Dusk

by Ashanti Luke

In the year 2500, humanity has become so technologically advanced that overpopulation has led to an Earth too arrogant to acknowledge its own failures. With the Earth overpopulated and polluted, a group of twenty premier scientists must depart on a mission to explore Asha--a distant, uninhabited planet that may offer solutions to humanity's burgeoning problems. But when they arrive at Asha, the scientists are brusquely greeted by a mysterious human military force that imprisons them with no explanation. They find that during their journey, a faster ship not only delivered humans to Asha, but those humans defeated Earth in an interplanetary civil war. With this war and the discovery of an inexplicable link to mankind's past, the team finds Asha holds more mysteries than answers. Astrophysicist Cyrus Chamberlain is among those who left behind their old lives and risked everything on this journey. Unfortunately for Dr. Chamberlain, he finds that even if he survives the many challenges this new world holds for him, he may have already lost more than he ever imagined.

Genres: Science Fiction

540 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2010

Reviews

[Angus Mcfarlane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is written in the style of genuine science fiction. There is a vision, dystopic in this case, of the Earths future. Space travel is dealt with realistically and on arrival numerous mysteries confront the crew. Some of these are biological, others technological and others metaphysical/religious. The final result was interesting but not particularly fresh to me, nor I suspect to most scifi readers.
As a free ebook, however, it comes with some shortcomings that would be refined a little with more editing. Whilst the first spelling mistake came 250 pages in, some of the plot sequences were slow and/or difficult to follow. The time on board introduced people, but lacked substance; the escape and attack scenes tried to shift between perspectives but these were difficult to follow and confused rather than clarifying (and way too long for my liking). Unfortunately, also, some of the mystery elements are held back to maintain the intrigue, but they felt contrived, with the expected flow of dialogue getting cut short.
The result is not first class scifi, but the elements that make good scifi are there to be enjoyed if the tougher sections can be tolerated.

[Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the read. Enjoyed the effort the author made in developing characters and creating action.

[Annika · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much father and son conversations that did not seem to serve a purpose.

[Breedlov · Rating 3 out of 5]

About average. Nothing special. Not necessarily engrossing, but somewhat entertaining.

[Orange · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thais was very long-winded for what you got.