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Katherine O’Reilly and Rekkid Cor. Human and Arkari. Archaeologists with a story about an ancient derelict starship that few believe and a captain’s log that tells of an ancient genocidal war that no-one has ever heard of. But if no-one believes their story, then why are the authorities so keen to suppress it?
Captain Michelle Chen of the Commonwealth Navy. Brave, cunning, merciless. Dangerous even. However she may be just the person her superiors have been looking for to start a war.
Steven Harris. Secret agent with a conscience, who defied orders, ignored the chain of command and let his morals get in the way of his career.
Quickchild. An AI of unknown origin and staggering power that does not know who it truly is.
As the colonies of the human Commonwealth stand on the brink of war with the fanatic legions of the alien K’Soth Empire, these five individuals are drawn to the backward, arid planet of Maranos that stands between the two civilisations. As relations between human and alien deteriorate, Maranos is about to give up its ancient, terrifying secrets.
Captain Michelle Chen of the Commonwealth Navy. Brave, cunning, merciless. Dangerous even. However she may be just the person her superiors have been looking for to start a war.
Steven Harris. Secret agent with a conscience, who defied orders, ignored the chain of command and let his morals get in the way of his career.
Quickchild. An AI of unknown origin and staggering power that does not know who it truly is.
As the colonies of the human Commonwealth stand on the brink of war with the fanatic legions of the alien K’Soth Empire, these five individuals are drawn to the backward, arid planet of Maranos that stands between the two civilisations. As relations between human and alien deteriorate, Maranos is about to give up its ancient, terrifying secrets.
686 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 6, 2010
15 people are currently reading
117 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 28, 2011
Being a fan of a good Sci-Fi Space Opera I downloaded this on my kindle looking forward to a good read, however the 'self published' nature of this book screamed from the first page of a very badly written prologue.
The promise of the story was enough to tempt me to forge ahead despite this less than auspicious start to see if the book improved. The short review of what turned out to be a very very long book was that it did but not by much.
Full credit should go to Worth for actually completing such a grand project (hence the two stars) but this book cries out for a good editor with a big red pen. Typos and grammar errors aside there are some terrible examples of lazy, ill thought out writing.
The basic plot has some merit but it's the clumsy execution of this story that lets the both the author and the reader down. Many of the characters are too thinly cast to be credible, some of the plot mechanisms defy the suspension of disbelief and all too often the dialogue is terrible, both in content and the authors repeated inability to follow basic writing convention (let alone getting one of the character's name wrong in the middle of a particularly important exchange of dialogue!).
The promise of the story was enough to tempt me to forge ahead despite this less than auspicious start to see if the book improved. The short review of what turned out to be a very very long book was that it did but not by much.
Full credit should go to Worth for actually completing such a grand project (hence the two stars) but this book cries out for a good editor with a big red pen. Typos and grammar errors aside there are some terrible examples of lazy, ill thought out writing.
The basic plot has some merit but it's the clumsy execution of this story that lets the both the author and the reader down. Many of the characters are too thinly cast to be credible, some of the plot mechanisms defy the suspension of disbelief and all too often the dialogue is terrible, both in content and the authors repeated inability to follow basic writing convention (let alone getting one of the character's name wrong in the middle of a particularly important exchange of dialogue!).
July 23, 2011
Good storyline, shame about the editing
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The storyline for this book was excellent and instantly draws you into the plot making you not want to put it down. The problem with the book is it's poor presentation, it's too long and could do with some editing for example the section where Katherine visits the mining museum was long and superfluous and the last scene between Chen and Steven was unbelievable considering their previous animosity and she called him Al at one point! but my main problem with the book was the large number of words missing from the text. I constantly had to guess the missing word to make the sentence scan and at one point wondered if there may be enough missing words to make another short story. Dan please, please get yourself a proofreader or sack the one you have I'm sure sci-fi readers would volunteer to proofread your books for you for a free unpublished copy I for one would have loved to be able to correct the errors as I went on. I will probably check out the next instalment but only after I forget how badly this book was edited.
.
The storyline for this book was excellent and instantly draws you into the plot making you not want to put it down. The problem with the book is it's poor presentation, it's too long and could do with some editing for example the section where Katherine visits the mining museum was long and superfluous and the last scene between Chen and Steven was unbelievable considering their previous animosity and she called him Al at one point! but my main problem with the book was the large number of words missing from the text. I constantly had to guess the missing word to make the sentence scan and at one point wondered if there may be enough missing words to make another short story. Dan please, please get yourself a proofreader or sack the one you have I'm sure sci-fi readers would volunteer to proofread your books for you for a free unpublished copy I for one would have loved to be able to correct the errors as I went on. I will probably check out the next instalment but only after I forget how badly this book was edited.
October 2, 2012
This would easily have been a 4 star if not for the fact that it was not proof read or properly edited prior to publication. Incredibly distracting and increasingly annoying errors, stilted dialogue and under developed female characters are really letting down an astounding imagination and well crafted, pacey story lines. Such a shame.
May 20, 2016
Difficult to stop reading. Some parts reminds me of star gate atlantis/universe so if you like this the book is something for you.
February 1, 2023
I was a little uncertain about this book before I first started to read it, but after I got through the first few pages, I found that I was really absorbed by it and wanted to read on to see what came next. It is quite long, so it ultimately ended up taking me quite a bit of time to read it, but that didn't really seem much of a burden. The story kept me picking it up again and again, and even when I thought that I would just read a few pages, I found that I would read it for an hour or more.
The characters are relatable and have depth, and the imagination of the author in creating alien species, customs, and cultures is to be commended. The technology did seem to be somewhat inconsistent in places, which amazing technologies being described on the one hand, and on the other, many of the concepts and weapons being described seem to relate to something from our present day and age. I personally found that easier to follow in some regards, but it felt at times that a WW2 ship was flying in space hundreds of years in the future.
Everything said and done, I really did enjoy this book, and I ended up reading it a couple of times, along with the other two books in the series. Well worth the (long) time taken to read it!
The characters are relatable and have depth, and the imagination of the author in creating alien species, customs, and cultures is to be commended. The technology did seem to be somewhat inconsistent in places, which amazing technologies being described on the one hand, and on the other, many of the concepts and weapons being described seem to relate to something from our present day and age. I personally found that easier to follow in some regards, but it felt at times that a WW2 ship was flying in space hundreds of years in the future.
Everything said and done, I really did enjoy this book, and I ended up reading it a couple of times, along with the other two books in the series. Well worth the (long) time taken to read it!
June 6, 2025
exciting and imaginative story
This is a great book. The story is interesting and pretty original. There are some good twists, though I wouldn't say you will be shocked as you read it.
It's well written, no ideologically motivated nonsense which is always good to see.
If you want a good space opera, with complex characters and a few layers of plot going on at once you should give this a go
This is a great book. The story is interesting and pretty original. There are some good twists, though I wouldn't say you will be shocked as you read it.
It's well written, no ideologically motivated nonsense which is always good to see.
If you want a good space opera, with complex characters and a few layers of plot going on at once you should give this a go
March 19, 2020
Great read
Really fun book. Some interesting character arks and great set up for the series. Some characters lack development but hoping this will be further explored in future books.
Really fun book. Some interesting character arks and great set up for the series. Some characters lack development but hoping this will be further explored in future books.
July 1, 2020
Rarely is a book so badly written that I abandon it before the end of chapter 3. This is that book.
April 15, 2014
One of the worst books I have ever read, with no redeeming features to it. If this was a film, it would be The Room.
The books main characters could easily be replaced by blocks of cheese for all the influence they have on the story. Rather than feeling like they are interacting with events and driving forward the plot it feels more like the plot makes demands that characters act around it. To make matters worse the female characters, portrayed as professionals at the top of their field, often have their problems solved by men. Sigh.
The character of Chen is particularly awful and comes across more as an act of revenge against an old girlfriend of the authors. The opening chapter features her refusal to speak to an old boyfriend in a professional manner and instead ignoring him completely, acting like a sixteen year old girl rather than the star ship captain and tactical genius she is supposed to be. This leads to showing off her incompetency as a captain and that of her crew via what ranks as a good 10/10 on the war crimes scale. Later on we see her tactical genius when she develops a combat plan which involves noticing her ships can outrun the turning arcs of the enemy ships so they can fire without fear of response, which actually seems like less tactical genius than tactics 101. Which brings us to...
