Rise of the Forgotten - Scott Baron

   2021; 363 pages.  Book 3 (out of 6) in the “Warp Riders” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Space Opera; Science Fiction; Space Exploration.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    First the good news.  Nobody’s shooting at Sadira Perez’s spaceship anymore; their galactic enemies, the Ra’az Hok, have been vanquished; and their former taskmasters, the Chithiid, are now their allies.  So they’re relatively safe for the time being,

 

    Now for the bad news.  Sadira’s ship and crew have been warped to who-knows-where, which has rendered their star charts useless.  Once you’re become lost in the universe you tend to stay lost.

 

    However, the ship’s AI reports that’s there’s a planet up ahead, and it’s inhabited.  Chances are the beings are either human or Chithiid.  Maybe they have star charts of this part of the galaxy, and if so, maybe they’ll let Sadira take a look at them.

 

    Yeah, and maybe Murphy, he of “Murphy’s Law”, won’t pay them a surprise visit, as he is wont to do.

 

What’s To Like...

    Rise of the Forgotten is the third book in Scott Baron’s “Warp Riders” series.  He’s written five series in this setting, 32 books in all, and has posted a useful timeline of these on his Amazon webpage showing the chronology of these series.

 

    This series follows the “Clockwork Chimera” one, which I’ve read and reviewed in its entirety over the last four years.  That one chronicled the war between the Ra’az Hok and the Humans; this series focuses on the aftermath.  Sadira’s crew is still intact, and includes a pleasant mix of humans, cyborgs, Chithiids, and gender-juggling AI entities. 

 

    Rise of the Forgotten is a fine example of both Space Opera and First Contact genres.  Making contact with this unknown planet is desperately necessary, but prudence is required.  Are they friends or enemies?  Are the Ra’az Hok truly eliminated, or do pockets of them remain on far-flung solar systems?  Might the inhabitants down there know how to get back to Planet Earth or will they shoot first and ask questions later?

 

    To no one’s surprise, Sadira’s "first contact" strategy rapidly gets derailed, with thrills, spills, and mayhem all rapidly ensuing.  I read the Books 1&2 in this series back in 2021 so I very much appreciated the first couple of chapters giving a recap of events in those volumes.  I also enjoyed watching the creation of the “disguises” to be used to infiltrate into the planet’s inhabitants and chuckled over the acronym “ASAFP”.

 

    The ending is decent but not very twisty; tense but not very exciting.  Good triumphs over Evil, but some of Sadira’s objectives remain unfulfilled.  Oh well, there are another three books in the series to deal with that.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 145 ratings and 14 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43*/5, based on 76 ratings and 11 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “He’ll be okay, Cap.  Hel’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s no fool.”

    “He ditched his comms, Moose.  And we have no way to find either of them now.  It’s thousands of Chithiid, all dressed the same, all packed in there, and even if we knew roughly where he was, we can’t even get a clear visual from up here because of the atmospheric issues.”

    “I know, I know.  But it’s like taking a kid riding without training wheels.  Eventually, you have to trust them and let go.”

    She raised an eyebrow sarcastically.  “Most kids crash the first time, you know.”  (loc. 1592)

 

    “Things don’t always go according to plan, but if anyone’s going to take a risky gamble, I suppose the AI superbrain that processes data a bazillion times faster than any of us meat brains can is about the best odds you can get.”

    “Did you just call me a meat brain?” Moose asked.

    “Well, technically, it’s neurons, glial cells, neural stem cells, and blood vessels in addition to fat, but I think the spirit of the comment is valid,” Hump said with a laugh.  (loc. 4698)

 

Kindle Details…

    Rise of the Forgotten sells for $3.99 right now at Amazon.  The other books in the series, including the Book 1&2 bundle, go for either $0.99 or $3.99.  Scott Baron has several other series in e-book format, both in bundles and as individual stories, and mostly priced in the $0.99-$4.99 range.

 

“Smoke me a kipper, I’m heading home.”  (loc. 738)

    I counted 11 instances of profanity in the first 10% of Rise of the Forgotten, which I’d call a moderate amount.  None of them were f-bombs, but a couple of those did show up later on.  I don’t recall any adult situations.

