Being this is the first book of a series I expected a great story, but this is better than I expected. I was left with a lot of questions but I'm sure that was ment to be, hense book two. Having read many first contact stories I felt the author could have help me more fully understood a few points as the story progressed. That left me somewhat disappointed but I moved on.
I would love to speak with the author on a story much like this one. As for telling you to read this book, do yourself a great favor and get this book for sure. It will pull your mind in directions that make you feel as though you are there in the story. It's very well written and will keep you wondering what's next.

Writing is a bit pedantic but awesome terrific plot. Wish he'd write like we talk everyday and describe stuff. But still the speed of story is great and a page turner.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Having recently read a number of new Kindle SF novels on the theme of First Contact and how Earthmen-- despite having no real space program or space ships--manage to get out into space and acquire space ships, this particular story posits an interesting variation on the theme, but the many failures in execution just suck the life out of the story.

In Christopher Nuttall's novel "A Learning Experience," several Earthmen with military training are abducted by none too bright aliens, turn the tables on them and manage to kill them and to capture their ship, in Jeffrey Burger's novel "Wings of Steele" Earthmen flying an aircraft are inadvertently captured by an inter-stellar cruise ship's automatic homing and recovery system, and gain access to space that way, and in Tobias Root's similarly themed "Pattern Ship" one Earthman, who has a metal plate in his skull fashioned from meteoric iron that contains an extremely rare and exotic element, crucial to an alien spaceman's repair of his ship, gains that man and humans access to space.

In "First Contact," and its sequel "Discovery," the first two books in James Jackson's Terran Chronicles series, a fleet of aliens, the Garmin, with what seem to be ambiguous motives come to Earth, preceded by a meteorite bombardment that destroys our satellites, and some of our communication, and military systems and capabilities, they cause widespread destruction to several major cities, they destroy a French aircraft carrier and other military units that do not obey their orders to stand down, likely kill hundreds of thousands and displace millions, but then fix some of the damage caused by what they call a "coincidental" bombardment, impart some sophisticated knowledge, leave a few examples of their sophisticated power generation systems and technology-- meanwhile playing one nation off against another--strong-arming several advanced Earth governments to provide the massive amounts of raw materials and supplies necessary to restock and to repair the alien's combat damaged ships, and to enable them to build a new ship.

Abruptly, the alien's fleet then heads out of (flees?) the solar system (ahead of enemies?), leaving behind their newly created satellite system that will shoot down any human ship attempting to reach space, one seemingly ordinary Earth-man, "George," who has the rare ability to be able to tolerate wearing, to understand, and to command the operations of their virtually impregnable and extraordinarily capable exoskeleton suits, that can interface with Garmin technology, transmute matter, and fabricate almost anything, a couple of such pirated suits and the different "modules" that extend their capabilities, and a huge, weaponless, powerful ship that is missing the alien's massive power system, sitting half completed at a construction site in the Australian Outback. It is this ship, renamed the "Terran," that George and his suit, training, and knowledge enables a coalition of several nations of Earth-men to understand and to jury-rig sufficiently to get out into space, and to explore outward for thousands of light years.

Given more depth, more character development, and more skillful writing this book could have been a real page turner, but unfortunately, this interesting concept did not reach its full potential because of very flawed execution.

The plot was fairly unsophisticated, set-piece scenes on the bridge very repetitive and formulaic, dialog often uninspiring, and the character development was not particularly deep. Adherence to reality and believability are not Space Opera's strong suit but eventually, as enough very implausible and even impossible events pile up, the reader's absolutely essential ability to muster a "willing suspension of disbelief" just evaporates.

Thus, in volume two the small crew of the increasingly battered and crippled Garmin ship renamed the "Terran" is serially attacked, boarded, looted, collides with a massive space station, some crew members are ejected into space or smashed to jelly by acceleration to light speed, George is deliberately poisoned by stowaway Muslim fanatics who also try to assassinate the Terran's leader Cindy, to sabotage and blow up the ship, and/or to poison everyone using an inevitably fatal chemical weapon. Then, later on the crew is infected by a deadly parasite that eventually pops some victims eyeballs out of their sockets as the parasite grows within their skulls. They're just hit by so many calamities that the story eventually becomes ridiculous, resembling "The Perils of Pauline."

Then, there is the portrayal of George, the key, the indispensable man who can work the exoskeleton, who, despite initially being portrayed as just an average guy with no advanced education, manages--over and over again--to save the ship and crew with a brilliant idea or decisive, correct action. It is George, too who-over and over again--also survives what for anyone else would be catastrophic injuries or death.

Of most consequence, however, is the fact that as I read volume two I've discovered that this volume is littered with many more dozens of very annoying awkward and/or incorrect word choices and phrases than was volume one.

In a 2012 response to a review here criticizing these same kinds of errors, the author said that he had had a whole team of editors rework this series. However, massive problems still exist. So many and so basic are these English language and usage mistakes that I'm starting to wonder if this story wasn't initially written in a language other than English, then run through a not very good translation program.

I would agree with most of these reviews both good and bad. I feel the story is quite good and entertaining, but the book leaves a lot to be desired. Although I can't think of any instances where words are misspelled, proving a spell checker was used, there are many instances where words are misspelled making them into completely different, yet correctly spelled, words that make no sense in the context of the line.

There were also several instance where the story just kind of veered off on a completely different story line leaving me thumbing back a few pages trying to figure out how I got from a character in Manhattan to a special ops team in Korea.

Then there were sections that just made no sense, again having me thumbing back a few pages trying to figure out what I missed. The one I remember the most "Being without a roof, the structure looks very much like a partially built dry dock. With the nearest ocean many hundreds of miles away, the purpose of a dry dock complex is baffling to any onlookers." The onlookers in question are in St Petersburg Russia and Manhattan New York. Now the St Petersburg part is technically true with it being geographically located on the Baltic Sea and located hundreds of miles from an "ocean", but Manhattan is just a short jaunt down the Hudson to the Atlantic.

I have read the other review here stating some of the same issues I had, and also stating the second book is worse with these "errors". I will probably purchase the 2nd book eventually, but will wait a while in hopes these issues are corrected to what I feel is a good story

I found the book fascinating. The character of George at first seemed a bit of a stretch but it is nice in the "everyman" context. I considered this a very good read.

I rarely read novels, but this one - wow! I couldn't put it down. I will definitely be buying the rest of the series.

I loved that book and I loved the next book of the series (though I really think that author should give protagonists a break!!!!).

Fantastic start for a first time author, I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

Was recommended by a friend, and not a genre I generally read, but I was so glad that I took their advice and read First Contact, because I greatly enjoyed myself, and now I'm branching out from my traditional genres, and having a great time doing it!