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The Emberling #1
Exiled
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN. OR MAKE ONE UP REALLY QUICKLY. But when he somehow finds himself in possession of a shard from an ancient alien tech known as the Emberling, things start getting hotter than he likes. Before Taggart knows it, a half-dozen criminal syndicates are on his tail, desperate for the powerful payload. And that's before he manages to take aboard a motley crew of characters who each openly admit they'd kill for it, too. Luckily, Taggart has a plan. He always does. He just hasn't quite figured out what it is yet...
- GenresScience Fiction
141 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 28, 2023
163 people are currently reading
37 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Young
144 books23 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
This entry is for the scifi fiction author.
This entry is for the scifi fiction author.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 13, 2023
This is a very short book. The story line is quite simple and it's not necessarily a military science fiction book although there is a lot of fighting. Your main character, Slim Taggart, is a thief and a smuggler, with a code of honor! You'll read about him teaming up with others of his kind only they don't seem to have any honor just a lust for money. There is some humor thrown and some really impossible situations, but the author took liberties where he needed to ensure all the primary characters didn't die.
Sam Taggart has been contracted to deliver Yannik Xawei and her bodyguard, Qiao, to some destination that he hasn't been told yet. In fact, starting out he has to go to the planet Vion that was currently at war. So, the first thing that happened is he lost his starship! Yeah, it somehow gets destroyed, but he's still alive and looking for his new employer. Once he meets her, she asks the obvious as to how he's going to get them off the planet when he doesn't have a ship. Of course, he plans to steal one. And that's how things go in this story.
Along the way you'll find out why Slim is transporting this Yannik Xawei, who, by the way, happens to be a very efficient assassin. In fact, her whole race are professional assassins, not to be trifled with. She has some kind of crystal (the Emberling) that has to be delivered to a person named Monkskull Nakvar, a notorious warlord. Yannik says he'll pay millions for this crystal but is pretty vague on why or what the crystal is so important.
So, that's the gist of the story. Along the way Slim will pickup some questionable friends/enemies that want to take over either the delivery or grab the crystal for themselves. Yannik is pretty good at keeping the crystal hidden and based on her reputation as an assassin, you don't want to try and take it from her. There's also her bodyguard, Qiao. He's a Krekza and he's also extremely huge, very huge. There's also the very good fact that Monksull Nakvar won't pay anyone for the crystal, but just kill them once delivered. He's wants delivery done on his planet in his very well protected part of space. Even the Colonial Militia won't venture into Monksull territory.
There's a good chance that this could be the last job that Slim gets to undertake, if he even finishes this one. His code of honor, believe it or not, won't just let him steal from his employer and take the crystal for himself and it's questionable if he would help anyone else do that while he just stood by. As you can guess by the fact this is a series, they don't actually make deliver of the crystal so now they still have to figure out what to do with it and hopefully get paid something.
I'm not exactly sure what the title "Exiled" has to do with this book, but book 2, "Recoil" is available on Amazon now. Oh, Wow, this series already extends to book 6 so you've got a lot of reading to do if you're going to stay with it.
Sam Taggart has been contracted to deliver Yannik Xawei and her bodyguard, Qiao, to some destination that he hasn't been told yet. In fact, starting out he has to go to the planet Vion that was currently at war. So, the first thing that happened is he lost his starship! Yeah, it somehow gets destroyed, but he's still alive and looking for his new employer. Once he meets her, she asks the obvious as to how he's going to get them off the planet when he doesn't have a ship. Of course, he plans to steal one. And that's how things go in this story.
Along the way you'll find out why Slim is transporting this Yannik Xawei, who, by the way, happens to be a very efficient assassin. In fact, her whole race are professional assassins, not to be trifled with. She has some kind of crystal (the Emberling) that has to be delivered to a person named Monkskull Nakvar, a notorious warlord. Yannik says he'll pay millions for this crystal but is pretty vague on why or what the crystal is so important.
So, that's the gist of the story. Along the way Slim will pickup some questionable friends/enemies that want to take over either the delivery or grab the crystal for themselves. Yannik is pretty good at keeping the crystal hidden and based on her reputation as an assassin, you don't want to try and take it from her. There's also her bodyguard, Qiao. He's a Krekza and he's also extremely huge, very huge. There's also the very good fact that Monksull Nakvar won't pay anyone for the crystal, but just kill them once delivered. He's wants delivery done on his planet in his very well protected part of space. Even the Colonial Militia won't venture into Monksull territory.
There's a good chance that this could be the last job that Slim gets to undertake, if he even finishes this one. His code of honor, believe it or not, won't just let him steal from his employer and take the crystal for himself and it's questionable if he would help anyone else do that while he just stood by. As you can guess by the fact this is a series, they don't actually make deliver of the crystal so now they still have to figure out what to do with it and hopefully get paid something.
I'm not exactly sure what the title "Exiled" has to do with this book, but book 2, "Recoil" is available on Amazon now. Oh, Wow, this series already extends to book 6 so you've got a lot of reading to do if you're going to stay with it.
February 20, 2025
A fun fast-paced romp where you can disengage your brain and just enjoy the ride. Un fortunately, I don't like disengaging my brain.
With plot armour this thick, why even try? Hundreds of soldiers shoot our heroes, hit them, and there are no consequences. Shot in the arm? No effect. Shot in the leg? No effect. Shot in the head? No effect. Shot right through the chest? Don't worry, you'll be better soon and your comrades can carry you to safety, whilst fighting even though they can barely lift you off the ground. You fly your spaceship right through several fleets of enemy ships who shoot you over and over. There is no effect beyond scuffing the paintwork and one trivial repair.
Don't except physics to make sense. Your heavy friend walks across a single room in a space station and it shakes the entire space station so much statues fall over.
Don't expect distances to make sense. At one point a character is lying on the ground with his arm inside an access panel of a spaceship. At the same time, the same spaceship is flying in the air and shooting things. Just how long is this guy's arm?
Military spacecraft in an active combat zone are left totally unsecured, so you can just walk up and steal them and even though they are designed by aliens for use by aliens you will have no trouble flying the spacecraft with amazing skill.
The evil bad-guy mastermind is too stupid to take basic precautions, happily letting armed enemies into his presence. Evil bad-guy decided to betray a feared order of alien super-assassins and because he has no sense. Rather than doing it quietly, he does it in a massive public ceremony. I guess he wants to be absolutely sure tht the feared order of alien super-assassins know he betrayed them because thats what evil masterminds do?
Despite the above, there is an underlying sense of joy and fun in the tale that kept me reading and the action is fast-paced and hectic that makes it enjoyable even when it makes no sense at all.
With plot armour this thick, why even try? Hundreds of soldiers shoot our heroes, hit them, and there are no consequences. Shot in the arm? No effect. Shot in the leg? No effect. Shot in the head? No effect. Shot right through the chest? Don't worry, you'll be better soon and your comrades can carry you to safety, whilst fighting even though they can barely lift you off the ground. You fly your spaceship right through several fleets of enemy ships who shoot you over and over. There is no effect beyond scuffing the paintwork and one trivial repair.
Don't except physics to make sense. Your heavy friend walks across a single room in a space station and it shakes the entire space station so much statues fall over.
Don't expect distances to make sense. At one point a character is lying on the ground with his arm inside an access panel of a spaceship. At the same time, the same spaceship is flying in the air and shooting things. Just how long is this guy's arm?
Military spacecraft in an active combat zone are left totally unsecured, so you can just walk up and steal them and even though they are designed by aliens for use by aliens you will have no trouble flying the spacecraft with amazing skill.
The evil bad-guy mastermind is too stupid to take basic precautions, happily letting armed enemies into his presence. Evil bad-guy decided to betray a feared order of alien super-assassins and because he has no sense. Rather than doing it quietly, he does it in a massive public ceremony. I guess he wants to be absolutely sure tht the feared order of alien super-assassins know he betrayed them because thats what evil masterminds do?
Despite the above, there is an underlying sense of joy and fun in the tale that kept me reading and the action is fast-paced and hectic that makes it enjoyable even when it makes no sense at all.
February 23, 2023
An attempt at Old Fashioned Sci Fi Adventure but. ..>>
There are many things to commend in this story. Friendship, loyalty, family, humour, trust, adventure by the bucjetliad, divetse humourous characters abd riproaring rides through space. Enemies, diverse and vinductive, betrayal, duplicity. The non stop sequence of incidental gigie, baddue, goodie against eoukd ve giodie, soulful interaction. Great bewildering plotline. A No gobbledy gook adventure. BUT,BUT, BUT. . Far too many coincidental incidents piling uo rapidly wutjin the plotline to give any credability to thebook at all. Multiple coincidences pileup one after the other to becone sadly repetitious. Fartoo much. Humourous, yes. But ultimately tediius. The authir seens to firget Space is Deep. Here it is a case of Space is Small and everone is piling up on the same Freeway, so to speak. I won't bebuying any of the other novels in the sequence. Sorry.
There are many things to commend in this story. Friendship, loyalty, family, humour, trust, adventure by the bucjetliad, divetse humourous characters abd riproaring rides through space. Enemies, diverse and vinductive, betrayal, duplicity. The non stop sequence of incidental gigie, baddue, goodie against eoukd ve giodie, soulful interaction. Great bewildering plotline. A No gobbledy gook adventure. BUT,BUT, BUT. . Far too many coincidental incidents piling uo rapidly wutjin the plotline to give any credability to thebook at all. Multiple coincidences pileup one after the other to becone sadly repetitious. Fartoo much. Humourous, yes. But ultimately tediius. The authir seens to firget Space is Deep. Here it is a case of Space is Small and everone is piling up on the same Freeway, so to speak. I won't bebuying any of the other novels in the sequence. Sorry.
January 29, 2023
This was a hilarious read as introduced to a diverse set of people who begin the story after the same item and end up teaming with each other to stay alive. But of course things do not go smoothly and they must battle and battle and battle again. It's a wild ride with lots of action, trouble and danger. And a bit of a mystery too being set up. And Slim Taggart is in the middle of it all and a fun character and the star of the story as he manages to be lucky which is good as he is going to need it based on the ending. Cannot wait to see what happens next. A good read with plenty of crazy characters and action.
February 2, 2023
Taggart takes missions as a way of surviving and providing for himself. Maybe this time, he has bitten more than he can chew.
Yannick and Oro, two aliens are on their way to get the Emberling, a crystal that has many powers and can make the difference from victory to defeat.
Action, treachery, real friendship, battles and a significant amount of twists and turns make this work, created by the very talented author, a book worth a rating of 5 Stars, that I recommend and I look forward to reading this series.
Yannick and Oro, two aliens are on their way to get the Emberling, a crystal that has many powers and can make the difference from victory to defeat.
Action, treachery, real friendship, battles and a significant amount of twists and turns make this work, created by the very talented author, a book worth a rating of 5 Stars, that I recommend and I look forward to reading this series.
February 18, 2023
Fast Paced Action
This was a great read. I enjoyed that he stuck true to the great stories he was grew up enjoying. I recommend this book easily and look forward to the next one.
This was a great read. I enjoyed that he stuck true to the great stories he was grew up enjoying. I recommend this book easily and look forward to the next one.
March 28, 2023
Enjoyable
Interesting characters, lots of action. A space opera that entertains. I did enjoy this book it feels lighthearted as no gory details distract from the action.
Interesting characters, lots of action. A space opera that entertains. I did enjoy this book it feels lighthearted as no gory details distract from the action.
April 6, 2023
Very entertaining
April 18, 2023
Taggart has something that everyone wants. Lots of danger and action. How will he get out of this, can he prevent others from stealing it from him. Can’t wait for the next book.
October 17, 2024
Not bad
A pretty decent read. This was an enjoyable story but I felt it seemed a little rushed. I did enjoy.
A pretty decent read. This was an enjoyable story but I felt it seemed a little rushed. I did enjoy.
January 11, 2025
Good book
Good 1st book in the series. Good story with nice twists and turns. Interesting characters and base storyline. Good read
Good 1st book in the series. Good story with nice twists and turns. Interesting characters and base storyline. Good read
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews