What do you think?
Rate this book
The Gravitonics Chronicles #1
Abductees
What do a paraplegic construction worker, a beautiful socialite, a stay at home recluse, a beggar from the streets and a United Nations refugee officer have in common? Only the mysterious starship which abducted them could say. Five strangers awaken on a ship over a billion light years from Earth, with no memory of how they got there. Even more mysterious, they have all been given new bodies in peak physical shape and skintight singlesuits equipped with inhumanly advanced technology. They quickly discover that they have been brought to a place called the Puzzle Box, the once-great mining jewel of an interstellar empire but now a shell of its former self. The cores of the nearby planetoids have nearly been mined out, and currently, the Puzzle Box holds only scavengers and a skeleton security force—as well as a growing population of alien refugees fleeing a devastating enemy known only as the Tempest. As the five abductees struggle to find out who, or what brought them there and why, they must deal with the criminals who want to plunder their technology and the indifferent security forces focused on the growing refugee problem. And all the while, the Tempest draws nearer—and an ancient enemy grows quietly in the very heart of the Puzzle Box itself… Don't be scared of the length, the book has previews of the next book and other books at the end.
366 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 11, 2019
About the author
Alan Brickett
3 books1 followerGrowing up I wanted to be one of two things.
An Astronaut or a writer.
I managed to work through getting a Masters in Astrophysics and then found out I couldn't be an Astronaut.
So since I had given that a try I kept on pursuing my other dream of writing. It has taken years, and here I am through the various trials of authorhood and my books are published. It is with thanks that I have the support of my loving wife to help me with this endeavor.
My third option was to be a sword fighter, and I am competent at it with a few wins in tournaments. I am better with a quarterstaff if you know what that is. Sadly, those skills do not pay the bills, and honestly, I like to write more than trying to beat people.
I live in the south of Johannesburg South Africa, and currently, I write as often as I can to continue the series of books that I have while keeping in mind that my readers are important to me and I must always deliver. I feel confident and happy to be a part of this fraternity where I can deliver my imagination to your pages.
I am focused on two different sets of books, one in science fiction and the other in fantasy fiction. In both, I have the overlaps mapped out, development of the stories and a defined beginning and end to everything.
In science fiction, the stories are around the Gravitonic Chronicles which details a set of events starting with Abductees and continues through the various developments in other books to an already planned out end. I add to this setting with a collection of books that begin subjectively (read the books to see why I say subjectively) before the events of Abductees, these are set in a scenario with mankind under the sword of Damocles.
In fantasy the setting revolves around the God Sparks, there are two sets of books one of which has the main character focus on a man called Fenix who you will love if you love anti-heroes. The main series covers the full epic story over the lives of many characters and starts with The Boloi. This series is meant to appeal to fans of epic fantasy serialized into many books with a dramatic conclusion.
You can also follow me at:
https://fb.me/AuthorAlanBrickett
An Astronaut or a writer.
I managed to work through getting a Masters in Astrophysics and then found out I couldn't be an Astronaut.
So since I had given that a try I kept on pursuing my other dream of writing. It has taken years, and here I am through the various trials of authorhood and my books are published. It is with thanks that I have the support of my loving wife to help me with this endeavor.
My third option was to be a sword fighter, and I am competent at it with a few wins in tournaments. I am better with a quarterstaff if you know what that is. Sadly, those skills do not pay the bills, and honestly, I like to write more than trying to beat people.
I live in the south of Johannesburg South Africa, and currently, I write as often as I can to continue the series of books that I have while keeping in mind that my readers are important to me and I must always deliver. I feel confident and happy to be a part of this fraternity where I can deliver my imagination to your pages.
I am focused on two different sets of books, one in science fiction and the other in fantasy fiction. In both, I have the overlaps mapped out, development of the stories and a defined beginning and end to everything.
In science fiction, the stories are around the Gravitonic Chronicles which details a set of events starting with Abductees and continues through the various developments in other books to an already planned out end. I add to this setting with a collection of books that begin subjectively (read the books to see why I say subjectively) before the events of Abductees, these are set in a scenario with mankind under the sword of Damocles.
In fantasy the setting revolves around the God Sparks, there are two sets of books one of which has the main character focus on a man called Fenix who you will love if you love anti-heroes. The main series covers the full epic story over the lives of many characters and starts with The Boloi. This series is meant to appeal to fans of epic fantasy serialized into many books with a dramatic conclusion.
You can also follow me at:
https://fb.me/AuthorAlanBrickett
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 2, 2019
The basic plot of this book is that five people who have innate skills but who have found themselves on the wrong side of fate, are abducted by an alien craft. As an example, one is an ex SAS soldier who for one reason or another is down at the bottom of the food chain. They are treated to make them in optimal condition and are taken to deal with some major crisis in a galaxy far far away. At first they have no idea why the ship has put them on a massive construct called the Puzzle Box. It appears the Puzzle Box is a refuge for a whole lot of aliens fleeing from some unknown horror, and gradually they decide the alien(s) that abducted them wants them to do something to help. They have to guess what.
I suppose this would qualify as hard science fiction, although I am not sure what that means. They are given fearsome technology based on the graviton, and from what is written it looks as if at least part of this was inspired by string theory but take it to be purely imaginative, which in terms of imagination it gets full marks. For actual science, gravity that powerful??? The technology is so fearsome that to some extent it reduces the suspense, as opponents can only present problems through quantity. There is an attempt to explain teleportation in terms of quantum entanglement, but this, I am afraid is again simply fancy. Thus suppose I have Fred at A and I intend to teleport him to B. To use entanglement, there has to be a Fred* at B because entanglement occurs between pairs. Actually, between pairs of quantum particles, not Fred-sized beings, but that is another matter.
However, the story is fascinating and well-constructed. Along the way I asked myself the odd question, why this? As the story progressed, I found there was usually a very good reason, so look for clues; they mean something. Of the five abductees, three are very well drawn as characters, one slightly less so, and at times Marc seemed to be not quite consistent. The descriptions are good and you can easily imagine the scenes. There are also well-constructed action scenes, the last one of which is quite complicated and proceeds for many pages and actually introduces something that reduces the technical advantage very slightly. This is one of the few books where everything seems to follow in a causal fashion and there is no freak of luck. Well done.
I suppose this would qualify as hard science fiction, although I am not sure what that means. They are given fearsome technology based on the graviton, and from what is written it looks as if at least part of this was inspired by string theory but take it to be purely imaginative, which in terms of imagination it gets full marks. For actual science, gravity that powerful??? The technology is so fearsome that to some extent it reduces the suspense, as opponents can only present problems through quantity. There is an attempt to explain teleportation in terms of quantum entanglement, but this, I am afraid is again simply fancy. Thus suppose I have Fred at A and I intend to teleport him to B. To use entanglement, there has to be a Fred* at B because entanglement occurs between pairs. Actually, between pairs of quantum particles, not Fred-sized beings, but that is another matter.
However, the story is fascinating and well-constructed. Along the way I asked myself the odd question, why this? As the story progressed, I found there was usually a very good reason, so look for clues; they mean something. Of the five abductees, three are very well drawn as characters, one slightly less so, and at times Marc seemed to be not quite consistent. The descriptions are good and you can easily imagine the scenes. There are also well-constructed action scenes, the last one of which is quite complicated and proceeds for many pages and actually introduces something that reduces the technical advantage very slightly. This is one of the few books where everything seems to follow in a causal fashion and there is no freak of luck. Well done.
May 26, 2019
The starship’s abductees – prepare for an uncommon flight
South African author Alan Brickett has moved from being an aspiring astronaut to finding his own way into space and beyond through his novels! He has opened the portals to his mysterious worlds with two series – FENIX AND THE GOD SPARKS and THE GRAVITONICS CHRONICLES. He lives in Johannesburg.
Writing appealing science fiction is an art that usually takes several outings on the part of the creator to traverse that bridge between reality and fantasy with aplomb. Push the character types too far, dwell on tough names of planets and space accessories too much, and disallow connection to the line of the story with extraneous sidebars and the interest on the part of the reader flails. Such is not the case with Alan Brickett. He marches onto the launching pad with surety and his story emerges a winner.
