Customer Reviews

Alpha Rising

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

'Alpha Rising' begins with two astronauts, Bachman Turner (yes, like the band) and Faith Christopher (the name is no accident) leaving Earth on a mission to rescue a stranded space lab and its crew of four (including Bach's fiancee. They manage to hook up with the crippled ship, but before they can return to Earth, the rescue ship and the station are propelled across the galaxy to a strange planet called Jenesis. Bach's crewmates are captured by a rotten bunch called Rooks (Rulers of other kingdoms. I wish I had thought of that). Bach is picked up by the scientist Altemus and his daughter, Star. Bach soon doscovers that Altemus, an old genius, is on a mission from God, or the Creator. And soon, so is Bach. I won't say anything more about the plot.

Ms. Douglas writes in a clear, cut-to-the-chase prose that's refreshing these days, when so many authors just pile on the verbiage. The quest that Bach and Star are sent on is compelling and wholly original. Just as compelling is Bach's own journey from mild agnostic to God's chosen messenger. Everything-the brutal Rooks, Bach's shipmates, the scientific culture of Altemus and Star, the varying societies Bach and Star encounter on their mission-comes fully alive, with real emotions and real detail. Douglas is obviously inspired by earlier writers like Le Guin and Lewis, but this work never feels second-hand.

I hope that Ms. Douglas isn't through with these people. The ending, which concerns both the end and the beginning of the world, leaves plenty of room for a sequel. If she writes one, I'll buy a copy.

Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

As I read through all the reviews I was excited to see all the great things said about the book and author. There seems to be a shortage of real science fiction writers these days, with so much more fantasy being written.

Unfortunately, despite the decent beginning and story potential, there is so little science in this fiction that it can hardly be called a science fiction book at all. The "advanced" science is balanced by incredibly simple mistakes in application, and missing elements. At one point the main character discovers he is only 1/4 as smart as the population of the people he meets (who all just happen to speak American English, and even have Earth names), and yet he is easily able to keep up with everything going on and contribute to the application of advanced science. The science in the story is more like magic, and the dialog like it was written by a child.

After reading the likes of Asimov and Vinge it is hard to take this book seriously. The very thinly veiled reproduction of the biblical Noah's Ark story rings false and the annoyingly simple action scenes reduce this book to a pre-teen level of potential acceptance as a serious novel.

I am only half way through, and my not be able to finish this book, only the second time this has ever happened in the thousands of books I have read. Were it not on the free Kindle book list when I got it, I would say I wasted my money on it. As it is I simply wasted my time.

I'm not usually a sci-fi reader, but this one got my attention when the author posted on a message board that I frequent (KindleBoards.com). Despite the fact that I don't read much sci-fi, I do love NASA and often dream about what it would be like to be an astronaut. As a result, I decided to go ahead and give this book a whirl and I'm glad that I did.

Essentially, this book reminds me of the Narnia books. Sure, it is sci-fi in genre, but it was written in the same vein as the Narnia books - as an allegory to a larger, more important message. As far as I'm concerned, in the sci-fi genre, this one is ingenious. The author has spent ALOT of time working out her plot and allegory - so much so that even if I ignored the allegory altogether, Alpha Rising would be a compelling sci-fi adventure on its own.

Often with this type of fiction, I get annoyed because the "message" is so ridiculously cheesy and the plot is so ridicoulsy unbelieveable, that the point the author is trying to make fails miserably because I just can't take it seriously. Not so with Alpha Rising. The message does not beat you over the head, but weasels its way in amongst the beautiful scenery, high tech gadgets, the action and the adventure. And long after I've finished, the plot and characters have continued to roll around in my thoughts...I wonder what that meant? Or who this person represented? What are these characters doing after the end of the book? That, my friends, is the sign of a good story. If it sticks with me after I've finished it, well, I can deal with recommending it to others to read.

Despite being an indie novel, I found no errors whatsoever. The book is perfectly formatted and is clearly the result of a labor of love, in more ways than one.

Alpha Rising is not the best book I've ever read, no, but for a debut novel by an unknown author, it is a stunning reminder to me that we readers need to take chances on the indie authors because there is definately HUGE talent out there. I look forward to reading more from this author, and if I might be so pushy as to suggest it, I'd love to read a sequel!

Every so often I pick up a book that I wouldn't ordinarily read just to test my own boundaries and assumptions. This is how I came to read `Alpha Rising', and I am pleased that I did.

Ultimately, this is an adventure story which uses a blend of science fiction and fantasy to explore new worlds, possibilities and futures. Will good triumph over evil? Will the instructions provided to our hero Bach Turner by the Creator enable life forms to be saved in an unstable environment? Which life forms will be saved and why? Running out of time and fuel, and with only a few instructions to follow, Bach Turner needs both his scientific knowledge and his faith in a higher power in order to succeed.

Suspend your cynicism and enjoy both the journey and the destination. And, if you recognise some parallels with some well known biblical tales, perhaps that simply serves as a reminder that there is nothing intrinsically new about battles between good and evil.

3.5 stars

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I was hoping to give this a higher rating. However, I could not convince myself to spend any more time on the book and quit after getting about 1/3 way through. As a retired Christian pastor and theologian I had no issue with the introduction of theological concepts through the use of metaphors. What I could not get beyond was the banality of the story, the all too obvious directions of both the plot and the dialogues, and the lack of any subtlety or depth to the characters, which are basically stereotypes. The writing is rather childish, but I am afraid that even religious youth would find it too predictable to enjoy it. As to calling its genre "science fiction", I would say that it is more fantasy than sci-fi, because fanciful technologies are just introduced with no real explanation of how they work, why, what principles are used, etc. A lot of "unstated assumptions" are made that are not plausible in the slightest, and I cannot see blaming a "higher power" for that. I figure that God created the universe for us and other beings to inhabit, set up laws of physics, etc. and would not change those on a whim. That being so, any science fiction writing, even if it contains metaphor or allegory, should, at a minimum, pay attention to what is possible, or even remotely possible in the future. Otherwise, write a story that is an allegory, call it that, or call it fantasy, and let your imagination run wild. But science fiction is not science fiction for me without at least a basic understanding of science. Disappointing.

I can't believe I finished this book. I wish I would have read it when I was a pre-teen. I see that one reviewer admired the attention to detail and I wonder if we were reading the same book. There is absolutely no detail. Concepts are introduced without foundation or explanation. The characters are single faceted. Other reviewers commented on the Noah's Ark similarity but it was so blatant and poorly done. I'd consider it more like Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince but for an audience a couple years older. This is definitely not an adult science fiction work.

This is a children's Bible story in a science fiction disguise. It's similar to the silly, overblown B movies of the 1950s. I can't count the number of times I rolled my eyes at what I read. I had to give up a third of the way into the book - I wasn't willing to waste any more of my time on it.

Poorly written nauseating nonsense. A pseudo-religious psychobabble. If you want free (old) Sci-Fi books, there are many from Project Gutenberg and other sources. The quality of those book are several orders of magnitude better than this one. Perhaps the author should spend some time reading good books (not just Sci-Fi) to get a better idea of how to write books.

Alpha rising is a fast paced exciting novel, I was hooked from page one. This novel has all the ingredients; action, friendship, a spritual message and your left with a warm feeling of hope.
I hope there is another book I love the characters and I can not wait to find out what they do next!

Quite simply the worst science fiction I have ever read! No character development, no science, written like a 10 year old might right. Just a thinly veiled Bible story. Some "astronaut" is "divinely chosen" to nearly single handedly rebuilt a space station that was miraculously sent to a distant planet and then fly it around (using recycled trash as a fuel!) to various planets and save " two people and a pair of every animal". Gee, where have I heard that before? The galaxy then instantly collapses on itself, with no warning, leaving only this ship and it's "two of everything" to wander through empty space, when they just "miraculously" find a perfect Eden planet. Then in the end, an "angel" appears in a city- sized spaceship with all the children he rescued from the same planets they had picked up the "two of everything" from. The entire thing made no sense at all.