Acheron Inheritance

Federation Chronicles #1

by Ken Lozito

First, the Federation Wars toppled the galactic order. On a dying world along the galactic fringe, Quinton Aldren awakens in the body of an archaic android that’s barely operational. He has only vague memories of who he was and no idea what has happened. Everyone is gone and autonomous mechs are hunting for him. The galaxy has changed, forcing people to adapt, while dangerous machines of the Federation Wars patrol galactic sectors hunting for people like Quinton. He might have missed the war, but his link to the past could be the key to save humanity’s future. Will he survive long enough to discover it in time? From the author of the international bestselling First Colony series comes another science fiction series in a sprawling galactic setting. Acheron Inheritance is the first book in the Federation Chronicles set far into the future after humanity has colonized the stars. Grab your copy today!

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Space, Ebooks

376 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2020

About the author

Ken Lozito is the best-selling author of multiple science fiction series, including First Colony, Ascension, & Federation Chronicles. He writes about first contact, colonization, exploration, heroic tales, redemption stories, and old-fashion adventure stories with rich and interesting characters. He’s had over a million books sold and loves the fact he’s been able to reach so many amazing readers with his stories. Readers have lost precious hours of sleep while they read just one more page.

Ken worked in IT Security for almost twenty years before becoming a full-time author. When not writing, he enjoys hiking, reading, playing with the dog, and binge-watching shows.

You can find out more about Ken and upcoming books on his website at http://kenlozito.com

Reviews

[Beach Bum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Damn it's slow and really 2.5*

This book took forever to get going, half way through and I was thinking why bother with more, but stuck with it and it did get better
It has the beginnings of a true space opera with loads of different stories and sub plots going on, lots of history that needs explaining and main character that for 90% of the book has no clue who he is, what he is, or why he is there. Thankfully the last 50-60 pages of the book redeems it somewhat
The book is a struggle, you need to perceiver, and that last bit almost makes up the glacial slow start

[Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a familiar feeling story that borrows heavily from other works, while still standing on its own.

This book is about a former human-now robot wakes up in a situation he is not expecting or experienced with. He is then forced to adapt, learn and over come. It is reminiscent of things like the Bobiverse or the Ryanverse.

However, while the Bobiverse has compelling character the Ryanverse is funny, this book has neither.

The book isn't dark or strictly serious. But it's has little to no humor of its own, and only brushes up against the subject with the main characters interactions with others. Even still, it still is more make you smile type humor rather than make you laugh humorous.

The main character is slightly nuanced, but as his entire back story is a mystery to him, he is not overly in depth or well rounded. He is mostly reactionary and first impressionistic.

Secondary characters are little better. Most are only given little glimpses into inner workings, and many aren't explored at all. Their actions and motives are often questionable, but no real understanding is gained from them or what they do.

Ultimately this book is about the plot. And the plot is about galactic politics and the fall of empires. It is interesting, but as it lacks almost any back story to make any of it make sense, it can be a little frustrating at times. It's not a mystery that is meant to be solved, either by the characters or the reader. It's not a mystery, per se. It's a hole in information. I suspect that it will be filled in, over time, but this book is mostly setup.

And that's what this book really is. It is setup into this series, and that's unfortunate. It's good, it's interesting, but it's not compelling. Because this book isn't really telling its own story, it's hard to relate to the characters that aren't explored and the plot that isn't developed. But it does provide a good jumping off point for the rest of the series.

Voice narration, by Phil Thron, is amazing. I truly believe that Phil is the best narrator in the business. He has a range of voices, does a passable female voice. He also has great comedic timing. I felt he was under utilized in this book, however. He is such a comedic master, that hearing him read a book with so little humor was a little disappointing.

All in all, this is a good book. The characters and plot are a little bland, but I'm fairly sure they are building up to something. There are some familiar tropes that are done well and feel familiar while still are new. Voice narration is top quality. But I feel this book was more worried about setting up the series, rather than telling its own story.

I Look forward to book 2

[Kate Rhoads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed and confusing

I realize Quinton does not have full access to his memories but he doesn’t seem to be very bright. Or else the author is having a hard time keeping straight what he’s already just said and repeats it again in a different way or sometimes even the same way. And then the conversation does it seem to flow either. Maybe it was just me I just had a hard time following along.

[Chuck Woodbury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Great story, loved the mystery, the adventure, and the relentless pace. Interesting world building and I can’t wait to find out more.

[Ziggy Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. For once, the rating system is accurate in that I really enjoyed "AI" which wound up being everything you could want from a time-honored space opera construction.

Having said that, I'll also say that there's not a lot that I can put my finger on that says 'oh wow, this is like so much better than Scalzi or Bruno or any of my other current go-to's in the sci-fi Universe'. I just liked it a lot, full stop. The writing is fluid and the pacing serves its purpose. No, it (the pacing) is not necessarily consistent but it (the pacing... keep up, ok?) reacted well to what was happening, namely, as we moved from reactivated "android" in the middle of nowhere to "just starting to interact with humans and learn about the past" to "actually, I'm kind of a decent guy, let's save the day".

I did like a LOT, however, that this book didn't get too caught up in technical mumbo jumbo which helped me accept Q's situation a lot more than any long-winded AI/cyborgian treatise might have done. I also think that by Lozito putting this some "unknown time and place in the future of an ill-defined galatic situation" really helped us all feel the frustration that Q did, namely, with his "out-of-fleshy-body" experience and lack of connection to his full identity. Bottom-line is that it kept me interested, it kept me reading and I'll be checking out Book 2 ASAP.

Was it perfect? Of course not. There's a few too many clichéd characters for comfort and naturally when you create a situation with a lot more unknowns than knowns, well, that will also lead to some alienation of the reader along the way. And yes, there's a lot OPEN that we don't know about and don't even know how relevant it will wind up being (ok, what's up with Stumpy?). What was empty scifi trope-ish filler (if anything) or what will we find out 'all will be revealed in coming chapters'? Well, yeah, that's kind of the point of continuing to read isn't it? So there's the pressure on Book 2.

Last word: I do deserve a classic 'Nifty No Prize' for catching this one -> Especially in the middle of the book, Q spends a lot of time bemoaning the fact that he can't frown, but suddenly, we read:
"He grinned and shook his head."
Shook, shure, um, sure, but no grinning! So, NNP tooty sweety and if possible, I'd like it framed. Doesn't have to be too expensive but make it tasteful, ok? ^_^

[Yevgeniy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Good read, on this second book in this series, but kind of slow to start. Hopping rest of the series will be better. It’s certainly feels like it’s missing something, but hard to say what exactly. Opening book for series was great.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this book. It starts out the main character waking up and he's a gardener robot! Yeah, that not to promising for a military science fiction book. Still, I read on and I'm very glad I did. This books turns out to be very exciting, especially at the end.

Quinton Aldren wakes up in a gardener robot and doesn't know why or how. He's also on a dead planet or at least one that has had some kind of climatic disaster and is not toxic to human life. But, initially, he doesn't know any of this. He doesn't even know why he's awake/alive/activated, but he does some with a sidekick. It's name is Radek and he an VI (Virtual Intelligence). Now, right there is one of the many acronyms you're going to have to learn. Another is PMC or Personality Matrix Construct. That is what Quinton Aldren actually is. He's a sentient being digitally uploaded to a ESS (Energy Storage System). Ok, is this strange enough for you?

The rest of the story is about Quinton trying to figure out just who he is, who woke/activated him and why. He also desperately needs to find his stored DNA sequence so he could create a real human body and get himself back to being a human. He's not really liking this gardener robot body. He does find out that it was this robot body or nothing. His sidekick, Radek, had to find a place to put his ESS so that it could start functioning. The only thing remotely available in the area they found themselves was this beat-up old gardener robot. It, surprisingly worked, but it was running out of power quickly. So, Quinton figured out he needed to find someway to recharge this robot and then figure out what he was going to do.

