2018; 366 pages. Full Title: Book 1 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”. New Author? : No. Genre : Space Opera; Science-Fiction. Overall Rating : 8*/10.
It's always a bummer to wake up early, even if it's only a few minutes ahead of schedule.
So you can’t blame Daisy
Swarthmore and the rest of the crew on the spaceship Váli for being a
bit testy when it happens to them.
Especially when they’re roused
six months early. Especially when
it’s the ship’s AI, nicknamed “Mal”, who’s waking them up. Especially when it means being disturbed from a cryogenic sleep during their interstellar return home to planet Earth. There had better be a very good reason for
this.
There is. Something crashed into the Váli and
the ship’s now on fire.
What’s To Like...
Daisy’s Run
is the first book in Scott Baron’s 5-volume Space Opera “The Clockwork Chimera”. The storyline takes place across three settings: Outer Space
(mostly on board the Váli), Earth,
and the Moon.
The overarching storyline
involves Daisy learning about her past history, her present crewmates, and her
inner abilities. Nothing is as it seems,
and although there is a steady trickle of hints as to the answers, most of them
just lead to more questions. I had fun
tagging along with Daisy, trying to figure out what was going on, and enjoyed
musing on the philosophical conundrums of “how
do you know for sure you’re a human?” and “is eating rabbit venison bad for your karma?”
I liked the nods to other
sci-fi classics: 2001: A Space Odyssey (“Mal” is eerily similar to
“Hal”), Alien, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, and PKD’s Do
Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I
chuckled at the name-choice of the Los Angeles-based "Schwarzenegger
Space Port", and had to look up what the Qi
Gong meditation routine was. The Neuro-Stims were a nice detail, as was the
fascinating sport of Chess-Boxing. I’m pretty sure that last one really exists;
I vaguely recall reading about it many years ago.
There aren’t a lot of
characters to keep track of, but Scott Baron does a good job of making
them an interesting and varied cast. Daisy encounters a bunch of different critters, including humans, AIs, cyborgs, robots, and aliens, and
sometimes it’s hard to discern exactly which species they are. The writing style is storyline-driven, with a bunch of Daisy’s snarky banter with those around her mixed in.
The ending is not particularly
exciting, but does provide answers to most of the plot threads. Daisy finds out who she is, what the Váli’s
mission really entails, what the cosmic situation is, and what the rest of the crew have planned for
her next. The Epilogue is a catchy teaser for
Book 2 in the series, Pushing Daisy, presumably
chronicling how she reacts to all those revelations.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.3/5
based on 731 ratings and 139 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.99/5 based on 830
ratings and 143 reviews.
Kewlest New Word ...
Horking (v.) : vomiting; coughing up.
Excerpts...
“Okay, listen to this one. They wrote, ‘Light thinks it travels
faster than anything but it is wrong. No
matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has already got there
first, and is waiting for it.’
Sarah was silent a moment. “That’s kind of messed up, Daisy.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it’s not
true.”
She stopped crawling.
“Hey!”
“Hang on a minute,” Daisy said, the pulled a fresh pen from her pocket and scratched out a message of her own, then started crawling again. “’Without a little darkness from time to time, man would forget that he dwells in the light,’” Sarah read. "Who said that one, Daze?"
Daisy continued her crawl for the exit.
"I did." (loc. 715)
“What’s the next step in our
evolution? In theirs? Are they trying to bastardize mankind until
we are as much machinery as they are?
And why do humans have exposed metal, while full-on robots are covered
with flesh?”
“They’re probably just trying to make us
feel comfortable around them, is all.
Familiar faces and all that.”
“But why cyborgs? I mean, take Barry for instance. He’s basically a sentient toaster covered in
steak—”
“I think he might take issue with that
description.” (loc.
2083)
Kindle Details…
Daisy’s
Run goes for $0.99 at Amazon right now. The
other four books in the series are all in the $2.99-$3.99 range; or you can buy the entire series in a bundle for $7.99. Scott
Baron has several other Sci-Fi series for your Kindle, and they seem to follow the same
pricing strategy: $0.99 for the first book in the series, $2.99-$3.99
for the others, and bundles appropriately discounted.
“Yet here you are,
a chatty ghost in my head.” (loc.
2891)
I couldn’t find much to quibble
about in Daisy’s Run. The pacing seemed a bit slow at first, and
the text felt overly-descriptive at first, but that was inevitable since
Scott Baron has world-building to do, plus characters and enigmatic plot
threads to introduce. Once that’s done, the action speeds up nicely.
There’s a fair amount of
cussing (27 instances in the first 10% of the
book) and a couple of rolls-in-the-hay, but nothing lewd and
lurid. Some reviewers were put off by
the sex passages, but hey, that’s a common occurrence in Space Opera novels.
Other reviewers felt Daisy was
an unlikeable protagonist, one going so far as to accuse her of being a
bigot. Well, it’s true she gets called
that at one point in the story, but the alleged bigotry is against robotic
entities, and is ultimately proved false. Methinks someone had a grudge against the
author.
My only big gripe has to do
with the Amazon blurb for the Kindle edition, where one of the genres is listed as “Humorous Science Fiction”. Amazon lies.
If you pick up this book for the LOL’s, you’re going to be sorely
disappointed. In fairness though,
neither of the other two formats – Audiobook and Paperback, label this as a humorous sci-fi novel.
8 Stars. Overall, Daisy’s Run kept me interested and fully lived up to my expectations for a Space Opera. Now that the main characters have been established and the requisite world-building is done, it’s time to get kicking some Chithiid ass in the sequel.
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