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Explorer's End: A Science Fiction Adventure
It’s up to an unlikely hero to find the origin of the galaxy and protect it at all costs in this new sci-fi adventure from author H.W. Portland.
Dr. Alan spent his life searching for the origin of those who seeded the galaxy with intelligence. After years of dead ends, he is shown an extraordinary new clue with the promise that on a distant planet, covered in exotic jungles and teeming with life, lies the answer. The only problem: the planet is about to be obliterated in a galactic cataclysm.
Faced with little time and few resources, Alan must team up with a headstrong adventurer to get to the remote planet and recover the forgotten knowledge before it’s too late.
But Alan isn’t the only one who has seen the clue. An old nemesis is already on his way to steal the evidence — and the credit.
And if he beats Alan, he will use what he finds to rewrite history and undo civilization as we know it.
In Explorer’s End, a science fiction adventure, friend and foe race to capture the last evidence of a lost, life-giving civilization. Whoever wins will control the history of a million planets…
Dr. Alan spent his life searching for the origin of those who seeded the galaxy with intelligence. After years of dead ends, he is shown an extraordinary new clue with the promise that on a distant planet, covered in exotic jungles and teeming with life, lies the answer. The only problem: the planet is about to be obliterated in a galactic cataclysm.
Faced with little time and few resources, Alan must team up with a headstrong adventurer to get to the remote planet and recover the forgotten knowledge before it’s too late.
But Alan isn’t the only one who has seen the clue. An old nemesis is already on his way to steal the evidence — and the credit.
And if he beats Alan, he will use what he finds to rewrite history and undo civilization as we know it.
In Explorer’s End, a science fiction adventure, friend and foe race to capture the last evidence of a lost, life-giving civilization. Whoever wins will control the history of a million planets…
205 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 28, 2024
Alan meets Ebo on a garbage planet in a nice classic sci-fi opening. He grabs an artifact from the first long-lost civilisation in the galaxy and runs out chased by “Brabillia”, your essential big tough ugly goon-aliens.
Alan makes it to Etsel, then gets screwed over by the corporate / government / research bigwigs (the Core Alliance Research branch, who I immediately distrusted because of the Firefly association) who take his artifact. He’s the preeminent researcher on the ancient civilisation, the Seed, and so far has found only a couple of tiny red-and-blue metal bits on which to base his studies and findings.
Thus boned, Alan loses hope and turns his back on the universe for three years … until a fellow named Mup appears and shows him a way bigger and more impressive piece of Seed metal, that he found on a survey. Alan responds by using That Ain’t Me No More, Man, and it’s super effective! Mup leaves. Alan then uses Aw Shit, Turns Out It’s Totally Still Me, Man later on, and just barely gets away with it. And the adventure is afoot!
The planet they go to (Helios) is an excellent jungle monster planet with amazing aliens and a very cool overall premise – the explorers not only have to compete against the flora and fauna and a rival group from Core Alliance Research, but also with the fact that the planet is about to collide with a near neighbour, Ceto, in about a week. Ticking clock.
Ceto coming into collision range of Helios was visually spectacular to me as a reader, although a week prior to collision I can’t say either planet would be in great shape. I’ve done zero research on that though, so let’s just see where this is heading.
(Follow-up: Aha! I won’t spoil it but I guess it is somewhat explained by the end. A whole different series of questions are raised, of course, and I am not convinced that it would not have been obvious from calculations what was [and was not] going to happen, and that there would not have been other evidence as well of the occurrence. But I’ll Rule of Cool that shit and let it slide – as I will with the flying scene on the Heliosteeds, that was just awesome.)
