Lacuna: Demons of the Void - David Adams

   2013; 207 pages.  Full Title: Lacuna: Demons of the Void – PG-13 Edition.  Book 1 (out of 6) in the “Lacuna” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Space Opera; Science Fiction; First Contact.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

 

    The message from the alien spaceship was short and to the point: “Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology.”  Then, to show they meant business, they obliterated the cities of Beijing, Tehran, and Sydney.

 

    That was in 2029 AD, eight years ago.  It’s safe to assume that they were referring to something we call “jump drive” technology, which Earth’s scientists have been working on for a while.  Think of it as wormhole-hopping; it has the potential to make it possible to travel throughout the galaxy.

 

    Now it’s 2037 AD and the jump drive is ready to be tested.  Earth has built three big honkin’ spaceships, each named for one of the destroyed cities, and it's time to try out the new technology.  The first order of business is obvious: find them nasty extraterrestrials and whup their alien butts.

 

    Let's not let the fact that they are technologically far superior to us deter us from our mission.  We are Earthlings, and we’re always in the right, so we will always be victorious.

 

    We better hope so, anyway.

 

What’s To Like...

    Amazon labels Lacuna: Demons of the Void as Space Fleet Sci-Fi, Alien Invasion Sci-Fi, and Space Exploration Sci-Fi; and those are all appropriate, but I think you can lump them together and call this a Space Opera.  There’s plenty of cussing, lots of rolling-in-the-hay (or in space bunks or in various nooks and crannies of a spaceship), and even a bit of “naked post-sex back rubs”.

 

    There’s lots of action and intrigue to keep you turning the pages.  The protagonist is a female Chinese officer; that's a refreshingly unusual choice.  She’s a bit too quick to pull the trigger, but her interacting with a fellow officer and one of the space aliens gave a nice balance to the thrills and spills.

 

    David Adams is Australian, which means the book uses English spellings (tonnes, grey, tyres, chequered, etc.) and American grammar.  That may sound weird, but it made for an easy read.

 

    While the technology is very “real-sounding”, I wouldn’t label this a Hard Science Fiction novel.  Instead, it reminded me of Star Trek science: neat-sounding and entertaining, but not to be taken seriously.  Sorry, Trekkies.

    I chuckled at the brief reference to the XKCD cartoon strip, and liked that the alien ships utilized Rayguns, even if they were for defensive purposes only.  The Spanish flirting lines were a nice touch, and this is the first book I remember where (Chinese) Mandarin characters were used in the text.  More on that in a bit.

 

    Everything leads to an exciting, two-chapters-long showdown in which the aliens have a couple neat tricks up their sleeve, and all seems lost for quite a while.  The fate of some of the characters is deferred until Book Two, but Lacuna: Demons of the Void is still a standalone story, as well as the start of a 6-book series.  The book closes with a clever plot twist in the Epilogue, although to be honest, I saw it coming many chapters beforehand.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  3.6/5 based on 496 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.42/5 based on 1,042 ratings and 135 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Liao watched curiously as [Summer] took the plastic pen out of her pocket, holding it near the giant donut.  The tip wobbled, and then the whole pen jerked out of her hand towards the featureless metal – hitting it with a “clank”.

    “Impressive, but isn’t that just magnetism?” Liao observed dryly.

    “That pen’s plastic.”  (loc. 326)

 

    “Cheung here; what can I do for you, Captain?”

    Liao gave a slight grin, watching the corners of the metal decompression door heat up, glowing dull red as the Toralii burned through it.  “There’s a squad of Toralii Alliance marines about to break in the door of Operations.  I don’t suppose you have any men to spare?”

    There was a pause as Cheung thought it through.  “Negative, Captain.  Sorry, all units are engaged at this time.”

    “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”  Liao thought for a moment.  “Anything you can tell me that’ll help, based on your engagements with the Toralii so far?”

    “Don’t let them shoot you.”  (loc. 4958)

 

Kindle Details…

    The “non-PG13” version of Lacuna: Demons of the Void (which has the title shortened to simply “Lacuna”) seems to be always free at Amazon, which makes trying this series out a risk-free venture.  I don’t know if the version I read is “more adult” or “less adult” than what Amazon now offers.  The other five books in the series are all priced at $4.99 apiece.

 

“Thank you once again, Summer, for your continued disruptive presence.”  (loc. 4359 )

    There are reasons why Lacuna: Demons of the Void gets low ratings at both Goodreads and Amazon.  Some of the reviewers didn’t find the protagonist to be likeable, and they have a point.  Having a female Chinese starship commander is a fascinating idea, and I was hoping for a deep, complex, and evolving character study.  Instead, Melissa Liao comes off as eager to jump into the sack with the first hunk she meets, and without any people-skills when dealing with her crew.  I like anti-heroes, but there's a difference between being incisive versus being arrogant.  There was so much more that could have been done with Liao.

 

    The decision to include Chinese characters in the text felt clunky.  I took two years of Mandarin Chinese a few years back, so this should have been a delight for me.  But in the majority of cases, no translation was given, and let’s face it, trying to google a Chinese glyph is impossible for most readers.  At the very least, the ”pinyin” format should have been used.  Luckily, around 10% of the way through the e-book, the author seems to have abandoned using the Chinese text.

 

    Both Melissa Liao and Summer Rowe are referred to by their first and last names, which was confusing.  Beta readers should have brought this up.  Also, realistically, the learning of the alien language should have been much more gradual, with opportunities for some “lost in translation” wittiness.  And finally, the book could have used another round of proofreading.  Comma misuse was prevalent, the past-tense verb is “led”, not “lead”, and so forth.

 

    But sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.  Yes, the writing and storytelling could be improved, but Lacuna: Demons of the Void still entertained me, and who knows, maybe the writing gets more polished as the series progresses.  David Adams certainly has a talent for penning exciting battle scenes and electrifying endings.  Despite its shortcomings, this book was still a worthwhile read.

 

    6 Stars.  As shown on the cover, my version of Lacuna: Demons of the Void was listed as being the “PG-13 Edition”.  It doesn’t seem to be offered at Amazon anymore, although Goodreads lists it as an option.  I mention this as a caveat that your electronic version of this book may be slightly different in tone from mine.