Rocky Frontier

Star Colonies #1

by Jaden Farquhar

Out on the Frontier

A security worker of the ESSO-3 Colony, the icy, rocky, lonely world light-years from the rest of Humanity, is kept busy enough by his day jobs. But things heat up when man-made robots, pioneer machines of a foregone space exploration era, start turning up more and more. Robots that were sent to explore other worlds, but lost contact with Humanity, and changed. Evolved to become unrecognizable, and violent.

Meanwhile, other strange happenings begin; mysteries of what lies out in the barren icy plains beyond the Colony, and even evidence of a possible murder plot on the Colony’s Leadership. Working alongside a divisive Scientist, a charismatic Engineer, and a militaristic Boss, the security worker must investigate the mysteries of the Colony, eventually raising the all-important question, what are the robots truly afraid of?

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Genres: Amazon

296 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 25, 2022

Reviews

[natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

honored to leave the first goodreads review for a book ever. seeing rocky frontier advertised on campus and buying the book directly from jaden i would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes alien battle stories and i’m sure combined with the rest of the installations the ESSO series comes together quite nicely. i just personally wasn’t a huge fan of the story but that’s just my taste in sci-fi. jaden if you read this i hope you can take this as constructive criticism as it is really commendable to self publish and write a book on your own. as a debut novel, rocky frontier is solid and although the writing can get a little clunky at times the narrative is well paced and i really like eric and larry’s friendship. in my opinion what would make this book even better is if there was a little more stakes and introduction into the backstory of the world. you don’t really have any motivation to get attached to the characters and you don’t get much backstory into their motivations and personalities although i’m sure this’ll be further explored in the series. overall, rocky frontier is a good first book and sci-fi read although not my usual taste in content. wishing jaden lots of success and if you give this book a try, i highly suggest going into it not expecting a sprawling sci-fi novel alike dune with complex world building but something more simple and contained like hitchhikers guide. although i’m not a well read sci-fi fan yet to give an accurate comparison. overall, a good book and personal criticism and bias aside, it has a lot of potential. will probably revisit at a later time to reformulate an opinion.

[Mike Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

good action book

The book flowed smoothly and the action never let up. Some minor questions on environmental suit oxygen support but otherwise a good book.

[Greg D · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really struggled with finishing this one. Though the story is somewhat interesting, there was absolutely no story or character development. Who are the robots? Where did they come from? What was the purpose of ESSO-3? Who are the characters, and why are they all so mean to each other? Not one mention of Earth, only Humanity. Does Earth even exist? When does this story take place? Distant future or near future? The technology doesn't seem too advanced. Constant conflicts with robots, but the humans seem to be the agitators. Too many questions and not enough answers. And, I really didn't care for any of the characters except Larry. The only good thing? Well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.