The Forlorn Adventure

by Amir Falique

In the year 2025, A’jon Emir is honored to be the first Bruneian astronaut. He wrote a computer software capable of decrypting complex codes and break ancient languages. His sole mission is to install this software personally at the newly constructed space station on the moon. But little does he know the world he’s leaving behind is about to change possibly forever. Will his simple task go according to plan? Or will it spiral out of control?

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

238 pages, Paperback

First published December 30, 2013

Reviews

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my book from Brunei for the Read The World challenge. Brunei is one of the countries which is particularly difficult to find books from; so when I found this self-published ‘science fiction thriller’ on Amazon I snapped it up.

It is the story of A’jon, a man chosen to be Brunei’s first astronaut because of his expertise in cryptography. His mission is caught up in Dramatic Events, and [SPOILER ALERT, I guess], he is put in suspended animation for 500 years, floating in space, before being revived and brought back to earth where his cryptographic expertise once more gets him involved in Dramatic Events and [even more SPOILERY] he saves the world.

Sadly it’s not very good; it’s the kind of book that makes people suspicious of self-publishing. This is a sample of the clunky prose and dialogue:

A’jon grabbed his fork and drove it into the middle of the plate. He twirled the fork several times until he grabbed the right amount, and then lifted it without a strand hanging and put it in his mouth. He was careful to not drop any of the sauce and get his new clothes dirty. His tongue reacted instantly to the food. “Mmm, that’s delicious!” he said while chewing the first bite.

“Makes me proud to be an Asian. Pasta originated from China before it was brought to Italy. It’s amazing how the combination of water and wheat can form such remarkable dough. You can mold it into almost any shape you like — fusilli, tagliatelle, ziti, rice vermicelli.”

With each bite, A’jon wrapped as much of the cheesy sauce round his tongue as he could before the flavor disappeared.

I’m resisting the urge to really pull this book apart; because it’s a soft target, and also because its flaws are essentially innocuous. It’s not particularly annoying or offensive, it’s just badly written.

[zirah · Rating 2 out of 5]

call that high camp 🤷🏽‍♀️

[Jane Wilkinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my ‘Reading Around the World’ challenge. It was one of very few options for the country of Brunei. The plot, centring on the first Bruneian to go into space, was promising. Unfortunately it reads like a child’s composition, very simplistic and with no character development. It doesn’t help that the author has chosen to write in English, not his first language. He hasn’t mastered tenses and the book is full of sentences like: ‘There are some unfortunate souls who did not made it out in time, some were still trapped in the rubbles.’ A very poor read I’m afraid.

[Katie Tolentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not pleasant nor unpleasant to read. It was written very simply which made most of the dialogue seem disingenuine. It was an interesting concept but the supernatural components didn’t fit well with the scientific facts the author consistently incorporated. It seemed as though the author attempted to create a timeless love story with a dramatic backdrop.

[nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this was written differently perhaps in a comedic way, I would have enjoyed it better cause Falique does have some funny lines although it can be quite problematic :/

[Josh Maher]

Brunei Darussalam

Fun, easy read, a story about a Bruneian hero.

[S.Ravkin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this for my reading-of-the-world project (Brunei). It was boring. It should not have been, the premise is interesting, but it was. It took forever for me to finish it.

[Nicole Kroger Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

#readtheworld Brunei

[Minelauva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expectation kills. I thought the story would've had a better ending despite the fact that it was written poorly. Remember the sperm A'jon had to give the hospital for his med check up? Thought Zana was his descendant. Tia might've taken the sperm to produce their offsprings in the midst of the war after knowing A'jon was killed in Mond 13. Like, "Oh, I might as well take this as this is the only part of A'jon I have left."

It lacked of emotion, too self-centered, no climax, monotonous I would say - but I'm actually thrilled to read this book (not just bcs I'm a Bruneian) and I believe that it could've been improved.

[Mu'iz Bakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

"To find courage, you must face your darkest fears." -A'jon Emir, 1998-2525

-

I, honestly, didn't like the writing style, but THIS BOOK RUINED MY EMOTIONS!

3.5/5 stars