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Factory 4-80
Commander Natalia O’Rourke is proud of her new recon vessel NightHawk and her crew of Commandos, but not enthused about their first assignment: to track down yet another radio signal that could be from an alien race. However, when she reaches the Barnard’s Star System she finds a mining operation under attack from an antique battle cruiser ten times her size and a fully operational space-going factory run by a ditzy artificial intelligence several thousand years old.
And then things start to get complicated. She might end up foster mother to a twelve-year-old super-genius, or the voice of conscience to a being with enough knowledge to help the human race destroy itself. Unless the battle cruiser blasts the NightHawk into her composite atoms.
And then things start to get complicated. She might end up foster mother to a twelve-year-old super-genius, or the voice of conscience to a being with enough knowledge to help the human race destroy itself. Unless the battle cruiser blasts the NightHawk into her composite atoms.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2019
215 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 11, 2020
An all around, fun, enjoyable read. I liked the assorted characters, the plot was interesting and moved along nicely, spiced with action and humor for flavor.
I'll be watching for more novels by this author and will definitely read him again.
I'll be watching for more novels by this author and will definitely read him again.
October 3, 2021
I love space science fiction, usually. The world is so well developed, the characters are intriguing to the point that you can't help but fall in love with them, and the plot keeps you on your toes.
I was very disappointed that Factory 4-80 really didn't have any of those. First of all, I really would have appreciated some background on the world in this story. The characters reference Earth as their background, and from snippets about geography and pop culture, things seem to be very similar to what they are today. There's absolutely no background on how this version of Earth became a spacefaring world or what space exploration has been leading up to this point. We aren't even given a year to work from until near the end of the novel. In fact, the story seems to start in the middle and forgo any sort of beginning. We just start off in space, as if this was a series I neglected the first book of, instead of a standalone novel. I even checked a few times to make sure it was a standalone.
As for the characters, if you can call them that, they were really just cardboard cutouts. They, too, didn't have any background, and more importantly, they didn't seem to have any motives. The author here does a lot of telling, not showing, especially about the main character Natalia. There were two characters who actually did seem to have a background and not just exist, and only one of these characters had any semblance of a motive. Which I find strange, considering it was the AI, and all the humans were statues.
The plot was perhaps the most put-together element of this novel, but that isn't saying much. It was somehow very linear and predictable, while also being convoluted and making a lot of jumps from one thing to the next. It did not sit well with me.
Aside from all of that, I'm not sure if this was originally an ARC or first edition, but there are quite a few mistakes. For example, one scene near the beginning has you reading, and then it repeats word for word. The chapters are set up at strange intervals on the page until about 2/3 of the novel, and then they normalize. The characters are occasionally referred to by different names. I hope that in future editions, the novel is edited further and these typos are taken out, because all of these issues make an already mediocre even harder to read or finish.
I think I'm going to stick to series like Nyxia and Zodiac, where the characters are actual people and the story is intriguing and invigorating, and also well thought out. I don't know if I've ever read a true "space opera" in the past, but I truly hope the whole genre isn't as poorly written and executed as this.
Disclaimer:
I was very disappointed that Factory 4-80 really didn't have any of those. First of all, I really would have appreciated some background on the world in this story. The characters reference Earth as their background, and from snippets about geography and pop culture, things seem to be very similar to what they are today. There's absolutely no background on how this version of Earth became a spacefaring world or what space exploration has been leading up to this point. We aren't even given a year to work from until near the end of the novel. In fact, the story seems to start in the middle and forgo any sort of beginning. We just start off in space, as if this was a series I neglected the first book of, instead of a standalone novel. I even checked a few times to make sure it was a standalone.
As for the characters, if you can call them that, they were really just cardboard cutouts. They, too, didn't have any background, and more importantly, they didn't seem to have any motives. The author here does a lot of telling, not showing, especially about the main character Natalia. There were two characters who actually did seem to have a background and not just exist, and only one of these characters had any semblance of a motive. Which I find strange, considering it was the AI, and all the humans were statues.
The plot was perhaps the most put-together element of this novel, but that isn't saying much. It was somehow very linear and predictable, while also being convoluted and making a lot of jumps from one thing to the next. It did not sit well with me.
Aside from all of that, I'm not sure if this was originally an ARC or first edition, but there are quite a few mistakes. For example, one scene near the beginning has you reading, and then it repeats word for word. The chapters are set up at strange intervals on the page until about 2/3 of the novel, and then they normalize. The characters are occasionally referred to by different names. I hope that in future editions, the novel is edited further and these typos are taken out, because all of these issues make an already mediocre even harder to read or finish.
I think I'm going to stick to series like Nyxia and Zodiac, where the characters are actual people and the story is intriguing and invigorating, and also well thought out. I don't know if I've ever read a true "space opera" in the past, but I truly hope the whole genre isn't as poorly written and executed as this.
Disclaimer:
December 28, 2023
I really liked it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews