Reality Check

Weight of the World #1

by Dave McCreery

They won't stop. They won't communicate. Can this hotshot spacepilot and his comrades step up to be Earth’s last line of defense?

Ryan Fall’s recklessness is his own worst enemy. Pushing the limits in every Cyber Cycle race, his risky manoeuvres bring the authorities down on him for underage racing. His only option is to join the advanced mech program – and learn to fight for what really matters.

Under the command of a distant captain, Ryan joins a special-purpose squad and he’s shocked to discover what they’re being trained for. A huge alien armada is bearing down on Earth, and it’ll take every pilot they’ve got to have a chance of survival.

With nowhere to run, every decision the rookie pilot makes could be the difference between the destruction of everything he loves and saving humanity.

Can the wildcard mech pilot focus his skills and end an extra-terrestrial nightmare?

Reality Check is a gripping military sci-fi adventure launching the Weight of the World series, and combines experimental high-tech weaponry with the devastating consequences of war against a seemingly superior alien invasion.

Earth, humanity, and a place to belong - it's worth fighting for.

Genres: Science Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2021

About the author

Dave McCreery is a British writer born in Edinburgh. He loves to create vivid and engaging worlds for readers to fall into and become engrossed in the stories held within them. In between these stories, he seeks adventures and experiences from across the world to broaden his horizons, which are shared in his writing. Dave studied English and Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University before beginning a career in digital marketing to support his ambition to publish books. He often shares his experiences, with writing processes and exercises, challenges and obstacles and insight from his journey. You can read more on his website and social media channels:
https://davemccreery.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/DaveMcCreery...
https://twitter.com/DaveMcCreery

Reviews

[Rebecca Crunden]

“You’re a racer - a good one from what I’ve seen - but you don’t understand the gravity of a situation. When you’re involved in a crash, you get up and walk away. The only consequence is your race is over, and everyone else involved stops racing, too. In the past, before sim technology was invented, you could have died. Spectators might have died. Marshals clearing the circuit were in danger. The fear is gone; it’s just a game now.”

I’ll be the first to say that virtual reality and simulations go over my head a bit, and especially with reading there are a few times where I’m like, wait, is this happening in a simulation or in reality?! But that’s a me thing as I have a hard time conceptualising virtual reality in general. SO IT MUST BE SAID that Dave McCreery did a good job fleshing all that out and making it engaging and well explained so that even someone like me can make sense of it!

Reality Check is a bit like if The Peripheral was mixed with Star Trek and then sprinkled in some of The Expanse: loads of space futurism, lots of technological advancements, peace on Earth itself but not necessarily from all parts of the discovered universe, etc.

MILD SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE

“History stops us from making the same mistakes again, Ryan Fall.”

My favourite part of this book were the friendships! It’s a great book for friendships. Especially Ryan and Zack. I really enjoyed their dynamic and how much they worried about each other. My favourite pairing! I do wish we’d had a bit more of them together as Zack was gone for so long and I sort of wondered how Ryan went in and out with worrying (although that’s fair when he’s in training and distracted honestly) but I have a feeling that’ll change in the next book and there’ll be much more of their dynamic together. I did really like that he left a letter for Zack. Aww. I can’t wait to see where they go in the rest of the series.

“Is now a good time to ask what happened to you, Zack? Why you were kept in isolation for so long?” Ryan said.
“No.”
“Are you going to tell me anyway?”
“No.”
“I’ve been worried about you ...”

BROSSSSSSSS. :')

I also laughed so hard at this: Underneath it all, Rebecca was the problem. LMAO. I so rarely see my name in books that this part had me howling. Good to see my name popping up in science fiction! :D

There were also some really powerful, really important quotes in the novel. Like, “The people who caused this flipped a switch. They might not have built the weapon, or have given the order to fire it, but they pushed the button that caused this. Following orders is not an excuse for genocide.” It really reminded me of that part of X-Men where Magneto goes, ‘I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.’ It hit really hard.

Overall this is a very impressive sci-fi debut that will surely appeal to fans of the genre everywhere! And I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

THOUGHTS AS I READ:

- The opening prologue is very good! Really reminds me of The Expanse. Very curious to see where it all goes from here!
- The cyber racing was cool but I was kinda confused as to how they were doing it. Like it was hyper realistic and yet not. Kinda like The Peripheral rather than Ready Player One, I suppose.
- Ryan and Zack’s friendship is great so far. I hope this keeps up throughout.
- I really like Ryan’s entire personality of give no fucks lmao. Like, he’s clearly a bit full of himself, but he’s quite likeable about it, ha!
- The back history of the world is quite cool. Definitely don’t agree with Ryan finding the history class boring lmao. I really enjoyed it! I feel like it’s going to circle back and become more relevant because the future is kind of a mixture of Star Trek with its ideas of utopia and no money and everyone’s a vegetarian, but also kind of like The Expanse so I’m curious to see if it’s going to go towards a lighter or darker direction with the plot.
- Not liking the Enforcers, but the recruiter seems okay so far, if a bit arrogant, too. Was thoroughly enjoying Ryan’s responses to his ~interrogation~

Thank you so much to the author for a paperback copy.

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[Athena (OneReadingNurse) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of our teams SPSFC3 Quarterfinalist books

I hit 3⭐ as a neutral rating but it means nothing for the team overall and won't reflect the books actual score or it's chances of advancing or not

I have mixed feelings about this one. It feels pretty similar to a few other sim-based sci-fi novels out there. An enemy is coming and people are trained to use sims to fight them remotely, reducing the danger to soldiers and unfortunately removing the feel of real-life consequences for our brash young protagonist.

The book went off to a good start, then felt bland & toned down with the training from 22-60ish percent. I am NOT a show-don't-tell person, I just don't care, but in a book where not much is happening it would have benefitted from showing few fights and tempers rising. Training started slowly, then paraphrasing in a meeting a few weeks later on simply told us that tempers had gotten hot a few times and that the rookies had generally progressed well. Oh...ok, way to paraphrase a few months and fast forward to action time. Was a squad rivalry going to develop? More friction? Anything? Captain having a dispute with the rookies? Nothing? All right.

After that whole segment ended, the book went full tilt until the end and thankfully stayed pretty exciting. Except for a baffling and slightly off-putting epilogue that appeared to be there to set up book two, I enjoyed the ending.

I didn't dislike the characters but everything just seemed very toned down and spelled out compared to some of these types of novels, where the icy-eyed captain gets hotheaded with the new recruits or tempers really flare. I didn't get much to go on except that everyone talks out their differences or bonds off page. I guess the biggest personality arc was the main character learning what real actions and consequences feel like.

One actual issue I had was that it was nearly impossible to tell how much time was passing. If a character hadn't at one point casually said "in the past few months" - I would have thought only days or weeks were passing. There was also nothing to point to Zack/Ryan's loyalty to each other. Who were Ryan's parents? Another thing was that I think the author forgot about the dynamics of the mechas a few times. They were described as 80yards or metres tall but also as crouching behind a destroyed third floor wall or flying down a ship's corridors - not at that size they aren't!?

I just had a lot of questions about things that were hinted at or started but never capitalized on. If it's character focused we need some extremes to focus on, and if it's action/plot based there was too much recap vs storytelling at times. At least the book is well edited and formatted for competition purposes. I think it's a solid effort that left a bit to be desired, and readers who are newer to this subgenre of scifi would likely enjoy the book quite a bit

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has an amazing start: the prologue sets up the book's conflict, delivers a lot of action, and really got me hooked into needing to know what happened. This intro, plus the great cover, meant I had high hopes for this book. And overall I did enjoy it! Be warned going in, though: as with many books with a war theme, this one has a lot of training in the middle, and that part can get tedious if you aren't connected with the characters. (More on that later.) For me, it meant a kick-ass prologue for an opener, some interesting first several chapters, and then a lot of sit-around-and-wait while the characters trained until actual fighting began. Once the action picked back up in the last 1/3 or so of the book I was hooked again.

There were two main things that got in the way of my enjoyment of this book. The first one was more of an annoyance, and I feel silly for mentioning it... but the continual use of the word “coo” bugged me. It seemed to be a catch-all swear word, and I was never able to figure out if it has a direct translation in our modern slang, or if it’s just there to avoid using swear words.

The second thing that I disliked was personal preference: for the majority of the book, I really didn't like main character Ryan Fall. It felt a bit like if you put all of Tom Cruise's action movie characters into a blender and removed the sex scenes, you'd get Ryan Fall. (And I don't like Tom Cruise's characters much.) Ryan is a hotshot underage sim-bike racer, who would rather cut class to go illegally race—and then crash—instead of going to school. He bucks authority, assumes his newbie opinion is better than seasoned and trained mech pilots, and I just did not vibe with him at all. I'm sure there are plenty of other readers who will love his cocky attitude; I personally did not, so I was very relieved when about 2/3rds of the way through the book he finally started to grow up. (The timing makes sense both book-plot and series-plot wise. It was the right time for this character growth... but it took long enough that I was starting to fear it wouldn't happen.)

The book's conclusion does bring some very nice character growth for Ryan, though there is still plenty of growth and learning left for the rest of the series. It does end on a bit of a cliffhanger—well, technically it's two cliffhangers, one in the final chapter and one in the epilogue. The ending of the final chapter made sense; at this point the book's plot threats have been handled and our characters are looking ahead to the rest of the series. The epilogue confused me a bit, though; as far as we are told, none of the characters in it are ones we have met before, and it seemed there just to ramp up anxiety about the series plot point. I'm curious how it will tie in to the second book, but it could have been left off without losing anything in the book's plot.

All told, this is a fun, fast-paced book, perfectly suited to fans of military space fiction.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

I read this book as part of the judging process for the 3rd Self Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC3), and while I was provided a review copy for judging purposes I read the book using the version available on Kindle Unlimited. My opinions are my own and do not reflect the thoughts of my SPSFC3 team or the competition as a whole.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reality Check by Dave McCreery was my sixth full read from SPSFC-3's first round. Though I may still return to some of the other reads, I believe this will be my final official full read from this round as time if winding down and I team is narrowing our selections based on competition scoring for the deadline next month.

With that being said, I'll toss out the usual disclaimer this this review and any scoring or rating mentioned within are strictly of my own opinions and do not necessarily reflect Team Peripheral Prospectors overall.

This was another book from the first round that I had sampled early on and showed promise and wanted to return to read the entire story. The overall theme worked well for me. The stories and characters kept me engaged throughout. I really only had a couple real hangups which I'll get to shortly.

The pacing was relatively smooth for my reading style. There was plenty of ebb and flow to the story. There were a few minor errors that tripped me up but overall it went well. The names of characters and placed were easy enough to keep straight yet follow along. One of my first issues I'll mention was some of the words or language used. Specifically the word "Coo" which I'm assuming from its use was some kind of curse in this world. This one is used quite frequently so it did kind of derail me momentarily from time to time. The other is along the same line which was the use of "Cha" which I'm guess was used in place of either "Thanks" or "Thank you". I think both of these may be easier for a younger reader to swallow though, so not a huge deal.

The world building was interesting. It starts out planet side and for a short time we learn a bit about this world in general which was intriguing. I thought it set the tone for things in general well. Before long we go on quite the mysterious adventure with Ryan and Zack which leads up off planet to a space station. From there we begin to learn the scope of this world or universe a bit more. We had a small mix of cultures which were mostly between military and non-military civilians until we make contact with non-typical humanoids. I wasn't sure where things were going with the relationship of cycle racing but that was a fun aspect to me as well.

The character development started off a bit slow and shallow but I feel it did evolve well from about the mid-point of the book onwards. Ryan's arc was a wide one but it kept me interested as he was working on finding his place in this world the author has built. There are numerous relationships between Ryan and other characters which help set the tone during various parts of the story. I thought even some of the side character arcs were interesting as well. General Mathews, Captain Ryder and her sister were all good points to this story for me.

As I mentioned, this was an enjoyable read over all. Now I'll get to my biggest issue I had with this read. And this is strictly my own opinion and this might work well with other readers. I was enjoying the end of this book until probably the last ten pages or so. The very end of the book we were left with quite the cliff hanger. If that wasn't bad enough, the epilogue continued with yet another abrupt cliff hanger just a couple of pages later. Being honest, this left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth with what was a very entertaining read for me otherwise.

I will still more than likely be willing to pick this series up in the future just to see where things go from here though.

[Terri (BooklyMatters) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We are not alone, and they are dangerous.”

What do you get when you take the best of “Top Gun”, and blend it with an updated and cooler-techno “Star Wars” ? This action packed sci-fi epic - which has elements of just such a magical mixture - is sure to please genre-crossing fans of both, and with the chilling line above as the starting point for thematic elements of our plot - who can resist reading more?

Ryan Fall is a cocky, adventure seeking, twenty-four year old cyber-racer - an incredibly talented, ( and no holds barred ) risk-taker in the high-speed world of simulated motorcycle racing, living in a time and space perhaps not too different from our own distant future.

As survivors of a now borderless post WW3 world, the stakes are very different, and when Ryan breaks one too many of the strictly enforced new-world laws, his options, as they are spelled out to him, are limited.

Ryans ‘choice’ puts him the drivers seat for a very different level of risk - one that places him on a crash course with “reality”, - his very survival, in fact, as well as the survival of the new world, now dependent on the cyber skill and strength he can bring to the table.

A coming-of-age story, the author does a good job adding layers of interesting characterization to our main protagonist, Ryan, who is best described as a know-it-all (cocksure, independent and reckless), who is forced to learn, that after all, he really knows very little. Hints of Ryan’s vulnerability, including a not explained eleven year absence from his parents, as well as glimpses into his underlying social anxiety and alienation, set the stage for our hero’s journey, and it promises to be a doozy.

Jam packed with cool and crazy technology, and armed with a cyber-arsenal of simulation-controlled mega-weapons. this well-written and immersive look at a future world is perhaps not too far out there after all.

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

[Alisha Rowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted at https://bit.ly/3zQbjQj.










Since WW3 there has been a global economy and everything has a safety net. Individuals are minors until the age of 25. Racing is done in the Sims. Even if you jump out of a building there are precautions to keep you from dying. Everything is...safe. And most enjoy their padded world. Except when there is no risk of getting hurt one become more reckless. This is the case with Ryan. He is an underage racer who takes risks that sometimes pay off and other times end in wrecks. Everything was going great until the Enforcer's show up with an ultimatum. Join their special program or be prosecuted for underage racing. Without a true choice his decision is made. However, the program General Matthews has in mind has no safe guards and the risk is very real. No longer are just computer simulations at risk. Instead, the fate of the Globe rests heavily in Ryan's hands.

I received this ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. Anyone who reads my page with some frequency, or if you are new and have played a bit of catch up, knows that I enjoy LitRPG and VR books. While this isn't a LitRPG it has a similar feel. There is a sim, or simulated reality, much like in VR. There is a virtual world and your decisions have an impact on what happens. Similar to a LitRPG.

However, there is more to it than that. In this case there is also the ability to remotely control actual items in the real world from the safety of a sim unit. The pilot is protected and only machinery is at risk. Seems perfect. Keeps potential casualties low and you don't have to constantly retrain new recruits to replace your senior agents. I do want to let you know this book leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger. I need to know what the word was flashing on the screens!

Beyond this, in these pages, you will find an impulsive young man at the tender age of 24. He is reckless and a bit of a wildcard and being 24 myself I have known many that age to be a reflection of this. Can't say that I agree with being considered a minor until 25. Adulthood is much better than anything I experienced as a minor, but to each their own. That being said war has the ability to age a person quickly and it was interesting to see how real time choices impacted Ryan. He took consequences hard, but I can't say that I would have reacted any differently. Getting a reality check isn't always a pleasant experience and this was only heightened by his upbringing.

Ryan is an interesting individual. His past is hinted at. Giving clues that he was a bit of a spoiled rich boy who had a falling out with his parents. I really would love to know what happened there, but as it wasn't pertinent to the story at this point I can understand why it was left out. However, I can't say that he is my favorite character. In fact, that would have to be Sara, Ryan's friend. She is a good racer and is in touch with reality even though she declined to be a part of the program. She is able to give some much needed advice and put things into perspective without judgement. Someone like that is rare and I hope we see more of her in the future.

Alright, so I have said a lot of positives in this book as well as my general impression. But, I do have a negative to say. Keep in mind this could be because the author is British, but I'm not sure. Frequently in the book the word coo is used. I originally looked this up on Google to see what kind of slang it is in Brittan, but was unable to find anything satisfactory. When I looked it up it said coo was a phrase used to express surprise or amazement. As that didn't fit with many of the instances it was used I started popping in my own word. I thought perhaps the author was using it to substitute the word shit. Maybe not a fan of cussing. This was quickly dispelled as the author does curse without hesitation (not complaining on this fact). So for the remainder of the pages I would flop between shit and idiot whenever I read the word coo. I feel this detracted from the book. If it was mentioned, even in one place, what coo meant it would have been easier to not be momentarily pulled from the story.

That is my only complaint for the story. Reality Check is a fast paced action book full of saving the world from invaders and a race against time. It is also a book that I suggest to anyone who is a bit of an adrenaline junky. Even if it comes from a videogame or within the pages of a book.

[Alan K. Dell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s not enough mechs taking centre-stage in sci-fi books, and that’s a real shame because they’re awesome. I’ve gained a new appreciation for them since playing Armored Core VI last year, and I even watched some Gundam for the first time since then. Reality Check is all about mechs. A hotshot young Cyber Cycle racer turned mech pilot defending Earth against a hostile alien invasion. Great premise. That, its timeliness, and the fantastic looking cover are what initially drew me to it and prompted me to get the entire Weight of the World trilogy in paperback.

I enjoyed Reality Check. It read like more of a young adult (or perhaps the term is new adult?) sci-fi than I’ve been used to but the plot and story was solid. An alien invasion force is coming to Earth, more advanced than humanity, and standard military tactics aren’t working. They need skilled people who can think outside the box and do the unexpected to have a hope of overcoming this existential threat. So they turn to the Cyber Cycle racers, people who have experience in simulation technology—especially those who use unorthodox methods to give themselves an upper hand. Ryan Fall, being an underage racer (in his early twenties—I’ll come back to this) is one such person. The book is honestly great fun with good humour and introspective moments, and the pacing is right on point. Also, the Cyber Cycle racing was awesome. Just the sims in general were a cool concept taken to a logical extreme.

I wouldn’t necessarily say there was anything stand-out about the prose style in the book. It’s good, clear, and gets the job done. Not overly florid or wordy, and the book is well-written. I don’t have anything negative to say about it. The pacing is good. I enjoyed a lot of the training and character development stuff so I don’t feel like it sagged in the middle, though there was a moment following Ryan’s first mission that slowed it down somewhat.

I enjoyed the setting, and the worldbuilding is great. We join the story long after humanity has rebuilt following the Earth being ravaged by a nuclear World War Three, and the lessons learned enabled society to progress further into a high-tech, optimistic future. Jump gates and spaceships, holograms, advanced simulators and safety systems. Plus the societal changes in the wake of the war, such as raising the age at which society considers someone an adult into their twenties. It means that, though Ryan and his friends and colleagues are older, they’re still considered (and behave) young, which is why the book felt more on the YA side.

There were a number of scientific inaccuracies and terminology errors related to the worldbuilding which took me out of the story a bit, but that’s not really the focus of the book—just me being pedantic.

I connected well with many of the characters: Ryan, Zack, Wisp, Jackson, Captain Ryder and General Matthews were well-written and enjoyable. I didn’t feel like I connected with the rest of Ryan’s squad very much, though. I’d have liked to have seen a lot more of them and gotten to know them better.

Overall Reality Check was a cracking read that I would recommend to fans of YA or New Adult sci-fi, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy, Recall Order.

[S.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly gripping High Tech/Military Science Fiction novel!


Starting with the world building, I found the concept super unique and interesting. The underlying question about the world in which there is “no danger” really drove the story. I loved how it impacted everything and everyone around, including, of course, the main character (Ryan).


Ryan was a brilliantly built character. Though he might have appeared as a “reckless” adrenaline addicted person at first, he is revealed to be a much more complex man as the story progress. I found him to be super interesting, just through all the questions he was not afraid to ask. He’s stubborn and bored by most of the things at first, but he changes a lot. He cares about being part of the team, he cares about having a purpose and he cares about consequences of his decisions.


I also enjoyed how the environment of high-tech future was presented. The military bases set up in space, as well as technology in it (like MOB-Is, Mechs and sims) were fantastically blended into the plot. Light writing style also helped to imagine everything easily.


I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy space / military science fiction stories. I’m looking forward to reading book 2 in the series!

[Nick Snape · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Dave McCreery leads us into the story of a young sim racer, Ryan Fall, with some excellent world-building in this immersive military sci-fi novel. Reality Check is a first contact thriller, with the Earth’s Defences relatively unprepared for what’s coming their way. Equally thought-provoking and action-packed, we are led through Ryan’s emotional journey as he enters a sim training programme that ultimately leads to contact with the enemy. Nothing in sci-fi is ever simple, but McCreery has a consummate grasp of the difficulties of adjusting to a military life, and the emergence of comradeship with those he trains alongside. It’s interesting that in the first half of the book, the Mechs Ryan eventually learns to use take a backseat, and it’s only in the last third that they take centre stage. But the wait is well-balanced, fusing realistic characters with their moral dilemmas before placing them front and centre. Neatly balancing action sequences and interpersonal plot development, this entertaining and engaging book is highly recommended.

[Yin Leong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reality Check brought me back to the days when the anime TV series Robotech was airing in the afternoon. Who doesn’t like giant robots fighting in space?

The book was a solid start to a sci-fi series. It set the scene for a post-World War 3 Earth, with a mostly unified single government and advanced technologies. It introduced the protagonist, Ryan Fall, a hotshot cyber-cycle rider called on to apply his particular skills in fending off a mysterious alien invasion.

The character’s recruitment, integration into the unit, training and combat were all engaging. The book gave me the fix I look for in a humans vs. aliens story, and there is clearly room left in the series for plenty more future battles.

[Mark Collinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the thing I read alot of books .My daughter knows the author so for my birthday I got both books.
I read anything from Christine Feehan to Frank Herbert .In my honest opinion this book is great
Set after ww3 the world is now one world at peace , then appear a new alien race with better weapons etc, they beat us at every turn on their way to earth
This is hidden from the public to avoid panic, enter our hero in the making Ryan
I won't give much away but actions in the book make you think could you make those decisions, in that the needs off the many outweigh the needs of the few
This book is 375 pages long and took me 18 hours, could'nt put it down

SO IF YOU HAVE A FEW HOURS FREE GET THIS NOW

[A.E. Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buckle up, cause you're in for quite a ride! Ryan Fall is a typical young, hot-shot racing pilot. When he's not in school, he's trying to make a name for himself in every Cyber Cycle race he can participate in, despite being underage. When he's finally nabbed by the authorities, he learns he's one of the latest recruits in a clandestine, but dangerous, space war. This is a fun start to a promising sci-fi series -- mechs in space versus aliens! -- though the training sequence part of the story did drag for me a bit. The main character is fun and sassy, though, and I'm interested to see where this story goes. Very glad I gave this one a read!

[Elanor Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this read. The sci-fi world is set up in fantastic detail, really gently introduced and explained – it’s very believable in the way that the futuristic technology doesn’t work perfectly, takes time to learn, etc. The characters are easy to root for, the pace is just right to keep you turning the pages to the end. There are interesting questions set up - some of which get answered, some will lead us on to book 2! Definitely recommend for any sci-fi readers.

[Natasha Alsop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flew through it within the space of two days!

Not my normal genre but the action and the comradery of the characters gave me Aliens vibes which is one of my favourite films. It's great to see Ryan's character development and I'm going to start on Recall Order straight away due to the cliffhangers that Reality Check was left on.

(Then be gutted that I have to wait until September for the final part of the trilogy.)

[R.R. Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for anyone who has ever seen giant mecha suits and wanted to fly one - through Ryan's experiences, you will get a taste of it. A cocky student racer enlisted to take the fight to mysterious aliens hell-bent on destruction (who are introduced in the most terrifying way, too) - it's quite the ride.

A fantastic start to the trilogy!

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well written fun sci fi read. I don't usually read military sci fi but I really enjoyed this book. The main character was compelling and had a nice character arc. The worldbuilding was interesting and I'm looking forward to it being built upon in the sequel.

[Johnny Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fabulous book from a great author. Absolutely loved it

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and the world it's set in! The action in this book will have you on the edge of your seat and you turning pages as fast as you can. I can't wait for the next book!

[Heather Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. Full review available on amazon

[Michael Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Not the usual genre I read but after it was recommended to me I would urge others to read it. Only downfall is now I have to wait for the sequel!

[Lois Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this!!!!!! ❤️

[Debi Openshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely enjoyed reading this first book, having read Introductions. A great interplay between the characters and a really gripping storyline. I cant wait for book 2 to be released!

[Kathryn Norwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is gripping from start to finish, it will be really hard to put it down.
Not a dull moment and easy to read very well written and looking forward to the next book from this author

[Anne Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

worthy mil sci fi

Spoiler alert.,,,,,
Engaging and well written. I beta read other hard sci fi but did not find ‘copy editing’ issues. It is a well worn plot however and some hard sci fi glitches lowered the rating for me. Ie: rail guns firing continuous beams ‘? And the final way a mech would be used was obvious almost as soon as they are introduced. Worth the read even so.