ABDUCTEES is lengthy in pages but concise in focus, making the book one that pleads to absorbed from page one to the fine ending. The author provides a fine distillation of the plot: ‘What do a paraplegic construction worker, a beautiful socialite, a stay at home recluse, a beggar from the streets and a United Nations refugee officer have in common? Only the mysterious starship which abducted them could say. Five strangers awaken on a ship over a billion light years from Earth, with no memory of how they got there. Even more mysterious, they have all been given new bodies in peak physical shape and skintight singlesuits equipped with inhumanly advanced technology. They quickly discover that they have been brought to a place called the Puzzle Box, the once-great mining jewel of an interstellar empire but now a shell of its former self. The cores of the nearby planetoids have nearly been mined out, and currently, the Puzzle Box holds only scavengers and a skeleton security force—as well as a growing population of alien refugees fleeing a devastating enemy known only as the Tempest. As the five abductees struggle to find out who, or what brought them there and why, they must deal with the criminals who want to plunder their technology and the indifferent security forces focused on the growing refugee problem. And all the while, the Tempest draws nearer—and an ancient enemy grows quietly in the very heart of the Puzzle Box itself…’
Alan’s prose is colorful and rich in imagery, and begins with the following – ‘A bright purple light flares up the side of the skyscraper. While it is not light which is invisible to the human eye, the spectrum which includes ultraviolet and infrared, it lasts for less than a tenth of a second. Only enough time for anyone who did see it to assume it was some kind of reflection from among the various sources of light in the city. Occurring as quickly as a lightening bolt it would be difficult to say whether the top or the bottom of the shaft of violet lights was the start or the end. What was a fact was that the hospital room on the first floor in the west wing that got lit up was definitely affected by it…’ And this is merely a fraction of the Prologue. The magic grows from there.
Solid ideas, well cast with interesting characters, and fine sense of mystery, this book is a terrific start of a new series by a welcome new author. Recommended.
South African author Alan Brickett has moved from being an aspiring astronaut to finding his own way into space and beyond through his novels! He has opened the portals to his mysterious worlds with two series – FENIX AND THE GOD SPARKS and THE GRAVITONICS CHRONICLES. He lives in Johannesburg.
Writing appealing science fiction is an art that usually takes several outings on the part of the creator to traverse that bridge between reality and fantasy with aplomb. Push the character types too far, dwell on tough names of planets and space accessories too much, and disallow connection to the line of the story with extraneous sidebars and the interest on the part of the reader flails. Such is not the case with Alan Brickett. He marches onto the launching pad with surety and his story emerges a winner.
ABDUCTEES is lengthy in pages but concise in focus, making the book one that pleads to absorbed from page one to the fine ending. The author provides a fine distillation of the plot: ‘What do a paraplegic construction worker, a beautiful socialite, a stay at home recluse, a beggar from the streets and a United Nations refugee officer have in common? Only the mysterious starship which abducted them could say. Five strangers awaken on a ship over a billion light years from Earth, with no memory of how they got there. Even more mysterious, they have all been given new bodies in peak physical shape and skintight singlesuits equipped with inhumanly advanced technology. They quickly discover that they have been brought to a place called the Puzzle Box, the once-great mining jewel of an interstellar empire but now a shell of its former self. The cores of the nearby planetoids have nearly been mined out, and currently, the Puzzle Box holds only scavengers and a skeleton security force—as well as a growing population of alien refugees fleeing a devastating enemy known only as the Tempest. As the five abductees struggle to find out who, or what brought them there and why, they must deal with the criminals who want to plunder their technology and the indifferent security forces focused on the growing refugee problem. And all the while, the Tempest draws nearer—and an ancient enemy grows quietly in the very heart of the Puzzle Box itself…’
Alan’s prose is colorful and rich in imagery, and begins with the following – ‘A bright purple light flares up the side of the skyscraper. While it is not light which is invisible to the human eye, the spectrum which includes ultraviolet and infrared, it lasts for less than a tenth of a second. Only enough time for anyone who did see it to assume it was some kind of reflection from among the various sources of light in the city. Occurring as quickly as a lightening bolt it would be difficult to say whether the top or the bottom of the shaft of violet lights was the start or the end. What was a fact was that the hospital room on the first floor in the west wing that got lit up was definitely affected by it…’ And this is merely a fraction of the Prologue. The magic grows from there.
Solid ideas, well cast with interesting characters, and fine sense of mystery, this book is a terrific start of a new series by a welcome new author. Recommended.
May 27, 2019
Everything is so well thought out
Abductees is by far one of the best Sci-Fi books I’ve ever read. The plot line of 5 diverse individuals dropped into a once thriving, now depleted spot in the universe is intriguing. But it’s truly the characters, their well defined personas and the way they interact as they work to accomplish their goals is what makes this story stellar. They are so diverse that I think everyone could see a little of themselves in one of their character which draws the reader in more. I can’t wait to continue the story.
Abductees is by far one of the best Sci-Fi books I’ve ever read. The plot line of 5 diverse individuals dropped into a once thriving, now depleted spot in the universe is intriguing. But it’s truly the characters, their well defined personas and the way they interact as they work to accomplish their goals is what makes this story stellar. They are so diverse that I think everyone could see a little of themselves in one of their character which draws the reader in more. I can’t wait to continue the story.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews