unstoppable juggernaut that is the Deathbots.
With a maniacal cyborg dogging their tail, and space pirates around every moon, will Kyren find a way to defeat his foe?
Or will the galaxy burn as all life is snuffed out… one planet at a time.
- GenresScience FictionAudiobook
246 pages, Paperback
Published March 30, 2019
30 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 24, 2019
I'll most likely review this fully with snippets from Treasure Planet since this took me right back to my childhood and is so damn reminiscent of the best Disney movie ever.
July 26, 2019
I liked this book. I was in the mood for a fun, adventurous space story, and this one gave me what I wanted. There are interesting aliens, cool gadgets, space ships battles, and tons of action. It's never boring.
My only gripe is that I wanted to learn more about the characters. They're always on the run and fighting their way out of a jam. They would get away from danger, and get about 2 seconds to catch their breath before something else attacked them and they're back to fighting for their lives again. I kinda wanted them to have some down time so they could get developed a little better. Maybe that will take place in the next book.
I listened to the audiobook version, and the narration was very well done.
My only gripe is that I wanted to learn more about the characters. They're always on the run and fighting their way out of a jam. They would get away from danger, and get about 2 seconds to catch their breath before something else attacked them and they're back to fighting for their lives again. I kinda wanted them to have some down time so they could get developed a little better. Maybe that will take place in the next book.
I listened to the audiobook version, and the narration was very well done.
June 9, 2020
I didn’t hate this, but it could have been sooo much better. A little more characterisation, a little more world building and for the love of the goddess, it felt like the author had a list of words to use instead of ‘said’ and diligently worked his way through it until he could call out ‘bingo!’.
I did like Alice’s wrench, though.
I did like Alice’s wrench, though.
December 15, 2020
Story/plot/wold building/character development = 3.5-4
Mechanics = 2.0
Dialog tag fails galore. Some of my favorites: Cockily and embarrassingly. 90% more colorful dialog tags than needed/wanted. It was intensely distracting.
At least there's no head-hopping.
Plot drivers: Future knowledge that the character only feeds out to string the plot (and characters) along by the short and curlies.
Sonic screwdriver...erm...wrench-thinigie. Just like sonic screwdriver it's the get-out-of-danger card.
Despite these items I was still able to complete the book and ...I'm going to give the second one a try in the hopes that the author stops with the colorful dialog tags.
Not going to give this a rating though...just leaving this note. I don't want to bring down the score on a few technicalities.
Mechanics = 2.0
Dialog tag fails galore. Some of my favorites: Cockily and embarrassingly. 90% more colorful dialog tags than needed/wanted. It was intensely distracting.
At least there's no head-hopping.
Plot drivers: Future knowledge that the character only feeds out to string the plot (and characters) along by the short and curlies.
Sonic screwdriver...erm...wrench-thinigie. Just like sonic screwdriver it's the get-out-of-danger card.
Despite these items I was still able to complete the book and ...I'm going to give the second one a try in the hopes that the author stops with the colorful dialog tags.
Not going to give this a rating though...just leaving this note. I don't want to bring down the score on a few technicalities.
October 8, 2020
Unexpected Destiny is a science fiction space opera, written by Trevor Ames Gregg. We follow Kyren, a human that is tired of living the life he’s currently stuck in with his brother Athar, doing robot fighting matches. Of course, things go really wrong when Kyren makes a stupid decision and his brother is killed, so he flees the planet he is currently on, but ends up being caught and sold as a slave. After that, his life takes a 180° turn, and he is suddenly destined to save the universe with a collection of misfits.
The book is generally well written, with plenty of well paced action. Scenes and dialogs generally flow well, and the prose is good enough to keep your attention. Unfortunately, the writing isn’t enough to scoop this story up to an acceptable level, as I found several issues that really ruined it for me.
The biggest flaw was that I found the overall writing extremely unimaginative. At first I noticed a severe lack of descriptive writing for scenes. The author tries to portray the story as a thriving futuristic science fiction world, with crazy technology and varied aliens, but it ultimately falls completely flat. There’s almost no descriptions to set the scenes, apart from a few random descriptions of things, and nothing that really pulls the scene down over the reader to make one feel that one is there. Sure, one can use ones imagination, but the author gave practically nothing to go on. Aliens were portrayed to be very different, which is good, but the author usually just gave a short description of one specific feature/appendix/behavior/sound of each species, and then made an analogy to an Earth being. Over the course of the story, I noticed aliens being described as looking like an: Insect, dog, mermaid, pixie, frog, fern, centaur, hippopotamus, saurian, caterpillar, fly, cat, lizard. One was even being described as having “cartoonish features”. Given that our main character is unlikely to have ever been to Earth, and its contemporary culture being a thing of the past (And perhaps in a galaxy far far away), this kind of writing just comes of as lazy and unimaginative. Coupled with contemporary Earth slang over and over again, the entire world building just falls completely apart. The main character even wears denim trousers.
Characters were almost completely one-dimensional, with only the main character, Kyren, having a pinch of background - One that was unfortunately ignored following the first couple of chapters. It was a pity, because it was actually the most interesting part of the book to me, learning about growing up in the slums, with hardships around every corner. All other characters were there to be a role, and not to be developed in any way. Heck, we even have the exotic cat-like alien with the very imaginative name…. Alice. Oh, and the author made sure to tell us that her particular species were anatomically compatible with humans - I wonder what that leads to… The main character falls in love with her the moment he meets her (The first woman in the story even), and for some reason she also loves him back, because… I don’t know? They just did. We didn’t see any cross-character interactions that could result in the development of feelings. Maybe it was just a matter of their compatible genitals.
The villain was also completely one-dimensional, and he wanted to destroy the entire galaxy, because someone killed his wife. Sure, be mad, but destroy the galaxy? Wut?
Storywise it was okay, albeit somewhat over the top, and very plothole filled. Backwater planet looser is supposed to save the universe, because of a destiny. Uhm.. Yeah. And then we have the generic space pirates, time manipulation (Plot holes!), and a sacred relic that will save the world because it is sacred. The villain he had a super AI, which can predict everything, based on absolutely no data. It could predict everything happening in detail, including time manipulation, but it couldn’t predict the outcome of a 1 on 1 fist fight? It was ridiculous, and so far out! His incentive to be an antagonist for our main character was simply that the AI said he had to do so. The above mentioned cat-alien was a variable it count account for, which, given the scope of everything else should be absolutely nothing in comparison.
And then there were inserted several interludes that broke up the main story. It was a bit strange, because it seems they were only there to give a bit of incentive to background characters, and explain their positions in the story later on. The interludes were numerated, which I found strange.
And the story ends in a giant cliffhanger, in case you don’t like those.
It was a somewhat short story, especially considering the sequels are 33% and 100% longer in comparison. It would have been markedly improved if the author had expanded the story, and fleshed out scenes and characters.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Ryan Kennard Burke, who did an amazing job of it. Clear narration, good pacing, with an absolutely excellent set of different voices for individual characters. Really enjoyed his narration!
Overall, if you enjoy science fiction space opera with plenty of action, with a very generic and out-there story written in an extremely unimaginative way, with shallow characters, then this is for you. Unfortunately, I think there are much better picks out there.
I received this audiobook for free in return for a review. I have no affiliation with the author, the narrator, the publisher, or their pets (Although I am sure the latter are quite nice!).
The book is generally well written, with plenty of well paced action. Scenes and dialogs generally flow well, and the prose is good enough to keep your attention. Unfortunately, the writing isn’t enough to scoop this story up to an acceptable level, as I found several issues that really ruined it for me.
