What do you think?
Rate this book
Phoenix
Humanity has colonized the solar system, but crime still doesn’t pay. David Carter is one of the most decorated agents in the Interplanetary Police Forces, but for the last two years, he’s turned reckless, throwing himself into his work—or into the path of a criminal’s bolt pistol. As a specialist in deception analysis and interrogation, Veronique de Tournay has been right where she wants to a profiler in the major cases bureau, Division 7.
Unfortunately, the director has reassigned her to Special Agent Carter, and neither of them are happy about it. After they stop a devastating attack on Mars, meant to kill thousands and cripple interplanetary travel, Carter and de Tournay discover evidence of other subversive attacks in the system. With time running out, the reluctant partners may be the only ones standing in the way of a conspiracy that stretches all the way from Luna to the Saturn Space Station.
Unfortunately, the director has reassigned her to Special Agent Carter, and neither of them are happy about it. After they stop a devastating attack on Mars, meant to kill thousands and cripple interplanetary travel, Carter and de Tournay discover evidence of other subversive attacks in the system. With time running out, the reluctant partners may be the only ones standing in the way of a conspiracy that stretches all the way from Luna to the Saturn Space Station.
551 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 3, 2023
20 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 24, 2023
I picked this up for three reasons. First author Declan Finn recommended it, and having read all of his books except one series currently out of print, I needed another read. Second I have been impressed by everything I have read from Tuscany Bay Books to date. And third the John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs were some of the first I read after I learned to compensate for my dual form of dyslexia. I loved the cover but did not read anything about the book specifically before beginning it. And it did not disappoint. The description of the book is:
“Humanity has colonized the solar system, but crime still doesn't pay. David Carter is one of the most decorated agents in the Interplanetary Police Forces, but for the last two years, he's turned reckless, throwing himself into his work—or into the path of a criminal's bolt pistol. As a specialist in deception analysis and interrogation, Veronique de Tournay has been right where she wants to be: a profiler in the major cases bureau, Division 7.
Unfortunately, the director has reassigned her to Special Agent Carter, and neither of them are happy about it. After they stop a devastating attack on Mars, meant to kill thousands and cripple interplanetary travel, Carter and de Tournay discover evidence of other subversive attacks in the system. With time running out, the reluctant partners may be the only ones standing in the way of a conspiracy that stretches all the way from Luna to the Saturn Space Station.”
If this volume had been written by Burroughs it would have been three separate stories. Even if it had been by Heinlien, Piers Anthony, Harry Harrrison and others I can think of both from classic Science fiction and modern writers it would have been spilt up into three separate volumes. The volume comes in at 560 pages for the eBook and 549 for the print editions. And it was an adrenalin rush from the first page. I could hardly put the book down, but a bust week at work and friends visiting from out of country forced me to savour this story slowly over time. And I am already itching for the next volume.
In some ways David Carter reminds me of Heninlin’s Lazarus Long, and in others Harry Harrison’s James Bolivar diGriz aka “Slippery Jim” and “The Stainless Steel Rat”. But it also brought to mind both Serenity and Firefly, there is definitely a space western and Mal feel about Carter’s character. His partner Veronique de Tournay is full of surprises. The characters in this story are amazing. The plot is excellent and runs at a breakneck pace nearly from beginning to end. You will find yourself cheering for Carter and de Tournay. The story is pack with great action, fantastic dialogue, tremendous suspense, and surprising plot twists. I appreciate greatly the name of Carter’s parent’s pub. And I love the fast talking Irish mom. This Irish Catholic Cop in space is masterfully executed.
The difference between this story and some of the classic sci-fi authors and books previously mentioned is world view. Janeski writes with a Christian or Catholic world view. And as such the story is much cleaner than many I read in my youth or that are available today. It is a volume I would not hesitate to give to my 15 year old son or even my 13 year old daughter. It is a much better story morally, and to be honest better written than much of what I read in my youth. In some ways this is space opera and in other police procedural or mystery novel. But no matter the category you put it in it is a fantastic read. Before I had even finished this book I looked to see what else Janeski had published, I already had the Planetary Anthology Luna but had not read it yet and also picked up the Freedom's Light: Short Stories anthology to tide me over until the next volume in this series releases.
This is a book I can easily recommend and give my highest praise, to as soon as I finished it I put it back in my to be read pile to circle back and read it again. A great read for fans of science fiction, mysteries, crime procedurals or really anyone who just wants to sit down with a big book and enjoy a great story. C.S. Lewis once quipped that “No tea cup is big enough nor book long enough for me to be satisfied.” this one is close. Pick it up I am certain it will entertain!
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2023 Catholic Reading Plan!
“Humanity has colonized the solar system, but crime still doesn't pay. David Carter is one of the most decorated agents in the Interplanetary Police Forces, but for the last two years, he's turned reckless, throwing himself into his work—or into the path of a criminal's bolt pistol. As a specialist in deception analysis and interrogation, Veronique de Tournay has been right where she wants to be: a profiler in the major cases bureau, Division 7.
Unfortunately, the director has reassigned her to Special Agent Carter, and neither of them are happy about it. After they stop a devastating attack on Mars, meant to kill thousands and cripple interplanetary travel, Carter and de Tournay discover evidence of other subversive attacks in the system. With time running out, the reluctant partners may be the only ones standing in the way of a conspiracy that stretches all the way from Luna to the Saturn Space Station.”
If this volume had been written by Burroughs it would have been three separate stories. Even if it had been by Heinlien, Piers Anthony, Harry Harrrison and others I can think of both from classic Science fiction and modern writers it would have been spilt up into three separate volumes. The volume comes in at 560 pages for the eBook and 549 for the print editions. And it was an adrenalin rush from the first page. I could hardly put the book down, but a bust week at work and friends visiting from out of country forced me to savour this story slowly over time. And I am already itching for the next volume.
In some ways David Carter reminds me of Heninlin’s Lazarus Long, and in others Harry Harrison’s James Bolivar diGriz aka “Slippery Jim” and “The Stainless Steel Rat”. But it also brought to mind both Serenity and Firefly, there is definitely a space western and Mal feel about Carter’s character. His partner Veronique de Tournay is full of surprises. The characters in this story are amazing. The plot is excellent and runs at a breakneck pace nearly from beginning to end. You will find yourself cheering for Carter and de Tournay. The story is pack with great action, fantastic dialogue, tremendous suspense, and surprising plot twists. I appreciate greatly the name of Carter’s parent’s pub. And I love the fast talking Irish mom. This Irish Catholic Cop in space is masterfully executed.
The difference between this story and some of the classic sci-fi authors and books previously mentioned is world view. Janeski writes with a Christian or Catholic world view. And as such the story is much cleaner than many I read in my youth or that are available today. It is a volume I would not hesitate to give to my 15 year old son or even my 13 year old daughter. It is a much better story morally, and to be honest better written than much of what I read in my youth. In some ways this is space opera and in other police procedural or mystery novel. But no matter the category you put it in it is a fantastic read. Before I had even finished this book I looked to see what else Janeski had published, I already had the Planetary Anthology Luna but had not read it yet and also picked up the Freedom's Light: Short Stories anthology to tide me over until the next volume in this series releases.
This is a book I can easily recommend and give my highest praise, to as soon as I finished it I put it back in my to be read pile to circle back and read it again. A great read for fans of science fiction, mysteries, crime procedurals or really anyone who just wants to sit down with a big book and enjoy a great story. C.S. Lewis once quipped that “No tea cup is big enough nor book long enough for me to be satisfied.” this one is close. Pick it up I am certain it will entertain!
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2023 Catholic Reading Plan!
August 2, 2021
This is a long cop story, 550 pages worth, set 400+ years into the future where inter space travel has become the norm. Mars and the moon (or Luna) plus other planets are now all colonised and in fact Earth is the ‘expensive’ colony where interplanetary government now resides.
David Carter and Veronique De Tourney, special agents, are in charge of finding a terrorist cell bent on destruction and the massacre of millions of people. Carter’s got a reputation. He’s a hero but also acknowledged as ruthless in his methods and not very likeable. De Tourney is a rookie agent but brings special skills with her from her desk job: being able to read people’s facial expressions and such like. I really enjoyed this duo.
They’ve both got backstories and coincidentally, both are struggling from unsolved familial tragedy. Carter’s is driving him to find the killer of his sister and De Tourney wears hearing aids having lost her hearing in the bomb blast that killed her mother and sent her father into a suicidal funk.
The futuristic world isn’t well described, and the author appears to lean on what the current world looks like. I wasn’t sure if this is simply sentimentality or lazy story crafting. Inter-planetary travel is via monorails and intra-planetary via maglevs, both of which presently exist. With both technologies I didn’t get any great sense of them being any more advanced than the present except that they often stopped at stations in the air. Interestingly, the author appears to have a liking for Sydney, Australia which made me smile.
The story would have been a lot tighter if it had been 200 pages shorter. Tension and suspense were repeatedly lost simply because there was too much writing between the action. I found that I often ‘missed’ when something happened suddenly simply because of the lack of tightness in the plot. I suspect this is a mark of inexperience and I hope if the author writes a sequel (which is set up) they will cut back the bits between the action and simply move the story along on action scenes.
David Carter and Veronique De Tourney, special agents, are in charge of finding a terrorist cell bent on destruction and the massacre of millions of people. Carter’s got a reputation. He’s a hero but also acknowledged as ruthless in his methods and not very likeable. De Tourney is a rookie agent but brings special skills with her from her desk job: being able to read people’s facial expressions and such like. I really enjoyed this duo.
They’ve both got backstories and coincidentally, both are struggling from unsolved familial tragedy. Carter’s is driving him to find the killer of his sister and De Tourney wears hearing aids having lost her hearing in the bomb blast that killed her mother and sent her father into a suicidal funk.
The futuristic world isn’t well described, and the author appears to lean on what the current world looks like. I wasn’t sure if this is simply sentimentality or lazy story crafting. Inter-planetary travel is via monorails and intra-planetary via maglevs, both of which presently exist. With both technologies I didn’t get any great sense of them being any more advanced than the present except that they often stopped at stations in the air. Interestingly, the author appears to have a liking for Sydney, Australia which made me smile.
The story would have been a lot tighter if it had been 200 pages shorter. Tension and suspense were repeatedly lost simply because there was too much writing between the action. I found that I often ‘missed’ when something happened suddenly simply because of the lack of tightness in the plot. I suspect this is a mark of inexperience and I hope if the author writes a sequel (which is set up) they will cut back the bits between the action and simply move the story along on action scenes.
October 24, 2021
Classic space thriller with good characters
The author pulls off the most important task for any novel very quickly: getting you to care about the characters. In a few pages, you understand who the protagonists are and why they are interesting. This is what keeps you committee to a book, and too much mainstream fiction fails to pull this off, because they think it is circumstance rather than character that drives a novel.
In this case both characters are compelling, and both have things to learn from each other. They do so in the midst of a civilization-threatening conspiracy that keeps you guessing until the very end, which is also something that keeps you engaged.
In short, if you are looking for a book that keeps you wanting to read more, this is the one to buy.
The author pulls off the most important task for any novel very quickly: getting you to care about the characters. In a few pages, you understand who the protagonists are and why they are interesting. This is what keeps you committee to a book, and too much mainstream fiction fails to pull this off, because they think it is circumstance rather than character that drives a novel.
In this case both characters are compelling, and both have things to learn from each other. They do so in the midst of a civilization-threatening conspiracy that keeps you guessing until the very end, which is also something that keeps you engaged.
In short, if you are looking for a book that keeps you wanting to read more, this is the one to buy.
April 4, 2024
As good as advertised
Loved the adventure, and the world-building was amazeballs. Even the romance tropes - not always a personal favorite - were good fun. Just a classic Tracy-and-Hepburn caper across the solar system, I guess!
Loved the adventure, and the world-building was amazeballs. Even the romance tropes - not always a personal favorite - were good fun. Just a classic Tracy-and-Hepburn caper across the solar system, I guess!
January 26, 2025
I will read this one again. That’s how good it is.
Great storytelling, characters are compelling, tension is good, humor is apt and light.
The love story is light and feels natural.
Loved the twists and turns.
This one is LONG, and will keep you reading far after you planned to stop.
Great storytelling, characters are compelling, tension is good, humor is apt and light.
The love story is light and feels natural.
Loved the twists and turns.
This one is LONG, and will keep you reading far after you planned to stop.
September 24, 2025
Fantastic thriller!
Wow! I can't say enough about this book. The world is rich and interesting. The characters are intriguing and entertaining. The plot is gripping with several twists! I loved it and can't wait to start the next one.
Wow! I can't say enough about this book. The world is rich and interesting. The characters are intriguing and entertaining. The plot is gripping with several twists! I loved it and can't wait to start the next one.
September 21, 2023
Tidy little space procedural with a romance mixed in. Full review to come on UpstreamReviews.com
December 12, 2023
3.5 really
April 18, 2024
Action, adventure, romance
High speed adventure as two agents track down terrorists. The plot thickens well with many twists and a ... well expected...romance sub plot. Lots of fun
High speed adventure as two agents track down terrorists. The plot thickens well with many twists and a ... well expected...romance sub plot. Lots of fun
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews