Exodus

Starship Hope #1

by T.S. Valmond

A Space Opera Adventure

One ship. One Stowaway. Too many terrorists. No turning back.

Since the death of her father, Captain Dana Pinet has always wanted to follow in his footsteps and go on missions to deep space. The opportunity arrives when she's chosen to lead an elite crew to explore uncharted space to find a new planet for her people. The world government is hiding the whole truth. A planet-killing asteroid is already on its way. The secret designed to keep their people from panicking has birthed a terrorist group bent on exposing the truth whatever the cost.

When rebels manage to escape the planet onboard the Starship Hope, Dana will be forced to make a choice between duty to her crew or following orders. Her choice right or wrong could be the thing that destroys the last remnant of humans in the galaxy.

If you like complicated female heroines committed to duty, heart, and home you'll love the beginning of a new science fiction adventure featuring Captain Dana Pinet. Begin Exodus, the exciting first book in the action-packed space opera series Starship Hope by T.S. Valmond, today.

322 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Before publishing the Bolaji Kingdoms and the Starship Hope series, T.S. Valmond was an off-Broadway interpreter, a missionary in Central America, and an actress on stages all over Minnesota.

Inspired by Browncoats, Trekkies, and the Jedi, T.S Valmond is determined to create warm and relatable characters with irresistible worlds readers can’t put down.

T.S. brings a full life of experience to her twisty adventures. If you like quirky families, out-of-this-world aliens, and a bit of heart and soul in your epic space opera tales you’ll want to read these stories with the whole family.

Reviews

[Dr susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, but dark, sci fi adventure

I started this book and had to stop, because the events and body count were more than I wanted to deal with. I decided to try again after reading a couple of more cheerful sci fi adventures. The world building is excellent, but the story is dark and the body count is very high (since the planet is destroyed). I don't like love triangles. Eartha and ARI are great characters, and I'm interested in how their story will develop. The married engineers are humorous, also.

[Charl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't maintain immersion, and the constant distractions are preventing me from enjoying this book at all.

Strike one: poor editing. Misused words, missing or duplicate words, and grammatical errors abound, constantly forcing me out of the story to consider what it should be.

Strike two: constantly referring to the ship as a generation ship when it's a sleeper ship. If you're going to use Sci-Fi terms, use them correctly. Every time it comes up, it breaks my immersion.

Strike three: they find a perfectly habitable planet after only a few days' travel? With reduced engine power? This is wrong on two levels; First, it's "just outside our area of exploration". What, they only explored a few days' travel away? Seriously? And second, whatever kind of engines they have (never actually specified), they can get to another system, with a habitable planet, in just a few days? What do they need sleeper pods for, then? This is just too implausible to accept.

It's too much to suspend my skepticism for. The story has turned totally implausible, the book is annoying to read, and I'm just not interested enough to continue. I made it more than halfway through, but I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more.

[Emil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read half the book. Some of the characters (Dana and Eartha) were well done, realistic and sympathetic. Pretty sure the author could write something good if they came up with a more realistic turn of events.

My biggest issue is the events on the space ship. First of all the lack of security, when you put tons of people in a tin can hurtling through vacuum you want to make damn sure no crazy person can get everyone killed. And if you know there is a terrorist threat you naturally double and triple that security.

Secondly, if someone magically manage to get on the ship and undetected (magic??) carry out multiple attacks you have professionals on hand to quickly lock down the ship and narrow down what people were unaccounted for at the time of the attacks.

Yet here we just have confusion and when a lucky fingerprint (really) leads to a suspect the captain finds a "body language expert" (REALLY) to aid the interrogation?? At this point I dropped the book.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read and a fun start to a new series.

I loved the concept of this storyline and it kept me interested most of the way through. Very light on the science part and sometimes felt like a cross between early Star Trek and Lost in Space but overall a decent read and I’ll continue on to the next book.

[Taria Faust · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very good transition from the previous story. Engaging. Great character build up. I felt the joys they felt and the pain, even cried with the characters. I can’t wait to see how the adventure progresses.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Predatory plants, prescience and government lies. I always wonder why writers think that politicians think that extraordinary events (aliens, UFO/UAP, asteroid collisions, etc.) need to be kept secret from the people. I suppose it does make a story, but is it credible?