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Far From Home #1
Far From Home
Seth thought he had his life all planned out. After retiring from the Marines, he sought a career in the private sector. Moving up the corporate ladder proved harder than he thought, and when he suddenly loses his job, he wonders if he might be wasting his life.
Until a car accident changes it forever. Finding himself marooned on an alien prison planet, he must team up with a rebel in order to survive. But the environment isn’t the only hazard to overcome with bloodthirsty genetic anomalies and dangerous inmates on the prowl. It seems the only way to survive is to escape the planet, if he can find the necessary allies and equipment to achieve the impossible.
For no one’s escaped Lakon Prison before. But then, they never tried to cage a Marine.
Until a car accident changes it forever. Finding himself marooned on an alien prison planet, he must team up with a rebel in order to survive. But the environment isn’t the only hazard to overcome with bloodthirsty genetic anomalies and dangerous inmates on the prowl. It seems the only way to survive is to escape the planet, if he can find the necessary allies and equipment to achieve the impossible.
For no one’s escaped Lakon Prison before. But then, they never tried to cage a Marine.
- GenresScience Fiction
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2023
581 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
John Walker
1,064 books170 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 6, 2023
Great book
Great book. Well worth the read. Now its on to the second and final book 2.
Adding this author to my follow list.
Great book. Well worth the read. Now its on to the second and final book 2.
Adding this author to my follow list.
April 16, 2023
Here's another kind of short book by one of my favorite authors. Mr. Walker had for years seemed to write books that had one central theme, one mission, one story-thread and he followed those through to the end. Not so lately. This book has at least three story threads that have to be figured out until they kind of converge towards the end.
Our main character, I think, is Seth Levy, a human, is really, really having a bad, bad day. Then he gets abducted from Earth by an alien starship ran by the Guild. Apparently, the Guild kidnaps humans for some kind of zoo they set up on worlds who like that sort of thing and can pay the price. The Guild is the commerce organization of the greater galaxy. The control almost all trading of goods and services throughout the galaxy. If you want something or need something done, you have to go through a Guild of one distinction or another. Of course, Seth doesn't know any of this. He's just been in a car accident and expected to wake up in a hospital or worse case along side the road near his mangled car. Instead he wakes up shackled to a bench in the hold of a Guild starship along with a bunch of other "people". Little does he know his impossible journey is just beginning.
There are a few other people you'll read about. Albon Shaw is a rebel against the Olarin Empire. The Guild does a lot of questionable things in the name of business, but the Olarin Empire does a lot of bad things just because they can. They rule with an iron fist, hammer, sledge hammer, or whatever it takes to know you down. They don't have a problem conducting genocide against and entire planet that attempted to revolt. Albon Shaw and his rebel partner have just raided an Olarin Intelligence outpost that was supposed to destroy some very incriminating evidence of this atrocity. Albon got the information disk but in his attempt to get away, his partner was killed. So, he's now on his own in what was his partners spaceship headed for what he hopes is a rebel contact so he can turn over the evidence he has acquired.
Now, back to Seth Levy. He awakes in the Guild starship and finds one other person also awake who is Nitha. She is also a rebel who was captured by the Guild because she had a bounty on her head. Apparently, she's been in similar situations since she helps Seth free the both of them from their chains although they have no way of reaching the hatch high above their heads. So, they really don't know what to do until that is answered for them when their ship begins to dive towards a strange planet. It's not a pleasant dive either. They are certainly going to crash and it's doubtful that anyone in this starship will survive.
Meanwhile, Albon Shaw's starship is also passing by the same planet when his ship starts taking an uncontrolled nose dive towards the planet. He doesn't know why it's doing that nor can he seem to prevent what's going to happen and that's a very bad crash on the planet. He realizes at the last minute which planet he's about to crash into and he's hoping like hell that he doesn't survive. Death would be much more desirable than crashing into this particular planet.
So, where are these two starships going to crash. Why it's the prison planet Lakon. Yeah, it's an entire planet populated by prisoners of the Larking Empire that they just didn't bother executing. This planet is barely suitable for life and there is absolutely no way off the planet, ever! Doesn't matter how you got there, you'll never leave. You'll die here and your body will decompose and become part of the planet, but you'll still be here. But, first you'll meet Erva. He's the planet's administrator. He's also a former Olarin Empire gladiator that, while one of the greatest gladiators to enter the ring, didn't completely please his former masters. So, he's now been sentenced to Lakon and this is where he will die. For other prisoners, meeting Erva is something they don't really want to do.
Finally, you'll read about a Olarin military officer who, on the surface, seems to be a good guy. Still, he's headed for trouble no of his own making and it involves the prison planet Lakon. Oh, he's not going to be an inmate, but if he doesn't solve this next problem, he very well could be. Even his socialite future wife doesn't have the connections to save him from what could a disastrous mission failure.
There you have it. A lot more information than I had before starting this read. It's still a very fast read if you can keep all the threads separate until they are supposed to merger. Each chapter seems to contain a part of each thread so that kind of keeps the story straight, I think. This is the first book of a new series and it seems to be off to a good start. I'm going to add book 2, "Corrupt Stars", to my reading list and recommend you do also.
Our main character, I think, is Seth Levy, a human, is really, really having a bad, bad day. Then he gets abducted from Earth by an alien starship ran by the Guild. Apparently, the Guild kidnaps humans for some kind of zoo they set up on worlds who like that sort of thing and can pay the price. The Guild is the commerce organization of the greater galaxy. The control almost all trading of goods and services throughout the galaxy. If you want something or need something done, you have to go through a Guild of one distinction or another. Of course, Seth doesn't know any of this. He's just been in a car accident and expected to wake up in a hospital or worse case along side the road near his mangled car. Instead he wakes up shackled to a bench in the hold of a Guild starship along with a bunch of other "people". Little does he know his impossible journey is just beginning.
There are a few other people you'll read about. Albon Shaw is a rebel against the Olarin Empire. The Guild does a lot of questionable things in the name of business, but the Olarin Empire does a lot of bad things just because they can. They rule with an iron fist, hammer, sledge hammer, or whatever it takes to know you down. They don't have a problem conducting genocide against and entire planet that attempted to revolt. Albon Shaw and his rebel partner have just raided an Olarin Intelligence outpost that was supposed to destroy some very incriminating evidence of this atrocity. Albon got the information disk but in his attempt to get away, his partner was killed. So, he's now on his own in what was his partners spaceship headed for what he hopes is a rebel contact so he can turn over the evidence he has acquired.
Now, back to Seth Levy. He awakes in the Guild starship and finds one other person also awake who is Nitha. She is also a rebel who was captured by the Guild because she had a bounty on her head. Apparently, she's been in similar situations since she helps Seth free the both of them from their chains although they have no way of reaching the hatch high above their heads. So, they really don't know what to do until that is answered for them when their ship begins to dive towards a strange planet. It's not a pleasant dive either. They are certainly going to crash and it's doubtful that anyone in this starship will survive.
Meanwhile, Albon Shaw's starship is also passing by the same planet when his ship starts taking an uncontrolled nose dive towards the planet. He doesn't know why it's doing that nor can he seem to prevent what's going to happen and that's a very bad crash on the planet. He realizes at the last minute which planet he's about to crash into and he's hoping like hell that he doesn't survive. Death would be much more desirable than crashing into this particular planet.
So, where are these two starships going to crash. Why it's the prison planet Lakon. Yeah, it's an entire planet populated by prisoners of the Larking Empire that they just didn't bother executing. This planet is barely suitable for life and there is absolutely no way off the planet, ever! Doesn't matter how you got there, you'll never leave. You'll die here and your body will decompose and become part of the planet, but you'll still be here. But, first you'll meet Erva. He's the planet's administrator. He's also a former Olarin Empire gladiator that, while one of the greatest gladiators to enter the ring, didn't completely please his former masters. So, he's now been sentenced to Lakon and this is where he will die. For other prisoners, meeting Erva is something they don't really want to do.
Finally, you'll read about a Olarin military officer who, on the surface, seems to be a good guy. Still, he's headed for trouble no of his own making and it involves the prison planet Lakon. Oh, he's not going to be an inmate, but if he doesn't solve this next problem, he very well could be. Even his socialite future wife doesn't have the connections to save him from what could a disastrous mission failure.
There you have it. A lot more information than I had before starting this read. It's still a very fast read if you can keep all the threads separate until they are supposed to merger. Each chapter seems to contain a part of each thread so that kind of keeps the story straight, I think. This is the first book of a new series and it seems to be off to a good start. I'm going to add book 2, "Corrupt Stars", to my reading list and recommend you do also.
February 20, 2023
Excellent
This was a very good read. The story is full of action and nail biting expense. A former Marine from earth captured by aliens then crash landing on a prison planet. Pushed into the ring to fight for his life.
This was a very good read. The story is full of action and nail biting expense. A former Marine from earth captured by aliens then crash landing on a prison planet. Pushed into the ring to fight for his life.
January 22, 2023
Far from home indeed!
This character driven Sci-Fi adventure features Seth Levy: a marine captain, retired after 15 years. Seth worked some odd jobs until he was abducted by aliens. The vessel that his abductors held him on was packed with other alien abductees - some human looking with animal heads, some human looking heads on animal or creature bodies. Some just so alien he didn't know which end was head and which end was . . not head. His captors' ship suddenly flashed out of hyperspace and crashed on the surface of Lakon, a steamy jungle prison planet. Only Seth and one other survived the crash only to be captured by the prisoners who existed on the main part of the hot, steamy jungle that covered the planet. The leader of the prisoners Erva, was a huge specimen, once a famous galactic gladiator now sentenced to death on Lakon, he held this band of convicts together with a firm hand. Typical punishment was a gladiator fight in the arena, a bare dirt rectangle surrounded by crude seats for the unruly spectators. The combat wasn't always to the death, but some were, depending on the humor of Erva or the crowd.
The technical genius behind the camp is Mezani. With a furry, animalistic face and nimble fingers, he could repair or recondition just about anything mechanical or electronic. Mezani hid a starship in his cave. He was repairing it in his spare time. He was responsible for reprogramming the Sentinel spacecraft that guarded the prison planet, not to keep people out, but to shoot down anything trying to leave the surface. Mezani's changes pulled passing spacecraft out of warp and the Sentinel the shot them down, crashing to the surface where Erva's crew salvaged anything worthwhile.
Another prisoner was Nitha. With her forest green hair covering half her head, the other half shaved close and her bright purple eyes, Nitha was a rebel against Olarin rule, sentenced to life on Lakon. She could hold her own!
This amusing storyline ended way too soon for my tastes. It had great potential for a series. Maybe the author has plans on that line? Either way, the storyline, the characters and the creative storytelling made this a good read!
This character driven Sci-Fi adventure features Seth Levy: a marine captain, retired after 15 years. Seth worked some odd jobs until he was abducted by aliens. The vessel that his abductors held him on was packed with other alien abductees - some human looking with animal heads, some human looking heads on animal or creature bodies. Some just so alien he didn't know which end was head and which end was . . not head. His captors' ship suddenly flashed out of hyperspace and crashed on the surface of Lakon, a steamy jungle prison planet. Only Seth and one other survived the crash only to be captured by the prisoners who existed on the main part of the hot, steamy jungle that covered the planet. The leader of the prisoners Erva, was a huge specimen, once a famous galactic gladiator now sentenced to death on Lakon, he held this band of convicts together with a firm hand. Typical punishment was a gladiator fight in the arena, a bare dirt rectangle surrounded by crude seats for the unruly spectators. The combat wasn't always to the death, but some were, depending on the humor of Erva or the crowd.
The technical genius behind the camp is Mezani. With a furry, animalistic face and nimble fingers, he could repair or recondition just about anything mechanical or electronic. Mezani hid a starship in his cave. He was repairing it in his spare time. He was responsible for reprogramming the Sentinel spacecraft that guarded the prison planet, not to keep people out, but to shoot down anything trying to leave the surface. Mezani's changes pulled passing spacecraft out of warp and the Sentinel the shot them down, crashing to the surface where Erva's crew salvaged anything worthwhile.
Another prisoner was Nitha. With her forest green hair covering half her head, the other half shaved close and her bright purple eyes, Nitha was a rebel against Olarin rule, sentenced to life on Lakon. She could hold her own!
This amusing storyline ended way too soon for my tastes. It had great potential for a series. Maybe the author has plans on that line? Either way, the storyline, the characters and the creative storytelling made this a good read!
March 26, 2026
Have series. Marine saves the day???
Purchased from Amazon. series seven books kindle
'Shipwrecked'
Read with Alexa audio book application.
Purchased from Amazon. series seven books kindle
'Shipwrecked'
Read with Alexa audio book application.
February 22, 2023
Too much buildup, good ending.
Having enjoyed Walker's books before, I was hoping for more of the same. In this case, he spent a lot of time building up the universe, and not a lot of time on the planet that the plot was happening at. The characters were... meh. We should have started in the evil empire, not a prison planet. When we reach the climax, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't thrilled about continuing the series.
Having enjoyed Walker's books before, I was hoping for more of the same. In this case, he spent a lot of time building up the universe, and not a lot of time on the planet that the plot was happening at. The characters were... meh. We should have started in the evil empire, not a prison planet. When we reach the climax, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't thrilled about continuing the series.
January 15, 2023
An Almost Winner
The basic premise, while used in other stories, a fish-out-of-water meme, works here. I did have an issue with one character's abrupt transformation from a woe-is-me personality to a leader.
As this is book one of a series, I think the introduction of the various locations interrupted the main story of the fugitives too much. Less many worlds building and more character exposition was needed.
The basic premise, while used in other stories, a fish-out-of-water meme, works here. I did have an issue with one character's abrupt transformation from a woe-is-me personality to a leader.
As this is book one of a series, I think the introduction of the various locations interrupted the main story of the fugitives too much. Less many worlds building and more character exposition was needed.
January 26, 2023
I would have given 5 stars, but I was distracted while reading by the poor proofread this book got. Misspellings, words left out of sentences, wrong choice of words like "though" when the context tells you it should be "thought" or "through". I hate to be a nit picker, but it was a major distraction to my read.
March 23, 2023
Worth reading
This is the first book in the series. John Walker is a masterful story teller. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I have read many of his stories and this series is starting out as good as the rest of them. I do wish the proof reading and editing was a little better though.
This is the first book in the series. John Walker is a masterful story teller. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I have read many of his stories and this series is starting out as good as the rest of them. I do wish the proof reading and editing was a little better though.
September 1, 2023
Not to bad a read
Not to bad a read, maybe if I had read just the one book I would have enjoyed it more and responded to the story more. I found following the story difficult but again I think reading just this one book. Let's just say I am looking for the follow up to read to find out how the characters grow.
Not to bad a read, maybe if I had read just the one book I would have enjoyed it more and responded to the story more. I found following the story difficult but again I think reading just this one book. Let's just say I am looking for the follow up to read to find out how the characters grow.
March 4, 2023
Not a good day
Kidnapped from earth crashing onto a prison planet, things aren't looking too good. Luckily one of his fellow prisoners survives the crash too and she is able to help him understand something of what's going on.
Kidnapped from earth crashing onto a prison planet, things aren't looking too good. Luckily one of his fellow prisoners survives the crash too and she is able to help him understand something of what's going on.
March 30, 2023
Good science
Interesting introduction into a series of cultures that include some of the fascist and anachronistic systems of Earth coupled with a new way of travel. Maybe the exploration of the universe as a larger whole.
Interesting introduction into a series of cultures that include some of the fascist and anachronistic systems of Earth coupled with a new way of travel. Maybe the exploration of the universe as a larger whole.
April 4, 2023
desperately needs a proofreader
I'm sure the story is interesting, but this desperately needs proofreading to make it less garbled. It had potential, but too many errors turned me off before long.
I'm sure the story is interesting, but this desperately needs proofreading to make it less garbled. It had potential, but too many errors turned me off before long.
June 22, 2023
My Kind of Book!
I love the way our star of the book gets trashed by a lazy loser boss only to end up in a fantastic adventure of a lifetime on the way home from that lost job. Once a Marine, always a Marine! Look out, Universe!
I love the way our star of the book gets trashed by a lazy loser boss only to end up in a fantastic adventure of a lifetime on the way home from that lost job. Once a Marine, always a Marine! Look out, Universe!
December 1, 2023
Unexpected adventure......
The main character awakes on a ship in space, only to find that he is being shipped to a zoo. His contact with other aliens in the same situation, bring them together to escape, only to be marooned on a prison planet. Excitement at every turn. Enjoy.
The main character awakes on a ship in space, only to find that he is being shipped to a zoo. His contact with other aliens in the same situation, bring them together to escape, only to be marooned on a prison planet. Excitement at every turn. Enjoy.
August 26, 2025
Different to his other series in that a person from earth gets kidnapped by aliens for a zoo of all things only the ship he is on crashes and then it all begins. Good story so far by then I have not been disappointed in any of John Walkers books
January 11, 2023
Waiting for the next book
The book went from one exciting moment to another.I don't see a follow up book or a way to get it as the book just ended leaving one wondering.
The book went from one exciting moment to another.I don't see a follow up book or a way to get it as the book just ended leaving one wondering.
March 5, 2023
Excellent
And yes I bought the next in the series. He's doing a good job of keeping me turning the pages. 😊
And yes I bought the next in the series. He's doing a good job of keeping me turning the pages. 😊
April 10, 2023
Good Read
A Great Read to stir one's mind and soothe one's soul. I like the reading of this book and will enjoy more of John walker's books in the future.
A Great Read to stir one's mind and soothe one's soul. I like the reading of this book and will enjoy more of John walker's books in the future.
May 13, 2023
not for me
This is not within my taste range. Just could not get into the characters. Might be something others would like.
This is not within my taste range. Just could not get into the characters. Might be something others would like.
May 31, 2023
Surprisingly good read
First book I've read from this author, and was surprised from the start, plot is kinda straight forward but well developed, I enjoyed it.
First book I've read from this author, and was surprised from the start, plot is kinda straight forward but well developed, I enjoyed it.
Read
July 21, 2023Good story line. Character development was good. There were a LOT of grammatical errors. The author needs a proofreader! I enjoyed the story but found the grammar problems very distracting.
August 7, 2023
Nice beginning
I enjoyed reading this book. I would like to see the characters "flesh out" and "go deeper". The plot is great so far.
I enjoyed reading this book. I would like to see the characters "flesh out" and "go deeper". The plot is great so far.
February 27, 2026
Really enjoyed this
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews