Retrograde - Peter Cawdron

Synopsis:

The international team at the Mars Endeavour colony is prepared for every eventuality except one—what happens when disaster strikes Earth?

Mankind has long dreamed of reaching out to live on other planets, and with the establishment of the Mars Endeavour colony, that dream has become reality. The fledgling colony consists of 120 scientists, astronauts, medical staff, and engineers. Buried deep underground, they’re protected from the harsh radiation that sterilizes the surface of the planet. The colony is prepared for every eventuality except one—what happens when disaster strikes Earth?

Review:

I love diving into more genres when I read, Sci-fi isn't a genre I often dive in to so when I first got this book I was apprehensive about how I would feel as I read this book but I was pleasantly surprised by it and actually loved it a lot more than I thought I would. I'm going to try and write this review without spoiling any of the story so please stay with me if at first it doesn't make sense.

We follow Liz and the other 119 people who are living in a colony on Mars. There are the Russians, Americans, Chinese and Eurasia - including UK, Japan, Spain and other countries. Told from the point of view of Liz we get to see the other colony inhabitants that she interacts with which provides us with a few main and some minor characters. Although we have all of these countries to interact with throughout the story there is an understanding that we don't have anything to do with several of the inhabitants. Writing it like this is so clever, it helps us gain a perspective on the size of the colony and its crew without having to make every person a main or minor character. They are all very intelligent characters and every time they do something that i see as incredibly cool or smart which is basically everything the do, it blows me away.

The characters are strong and well developed, I instantly loved Liz and all of those we read about, even those who aren't shown in the great light we wished everyone was. We have US Commander Connor, who is the ex military self taught astronaut who is right hand man to Harrison who's the gruff loud type who is soft underneath. We have more people, James and Michelle are the most notable. We see a small amount of the Eurasian contingent but of the Russian contingent we see their leader Vlad and their Dr, Anna. The other group we see more of compared to the Eurasians and Russians are the Chinese, with Doi as their commander and Jaiyun who is Liz's love interest. With all of these people interacting together throughout the story it's a great interplay of culture, emotions and personalities and it's done perfectly.

The plot is brilliant and maybe that's because the statement is coming from a girl who hasn't read much Sci-fi in her life? or maybe it is brilliant because well...it just is? the jury is still out on that one. As I read the first chapter I was just praying to myself that the book wasn't going to be hard to get into and wasn't going to drag out but it was a pleasant surprise to be hooked by the first chapter and every other chapter after. I was automatically trying to figure out what was going to come but I wasn't right with what I ended up with. There are so many great things about this book, most notably the great twists it holds, its incredibly suspenseful in parts. I feel like there are undertones of uniting no matter who we are, where we come from or the political issues going on that continue to have a hold on our world.

You can easily tell how much research and thought went into this book, it screams volumes and is incredibly effective. I think I had a mini emotional roller coaster as I read this novel and part of me wants way more from Peter that goes with this book, I'd happily have a 20 part series really and that's no lie. Thanks to Peters high volume of accuracy in detail it was easy for me to put the book down and still see all of what had happened. I was hooked and in love, the imagery was beautiful an I couldn't control myself when it came to talking to my mother about this book.

Cawdron has done an amazing job with this novel, its an easy 5/5 from me and I definitely want to check out more of his work.

Eric Olafson, Space Pirate - Vanessa Ravencroft

Synopsis:

It's the year 5021 and the Milky Way Galaxy is teeming with life and exotic species. The majority of the known civilisations have formed a multi-cultural mega organization called the United Stars of Galaxies. This Union is protected by the brave men and women of the United Stars Space fleet against external threats.

Eric Olafson, born and raised under harsh conditions of the traditional and inward looking society of Nilfeheim, left his planet to fulfil his dreams of becoming a Starship captain.

When Eric gets kidnaped by an unknown organization and brought to Sin4, he slowly starts to discover his central role in an ancient conflict of cosmic proportions.

Review:

First of all I have to say that I was contacted and given a copy of the book in return I was to give an honest review. All the opinions in this review are mine and I am going to try and avoid any sort of spoilers that I can and still try to give a good quality review.

Today is in fact Eric Olafson Space Pirate' publication day! HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY ❤

Admittedly jumping in to this book was kind of like being thrown right into the deep end of a pool and barely being able to swim because this book is part of a larger series, and I mean a large series. Without reading any of the other books I was pretty much drowning right away, all the characters flooded me and I was tying to keep them separate and it was beyond a struggle. I hadn't read any of the other instalments so everything was overwhelming and hard to process as I was reading and trying to establish a clear image.

I struggled and continue to struggle with identifying and analysing how I feel towards all of the characters involved in the plot. I mean Eric is our main character and he wants nothing more than to fulfil his dream of becoming a starship captain. He end sup kidnapped and then basically from there on out I'm pretty much rolling down a hill it was that hard to keep track of everything that was happening. As much as I really wanted to connect with Eric and the other characters, I feel as though that my lack of knowledge on them due to not reading any of the other books really effected that and the only link between me and them was the fact they were in the story, I was nowhere near feeling any emotion or connection between myself and them. I will hopefully be able to put time aside in the future to read the series from the start in hopes of gripping the larger picture and establishing some sort of understanding and connection with the book and characters.

For what I understood and managed to keep a hold on, I loved. The action really pleased me and the level of detail was really awesome. At points the amount of detail was annoying but for the most part its use really helped to get me immersed. At points the level of detail did end up actually pushing me from the book and I found myself unable to read the book for a few hours just because the detail felt overpowering, like the author had tried so hard to immerse the readers and create a believable setting that it just ended up being too much and became overwhelming, almost so detailed and needing to be gripping that you could tell it was a work of fiction, I'm trying to say that at points the level of detail it had stopped it being immersive, so detailed it was obviously nowhere near real.

I must keep it clear that this book is great for those who love Sci.fi action and have time to read all of the other books or have a great ability to follow stories that are really sort of in the middle of a series without reading the others. I can 100% see why people who have read the book and series love it and love Vanessa, I can 100% see why Inkitt published this book. I just really wished I had caught wind of the series a long time ago so I could have followed it all the way and gotten a real addiction to it. However it wasn't meant to be and I was drowning the moment I begun reading but I loved what I read for the most part and I wish Vanessa continued luck with the series. Its a 3.5 out of 5 and I hope that my opinion and view does in no way deter you from embarking on the journey through the series.

Grab your copy from Amazon here!

Read more about this instalment on Goodreads

Read Pre- release reviews here

To read about all of Vanessa's work, go here