The biggest flaw was that I found the overall writing extremely unimaginative. At first I noticed a severe lack of descriptive writing for scenes. The author tries to portray the story as a thriving futuristic science fiction world, with crazy technology and varied aliens, but it ultimately falls completely flat. There’s almost no descriptions to set the scenes, apart from a few random descriptions of things, and nothing that really pulls the scene down over the reader to make one feel that one is there. Sure, one can use ones imagination, but the author gave practically nothing to go on. Aliens were portrayed to be very different, which is good, but the author usually just gave a short description of one specific feature/appendix/behavior/sound of each species, and then made an analogy to an Earth being. Over the course of the story, I noticed aliens being described as looking like an: Insect, dog, mermaid, pixie, frog, fern, centaur, hippopotamus, saurian, caterpillar, fly, cat, lizard. One was even being described as having “cartoonish features”. Given that our main character is unlikely to have ever been to Earth, and its contemporary culture being a thing of the past (And perhaps in a galaxy far far away), this kind of writing just comes of as lazy and unimaginative. Coupled with contemporary Earth slang over and over again, the entire world building just falls completely apart. The main character even wears denim trousers.
Characters were almost completely one-dimensional, with only the main character, Kyren, having a pinch of background - One that was unfortunately ignored following the first couple of chapters. It was a pity, because it was actually the most interesting part of the book to me, learning about growing up in the slums, with hardships around every corner. All other characters were there to be a role, and not to be developed in any way. Heck, we even have the exotic cat-like alien with the very imaginative name…. Alice. Oh, and the author made sure to tell us that her particular species were anatomically compatible with humans - I wonder what that leads to… The main character falls in love with her the moment he meets her (The first woman in the story even), and for some reason she also loves him back, because… I don’t know? They just did. We didn’t see any cross-character interactions that could result in the development of feelings. Maybe it was just a matter of their compatible genitals.
The villain was also completely one-dimensional, and he wanted to destroy the entire galaxy, because someone killed his wife. Sure, be mad, but destroy the galaxy? Wut?
Storywise it was okay, albeit somewhat over the top, and very plothole filled. Backwater planet looser is supposed to save the universe, because of a destiny. Uhm.. Yeah. And then we have the generic space pirates, time manipulation (Plot holes!), and a sacred relic that will save the world because it is sacred. The villain he had a super AI, which can predict everything, based on absolutely no data. It could predict everything happening in detail, including time manipulation, but it couldn’t predict the outcome of a 1 on 1 fist fight? It was ridiculous, and so far out! His incentive to be an antagonist for our main character was simply that the AI said he had to do so. The above mentioned cat-alien was a variable it count account for, which, given the scope of everything else should be absolutely nothing in comparison.
And then there were inserted several interludes that broke up the main story. It was a bit strange, because it seems they were only there to give a bit of incentive to background characters, and explain their positions in the story later on. The interludes were numerated, which I found strange.
And the story ends in a giant cliffhanger, in case you don’t like those.
It was a somewhat short story, especially considering the sequels are 33% and 100% longer in comparison. It would have been markedly improved if the author had expanded the story, and fleshed out scenes and characters.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Ryan Kennard Burke, who did an amazing job of it. Clear narration, good pacing, with an absolutely excellent set of different voices for individual characters. Really enjoyed his narration!
Overall, if you enjoy science fiction space opera with plenty of action, with a very generic and out-there story written in an extremely unimaginative way, with shallow characters, then this is for you. Unfortunately, I think there are much better picks out there.
I received this audiobook for free in return for a review. I have no affiliation with the author, the narrator, the publisher, or their pets (Although I am sure the latter are quite nice!).
September 25, 2019
Non-stop action
This book is written like an action movie. the characters in this book stumbled through scene after scene of action pack adventure. The downside of this is we never truly get to understand the characters. I guess what I am saying is, this book lacks character developed. Because of the lack of character development I have invested nothing in them.
I'm not saying that this is a bad book I guess it's just not for me. I will give this book three stars. It was a fun ride but the lack of character development hurt this book.
Audible:
The audio version of this and easy to listen to.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
This book is written like an action movie. the characters in this book stumbled through scene after scene of action pack adventure. The downside of this is we never truly get to understand the characters. I guess what I am saying is, this book lacks character developed. Because of the lack of character development I have invested nothing in them.
I'm not saying that this is a bad book I guess it's just not for me. I will give this book three stars. It was a fun ride but the lack of character development hurt this book.
Audible:
The audio version of this and easy to listen to.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
February 28, 2022
Enjoyed this romp in space. Not a heavy read but a good light novel with fun and fight included.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews