Odyssey One

[review of the remastered edition]

I'd say barely 4 stars. Author does a good job with some unique technologies and channels the suspense of submarine battle movies. There were many times I couldn't put the book down.

Unfortunately, the book suffers from some...failings of priority. Too much battle—too little exploration and culture. An emphasis on plot—over the lack of sufficient character development. Oh, and there were a few missing words even in this remastered version.

A fun and exciting read and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Review originally posted at https://squirtoonsbookishblog.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/into-the-black-odyssey-one-by-evan-currie/

★★★★

Odyssey One is the first in a series (known, very creatively, as the Odyssey One series) by an author I admit to not hearing of before stumbling across this book in my recommended section on Audible. I started listening to the Audible version in work, but realised the book required a little more focus and attention, so I grabbed the Kindle version. It took me three hours to get half way through the book. I read that far without putting it down, and then I stupidly let my phone die, so here I am, writing my feelings up to this point.

So far, I'd give it a solid 4/5. I can't fault the military aspect of this, although I will say there's a lot of military terms, that I either don't remember being explained, or simply forgot, which has led me astray into googling what the hell half of the acronyms meant. Probably just my fault, but I'd say a fiction book should keep me in the story, not throw me out with wondering what one term or another meant.

Sci-fi wise, I feel like, so far, everything has been well explained. Or, as well explained as science fiction can be within current scientific knowledge. What is said seems to make sense to a lay-person like me, which can be quite the achievement, I assure you.

The reason I've dropped a star is the characterisation. I just don't feel like the characters are as realistic as they could be. Some of them seem a little generic, with no quirks or character of their own. The Captain and Steph seem to be the most fleshed out, either the author spent more time on them, or just had more fun writing them.

My phone should hopefully have enough charge for me to get back to it. I'll be back when I'm done!

Three hours later

Ok, so I'm done! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this read! I loved the science in this. The author wasn't afraid to really go in-depth, mostly about shields and weapons systems, and I'm a little bit geeky when it comes to that stuff, so it was right up my street. 

The archangels had to be my favourite part of the whole book. The characters in the archangel squadron were more fleshed out, and unique, and the fighters themselves seemed amazing. 

In case you were curious, yes, I will be picking up the next book in the series. Perhaps not because of the characters, but I need to see how Earth, or at least the Odyssey, plans to kick some alien butt. 

A military warfare SF book, heavy on the warfare. The plot is a little contrived, human-kind's first starship, on its first voyage, immediately makes contact with an alien race, who happen to be long lost human cousins, who are in conflict with another alien species. Warfare, ensues.

The technology and hardware is quite believable, apart from some quaint references to “rumbling of the reactors” and space fighter planes “roaring to the attack”. Perhaps an ironic hat-tip to early SF?

I enjoyed the book, and have just started the second one.