The teams are forced to work together and a grudging respect emerges between rivals Alan and Zu, as they make contact with the primitive aliens that live on the jungle planet and begin desperately trying to figure out why the Seed had found this place so important that they left a bunch of their metal bits just lying around the place. There are a lot of amazing little clips throughout this:
- The initial attack by the manky alien tentacle monster
- The “alien robot menagerie” anecdote that was straight out of classic Star Trek
- The discussions of the exploration of history and our responsibility to it
- The way Alan learns to communicate with the Heliops
Also through this mid-part of the arc I’m not sure how much more of a big deal they should have been making about the entire planet being on the verge of absolute destruction, and whether they should have been more excited and / or dismayed about the mega-cool species of primitive sentient rats on said planet. It did feel like they should have been making more of a big deal than they were, but I guess there was room for only so much. It could also maybe have been infodumped by this point how big their Federation / the Core Alliance and whatever else is, how many species are in it, how unusual it is or isn’t to find aliens, and what the first contact rules are. The reader is sort of left to Star Trek it in, which is fine. Still, for them to be as brisk and borderline callous as they were, it felt like something that could have been made a bit clearer in their culture – maybe another thing Alan hated about Core Alliance Research. Well, never mind that.
After a while, of course, the study of the Heliops and their collection of Seed fragments comes to an end with the arrival of Ceto and it is time for the final act of the story to begin. A final act wherein our protagonists have the Seed prize in their hands, only to have it all brought to ruin (ish; I won’t spoil it completely) by the religious nutbag Tier because he’s worried about what will happen to the various faiths of the galaxy if it is revealed we all came from a common Seed civilisation. As if a) religions have ever had much problem folding new information into their internal logic (or just hand-waving it away); or b) faith itself is going to just go away because we discover a new thing; let alone c) evidence of a single near-mythic origin for all intelligent life wouldn’t feed a bunch of the religions that already exist, and create a ton more.
Anyway, all in all this was a well-structured story with a solid narrative through-line and it stuck the landing without stumbling, and if there were a few things I Rule of Cool’d away, then it was just because they were so damn cool.
Sex-o-meter
No sex in this one. Not much to say. A Congo out of a possible Congo 2: Look Out! The White Gorillas Are Horny for Explorer’s End.
Gore-o-meter
Nasty alien stuff at the outset of their adventure on Helios, combined with some solid shootey and splodey. But the violence and gore was minimal, and – I’m sorry – completely disarmed by a line towards the end, for me:
> “He’s dead, [SPOILER],” [SPOILER] said.
>
> [SPOILER] stared at [SPOILER]’s limp body in disbelief. “He can’t be! He was just alive!”
I’m sorry, I am, it was a sombre moment, but that really did make me laugh. “He can’t be! He was just alive!” Look, it’s not funny, let alone a bad line, just … okay, for context, I busted myself laughing at the end of Return of the Jedi when Vader asks Luke to take off his mask and Luke says “but you’ll die.” It’s not funny, as such, but holy shit did I laugh. “Oh, better leave the mask on then, I didn’t realise. Boy would my face have been red.” This is a me problem.
Anyway, I think I’ve driven this one into the ground. One and a half gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
Mystery ancient aliens: check! Baffling planetary physics: check! I mean, baffling, but still. Unanswered mysteries still to be addressed in later stories: check! Not a hugely WTFfey one but plenty of nice sci-fi mystery and weirdness to enjoy. A Rats of Nym out of a possible American Tail, just because I think it’s a rule that the Rats of Nym have to be mentioned whenever there’s a sentient race of rats in a story.
My Final Verdict
Four stars! Very good story. Very, very good. The writing was solid, the action was nicely paced, and the characters were distinctive and readable. Good job!
Alan makes it to Etsel, then gets screwed over by the corporate / government / research bigwigs (the Core Alliance Research branch, who I immediately distrusted because of the Firefly association) who take his artifact. He’s the preeminent researcher on the ancient civilisation, the Seed, and so far has found only a couple of tiny red-and-blue metal bits on which to base his studies and findings.
Thus boned, Alan loses hope and turns his back on the universe for three years … until a fellow named Mup appears and shows him a way bigger and more impressive piece of Seed metal, that he found on a survey. Alan responds by using That Ain’t Me No More, Man, and it’s super effective! Mup leaves. Alan then uses Aw Shit, Turns Out It’s Totally Still Me, Man later on, and just barely gets away with it. And the adventure is afoot!
The planet they go to (Helios) is an excellent jungle monster planet with amazing aliens and a very cool overall premise – the explorers not only have to compete against the flora and fauna and a rival group from Core Alliance Research, but also with the fact that the planet is about to collide with a near neighbour, Ceto, in about a week. Ticking clock.
Ceto coming into collision range of Helios was visually spectacular to me as a reader, although a week prior to collision I can’t say either planet would be in great shape. I’ve done zero research on that though, so let’s just see where this is heading.
(Follow-up: Aha! I won’t spoil it but I guess it is somewhat explained by the end. A whole different series of questions are raised, of course, and I am not convinced that it would not have been obvious from calculations what was [and was not] going to happen, and that there would not have been other evidence as well of the occurrence. But I’ll Rule of Cool that shit and let it slide – as I will with the flying scene on the Heliosteeds, that was just awesome.)
The teams are forced to work together and a grudging respect emerges between rivals Alan and Zu, as they make contact with the primitive aliens that live on the jungle planet and begin desperately trying to figure out why the Seed had found this place so important that they left a bunch of their metal bits just lying around the place. There are a lot of amazing little clips throughout this:
- The initial attack by the manky alien tentacle monster
- The “alien robot menagerie” anecdote that was straight out of classic Star Trek
- The discussions of the exploration of history and our responsibility to it
- The way Alan learns to communicate with the Heliops
Also through this mid-part of the arc I’m not sure how much more of a big deal they should have been making about the entire planet being on the verge of absolute destruction, and whether they should have been more excited and / or dismayed about the mega-cool species of primitive sentient rats on said planet. It did feel like they should have been making more of a big deal than they were, but I guess there was room for only so much. It could also maybe have been infodumped by this point how big their Federation / the Core Alliance and whatever else is, how many species are in it, how unusual it is or isn’t to find aliens, and what the first contact rules are. The reader is sort of left to Star Trek it in, which is fine. Still, for them to be as brisk and borderline callous as they were, it felt like something that could have been made a bit clearer in their culture – maybe another thing Alan hated about Core Alliance Research. Well, never mind that.
After a while, of course, the study of the Heliops and their collection of Seed fragments comes to an end with the arrival of Ceto and it is time for the final act of the story to begin. A final act wherein our protagonists have the Seed prize in their hands, only to have it all brought to ruin (ish; I won’t spoil it completely) by the religious nutbag Tier because he’s worried about what will happen to the various faiths of the galaxy if it is revealed we all came from a common Seed civilisation. As if a) religions have ever had much problem folding new information into their internal logic (or just hand-waving it away); or b) faith itself is going to just go away because we discover a new thing; let alone c) evidence of a single near-mythic origin for all intelligent life wouldn’t feed a bunch of the religions that already exist, and create a ton more.
Anyway, all in all this was a well-structured story with a solid narrative through-line and it stuck the landing without stumbling, and if there were a few things I Rule of Cool’d away, then it was just because they were so damn cool.
Sex-o-meter
No sex in this one. Not much to say. A Congo out of a possible Congo 2: Look Out! The White Gorillas Are Horny for Explorer’s End.
Gore-o-meter
Nasty alien stuff at the outset of their adventure on Helios, combined with some solid shootey and splodey. But the violence and gore was minimal, and – I’m sorry – completely disarmed by a line towards the end, for me:
> “He’s dead, [SPOILER],” [SPOILER] said.
>
> [SPOILER] stared at [SPOILER]’s limp body in disbelief. “He can’t be! He was just alive!”
I’m sorry, I am, it was a sombre moment, but that really did make me laugh. “He can’t be! He was just alive!” Look, it’s not funny, let alone a bad line, just … okay, for context, I busted myself laughing at the end of Return of the Jedi when Vader asks Luke to take off his mask and Luke says “but you’ll die.” It’s not funny, as such, but holy shit did I laugh. “Oh, better leave the mask on then, I didn’t realise. Boy would my face have been red.” This is a me problem.
Anyway, I think I’ve driven this one into the ground. One and a half gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
Mystery ancient aliens: check! Baffling planetary physics: check! I mean, baffling, but still. Unanswered mysteries still to be addressed in later stories: check! Not a hugely WTFfey one but plenty of nice sci-fi mystery and weirdness to enjoy. A Rats of Nym out of a possible American Tail, just because I think it’s a rule that the Rats of Nym have to be mentioned whenever there’s a sentient race of rats in a story.
My Final Verdict
Four stars! Very good story. Very, very good. The writing was solid, the action was nicely paced, and the characters were distinctive and readable. Good job!
July 16, 2022
What I love most about this book is that it is not one with a million characters, species, and worlds where you feel overwhelmed and spend more time flicking back and forth to find out who is who and what is going on. From the first page of the book, I felt that I too was journeying along with Alan to find the answers he was looking for. The concept of this galaxy and how it evolved over time has a sense of realness to it. I found myself imagining something similar happening to our own world one day. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is up for an adventure-bound, mysterious, and emotional outer space adventure. Enjoyable to read, full of exciting events and wonderfully unique, larger-than-life creatures. It was one of those books that I could not put down until I reached the last sentence. The ending was one that left me wondering what happened next and while sometimes this can frustrate me, I found it very cleverly done in a way that left it open for
the potential of a second book. I felt there was more to this story than just the one book and it stayed with me for quite some time after.
the potential of a second book. I felt there was more to this story than just the one book and it stayed with me for quite some time after.
July 14, 2022
Explorer’s End follows Alan who obtains an artifact belonging to the Seed Civilization. He is soon in a race to get to the target planet before his rival Zu. After an accident strands both of their teams on the planet, they need to work together to survive.
This was a good and fast read. I really enjoyed the premise and it was interesting to learn more about the planet that they were stranded on and I think it really allowed the characters to develop well as they were all certain they were going to die. I would’ve liked to see more initial character development and the book seemed to end fairly abruptly but otherwise I enjoyed it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This was a good and fast read. I really enjoyed the premise and it was interesting to learn more about the planet that they were stranded on and I think it really allowed the characters to develop well as they were all certain they were going to die. I would’ve liked to see more initial character development and the book seemed to end fairly abruptly but otherwise I enjoyed it.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
July 29, 2022
Thought-provoking, fast-paced, space adventure!
This was a very interesting and fast-paced read! The reader is thrust into an action sequence right from the start of the book. Part Prometheus, part Avatar, and part Indiana Jones, this sci-fi adventure has a lot going on! Portland has done a great job with worldbuilding and character development. I really enjoyed exploring Helios and Ceto (among other new planets) in this vast universe and learning about their native creatures. I recommend this story and look forward to other stories from this author.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
This was a very interesting and fast-paced read! The reader is thrust into an action sequence right from the start of the book. Part Prometheus, part Avatar, and part Indiana Jones, this sci-fi adventure has a lot going on! Portland has done a great job with worldbuilding and character development. I really enjoyed exploring Helios and Ceto (among other new planets) in this vast universe and learning about their native creatures. I recommend this story and look forward to other stories from this author.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this honest review voluntarily.
January 15, 2023
Exciting adventure
This is an exciting book. It kept my attention and Alan was a likable character. I would definitely suggest reading this book. I look forward to reading more books from this author!
This is an exciting book. It kept my attention and Alan was a likable character. I would definitely suggest reading this book. I look forward to reading more books from this author!
August 30, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. As someone who isn't a "hard sci-fi" reader, I liked the simplicity of this space travel and other worldly exploration.
I would have appreciated some more character arc, but I did enioy the imagination of new worlds.
Although it was mostly enjoyable and a great sci-fi story here, I'd be I curious if the author is planning a sequel or another book set in this world.
Thank you to Book Sirens and the author for a free copy of the book.
I would have appreciated some more character arc, but I did enioy the imagination of new worlds.
Although it was mostly enjoyable and a great sci-fi story here, I'd be I curious if the author is planning a sequel or another book set in this world.
Thank you to Book Sirens and the author for a free copy of the book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews