The Fireborn Chronicles [Paperback]

Mary Andrews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2007

PSIONIC SCI FI The inevitable fusion of man, machine and the paranormal The Universal Government has found an enticing strategy to bolster cooperation and membership. Each planet remains free to determine for itself what constitutes an unacceptable faction. The Universal Government will remove the members of that faction and employ them on the Hive Planet. Workers of the Hive are addicted to a wonderful and all-encompassing drug that can only be earned by working, thus converting each planet's formerly unproductive and dangerous elements into a universal workforce that provides the ultimate interplanetary temp service across a truly universal web. Since its creation, only one person has ever escaped the Hive Planet: A newborn, fully implanted with compu-link interface temple plates, but not yet introduced to the drug. He now leads a Dark Ops unit for The Gov on a mission to uncover a psionic ring of criminals who have inexplicably taken control of an important Government Ambassador. What they find will change the universe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Swimming Kangaroo Books (October 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934041505
• ISBN-13: 978-1934041505
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,355,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Andrews, born in Salina, Kansas but raised in England, Hawaii, and Texas, is the eldest of seven children in a military family. Happily married for over sixteen years, she has three sons who have grown into good men with great families of their own.

Mary is an unconventional thinker who thrives 'out of the box.' Her favorite question is: WHY, since once you find that answer, everything else makes more sense and can be dealt with. She claims little fear of change: in fact, she has adventured through many career choices, testing both the waters and distant horizons before finally realizing a love for writing.

Currently residing in Lubbock, Texas Mary continues to follow her muse, or rather, document its whereabouts, from a recreational past through the Society for Creative Anachronisms to the barely unfolding universes in her mind.

She heartily welcomes all input and comments at http://www.FirebornChronicles.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Scifi, December 16, 2007

By 

Faucon - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fireborn Chronicles (Paperback)

Fireborn Chronicles is this author's first book, but for a first book it is a highly interesting and entertaining work of scifi. Rael Pointe is the leader of a small special ops team that works for the Universal Government (an intergalactic United Nations). Pointe is called to investigate an assault on a prominent ambassador, and he and his team soon find themselves targeted by the mysterious assailant.

The reader is treated to a clever mystery with lots of fun characers. Pointe is a cyborg with the ability to access any computer system. His teammates are Ira, a telepath, and Laynald an assassin/master physician. The book starts a little slow, but by the third chapter you will find yourself enthralled by Andrews's well crafted characters and intricate universe of worlds. The only other problem with the book is that sometimes the reader wishes Andrews would indulge in greater descriptive detail for the setting; however, readers will be glued to the book as they approach the ending which is surprising yet fitting. Great book for fans of Star Trek, Starcraft, firefly, etc.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dark Ops in Space, July 22, 2008

By 

Kaolin Fire "GUD Magazine" (Acton, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fireborn Chronicles (Paperback)

The Fireborn Chronicles is a psionic/space-faring epic. The focus of the chronicles is Rael--an adoptee/refugee from The Hive with implants that allow him to access any data terminal with a thought. He's groomed by his foster-mother for Dark Ops government work, given his own ship and told to assemble a team of his choosing.

The first several sections of the book are essentially short stories jumping from place to place as we're introduced to the team that he assembles. The plot picks up when the team is together-at-last and has to track down what happened to a high-ranking ambassador. In the end, the fate of the known universe hangs in the balance.

Mary Andrews sets a grand stage with many inventive ideas--but as a whole this novel does not tell the story it sets out to as well as I would have liked. It was an easy read, slipping into cliche only now and then, though each section repeated details as if I'd not been privy to them before, jerking me out of the narrative repeatedly. And while a very complex universe is hinted at, its rendering was sparse and, I felt, the hinting overreached its presentation:

PSI of a certain sort are universally recognized, but are only allowed to live in one section of one planet; aliens of all sorts exist somewhere (accomodations have been made for them on a pleasure planet; and we meet one non-humanoid in the form of a station master), but for brief mention they have nothing to do with this story that "will change the universe".

I know the story is not meant to be taken too seriously, but still I wanted things to hang together a bit more. We jump from character introduction to character introduction as a team is gathered (losing one along the way, not to be mentioned again until half-way through the book, and then only off-handedly explained), with large gaps in character development.

And while the plot kept me increasingly curious, what wrapped it up was, for me, ultimately unsatisfying--a deus ex machina that is relatively unexplained and unexplored. The book largely read as a few snippets plus a larger novella whose main purpose was jumping off into another, as of yet untold, story.

All that said, I'm sure there's many a reader that will enjoy this book. It's a "psionic sci fi" romp with tinges of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat and tinges of Babylon 5, where everything works out in the end.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Sci-Fi!, August 25, 2011

By 

Danielle (Lubbock, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fireborn Chronicles (Paperback)

I liked the different characters in the book. I am a big fan of sci-fi and was really excited to get this book. The characters are what really held it together for me. I would recommend this book who enjoys sci-fi. It's a great quick read.