Customer Reviews

Star Soldier (Book #1 of the Doom Star Series)

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Hard SF is hard to find these days. This is the real deal. We learn how much more radiation one is exposed to on one side of Mercury's orbit vs. the other in the first few pages, for example. But it isn't all technobabble, the characters are very human and having a very hard time of it.

What's even more unusual about this book is it's military Hard SF, even more rare. We are taken into a grim, not-so-distant future where Earth is in the hands of a single political party and those who complain are harshly abused. Much of the book concerns a civil war/rebellion and different groups of genetically-built supermen and who shall rule over all.

Plenty of cool tech ideas, plenty of combat, and what sold me right off was finding only a single slight error in the entire sample (see if you can find it). Some of these cheap books are not of pro quality, but this one did it right, as if the author truly cared.

I found this book difficult to rate. It has its good points and its bad. Ultimately, I felt like this was an enjoyable sci-fi failure.

First of all, the editing of this book is absolutely ATROCIOUS. I do not remember ever reading any published work with so many errors, many of them painfully obvious. This was very noticeable throughout the entire book, and sometimes I had to re-read passages several times in order to get the intended meaning. Normally, a work this poorly written would be tossed aside by me, but I found myself enjoying the story and the world enough to power through this annoyance (and from the view of an avid reader, insult).

The world and story are the redeeming qualities of this book. An interesting and "realistic" view of future incarnation of humanity. If you're looking for a "Star Trek"-like utopian view, keep looking. This world is dark and rife with dangers and injustices. The story is interesting, although not always well written. It follows a few main characters and their companions, but not always with the effectiveness that is needed to convey a clear storyline.

The characters in this story are one of its weakest points. They never really come to life, nor does the reader ever grow to care one way or another about them. The lines drawn between protagonists and antagonists are unrealistically defined and obvious. Their thoughts and feelings are sterile and as you read, you never feel anything any character is feeling, you are simply being told what is going through their mind and heart.

Despite the drawbacks of this book, I enjoyed it thoroughly until the end. The world seemed alive, which was the most redeeming quality about this book. An interesting dynamic of this book is how it pits an extreme socialist/communist society against an extreme caste/monarchy-like one.

This interesting dynamic is however what turns into this books hardest downfall. At the end of this book, the main character has a revelation that ruined my enjoyment of this book. A revelation about freedom and a free nation that once existed. It turned a decent go at a sci-fi epic into preachy, pro-democratic/American propaganda. It would be one thing if this turn in the story fit the story itself, but it doesn't. It kind of comes out of nowhere, and never has a place to settle into the story. It made the book itself drop in value. This is the exact kind of thing that readers of science fiction are trying to escape by reading it. It really killed the book for me, and in one page I went from not being able to wait to read the second book to barely being able to finish the first.

All in all, this was an enjoyable sci-fi failure. This book should have been worked on for a few more years however, both the story and the editing needs a lot of work. And it would have been nice that even if the author's sole intent was to extol the greatness of America & Democracy and vilify other forms of government, that it was integrated into the story more so you didn't feel preached at. In the end, it just comes off as a pathetic attempt to persuade you to the author's ideals.

I should say I don't personally disagree with those ideals, just that they ruined what SHOULD have been a decent novel.

Well, this is a difficult review to write. Not only because I'm typing from the kindle, but also due to the fact that this novel is rich with excellent ideas yet very poorly executed. The author in question appears to be pumping out books fairly often, and I would advise him to take a step back to proofread and further analyze his writings. Now, I'm a pretty big fan of scifi and if you enjoy scifi then go ahead and purchase the entire series. I say this because while this one is riddled with obvious and fairly embarassing typos, it gets much better with the next two books. That's not to say this one isn't an enjoyable right because is. However, when I purchase a novel I expect minimal, hidden typos at most. Some typos in here seriously hinder the reading experience and make me wonder if he typed it all on a kindle. If you can live with some fairly blatant typos then buy it, it's an enjoyable book and only $1

As I write this, there are three books to this series, which I've read front to back, one after the other, and eagerly await the fourth installment. This series easily borders on the scale of "epic", and no doubt will hit that stride before the series concludes.

The only thing that causes me to strike a star from the review is the editing of the book. A vigorous copy-editing and proof-reading would do wonders. It's great that independent authors are beginning to have the means to get their work out. Since I've had my Amazon Kindle, this is not the first, and surely won't be the last, new author I've discovered and I look forward to more works from them. But those final steps, even if done by "non-professionals", would only add more value.

Such examples of well written hard SF are hard to find. At first the low price made me question its quality. But I figured that for such a low price I can't go wrong. So I made the plunge. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down. Read it all the way through in one sitting. Thank God for summer holidays. The story is combination hard military sci-fi and space opera. Great read that will keep you riveted and turning pages. The pace of the story is always in top gear.

I have read all four books and I hate to say that I cannot remember every detail about the first. All four have been really good and the story has yet to bore me or leave me longing for the series to be over. I read a good bit of sci fi books and as of now the 5th book of this series is the one that I am most anxious for. When I think back to the first book it seems like it took me finishing it and starting book two to really become wrapped up in the story. If I had stopped there I would have missed out on a good bit of enjoyable reading. I am always interested in knowing about the people that write reviews because it helps me to know if I will like the book. I am a 29 year old male, one child, social studies teacher, baseball coach. Hope this helps!

I have just finished the fourth book in this series and have to say I've read them (the other three books), back to back.

Being of "a certain age" (50), I grew up reading the likes of Heinline, Clarke et al. One of my favourite authors was Issac Asimov, whose stories I devoured during my teens. Mr. Heppner's breadth of storyline within this series is very similar to that of Asimov, but with more rounded characterisation and mutiple story threads within the over-arching plot line.

I would highly recommend this series to anyone looking for detailed plots based on scientific principles (like Arthur C. Clarke), mixed with a rampaging storyline that keeps the pages turning.

This is the best sci-fi author I have come across in the last 5 years and I read A LOT of books.

Why only 4 stars? I only read reviews with 4 or less - 5 star reviews generally reveal more about the reviewer than the subject under review!

Buy this - you will not be disappointed.

Steve N

99% of the 99 cents book are not worth it. I've paid 7.99 for books that are not as good as this. I just paid 2.99 for the second in the series. Don't expect Asimov but you will not be wondering who the heck told this person they could write.

.......In the best possible way.

I will return to this shortly but first what is Star Soldier actually like?

Well it's good old fashioned shoot em up sci fi. There's plenty of action, believable technology and interesting social commentary that manages to get a message across without being boring.

I did not find the small number of typing and grammatical errors to be too distracting and it may be that the book has been edited since the first reviews.

Character development is light and I would have appreciated more background on the main players especially those that continue into the series. Even without deep background the various characters are solid and well described. The good guys are not all good nor are the bad guys completely evil. Except for...... Oops. Almost let that slip didn't I?

Long story short, at 99c this is a steal but at $4.95 it would still be good value for money.

Now to the blackmail. If you get sucked in, and you will, there are 5 books in this series but........ There should be 6!!! The author requests reader input so he can choose which book to write next (he does have a few irons in the fire). A clever way to get reviews but I am a willing participant. The ride has been tremendous fun so far and I am sure the next installment will be as good as the previous 5. Now write the damn book!!!!!

I originally thought this book would be a good escapist entertaining novel, but as I have read all the books in this series I have realized that it is one of the greatest negative Utopian novels written. Its main character tours us through ethical issues that will arise from modern technology, such as biotech. children may read this book in school in the future. As someone who values freedom and the expects liberty for my children and their descendants, I am sensitive to the topics explored by this book. The future holds great promise but each advance offers benefits that will pressure our understanding of human rights. This book is entertaining to read but as frightening as Brave New World, because the oppression it describes is real. The truth is always more terrifying any farce.