Customer Reviews

Right Ascension

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I do not normally choose Science Fiction novels, however, at the urging of a good friend I purchased this novel. As it turns out my good friend is also a genius when choosing outstanding novelists. Derrico paints a picture of an extraordinary future civilization that faces extinction with imagination and surprising humor. I enjoyed the depth of the characters, the colorful scene descriptions and the thought provoking questions evoked through the discovery of the plot. Do yourself a favor; buy this book and the sequel, Declination at the same time. You will not want to wait for the second book to be shipped to you once you realize that you can not put the first book down.

Author David Derrico's debut novel, Right Ascension, packs more action and suspense than most Sci-fi novels twice its size. In only 216 pages, Derrico manages to tell a riveting story set in a vivid universe. If you're looking for a page-turner, this is the book for you.

The jaw dropping premise of the novel--humanity faces a grim, perhaps justified judgment from a superior alien race--implies a grand backstory that serves as the underlying mythology for Derrico's universe. Set over a thousand years in the future, Derrico's ensemble cast of characters will keep you deeply engaged as the cunning plot advances to a thrilling conclusion. Derrico's debut is a smashing success.

An excellent first book. The prose is well written, and the plot is pretty interesting. My only major criticism is that the characters were a little two dimensional, and the book was just too short. Mr. Derrico tries to cover a little too much ground in only 216 pages. While most of my favorite SciFi authors are admittedly a little long winded, this story could have used an extra 100 pages of character/setting development. I'm about halfway through the second book now, and the same comments apply. For the 99 cent kindle edition I definitely got my money's worth, and i'll be sure to keep an eye open for his future books

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is an easy and fascinating read. Not only are the characters believable but so many of them are just good people with many admirable qualities. The book is thought provoking in that it makes us question our ethics and morals and our arrogance in thinking we have the right to kill indiscrimanantly if we percieve that other beings disagree with our philosophy of life.

Right Ascension is science fiction that doesn't get lost in technology, and philosophy without condescending and biased promotion of the author's ideology. Derrico paints an imperfect future world where the good guys aren't always right, and pragmatic application of ideals is often met with inconvenient complications.

There's plenty to like if you're a sci-fi fan since Derrico pays attention to detail. The laws of physics still work in 3030 - even for the good guys. The story is written in a way that enables readers to fly through the book, engrossed in the action, or take it slower if they want to share the emotional distress of the characters.

Action-packed and thoughtful - you won't be disappointed.

I judge my science fiction on a modified version of the Baen criteria: the scientific advances / future technology needs to be somewhat believable, if there are aliens they need to be presented in some realistic format with names I can pronounce in my head while I read, and must have some type of plot with circumstances - good or bad - with their resolution I can get my head around, believe, and be interested in turning to the next page to learn more; that's quite a mouthful, but we've all read a lot of bad science fiction over the years.

With all that being said, this book hits it on most fronts - I can't pronounce the names of the alien races.
I literally had a hard time putting this one down and stayed up really late one night to finish it and paid for it the next day. The author does a great job of explaining in somewhat layman's terms the gadgets and technological advances, the dialogue between the characters is to the point without a lot of fluff, and I found myself daydreaming a couple of times about the spacecraft and technology and what I would like to do if that was available now.

As I type this review, the Kindle version is being offered for free - grab it now while you can. The regular Kindle price is $2.99 - when it reverts to non-free status it will be well worth the $2.99 investment. I have purchased the second book in the series and will start it soon.

Great book. I really enjoy how authors offer their first book free. I probably wouldn't have paid for this book if I had not read it first but I definitely bought the second!

This was one of the first books I downloaded for my kindle and it was free! While definitely worth reading for free, I would have paid a few bucks.

While not something I would rave to my friends about... it was pleasant and light.

I'd describe it as a cross between star trek, starship troopers, and galaxy quest :)

Last night, I finished Right Ascension. The book is a space opera. It shows in the plot, characters and science of the book. I enjoyed it but I can understand why some reviewers said that it was a Star Trek ripoff. There are a lot of similarities but just as many differences. Sometimes, these similarities hurt the story.

The writing style is good but there are parts where the story bogs down. Most of these occur when the author does more telling than showing. I found myself skipping or glossing over some of these sections.

The characters, especially Admiral Daniel, are larger than life. For this kind of story, it works. I found myself wanting to know more about several crew members of the Apocalypse and the main antagonist. In some cases, I had to go back and read through a section I had skipped or skimmed over.

The plot, though multi-layered, is easy to follow. There is one anti-climatic moment involving the main antagonist that could have been handled better.

The minor problems I pointed out did not ruin my enjoyment of the book. I will probably pick up the next book in the series.

Ok, this book got good reviews here so I bought a Kindle copy. I read 26% into the book and then deleted it from my Kindle and came here to right a review to warn other people about this book. I really shouldn't be wasting my time reading poor SF. I've found that if it is bad 20-25% into the book that they never really get any better and that it is a waste of my time and effort to finish reading it hoping that it gets better. That's where deleting the story, and using the trash can for bad paperbacks, comes in.

I have fairly high standards for SF. Plot is very important. With the actions of the characters involved in that plot. The plot in this book is idiotic. A sneak attack. A ship destroyed. Another ship with an admiral in it is just sitting there cloaked watching it. In the busy space area around Earth? It waits 24 hours (why?) and then decides to follow the path of the attacking craft (finally!). But it was stealthed coming in and not detected so how is it going to leave a determinable path to track? And why would any aliens with any brains leave a path back to their home world or base so they could be followed unless it was a feint? So 24 hours later the admiral finally goes charging off (without letting anyone in Earth command structure know what he's doing...Why?...Where's the place for command structure in the book???) in spite of worries that the super aliens will come back and blow up Earth (which the ship the admiral is in being the ONLY ship that has a chance of defending Earth). Yes, this must be a good plan! A great plan! So let's stop by this not advanced star system that the track of the alien attacker went past and see if they know anything. After a nice state dinner and a good nights sleep (notice that they are in no hurry here!) an audience with the king (all non-advanced alien civilizations have kings, right?) they are informed that the civilization they are visiting used to be super advanced and was attacked by this mysterious alien ship in the past. And that Earth will be destroyed too. So, thanks Mr. alien king, we'll continue on our idiotic journey away from defenseless Earth and stop at a few more non-promising star systems looking for info on the nasty bad aliens while Earth lays defenseless behind us. If the aliens are as idiotic and lazy as we are they'll just ignore Earth while we have more state dinners and badly thought out childish "let's go at high speed through the asteroid field to lose the other aliens attacking us" escapades...

You should be able to see the ineptness and the idiocy of the plot. The writing is not bad at all. Character development is ok but not really in depth. The author writes fairly well and I believe him to have promise if/when he can attain a semi-realistic plot. Some (most) plots have holes but the hole here is the size of the Grand Canyon. Which destroys for me any chance of enjoying this book. Some people don't mind fairly well written stories with major plot holes but here I think it plot idiocy rather than just a couple of holes that can be enjoyably overlooked.

So if you have an aversion to bad plot you will want pass this one by. The author does show promise and talent, however, so it is possible (and I hope) for him to improve the plots in his future books.