2021; 138 pages. Book 1 (out of 5) in the “Warp Riders” series. New Author? : Yes. Genres : Space Opera; Science Fiction; Space
Exploration. Overall Rating: 7½*/10.
Space.
The final frontier. It’s
big. Hugely big.
Just ask Captain Sadira
Perez. She’s just volunteered to lead a
mission into deep space, looking for a planet with sentient lifeforms on it, and with a less than friendly disposition. Their space travel technology is superior to ours, judging from a recent initial encounter with them, where they came this close to destroying one of our
starships, then went warping away (think Star Trek)
to regions unknown.
Our Artificial Intelligences (“AI”) have given Sadira the general direction
to which they fled. But who knows how
far they jumped? We humans have warp
technology as well, but the AI estimates it will still take at least five years
to scout that part of the galaxy, and that assumes nothing goes wrong.
Alas, Murphy decided to pay a
visit to Sadira (their way of citing Murphy’s
Law), and right off the bat her ship’s warp drive overheated, which
almost blew all aboard to smithereens.
Things were eventually brought under control, but now their AI's star charts are useless,
and they have no idea where they are, how to get home, or how to get to the
galactic area they’ve been assigned to scout.
That five-year estimate for
the mission seems rather low right now.
What’s To Like...
Deep Space Boogie
is the opening book in Scott Baron’s space opera “Warp
Riders” series. Amazon labels
it “Book One of Six”, while at Goodreads
it’s called “Book 0.5 of Four”. Goodreads’ designation is probably more
accurate, since Deep Space Boogie is of novella length (130 pages or so), and, I gather, serves as
the prequel to the series. Scott Baron
also offers the first two installments bundled together, which is the way I’m
reading them.
The book is a fine example of Space Opera; the
reader is treated to various creatures (humans,
AI, cyborgs, chithiid, and other extraterrestrials), weapons (railguns plasma cannons, pulse pistols and cannons, and
furry pink ferocity), and gizmos (stasis
pods and warp drives). The
action begins immediately, the pacing is brisk, and I don’t recall any awkward info dumps. The main
purpose of the story appears to be to introduce the reader to the ship’s crew
and explain how they all got thrown together.
There’s a fair amount of wit
and humor, mostly in the dialogue, but it doesn’t overshadow the main
storyline. Some of
the action may be over-the-top, but this is first and foremost a space opera, not a spoof or a satire. I thought the characters were well developed; each
crewmember has his or her (and in one case, both)
own individual traits. The editing is
good, which was a welcome relief from a lot of efforts by indie authors.
There aren’t a lot of
characters to keep track of, which makes sense since we’re following the crew of a single spaceship as they blindly hop around the galaxy, desperately trying to find a familiar location. There’s a nice mix of “races” in the crew (see above), and my favorite one is the
last to join. It will be yours as well.
The ending is decent with a
nice little twist to it that I didn’t see coming.
The immediate plotline is tied up, but the overall one – Sadira and her
team finding their way home – remains open.
I don’t view that as a negative; the book’s purpose is to get you ready
for further warp-jumping adventures, and I appreciate the author not sinking to
the use of a cliffhanger.
Ratings…
Amazon: 4.7*/5, based on 32
ratings.
Goodreads: 4.10*/5,
based on 40 ratings and 14 reviews
Excerpts...
“Okay, listen up, everyone. We’re going to try something. If it works, we’ll lose gravity and life
support for a few minutes, so stay calm and conserve air until we get it back
up and online.”
“And if it fails?” Goonara’s wavering voice
asked.
“It’ll be over so fast we won’t even know
it.” Sadira replied. “But think
positive.”
“Yeah,” Moose chimed in. “And if we blow up, at least we’ll go out on
a happy thought.” (loc. 626)
Sure, they’d have one another’s company on
those long runs, but neither had formed any sort of affectionate bonds with
anyone when they were back home, and the only love between them was the
platonic variety.
Having something to pour his love into had
given her friend an outlet neither had realized he needed. And as much as it had never even been a blip
on her mental radar, it seemed her crew now had a mascot.
And its name was Turd. (loc. 1626)
Kindle Details…
Deep
Space Boogie sells for $0.99 right now at Amazon, as does
its sequel, Belly of the Beast. The other three books in the series each cost
$3.99, and you have an additional option of picking up the first
two books bundled together for just $0.99. Scott Baron has several other series to
offer, with the books therein costing anywhere from free to $3.99. Various bundles, containing anything from two
to six books in these series, range in price from $0.99 to $23.94.
“Ooh, chatty
primordial ooze. I long for the day.” (loc. 164)
The quibbles are minor. There is some cussing, which is typical of most Space Operas. But it's not excessive: I counted
only eleven instances in the first quarter of the book. There's a nice variety to the cusswords, with a slight preference for “hell”. That's it for the R-rated stuff; I don’t recall
any sex or drugs or rock-&-roll.
One of the crewmembers, Holly (the ship’s AI) has
gender-identity issues. I noticed this before Sadira and her colleagues do, which makes me wonder if it started out as a plot continuity blip. No matter, it will be interesting to see if/how this impacts any of the other
stories down the line.
There’s not much of a
backstory given, other than a brief reference to a “Great War” being fought
twelve years earlier and which was won by us humans. However, another reviewer noted that the book is set in
the same world as Scott Baron’s Clockwork
Chimera series, who's protagonist, Daisy, makes a cameo appearance
here.
Finally, if the title
had any tie-in with the story, I missed it. I even searched the e-book version for the word “boogie” but found no hits outside of the title.
7½ Stars. Add 1 star if you’ve read the Clockwork Chimera series. I have a feeling I missed something by not doing so.
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