 

    There’s not much else to quibble about.  There were no slow spots in the storytelling, but it was a quick-&-easy read, ideal for a day at the beach.  And maybe it even suggests a subtle concept: that regardless of ethnic, cosmic, and/or gender varieties, when it comes to surviving in the Universe, we are all in this together.  Now onto Book Four, Pandora’s Menagerie.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  My favorite cosmic deity, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, gets a brief nod here, and as a loyal FSM follower, I found that greatly satisfying.

How to Pick Up Women with a Drunk Space Ninja - Jay Key

   2018; 346 pages.  Book 1 (out of 4) in the “Adventures of Duke LaGrange” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Humorous Science Fiction; Space Opera.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    Get ready for a new Dynamic Duo!

 

    The main hero is Duke LaGrange, a wisecracking bounty hunter from a colony planet called Nova Texas.  He’s not particularly physically imposing, but he makes up for that by packing two deadly space firearms: a Widowmaker sonic shotgun and a laser revolver.

 

    His sidekick is a silent-but-deadly Ninja warrior named Ishiro’shea.  He’s from some backwater planet called Earth and claims to be of Irish-Japanese extraction, whatever that means.

 

    Right now they’re doing what most superheroes love to do: hanging out at the Why Not Saloon on the planet Kelt, and famed for its wine, women (of all sorts of intergalactic species), and interdimensional portals.  And while Duke flirts with the females in the crowd, Ishiro is engaged in his favorite pastime: lying on the saloon’s floor, passed out drunk.

 

    Life cannot get any better than this.

 

What’s To Like...

    How to Pick Up Women with a Drunk Space Ninja is the first volume in a (presumably) completed 4-book humorous sci-fi series.  The two protagonists remind me of the Star Wars duo of Han Solo and Chewbacca.  Ichiro has taken a vow of silence (it’s a ninja thing) so the banter between Duke and him is one-sided, yet just like Solo and Chewie chitchats, it somehow works.

 

    The opening scene takes place in a galactic bar-&-grill, which is very similar to the one in the first Star Wars movie, save that the band playing is a robotic metal group and the female flirt is an anthropomorphic musk ox.  That gives you a good idea of the comedic tone of the tale.  But the primary plot thread concerns our heroes reluctantly finding themselves forced into joining an epic space quest; which again is very Solo/Chewie-ish.

 

    I liked the character-building.  The good guys are well-intended but rather inept; and the head bad guy may be arrogant, yet he’s also somewhat charismatic.  The warfare scenario takes its cue straight out of Star Wars: the “legitimate” (evil) empire has overwhelming military resources, but the “rebel” (good) resistance has no reason to believe they can prevail, but they'll die trying anyway.

 

    The plotline is humorous, twisty, and has enough action to keep the reader reading “just one more chapter”.  The loyalty of most of the good guys—including Duke—is questionable at times, and both sides occasionally wonder if they’re being manipulated by some higher Power.

 

    The ending is decent; when all appears lost, help comes crashing in from unexpected places, and in the end the bad guys get their just desserts.  The aftermath is given in the second-to-last chapter, ties up the loose plot threads in a heartwarming manner.  Things close where things began, back at the bar-&-grill, with Duke and Ishiro contemplating their next adventure.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.1*/5, based on 285 ratings and 52 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.85*/5, based on 347 ratings and 44 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I am truly sorry.  Is there anything else that I can help you with?”

    “You hairy Glyptodian bastard!  Tell the Queen that I’m looking right down its bright red gullet as we speak; not too far from the Keltian atmosphere.  I think she might want to know.”

    “You do make a valid point, Mr. LaGrange.  I will seek her out with unrivaled haste.  Do you mind if I place you on hold briefly?”

    “Yes, I mind, Earl!”

    “Thank you.”

    “No, I said, I do mind—”

    The hold music interrupted and chimed away.  (loc. 716)

 

    “Nice to meet you, Lo’n.  I’ve heard so much about you.”

    Duke awkwardly knelt down in an exaggerated curtsy.  Mo’a laughed.

    “Is that right, off-worlder?”

    “But of course.  The great and all powerful Lo’n.  Your exploits are known throughout the universe.  Entire races are sacrificed in your honor every cycle.  The mere mention of your name can impregnate certain species.  Both male and female.  You are a god, my friend, a true god.”

    Lo’n’s eyes locked on to Duke’s.  Silence fell upon the group.  Not even Mo’a chuckled.

    “Off-worlder, I like you!”  (loc. 2483)

 

Kindle Details…

    Right now, How to Pick Up Women with a Drunk Space Ninja sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  The other three books will each cost you $4.99.  You can also pick up a short-story Space Opera e-book by Jay Key, The Art of Negotiating with Space Monsters, for just $0.99.

 

“Not to be a nitpicker, but friends don’t attack each other with fire-covered spears.”  (loc. 1289)

    There’s a moderate amount of cussing in How to Pick Up Women with a Drunk Space Ninja, most of it of the “milder” variety.  I counted 13 instances in the first 10%.  The only adult situation I recall was one roll-in-the-hay late in the story.

 

    The favorite colloquial expression in this part of the galaxy is “Holy Hedgehogs!”, which made me chuckle each time it was used.  Robin, Batman’s sidekick, would love that phrase.

 

    My main issue in HtPUWwaDSN was with the action scenes.  A lot of the fight scenes involve Duke and Ishiro taking on overwhelming numbers of baddies charging at them.  But in most cases, Duke simply pulls out his equalizers, a pair of overwhelmingly deadly firearms, and confidently saves the day.  And in the few cases where that’s not sufficient, dei ex machina crash the party in a most timely manner.

 

    But hey, the same can be said of Batman and Robin, in the old TV version starring Adam West, and I used to love that show as a kid.  It worked for that Dynamic Duo, and it works for Duke and Ichiro as well.

 

    So give your thinking brain the night off, read this book strictly for its entertainment value, and don’t ask yourself any “what are the odds???” questions when our two heroes escape yet another hopeless situation.  You’ll be glad you did.

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  Early on, the catchphrase “damn skippy” is used.  I love that expression, but always thought it was invented by Lula, in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, but Google assures me it is a common phrase.  I need to start using it more.

Daisy's War - Scott Baron

   2018; 366 pages.  Book 5 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Space Opera; Alien Invasion Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    The first phase of the Great War is complete: Planet Earth has been liberated!  Now it’s time for phase two, the liberation of the Chithiid home planet Taangaar.

 

    The battle lines are drawn.  On one side are the Humans, the Cyborgs, and several AI’s operating spaceships.  Plus some Chithiid “rebels”, freed from their forced slavery when Earth was retaken, and ready to mete out some revenge.

 

    On the other side are the countless hordes of the Ra’az Hok bad guys plus a whole bunch of Chithiid “loyalists”, whose families are being held hostage by the Ra’az Hok.  Past experience has shown that the baddies will not hesitate to slaughter any and all captives for the slightest reasons.

 

    Both sides have some hidden resources up their sleeves.  Interestingly, some hidden assets of the good guys are even being kept secret from the rest of the good guys.  I wonder how that’s going to play out.

 

What’s To Like...

    Daisy’s War is the fifth, and final book in Scott Baron’s “Clockwork Chimera” series, wherein he faced a daunting task: to bring together a bunch of characters scattered throughout the galaxy (including the mysterious wunderkind Arlo), consolidate the forces of Good and then purge the baddies from two armed-to-the-teeth and hostile planets (if the Ra’az home planet can even be located), resolve the Sarah/Sarah dichotomy (say what?), and finally, give Daisy a much-needed rest.  Oh yeah, and accomplish this in less than 400 pages.

 

    Missions accomplished.

 

    It wasn’t easy.  It takes time for the armies and spaceships of the good guys to gather together into one cohesive fleet.  Warp drives can be persnickety and fragile.  AI’s may be super-intelligent but sometimes they're a bit lacking in common sense.  And while the Ra’az Hok may be slightly (but only slightly) behind technology-wise, they make up for that by having a decided numerical advantage in spaceships and fighting personnel.

 

    It was fun to see the Daisy/Sarah arrangement (cue the Pink Floyd lyrics “there’s someone in my head, but it’s not me”) finally be revealed to other interested parties.  Ditto for the Sarah/Finn relationship.  Several deceased characters for earlier books are surprisingly resuscitated, thanks to the AI smarts.  One of them plays a vital role in determining who wins and who loses.

 

    I enjoyed the tie-ins to at least three movies: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Terminator, and Back to the Future.  I have no doubt that Scott Baron's cinematic tastes are stellar.  The Fibonacci Spiral getting worked into the story was also a nice touch.  I’ll even look the other way about the one Hydrogen and two Oxygen molecules getting together to form water.  The ratio is the other way around, and they’re atoms, not molecules.

 

    Everything builds to a suitably exciting climax, where the tides of war swing from one side to the other a couple times before finally settling out.  The final chapter is in a “whatever happened to…” format, and I thought it was a fine way to end this saga.  The war is over, Earth begins to slowly rebuild itself, and some of the series' characters retire to start families.  Things close with a couple of heartwarming plot twists.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 446 ratings and 45 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43/5 based on 369 ratings and 39 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Janky (adj.) : of poor quality; unreliable.

 

Excerpts...

    “You were dead, man.” Omar replied.

    “I know.  Bummer, right?”

    “So now you’re a computer?”

    “Technically, a one-of-a-kind AI, if you want to get nitpicky about it,” he replied.  “But there’s something I need to ask you all, and I need you to be upfront.”

    “Of course,” Sarah said.  “What is it, Gus?”

    Their AI friend paused for a moment for effect.

    “Be honest.  Does this ship make me look fat?”  (loc. 23121)

 

    “So how did you do it?”

    “Here’s the thing, Captain.  Sometimes, well, things just aren’t quite what they seem.  And other times, they’re exactly what they seem, but even then they might not be.”

    “I’m not following you,” he said, confused.

    By the expressions on everyone present’s faces, he wasn’t alone in that regard.

    “Okay, I’ll break it down as basically as I can, but forgive me if I slip into a tangent here and there.  It’s been a long day, and I’m wicked sleep-deprived.”

    “Aren’t we all?” Celeste said with a little laugh.  (loc. 24304)

 

Kindle Details…

    Daisy’s War is priced at $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other four books in the series are all in the $0.99-$3.99 range, and there is a 5-book bundle, comprising the entire series, for only $7.99, which is the format I’m reading.

 

“Basically, you downloaded yourself to yourself just before you blew yourself up.”  (loc. 20003)

    The profanity rate continues its steady decline for the series, which is a plus.  I counted just 11 cusswords in the first four chapters (ergo, 10% of the 40 chapters) of the book.  Previous cuss rates for the first 10% were 15 (Book 4), 20 (Book 3), 15½ (Book 2, extrapolated), and 27 (Book 1).

    There were a couple typos, such as clean-off/clean off; they/the; and queens/queen’s, but they weren’t a distraction.

 

    My gripes were the usual for this series.  Clockwork Chimera is first and foremost a Space Opera series.  Yet too many pages are devoted to making plans and discussing relationships, particularly in the first parts of each installment.  Here, the first eleven chapters dragged for me.

 

    To be fair, once the plans are set and the attacks get underway, there’s action aplenty.  Alas, dei ex machina (the plural of deus ex machina.  I had to look that up.) arise all too frequently.  One unexpected miracle is okay.  Maybe even two.  Here there were six.  That’s way too many.

 

    But these are personal opinions only.  If you happen to like your Sci-Fi Adventure-Intrigue stories heavy on the Intrigue, you’re going to love this series.  Ditto if your heroes get rescued time and time again by incredibly-timed luck.

    So just put your thinking brain to sleep and enjoy a story about Daisy and her friends saving Planet Earth, Planet Taangaar, and the rest of the Universe to boot.  You'll still be entertained.  I was.

 

    7½ Stars.  Scott Baron has penned at least four other Sci-fi Space Opera series, and this is the first one I’ve read to completion.  Up next is the Deep Space Boogie series, which I started reading a couple years back, by getting drawn in by Daisy’s adventures.

Chasing Daisy - Scott Baron

   2018; 384 pages.  Book 4 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Space Opera; Alien Invasion Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    It’s time to finish the task. 

 

    With Daisy’s crucial help, the ragtag crew of humans, Chithiids, cyborgs, and Artificial Intelligences have sent the alien Ra’az baddies, who were in the process of stripping Earth of all its natural resources, fleeing in their spaceships to somewhere on the other side of the galaxy.

 

    Next up is the liberation of the Chithiids’ home planet, Taangaar.  Then it’s on to Ra’azengar, the home planet of the baddies.

 

    There are a couple things holding up progress.  First, no one is exactly sure of where the Ra’az home planet is, and the universe is a hugely big place to go searching blindly.  Even more importantly, Daisy and her friends don’t possess warp-drive technology.  Without that, trying to fly somewhere thousands of lightyears away will take . . . erm . . . thousands upon thousands of years.

 

    Maybe we should have some of the AI beings work on that.  Unless someone can think of a quicker way of gaining that technology.

 

What’s To Like...

    Chasing Daisy is the fourth book in Scott Baron’s (completed) “Clockwork Chimera” series.  The first half of the book dovetails with the neat plot twist at the end of Book 3, wherein Daisy learns that Quantum Physics predicts that, theoretically, not only can you instantly jump from one place in the universe to any other site, but you can also travel from one time to another just as easily.

 

    The first half of Chasing Daisy consists of her, Freya, and Sarah learning to function on a different timeline.  Like all conscientious time-travelers, they do their best to avoid creating temporal paradoxes, but their track record in this regard is less than perfect.  Indeed, they get quite adept at “correcting” earlier plotline anomalies, such as the “mysterious sniper” that Finn and his group encountered, a while back in the past, while doing a recon mission in Rome.

 

    Every reader of time-travel novels knows that such timeline alterations mean that Daisy’s triad risks being blipped out of existence at any moment.  Fortunately, History apparently is quite able to adjust to such things, albeit occasionally having to create anomalies like two “yous”.  See first excerpt, below.

 

    The multiple-timeline issues are eventually resolved, and the second half of the book focuses on the efforts by Daisy and the Dark Side personnel (at a surviving space base on the far side of the moon) to organize, and rally the disparate factions of inhabitants, both organic and inorganic, to unite in what, sadly, may well be a suicide mission.

 

    The ending is adequate, given that this is an “in-between” book, and should not be read as a standalone tale.  The good guys are poised to attempt to liberate the Chithiid homeworld, and I liked that the bad guys have some tricks up their sleeve as well.  Things once again close with a deft little plot twist that I didn’t see coming and which I’m sure will impact our heroes’ chances of success against the Ra’az.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 388 ratings and 30 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.39/5 based on 333 ratings and 32 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “I still don’t think she believes you about me, though.”

    “I know, but she will.”

    “You talking to the invisible me again?” Sarah asked, her doubting eyebrow held in a high arch.

    “Told ya so.”

    “But she’s real,” Freya interjected.  “She’s you, Sarah.  Well, not you, you, but you who has experienced what the other you hasn’t.”

    She stared at Daisy disbelievingly.

    “Do you guys really expect me to believe you have a little piece of me living in your head?”  (loc. 15939)

 

    “Hi, Finn,” Sarah said, stepping out from behind a large equipment mover.

    The jovial chef nearly choked on his cookie in shock.  The other Vali crew were likewise floored by her sudden appearance.

    “But…” Doctor McClain managed to blurt while the rest of the crew remained stunned and speechless.

    “But I’m dead.  Yeah, I know,” Sarah said with a little laugh.  “And let me tell you, being dead sucks.”  (loc. 17648)

 

Kindle Details…

    Chasing Daisy costs $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other four books in the series are each in the $0.99-$3.99 range, and there is also a bundle of all five books for only $7.99, which is the format I’m reading.

 

“Fire it up, Freya.  Let’s do the time warp again.”  (loc. 15234)

    There’s a moderate amount of profanity.  I noted 15 instances in the first 10% (first 4 chapters, actually) of the book, which is fairly normal for this series.

 

    Once again, the ”Planning-versus-Doing Ratio” is heavily weighted towards the former.  But I suspect this is inevitable for any “in-between” book in a series.   And kudos to whoever did the editing on Chasing Daisy.  I noted only two typos, both of the effect/affect ilk, which is always a tough call.

 

    These are quibbles.  I’m enjoying The Clockwork Chimera series, but I’ve yet to figure out what that series' title references.  And yes, this is your typical “save the post-apocalyptic world” storyline, but somehow Scott Baron is managing to put a unique spin on that trope.

 

    Everything is now set for the ultimate showdown with the Ra’az.  I’m eager to see what the Planning-versus-Doing Ratio will be for the final installment in this series, Daisy’s War.  And to repeat, I strongly recommend investing in the 5-book bundle detailed above.  This is one series that's definitely better when read in order.

 

    7½ Stars.  Oh yeah, one last thing.  One of the plot threads in Chasing Daisy is left unresolved.  A fascinating character named Arlo makes a grand entrance around the halfway point of the book, bearing an urgent message for Daisy.  But who is he, how did he know where to find Daisy, who sent him, and is he a White Hat or a Black Hat?  I am looking forward to finding out in the next book.

Daisy's Gambit - Scott Baron

   2018; 342 pages.  Book 3 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Space Opera; Alien Invasion Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    Arise, ye Earthlings and Chithiids!  And arise ye Cyborgs and even ye AI units!  You have nothing to lose but your chains!

 

    Well, you also have your lives to lose, since you’ll be going up against the dreaded Ra’az Hok, the destroyers of Earth and enslavers of the Chithiid.  Their technology is superior and their forces are far more powerful than anything we good guys can muster.

 

    But they have one weakness: their home planet is many light years away, and their communications and supply lines between there and planet Earth are vulnerable.  They’re aware of that and they’re in the process of developing a super-fast warp drive.  That project is just about completed.

 

    So despite the long odds of success, now is the time to revolt.  And we just might be victorious if our war plan goes perfectly.

 

    In other words, we’re doomed.

 

What’s To Like...

    Daisy’s Gambit is the third book in Scott Baron’s “Clockwork Chimera” series.  As given below, the author offers the complete series as a 5-book bundle for a very reasonable price, and occasionally discounts it.  I recommend investing in the bundle, since I think this is a series where a lot is lost if you don’t read the books in order.

 

    The action starts immediately, literally in the first sentence, and is a logical follow-up to previous book, wherein the seeds of revolt were first sown.  Now it’s time for the four subjugated races—Chithiids, Cyborgs, Humans, and Artificial Intelligences—to join forces and learn to trust each other.  This is no small task, given that there are some amongst them who are still loyal to the Ra’az Hok.

 

    I liked that the personnel at the good guys' moon base still play a key role in the storyline, even though the settings in Daisy's Gambit are exclusively at various locations on Earth.  The key players include Freya, the juvenile AI that Daisy discovered during her lunar sojourn, and who is imbued with equal amounts of learning ability and naivete.

 

    The ending is laced with exciting fight scenes and resolves the main storyline of attacking the Ra’az communication hubs and warp drive research facility.  Some good guys perish, a deus ex machina pops up to save the day, Daisy and Vince are reunited, and all the surviving Terrans now await the enemy’s inevitable counterpunch.  Things close with a teaser for the next book, Chasing Daisy.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 478 ratings and 36 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.38/5 based on 397 ratings and 35 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Shemagh (n.) : a headcloth commonly worn in the desert (google-image it).

 

Excerpts...

    “Enter the code 011235813.  The base is on a swivel, and once unlocked, the mechanism will allow you to slide it aside to descend into the facility.  You are ready with the specs on which explosives and detonators to gather, yes?”

    “Yeah, we have all the info, but hang on.  Isn’t that code a bit obvious?”

    “Not to those who do not follow mathematics,” he replied.  (loc. 12018)

 

    “My sword’s a bit of a psychopath,” she said with a grim chuckle as she pulled the blade free from the alien’s chest.  She watched as the last drops absorbed into the surface, leaving the pristine white blade as good as new once again.

    “You like that thing a bit too much,” Sarah quipped.  “You’re not going to be one of those douches who names their sword, are you?”

    “I wasn’t going to,” Daisy joked back.  “But now that you mention it, I think I shall hereafter call it Stabby McStabberton.”

    “Oh God, you’re ridiculous.”

    “Don’t listen to her, Stabby.”  (loc. 13736)

 

Kindle Details…

    Daisy’s Gambit is priced at $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other four books in the series are all in the $0.99-$3.99 price range, and there is a 5-book bundle, containing the entire series, for only $7.99, which is the format I’m reading.

 

“Who would have thought an artificially intelligent dishwasher would ever fly a warship?”  (loc. 13198)

    There are some nits to pick.  There were 20 cusswords in the first 10% of the book, which is about normal for this series, and Daisy and Vince celebrate their reacquaintance with appropriate ardor.

 

    Once again, not all of the plotlines are resolved.  Something or someone is butchering the wild bears in Colorado, but who-or-what did it is never revealed.  Ditto for the helpful-but-unseen counter-sniper in Rome.  Inquiring minds want to know the answers to these mysteries, and presumably both of them get addressed in the remaining two books in the series.

 

    There are a couple of the kind of spellchecker typos that usually arise in Indie author books, such as berg/burg, world/word, and tell-tale/telltale.  But these were rare enough to not be a distraction.

 

    For me, the main issue was the Planning-to-Doing Ratio.  A lot more pages were devoted to the former than to the latter.  But if the “Intrigue” half of the genre “Action-Intrigue” is your preferred cup of tea, you will thoroughly enjoy Daisy’s Gambit.  This kind of plan-vs-do ratio holds true for the middle book(s) of many series.  I remember thinking the same thing about The Two Towers in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

 

    Overall, Daisy’s Gambit still had enough wit, character-development, and world-building to keep my interest.  After all, overthrowing evil galactic powers takes careful planning, and that’s what is going on here.

 

    7½ Stars.  We'll close with one last nod to the clever password 011235813 cited in the first excerpt, above.  As a math nerd, I greatly appreciated it.

Pushing Daisy - Scott Baron

   2018; 360 pages.  Book 2 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Space Opera; Alien Invasion Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Daisy is the chosen one.  It’s her destiny to save Earth.  That’s what everyone says.

 

    To be fair, though, “everyone” in this case means the dozen or so beings hiding out at the Dark Side Base on the far side of the Moon.  And it doesn’t include the most important one of those: Daisy herself.

 

    She’s already been to Earth once., and almost died there.  The planet’s a forsaken place that’s home to almost no humans anymore.  Instead, there are lots of cyborgs, mutants, and deadly insectoid Chithiids.  That last group came from who-knows-where and is especially committed to, and skilled at, killing humans.

 

    Daisy is fully human, but she wasn’t born on Earth and feels no kinship with it.  She denies that she’s anybody's “chosen one”, has no intention of ever returning to Earth, and lets everybody else at the Dark Side base know that.

 

    Whattaya think the odds are that she’ll end up back there anyway?

 

What’s To Like...

    Pushing Daisy is the second book in Scott Baron’s 5-volume Space Opera “The Clockwork Chimera”.  I’m reading them in order; the first book, Daisy’s Run, is reviewed here.

 

    It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Daisy does indeed make a return trip to our ruined planet, although that doesn’t happen until about halfway through the story.  This time, however, her Terran settings are not limited to Los Angeles; she travels to several more US cities, including my current stomping grounds, Phoenix, which she finds completely overrun with mutants.

 

   Several new beings are introduced, including Craaxit, a Chithiid soldier.  I have a feeling he’ll be developed into a recurring character in the series.  There are a couple of new AIs to meet and be wary of: Alma, who heads the Los Angeles underground, and Freya, a juvenile AI.  We’re also introduced to a new race of baddies called the Ra’az Hok.  If you cross paths with any of them, run away.  Fast.

 

    There are a half dozen or so of plot threads to keep the reader’s interest.  Some are ongoing, such as the Daisy/Vince affair.  Others are new, such as the secret door on the moon that Daisy happens across, and of course her various adventures down on Earth.

 

    The ending is a mixed affair.  It’s not a cliffhanger, but it’s not exactly a climax to the story either.  It’s sort of a stopping off point on the way to what presumably transpires in Book 3, Daisy’s Gambit.  If I were reading Pushing Daisy as a discrete book, I’d be miffed about how it ends, but fortunately, I’m utilizing Scott Baron’s 5-book bundle of the series, which means the story continues on the very next page of my Kindle.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 637 ratings and 47 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.25/5 based on 483 ratings and 51 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Miyagi-ed (v.) : (a cleverly made-up word, referencing The Karate Kid).

 

Excerpts...

    “Okay,” she began, “here’s what we’re going to do.  It’s kind of like a game, and if you are really good, I’ll put a movie on and we’ll watch it together.”

    “Wouldn’t it be faster if you uploaded it to me?”

    “Well, you see, that’s the point here.  To help you learn to slow down and appreciate things.  If you watch it with me, you see it at the same speed I do.  Learn to savor the meal instead of inhaling it.”

    “But I don’t eat, Daisy.”

    “It’s a metaphor.”  She sighed.  (loc. 6725)

 

    “And look at these wonderful people you’ve brought with!  Oh, but those outfits.  No, no, that simply will not do.  Oh, this is exciting!  I can’t wait to get your measurements.  I have some wonderful ideas I’ve been meaning to try out.”

    “Habby, we don’t want any trouble,” Daisy said.  “We’re just passing through.”

    “Trouble?  Oh my, but you caused quite a lot of that when you went tearing off through the city last time.  You know, we lost several of our friends because of your foolishness.”

    “You were holding me captive.”

    “Potato, tomato, it’s all a matter of perspective, my dear.”  (loc. 8894)

 

Kindle Details…

    Pushing Daisy sells for $2.99 at Amazon.  The other four books in the series are all in the $0.99-$3.99 range.  The complete set can also be bought in the aforementioned bundle, which presently costs $7.99, and which occasionally is graciously discounted by the author.  Scott Baron has lots of other Sci-Fi series to offer; most of the individual books in those are in the $0.99-$4.99 range.

 

“You should always think outside the box.  "But I am a box.”  (loc. 6882)

    There are a couple of quibbles.  I counted 31 instances of cussing in the first 20% of Pushing Daisy (actually the first 8 of its 40 chapters, since pages aren’t numbered in e-book bundles), although that’s about half the rate that I found in Daisy’s Run.  That's about it for R-rated stuff, though.

 

    Not all of the plotlines get tied up.  I don’t mind Daisy’s relationship with Vince still dangling; I expect that to play out over the full course of the series.  But the Freya plot thread, which was well-developed and fascinating at its inception here, just fizzles out.  Also, at the book’s end, a major character's state of health still hangs in the balance.

 

    For me, the book started out slowly, with Daisy going to too many sparring sessions with Tamara, and too many meditation sessions with Fatima.  I recognize both are necessary to make Daisy a formidable protagonist, but for me, it made for slow spots in the tale-spinning.

 

    But no matter.  Once Daisy has her meds (that’s “meditations”, not “medications”) and can summon the fighting mentality of a seasoned warrior, she’s ready to make a trip to Earth and everything thereafter was a fast-paced, page-turning action-adventure.  The overarching plotline also expands nicely.  Before, Daisy’s aim was to save the few surviving humans in Los Angeles, now her horizons have grown considerably.

 

    8 Stars.  FWIW, I’m 40% of the way through this series, which is called The Clockwork Chimera, and I still have no clue as to why it’s called that.  Ah, but that's just one more reason to continue reading Daisy’s tale.