Lacuna: Demons of the Void [Kindle Edition]

David Adams (Author)

Book Description

"Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology."

It is with these words that an unknown alien attacker destroys the Earth cities of Tehran, Sydney and Beijing. Fifty million people die... and nothing is ever the same again.

Some call them Demons, some call them Aliens, but to Chinese Naval Captain Melissa Liao they are the enemy. She is given command of one of three great warships built to fight the "demons", the TFR Beijing.

Her task is simple. Find who attacked Earth and why... then stop them.

Book one of the Lacuna series.

• Lacuna: Demons of the Void
• Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi
• Lacuna: The Spectre of Oblivion (New Release!)
• Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (coming 2013!)

Don't miss these short stories set in the Lacuna universe:

• Magnet
• Magnet: Special Mission
• Imperfect
• Faith

Product Details

• File Size: 573 KB
• Print Length: 214 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: David Adams; 4 edition (December 31, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006RZNR3Y
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > First Contact
  • #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Science Fiction > Adventure

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story line, minor textual errors January 2, 2012

By D. Leaberry

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I became aware of this author after finding a slashdot posting a few months ago where he engaged in a shameless plug for the book (which was okay because the post was on subject). The first 3 chapters were available online and I read them that night. I was hooked, and put his website in my feed reader so I'd know when the book was released.

Fast forward to today, the book is available and I bought a copy for my kindle. It's not particularly long and the plot moves along quite well. The premise is the typical sci-fi staple, aliens attack and Earth must retaliate/defend itself. I liked the technology in the book, thought the main characters were well fleshed out, and overall liked the book. It's a first novel. The ending is a little abrupt, I would have liked to see a little more resolution but perhaps he's got a sequel planned.

I like to support first time authors, especially when I can read the first few chapters and know I'm getting a good book. Everyone can write a book but not everyone can write an engaging, entertaining book on their first attempt. There were some textual errors, typos, missing word or extremely awkward phrasing. But I only counted 5-10 of these. Another proofread would have been helpful. However, he's not charging $10 for the book like some other kindle editions that have these same issues so I can tolerate it. Give it a try, I liked it.

**Update**
The author released a revised version that has fixed the minor typos. See his comment on this review.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid sci-fi fare February 18, 2012

By Autumncomet

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I stumbled across this book on a thread the author made advertising the book on TV Tropes, and decided to check it out since the premise seemed promising. I won't summarize anything but just go over what stood out to me.

It's nice that the author chose to set what could have been a stereotypical story in Australia, and have the majority of the characters actually be from ethnic groups that reflect, percentage-wise, the world's population. What I would have liked to see was an explanation on how, in only 2029, the US melted down and Australia of all places got powerful. It's believable, but some more explanation would be nice.

I'm a bit confused on the point that it only took Liao about 8 or so years to become a commander. These might be People's Army ranks, and I'm from the US, which might be why I'm confused. Anyway, her advancement is believable considering the circumstances--and she did explain that it was pure luck--but rather odd. It seems to be luck that gets Commander Liao through most of her troubles, although it's acknowledged in story, so I don't have a problem with it.

As for the reactionless drive--well, okay then. It's just a book, but Newtonian physics tells me this shouldn't work. Maybe if it were set not in 2029 but 2300 I would buy it but it's just another little nitpick I have. Many other details though (the asteroid belt being full of empty space, non-humans being unable to speak human languages, etc) were well-thought out so I assume this is a case of the author messing around with physics to get a good story.

One thing I DID have a problem with was the conflict between her and Sheng, her XO. I have a feeling the author was trying deliberately to avoid protagonist-centered morality, but it still came off like it was okay for James to call her out but not Sheng. Above all, Sheng had a point, and his job as XO was to raise objections (and what Liao did only succeeded through pure luck), and while this is acknowledged, it really doesn't get the amount of talk that it should.

There are quite a few modern-day shout-outs, which makes sense as it only takes place in 2029. At the beginning, they seemed like shout-outs for the sake of shout-out, but once Adams stopped bringing up what he was referencing in dialogue, everything flowed much more smoothly.

The characters at the beginning, especially Summer, seemed a bit flat. But once we got into space and Saara joined the crew, everyone got an added layer to their characterization (except Sheng). I imagine this is a series, given the epilogue, although Liao and James really should have had something to prevent her from what happened at the end there.

Overall, there are some minor issues, and a major issue with Sheng. However, I'd still recommend this book, especially at the cost. There's a unique premise that will hopefully be fleshed out in later books of the series, and the story improves greatly after a certain point. 4/5

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars It's average on its own, but a promising start of the series April 29, 2012

By int19h

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The good part: it's reasonably well written sci-fi. It's not quite hard, but it does kinda tend towards that side of the spectrum, despite some tongue-in-cheekness ("indestructium" etc). The story is engaging and not tedious to follow, with decent amount of action and character development mixed in. The background of the story is probably the most interesting part; I mean, it's not often that you find China the leading world power in fiction, unless it's some kind of totalitarian dystopia (which this ain't).

The so-so bits: characters. Their behavior is both very predictable, and yet not very believable to me. This isn't really unique to this book, though, but a frequent issue in sci-fi - characters serving more as decorations for the story. In this case, though, this feels more in-your-face than usual - e.g. Summer, who from the very first pages of the book plays out every single geek stereotype you can come up with (and then some you can't). I don't particularly mind cliches, but it's clearly overdone here.

The story itself is also somewhat puzzling. It starts very promising, leaving a lot of questions... and then with a single sentence uttered by one of the alien opponents during the climactic battle it suddenly devolves to the traditional "brave humans vs monstrous sadistic murderous aliens". It's not quite as simple still, and I do hope that the author will expand on the complexity further making the conflict more intricate and less black and white again.

There are some minor quality issues. Aside from a couple of typos (perhaps a dozen throughout the book), there seems to be a problem with rendering Chinese ideograms on Kindle readers - on my Kindle 3 (aka Kindle Keyboard), most of Melissa's lines in Chinese had at least a few "squares" indicating unsupported character; some are more than half that. It's not a big deal for me since I don't know Chinese, anyway, but it would be nice for those who do (by the way, how about providing footnotes with translations for the less fortunate of us?).

More About the Author

I've always been thinking of stories for as long as I've been alive. I have way, way, way too many to tell and far too little time to tell them.

I joined UFOP: Starbase 118, a Star Trek roleplay-by-emails group, in 2010 and it was there where I learned my craft. But despite being one of the more active writers in the group and simming to my heart's content, I still couldn't tell all the stories I wanted to. It was only in 2011 that I actually started shaping and weaving those random, jumbling, chaotic masses of thoughts into coherent narratives and began self-publishing.

Writing's my full time job now. I write a little science fiction, a little fantasy, a little humour and comedy, and a few other things all over the place.

You can get updates from my Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/lacunaverse
And my mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/toBf9

If you want emails whenever I publish something new, click the link to your right.