Except, he was being hunted by Veris Hunter Model Mechs. They intended to kill him and he, again, didn't not know why. In fact, Quinton found out that while his ESS had unlimited storage capacity that formerly housed his entire life history, he couldn't access any of it. That's why he didn't know how he came to be where and when he was. There were definitely some drastic limitation with being in a gardener robot that wasn't designed to contain such a high level PMC. So, that was another reason to get out of this construct and into something that would all for his full potential.

Then again, no one who figured out what he was wanted anything to do with him or it, as he appears to everyone he meets. As an ESS, he is valuable, but as a PMC, he's also considered very dangerous. It seems that once PMCs were common in this universe until they began going insane and started killing everyone and everything! But, luckily, Quinton manages to find a group of people, humans, who are probably the best of their kind which isn't saying much. They are salvagers and would normally treat a gardener robot as nothing more than cheap junk. Fortunately, one of them has some tech knowledge and recognizes Quinton for what he is even inside this clunky gardener robot.

As I mentioned, the story is pretty exciting. There's always the theme that Quinton needs to find or create a human body so he can get out of this robot. He wants his own DNA records so he can create his original body. That's possible if his DNA records still exist and if where they exist hasn't been destroyed. Everything in this universe appears to have been destroyed. The Sentinels have seen to that. They roam the universe and have one function and that is to exterminate PMCs. Quinton Aldren has a lot of problems.

Great book and the beginning of another great series by Ken Lozito. Book 2, "Acheron Salvation" is available on Amazon and on my reading list already!

[Chaz Wyman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why would anyone bother?

The story starts with some bots chasing a bot conntaining quinton. Where? Dont know! Why? Dont know! Why is Quninton in a mchine? Dont know! Who is radek. When is this happening ? Dont know! After 4 chapters of this charade in a complete vacuum of information. I DO NOT CARE. And why should i? Its a common flaw eith modern writing. Were this a movie then the sitation would be clear from visual clues. Thus is a goddam book. The art of writing means more than describing actions. If you want people to read on then give them a clue wtf us going on. Life is too short. Give them a reason to be interested in your character; interested enough to care that he is being persued.
Meanwhile read so decent literature to see how the big boys write.
Set the scene that makes you want to enter that world.

[Angela Torlop · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great read! This was a real page turner. It hooked me in and I read in two nights. I quickly became invested in the story. I was so disappointed once I reached the end that book two was not available. I have read alot of sci-fi space opera's that were basically page after page of fighting, which becomes very boring. The interpersonal conflict, the inner angst of a man, who is now something more than his physical body......without giving the plot away, its that personal struggle that makes this book so engaging. I highly recommend giving it a read.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great start to a series. Waking up a century old soldier finds his essence in the body of a farm bot being chased by killer mechs. Much confusion and lots of action from the get go. Finally getting off the planet only comes with more confusion. He is a galaxy class robot with a real persons memories in place.

There is a war on with Sentinals tracking down similar entities and killing everyone and everything in their surroundings.

[Steve Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space ships with maximum speeds

It's an interesting story, but it annoys me deeply when sci fi authors don't understand the difference between acceleration and velocity, they seem to think of ships behaving like cars, reach a maximum speed and can't go any faster.

[Jim Basl · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting start

This was an interesting book, and start to the series. The main character is displaced in time and is not physically human anymore. He must come to grips with galaxy when he wakes up and how it views him and his type of humans.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF, at only 8%. This is free, and starts out well, but starts to get repetitive and make less sense pretty quickly. I don't want to play chicken with the story, hoping it'll improve, fearing it won't. So, I cut my losses and wish other readers better tolerance. :)

[Steve Osten · Rating 2 out of 5]

What?

I read this book to the end and I still don't know what was going on. You never got any information on how the story started. What you wake up and your there? I'm sorry I don't like to leave poor reviews. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet.

[Nathaniel]

I really like gritty space opera with a military sci-fi edge.

There's a ton of straight military sci-fi out there. I'd say a book is pure military sci-fi in large part if the there's a single (or dominant) viewpoint character who is one of:

1. A grunt (especially if he goes through a boot camp sequence in the first book)
2. An operator (especially with orbital drops)
3. A hot-shot pilot of a single-seater space fighter
4. A captain (especially if he starts out as captain of a destroyer)

Don't get me wrong, I love military sci fi and all of these work for me! But what I like *even more* is a story that has a bigger scope and adds in other factors--like espionage and politics and maybe even culture and society--to tell a really *big* story. So, basically, The Expanse and Red Rising are the two big ones in recent years.

Acheron Inheritance has some of that. The character isn't any one of those 4. It's a dude who wakes up inside a robot body and doesn't know exactly why. And the story has a cool backstory with fallen empires and mysteries. So that's all great. But it does stay pretty narrowly focused on the single protagonist's viewpoint. I feel like that's the predominant style of writing sci-fi these days, and has been for decades, and I don't love it. Don't get me wrong, no one way of writing--first person vs. third person, narrative past vs. present--is objectively better. "Head hopping" is bad now, but it was the standard in the 19th century with omniscient third person narrators instead of the tightly-focused, character-specific narration that is used today, even when it's technically third person.

So, no, I'm not going to say close third-person, past tense narration is bad per se. But I do think it's drifting from "one way to tell a story" (which is fine) to "*the* way to tell a story". When everything is written the same way, it gets a little boring. Plus, there are limitations to what you can do with that viewpoint. That's true of every viewpoint, of course, but when everyone is using the same one it means everyone has the same limitations which means stories start to feel sort of similar.

Just Google "head hopping" and you'll get results like The Official Rules on Head-hopping. The article is not bad--and tackles both sides of the "debate"--but the fact that there is a debate about this (for one) and that it makes sense to refer to "official rules" (for another) shows you kind of the state of writing (at least for military sci-fi and similar sci-fi and fantasy sub-genres).

Anyway, this is all mostly a tangent. I just feel that there are an awful lot of aspiring writers out there today and (thanks to self-pub and indie-pub) more than ever they can get their stuff out there, but this also compounds the motive to try and treat writing as something that has rules to follow. In some ways we've got more variety than ever: lots more people writing and tons of niche, micro-genres. But in other ways we've got less than we've ever had: instead of authors trying to figure out an individual voice and/or picking tools to fit a particular story, folks seem more and more dedicated to applying a few (generally fine) rules no matter what story they're trying to tell or what they're particular voice might sound like.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acheron inheritance is a decent first book in the series. It centeres around a character that isn't exactly human, but isn't exactly machine either. The universe doesn't like his kind, for some war that was fought in the past, and the character has to work through all kinds of issues, including finding out just what exactly he actually is. (well, he already knows the answer, only it's not as simple as all that). I liked this spin on an old tale, and I'll probably read more in the series, especially because of how it ended, it doesn't leave you hanging, but it does leave you wanting to know more. That's impressive.

[Leslie Baptiste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, I don’t know how the author is going to wind it up in a trilogy.

I enjoyed Quinton, who is the main protagonist in this book. Are usually do not like books where the hero starts from the point of an amnesiac. But this book took off pretty fast and had excellent pace. The plot was multi threaded and the character development interesting. Could’ve been a little bit more action but I understand they had to be world building that took place. This science Fiction aspects are well done. Going on to read the next book, I think anybody who picks this book up will enjoy it. That is especially if you like science fiction.

[Arras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a good find on Kindle Unlimited.

The book has a similar vibe to Murderbot series by Martha Wells that I enjoy, yet it is also very different.

The main character was okay, but it was obvious through him that the book was written by a man. One quote that sticks out is when a female character is described as having legs that “go all the way up” And all the female characters had more in-depth descriptions than the men.

The plot was very engaging, I kept wanting to know more. Who are these organisations? Is Quinton who he thinks he is? Etc

Will certainly keep reading this series to find out!

[Barrie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning

Imagine slowly becoming aware of your surroundings only to realize that your mind is housed inside an agriculture bot and to add to the confusion you have no memory of how or why it's happened, this is our hero's dilemma. Filled with fast-paced action great characters and brilliantly written storylines it's impossible to put down. Join the adventure as he fights against salvagers and military factions along with sort of friends as he seeks to find who and what he is. Highly recommend a great start, Baz.

[Kenneth Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good si/fi read

Good story line and very thoughtfully developed, albeit a little slow for my tastes. This does not detract for the story, however. Mr. Lozito's extensive use of computer related terms and functions would greatly appeal to computer literate readers, but I found myself re-reading sentences to try to understand what was going on. None the less, I will recommend this and other books by this auther! I will definitely read the next book!

[Marian Siemens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first two in this series before the third was published and went through withdrawal waiting for the third book. The beginning threw me off a bit so I went back and reread to ascertain I was reading about a robot! I absolutely loved this story: a robot with a human male inside with all the personality traits and emotions one would expect if he was in his human form. I've read this series twice as I loved it so much. Thanks Ken!

[Patrick Stirling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weak 3 stars as I didn't finish. I liked the story - our hero wakes up in the body of a farming robot and remembers that he's been uploaded into a storage unit. But the robot doesn't have enough resources to fully wake him up, so he's missing quite a lot of memories. But the writing just didn't hold up, quite wooden and overly descriptive. Plus in the third or so of the book I got through, I od'd on the number of miraculous escapes he had. I just lost interest in finding out what came next.

[David Oppenheim]

Thrilling

If you're like me you have read a ton of SF on Kindle. Most average, some good and very few just frikken excellent. I promise, this new series is original, extremely well written and has great character development. But perhaps the highest praise is that I'm thoroughly unhappy the next book is not out yet!

[GRAHAM FERGUS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

This is well written and quite a compelling story full of great ideas and characters. However it leaves too many unanswered questions that means you will need to wait until the author writes the next books to find out exactly what is going on. At the moment there is no indication of when they might be available.

[Gail Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very very very good!

This book has lots of action, and its story flows from one point to the next. It has some twists and turns I didn't see coming.
Its kinda reminiscent of Firefly with the banter.
If you enjoyed the authors other books you'll enjoy this one.
Can't wait to see where it goes next.

[John F. Wells Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rockem Sockem robots, or BattleBots.

Just good old fashioned rough and tumble cyborgs and humans fighting it out for a place to live in peace. Not even close but still a great book. I will get the second book because I can't stop now I'm hooked. I just love to cheer for the underdog.

[Dan Conery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slower start than I expected but a great buildup to a fun adventure

If you have a similar experience at the beginning of the story please don’t move on before finishing. I really enjoyed the story once the main character ran into other people. I am really looking forward to the next installment!

[Tony Hinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the premise. I was expecting a sort of Jason Bourne in space type thing, but the protagonist was much more vulnerable... which was interesting in a different way. It misses the mark a few times and the driving force behind the plot wanes fairly often, but there's a solid story here with interesting characters. So, I'm on to book two.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great 1st in series book

Excellent portrayal of man in machine with AI twist. Equivalent character development. Liked the surprise ending. Uneven presentation of Sentinel tech capabilities, i.e. how did they get to the last scenes system so fast.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, enjoyable sci-fi adventure

Man wakes up as a robot, chaos ensues.

Good action pace, interesting characters that developed through the novel. Looking forward to a another in the series.