Things in this book don't make much sense in the context they are placed in, they are just dropped into the story to look cool or service the need of the plot. The first chapter has captain Chen explain how her ship is a new construct destroyer, heavily armed and armoured with a top notch crew. Then a few pages later someone with a rocket launcher equivalent manages to personally aim for her as the bridge has a window, which shatters and sucks some of her bridge crew out to space before it emergency shuts. Question time! Why does the heavily armoured ship have a death star exhaust port weak spot? Why doesn't the emergency shutter close fast enough to prevent people getting sucked out? Why doesn't anyone notice that they are being fired upon when they are performing blockade duties?
And the book is filled with this, things that appear to only be there because the plot demands it because the plot is firmly on the rails. We often speak about how it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey and this books seems to have mixed up the two and has becomes more interested in hitting it's Marty Stu plot points than telling a meaningful narrative. The fact that more books exists in this series can only be offered as proof that Nyarlathotep walks amongst us.
The books main characters could easily be replaced by blocks of cheese for all the influence they have on the story. Rather than feeling like they are interacting with events and driving forward the plot it feels more like the plot makes demands that characters act around it. To make matters worse the female characters, portrayed as professionals at the top of their field, often have their problems solved by men. Sigh.
The character of Chen is particularly awful and comes across more as an act of revenge against an old girlfriend of the authors. The opening chapter features her refusal to speak to an old boyfriend in a professional manner and instead ignoring him completely, acting like a sixteen year old girl rather than the star ship captain and tactical genius she is supposed to be. This leads to showing off her incompetency as a captain and that of her crew via what ranks as a good 10/10 on the war crimes scale. Later on we see her tactical genius when she develops a combat plan which involves noticing her ships can outrun the turning arcs of the enemy ships so they can fire without fear of response, which actually seems like less tactical genius than tactics 101. Which brings us to...
Things in this book don't make much sense in the context they are placed in, they are just dropped into the story to look cool or service the need of the plot. The first chapter has captain Chen explain how her ship is a new construct destroyer, heavily armed and armoured with a top notch crew. Then a few pages later someone with a rocket launcher equivalent manages to personally aim for her as the bridge has a window, which shatters and sucks some of her bridge crew out to space before it emergency shuts. Question time! Why does the heavily armoured ship have a death star exhaust port weak spot? Why doesn't the emergency shutter close fast enough to prevent people getting sucked out? Why doesn't anyone notice that they are being fired upon when they are performing blockade duties?
And the book is filled with this, things that appear to only be there because the plot demands it because the plot is firmly on the rails. We often speak about how it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey and this books seems to have mixed up the two and has becomes more interested in hitting it's Marty Stu plot points than telling a meaningful narrative. The fact that more books exists in this series can only be offered as proof that Nyarlathotep walks amongst us.
October 9, 2014
Dan Worth postulates a future where humans have become a part of galactic society. Humanity has messed up here and there, such as on one planet where an interstellar human company has been supplying the natives with an addictive and lethal drug.
When the natives revolt and take over a space station Captain Chen is called to deal with it and ends up massacring a large number of innocent aliens. Her ex, a secret agent, Harris, is blamed for the debacle and posted to another system. Meanwhile, two archaeologists have discovered a million year old ship which appears to belong to the highly advanced Arkari. They find mummified Arkari on board and manage to acquire the log before the Arkari duly arrive and confiscate everything.
Anyhoo – the Arkari have been in space a lot longer than they’ve told anyone. The archaeologists get posted to the same planet to which agent Harris was banished in order to investigate the holy city of Maran which, it appears, holds its own secrets. It transpires that everyone is being manipulated by a mysterious enemy from the core of the galaxy.
They have already provoked a war between Humanity and the vicious reptilian K’soth, and now they hope to open a long-sealed wormhole porthole to let through some nasty terminator-style beasties from the end of time.
One can’t deny it’s a cracking read. Some of the dialogue and love scenes are a tad creaky but it’s still an engrossing novel and leaves one wanting more.
Elements of it do seem familiar, however. The concept of people being led to a planet simply in order to unwittingly loose hordes of crazy aliens into the galaxy was used by Hamilton in ‘Pandora’s Star’ and there are other reviews which comment on the similarities to Babylon 5. The Arkari (who have living ships and who are as economical with the truth as a Thatcher government) are the Vorlons here, and the mysterious Shapers appear to be the Shadows.
However, no writer works in a vacuum, and these are archetypal forces – Order and Chaos, which have been employed in various fashions in fantasy and SF since the dawn of the genre.
When the natives revolt and take over a space station Captain Chen is called to deal with it and ends up massacring a large number of innocent aliens. Her ex, a secret agent, Harris, is blamed for the debacle and posted to another system. Meanwhile, two archaeologists have discovered a million year old ship which appears to belong to the highly advanced Arkari. They find mummified Arkari on board and manage to acquire the log before the Arkari duly arrive and confiscate everything.
Anyhoo – the Arkari have been in space a lot longer than they’ve told anyone. The archaeologists get posted to the same planet to which agent Harris was banished in order to investigate the holy city of Maran which, it appears, holds its own secrets. It transpires that everyone is being manipulated by a mysterious enemy from the core of the galaxy.
They have already provoked a war between Humanity and the vicious reptilian K’soth, and now they hope to open a long-sealed wormhole porthole to let through some nasty terminator-style beasties from the end of time.
One can’t deny it’s a cracking read. Some of the dialogue and love scenes are a tad creaky but it’s still an engrossing novel and leaves one wanting more.
Elements of it do seem familiar, however. The concept of people being led to a planet simply in order to unwittingly loose hordes of crazy aliens into the galaxy was used by Hamilton in ‘Pandora’s Star’ and there are other reviews which comment on the similarities to Babylon 5. The Arkari (who have living ships and who are as economical with the truth as a Thatcher government) are the Vorlons here, and the mysterious Shapers appear to be the Shadows.
However, no writer works in a vacuum, and these are archetypal forces – Order and Chaos, which have been employed in various fashions in fantasy and SF since the dawn of the genre.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2013
Dan Worth is obviously a very good writer. On the up side, his descriptions are well drawn and a pleasure to read for the most part. The characters are different and interesting. The plot line not too bad. I did want to finish the book to find out what happened. On the down side, the descriptions are a tad over long in places which does slow the pace somewhat, making it seem rather drawn out in places. I particularly didn't go a lot on the lengthy battle descriptions, as I personally was not overly keen on that side of things, although other readers might enjoy that side of it. It is hard to keep up with who is who at times and the physical description of the characters is not as in depth as the description of places and surroundings for some reason. This perhaps wouldn't have been too much of a problem, but some of the main characters are not as well drawn as they might be. The two so called main characters remained a bit hazy for me. I was a tad disappointed with the ending, but as it's a series will wait and see. One of the main irritations of the novel is the lack of proof reading, particularly with the constant omission of joining pronouns for some reasons. However I know that proof reading does cost a fortune and this is a very long novel. Possibly a little too long. I think it would have been better being a little shorter. I have however brought the second novel in the trilogy and will be reading that as soon as I get the chance.
September 18, 2012
Worth's talent is to create an entirely new universe populated by believable characters in spite of the genre - in that while they are 3 dimensional, each is flawed, be it questioning their superiors and orders, egocentric or downright belligerent. But his true talent is to describe not a simple SciFi local, but an entire universe with species hell bent on the pursuance of their own interests.
If Red Storm Rising gave the reader a holistic view of a world at war, Exiles paints a universe holding back from each other leading to a horrific consequences - some by moving faster than they are truly capable of, others by attempting to hide the sins of their past - not to forget those that are so fundamental to their religious beliefs, they are tearing down the very fabric of their society.
To my great joy, this is the first in a trilogy - there are too may characters that I have now invested in that I have to follow. Worth doesn't tell you about his universe, he shows you - I for one want to see where it leads.
If Red Storm Rising gave the reader a holistic view of a world at war, Exiles paints a universe holding back from each other leading to a horrific consequences - some by moving faster than they are truly capable of, others by attempting to hide the sins of their past - not to forget those that are so fundamental to their religious beliefs, they are tearing down the very fabric of their society.
To my great joy, this is the first in a trilogy - there are too may characters that I have now invested in that I have to follow. Worth doesn't tell you about his universe, he shows you - I for one want to see where it leads.
January 7, 2012
This book was excellent! Granted, you won't enjoy it unless you're a scifi fan, but if you like scifi, you'll find this book *quite* entertaining. This book was self-published - which, having done that myself y'all know it's not something I have a problem with at all - but it was definitely in need of an editor to fix the typos that popped up throughout the story. However, while in some cases typos can be distracting and detract from the tale, they really didn't in this case, as the story was just so entertaining and engaging. I'd say the author is *obviously* a fan of Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. There were quite a few aspects that seemed directly inspired by the ST and BSG universes. However, the author managed to keep to the side of 'inspiration' without crossing the line into 'ripping off.' I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and am excited that it's the first part of a trilogy - off to download book 2!
March 22, 2013
This is a good book with an interesting plot and a few flaws. It just seemed a bit cumbersome with a lot of exposition. In the end though, the characters were interesting enough to keep me going and by the end it picked up nicely.
I'd say there are two main character's but in reality the book follows about 5 who's story lines converge as the book moves along. It begins with the discovery of a derelict spacecraft found drifting in space that upon closer inspection turn out to be nearly a million years old and this should not be possible. From there the mystery unfolds into a greater galaxy wide conflict while we learn about the not so nice history of the early galactic civilizations.
I will definitely read the second in the series.
I'd say there are two main character's but in reality the book follows about 5 who's story lines converge as the book moves along. It begins with the discovery of a derelict spacecraft found drifting in space that upon closer inspection turn out to be nearly a million years old and this should not be possible. From there the mystery unfolds into a greater galaxy wide conflict while we learn about the not so nice history of the early galactic civilizations.
I will definitely read the second in the series.
January 1, 2015
I'm going to give this book an optimistic four stars. The predominant success from this self-published novelist was that the story was good and kept me interested over and above the editorial and other errors. I put much of this down to my ebook file converter scrambling up sentences and cropping words, but from other reviews on this book I can't be sure.
Dan Worth certainly has a vivid imagination and I enjoyed this opening book of this Progenitor trilogy. The adventure was well staged with identifiable characters. With some more polish this could be a great space opera.
Here's hoping that the next book develops both story and talent. Keep at it Dan.
Dan Worth certainly has a vivid imagination and I enjoyed this opening book of this Progenitor trilogy. The adventure was well staged with identifiable characters. With some more polish this could be a great space opera.
Here's hoping that the next book develops both story and talent. Keep at it Dan.
July 6, 2016
Although I found the dialog a little clunky in places, maybe in need of a slightly harsher edit, it was totally absorbing and any criticisms were soon forgotten once I got sucked into the story. As I was reading I found myself watching the story unfold in my head more than reading it. I found every scene popping into my head with grate clarity, from the interior of cramped dingy stations to beautiful cityscapes and up to entire solar systems, seemingly without the need for pages of description. Combined with grate characters and a vast epic plot it makes for one of the finest sifi novels I have read in years!
February 8, 2013
A rather excellent space opera, gripping throughout and with many twists and turns to keep you enthralled. My only gripes are the poor proof-reading that has taken place (seemingly a common problem on Kindle books) and the fact that the story is, in itself, somewhat unpolished. At times the prose is school-essay-esque which can be distracting, but on the whole the book is well worth reading, and I look forward to the remaining 2 of the trilogy.
January 21, 2015
For a first time author, this is an incredibly good book. The characters are interesting, the plot complex but not confusing, the action well paced. Overall, well written. If I had a complaint it would be that there are a few minor editing errors.
I would have no difficulties recommending this book.
I would have no difficulties recommending this book.
June 3, 2013
A lot better book than I expected. The story moves along at a reasonable pace, and the characters are well developed. The plot shows the writers imagination and at no time do you anticipate what will happen. If you enjoy space opera type Sci Fi you will enjoy this book.
March 14, 2012
read this as an e-book on Kindle. I was quite happy to put up with the typos for a good hard core sci-fi read.
August 19, 2012
Great page turning thriller, the aliens were well described and believable, and the plot was good and not at all predictable.
Looking forward to the next one.
Looking forward to the next one.
April 11, 2013
considering this was a self published book it's a cracker. i could not put the book down and i'm now on the second book of the trilogy which seems just as good
January 23, 2015
Its a good read and I am interested in reading more of the series, I did find it a little long in places.
September 27, 2013
Excellent, interesting and well written book, aside from some general grammar mistakes. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews