Audible Book Review: Lords of Space by Michael Wallace

This story has strong action but some weaker elements.

Lords of Space
Starship Blackbeard, Book 2
By: Michael Wallace
Narrated by: Steve Barnes

Series: Starship Blackbeard, Book 2
Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
Unabridged
Release date: 04-15-15
Language: English
Publisher: Balsalom Publishing
Genre: Action, Sci Fi, Space Marine
Story Rating: 3.75 of 5.0
Narration/Audio Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

Publisher's Summary
Captain James Drake is desperate to clear his name. Pursued relentlessly by the Royal Navy, he takes his loyal crew to attack Admiral Malthorne's estate and seize the evidence that will prove his innocence.
But their search uncovers something else the ruthless admiral has secreted away - the key to stopping a brutal and decades-old war with the Hroom, an ancient alien race. What they find sends Drake on a dangerous mission deep into Hroom territory. Joined by his valiant crew and the daughter of a former rival captain, Drake risks his life and his freedom to stop the war and save what's left of his world.
Book two in the Starship Blackbeard series by Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author Michael Wallace.
The series continues: book three - Dreadnought; book four - Rebellion of Stars.
©2015 Michael Wallace (P)2015 Michael Wallace

Review:
Captain Drake is on the run with his crew and a pirated spaceship dubbed the Blackbeard. Drake insists on striking back at Admiral Malthorne who has manipulated the predicament that set Drake and his crew on the run. He leads his loyal crew to raid the Admiral’s estate looking for evidence that will prove him innocent of the accusations made. Instead he finds another secret that could change the face of the decades old war with the Hroom. Of course they will have to escape and get somewhere safely with their find which may not be too easy with all the Royal Navy fleet pursuing them.

Drake teams up with an unlikely ally in the daughter of a former rival ship captain. They are two strong personalities and she envisions then as “lords of space”. He is more interested in clearing his name, but he is practical enough to accept help to fend off the enemy. The two dance around trust until they form a shaky alliance – in more than piracy. Captain Drake and his XO, Commander Tolvern, have an interesting and sometimes tense relationship. Their camaraderie is stressed by the female ally.

As the journey deep into enemy territory continues Drake comes face to face with his old friend, Captain Rutherford, who has been following orders to chase Drake down. Their encounter sets the stage for more intrigue in book 3.

I enjoyed the action in this story but the plot didn't move along as much as I would have liked. The entertainment was marred for me by a bit of crudeness and gratuitous sex (including a beginning in rather poor taste). The awkward love triangle with the Captain was another area that I wasn’t taken with. These have left me somewhat ambivalent about proceeding with the rest of the series. I might, but probably not anytime soon.

Audio Notes: Steve Barnes does a good job with narration. He portrays the strength of Captain Drake, the emotional upheavals of the women, and he provides good accents for various characters making them easily distinguishable. I also liked the intensity and energy he brings to the audio. I enjoyed listening to this book.

Source: Audible 2017 Credit Purchase. This qualifies for 2018TBR, Take Control, Audiobook and Alphabet Challenges.

Book 1 Review: Starship Blackbeard by Michael Wallace; My Rating 4.75

Book Review: Starship Blackbeard by Michael Wallace

This was so much fun - fast paced and engaging!
Starship Blackbeard
by Michael Wallace

• File Size: 373 KB
• Print Length: 171 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Balsalom Publishing (December 22, 2014)
• ASIN: B00PYOF1V0

Genre: Sci Fi Action Adventure
My Rating: 4.75 of 5.0

Publication Date: December 22, 2014
In the aftermath of an interstellar war with an alien race, Captain James Drake is unjustly court martialed and sentenced to hard labor. Now Drake is on the run from Lord Admiral Malthorne, while another pursuer, Drake's old friend, believes the accusations are true, and promises to bring him to justice.
But Drake won't go down without a fight. Rather than surrender, he'll lead his loyal crew into the lawless frontier worlds, infested with pirates and smugglers, to repair and rearm his ship. Then he'll return to attack Malthorne's estates and seize the evidence he needs to clear his name.
But more than just Malthorne's estate is at stake. If Drake is captured, he and his crew are doomed--and the kingdom will be plunged into another war.
Book #1 of the Starship Blackbeard Series, by Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Michael Wallace.

Review:
James Drake was a loyal Captain commanding the Royal Navy warship, HMS Ajax, on a planet that draws similarities to earth. Drake and his crew were victorious in a hard fought battle against the alien Hroom. When the battle was done the Captain was found guilty of shooting down an innocent merchant ship and headed to a prison planet. His first mate and a good number of his crew are convinced Drake was framed. They arrange a rescue and mutiny in his own ship. Drake is unhappy with the rescue and is prepared to turn himself in to his old friend, Rutherford, Captain of a sister ship. But Drake learns more facts that don’t make sense, including the fact that his valued pilot, a Hroom, has been turned into an addicted sugar eater who is now destined to be a slave on a sugar plantation. Drake struggles with the desire to save his friends and events tumble until he and the crew end up on the run with the Ajax.

Drake ends up seeking help within a planet cluster of pirates and smugglers. He has always been loyal to the admiralty and hates the position he is in. Still the more they learn the more it appears there is a serious conspiracy. Drake begins to accept that he cannot safely surrender so his plans begin to change. In addition to running from the Admiralty, they have to battle for freedom against a pirate ship.  Although damaged, Ajax and the crew prevail. Drake and his crew gain a new reputation and Ajax gets fixed up with a new name: Starship Blackbeard!

A startling secret is uncovered that could change the future of the beleaguered Hroom and threaten the human colonies. Drake realizes that the Lord Admiral Malthorne is involved in hiding the secret and he suspects that the Admiral is behind framing him. Drake prepares to return to his home planet to do battle.

I quickly learned to like Drake and his dedicated crew members. They are a mixed crew and I was reminded of the band of friends that made up the crew in the movie/series Firefly. They are brave, bold and daring and there is lots of fast paced action, space chases and battles, that kept me thoroughly engaged. The story is very well written and the combination of characters, plot intrigue and action make this wonderful entertainment. I enjoyed several books from the Righteous Series by this author and was glad to try this Sci Fi thriller when he offered it. I was delighted to discover the beginning of another good series in a totally different genre. I highly recommend this to sci fi adventure lovers and those who enjoy fast paced entertainment. I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

I received this title from the author for an honest review.

Guest Post by Micahel Wallace, Author of The Blessed and The Damned

Child Lost. Writer Found.
by Michael Wallace

When I was eight, I got lost in the Fiery Furnace while hunting lizards. Caught in the maze of fins, spires, hoodoos, and other weird sandstone formations in Arches National Park, I realized I’d taken a wrong turn and backtracked, only to come upon a gorge scoured in the slickrock that I hadn’t crossed. I followed a set of footprints in the sand, which vanished, and then scrambled up a sandstone fin, hoping to catch a glimpse of the edge of the maze. It didn’t work. Everything I tried seemed to take me deeper into the labyrinth. The search party found me three hours later, thirsty and dehydrated. I don’t remember being particularly frightened.


That incident in the Fiery Furnace lingered in my memory and emerged twenty-five years later when I started to write The Righteous, the first book in my series set in the polygamist enclave of Blister Creek, Utah. There is a sandstone labyrinth called Witch’s Warts in Blister Creek that serves as a secret entry in and out of the valley, as well as a focal point of violence and other weirdness. It is a strange, otherworldly landscape, and I’ve had readers write to ask me if such a place could be real.

The wilderness of southern Utah may be an alien place to most of my readers, but to me, it sends me to my childhood and makes me think about my father. He would take me into the desert armed with a guidebook of roadside geology to dig up trilobites and fossilized shark teeth or to look for geodes—hollow, spherical stones packed with crystals. We went to a ghost town in a dry canyon once and returned with 19th century medicine bottles turned lavender in the sun. On another occasion, we camped on the desolate edge of a sand dune wasteland and listened to a murder mystery that came in and out of focus from a distant AM station. The stars were so bright under the thin desert atmosphere that it felt like I was clinging to the skin of the earth as it hurtled through the universe.

The desert was a cornucopia of cool stuff to discover: arrowheads and potsherds, topaz and other valuable crystals, and of course snakes and lizards. My brother and I once cornered a Gila monster that hissed and lunged as we tried to figure out how to get the venomous lizard into a can. It disappeared when we ran back to camp to get our father. Mom was relieved; we already kept a rattlesnake in a locked cage in the shed.

I’ve seen zillions of rattlesnakes and scorpions—have you ever watched a death match between a scorpion and a dozen angry soldier ants?—and that stuff doesn’t frighten me. Sandstone cliffs with thousand foot drops like Angel’s Landing or Dead Horse Point? Yes, that’s scary stuff. Of course, I don’t take foolish risks like I did as a boy, but whenever I’m back in the desert I find myself thinking about how I’d get food, water, and shelter if I were lost.

The same thoughts come to my mind whenever I revisit the polygamist community of Blister Creek. The desert wilderness is a good place to drag characters if you want their struggles to play out against a beautiful, deadly canvas, where civilization remains distant and weak. And it’s a good place to dig up memories of my own childhood, stir them up with pure imagination, and set them loose on the world.

Michael Wallace Website

Please see my Review of the fourth book The Blessed and the Damned.

Book Review: The Blessed and the Damned by Michael Wallace

This radical religious thriller presents an intense terrorist scenario.

The Blessed and the Damned (Righteous Series #4)

by Michael Wallace

• File Size: 530 KB
• Print Length: 349 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1612182216
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (October 2, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Genre: Thriller

My Rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Book Description 

Publication Date: October 2, 2012

As the son of the prophet of Blister Creek, a polygamous enclave in Utah, Dr. Jacob Christianson has struggled for years to reconcile his faith with his skepticism about the fundamentalist practices of his community. Nevertheless, when his family and neighbors were threatened, Jacob stepped up time and again to lead the fight against those who would destroy them. Now Jacob and the residents of Blister Creek face a dangerous new challenge to their quiet existence. Taylor Kimball Jr. wants to take over as prophet of Blister Creek—and he wants Jacob’s sister Eliza by his side when he does it. With no room for personal reservations, Jacob forms a tenuous alliance with his father and the FBI. But Taylor Junior is as crafty as he is brutal, anticipating Jacob’s plan and drawing him out to leave Blister Creek vulnerable to attack. And this time Taylor has come prepared, with a horrific new weapon capable of annihilating Blister Creek. If he has any chance of winning this fight, Jacob will have to decide, once and for all, just how far he is willing to go to protect his community. The fourth in Michael Wallace’s riveting Righteous series, The Blessed and the Damned raises the stakes in Jacob’s world to dizzying new heights.

Review:
This gripping story continues the power struggles among factions of polygamous, patriarchal Mormon communities hidden in the mountains and deserts of Utah. In earlier books a rebellious group, including the Kimballs, tried to overtake the harsh and demanding “Prophet,” Abraham Christianson, at the Blister Creek community.  Some of the attackers were captured and imprisoned but others escaped to hide in the hills.

Taylor Kimball, Jr. spent several years in exclusion before he emerged to gather other bitter, “lost boys” -  those expelled from the main community. Taylor’s camp lives in rustic conditions and their jealousy and envy poisons and twists whatever faith values they once learned. Taylor believes he is directed by an angel of the lord to take over Blister Creek with Christianson’s daughter, Eliza, as his primary wife. Taylor’s take-over plan is anything but peaceful.  He plans to attack and decimate the communities before commandeering whatever and whoever survives the attack.

Dr. Jacob Christianson is the moderate of the family. He treasures his own family and walks a fine line between the Mormon community and governmental forces.  He doesn’t agree with his father’s harsh ways and he wants to protect his sister, Eliza, from being forced into an arranged marriage. When he and Eliza recognize the threat of the Kimball clan, they seek to locate the hideout before Taylor can attack Blister Creek or before an FBI raid causes a mass suicide.

I was immediately pulled into the action, conflict and intensity of the story.  I found Taylor’s terrorist tactics really horrifying and gut-wrenching. I was dismayed by the extreme lack of Christian values shown by the leaders. There was no forgiveness and no second chance given, even to those who sought it. There was no compassion for the rights of individuals.  The leaders range from the dictatorial, harsh “Prophet” to the crazed, twisted Taylor. Rather than try to find ways to live and work together the factions seek to kill the opposition, even innocent women and children.

I appreciated the difficult decisions the characters had to face. Jacob is repeatedly torn between duties, desires, faith and fear. Should he handle the search himself or bring in the authorities? Should he go help the injured or try to protect those who are the next target? I was saddened that Jacob didn’t recognize and accept the blessing and powers he might have shared if he had stronger faith. 

This is well written and the settings are wonderfully described.  I particularly liked the use of the Anasazi cliff dwelling. This is the fourth book in the series and I was glad that I had read the first story, The Righteous. However, Mr. Wallace does a good job of bringing in the back story so this could be read as a stand alone. I recommend this series to readers who enjoy intense conflict and aren’t put off by what I would term as religious extremism.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "Prophet" gives a justification for killing:

“Fine, you’re a doctor,” Abraham said as Jacob turned to go. “But you don’t heal cancer, you destroy it. That’s what this is, a malignancy.  We cut one tumor when Eliza killed Gideon, but it has metastasized...” location 1735.

At least some of the characters have a sense of acceptance and humility:

So what if he fell short? She was a work in progress to, riddled with her own weaknesses.  Location 2545.

I received this ebook from the author for an honest review. Please enjoy Mr. Wallace's Guest Post too.

This story is set in Utah for my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge.

Book Review: The Righteous by Michael Wallace

I highly recommend this very gripping thriller exposing horrors of a religious cult.

The Righteous  by Michael Wallace

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 332 KB
• Publisher: Balsalom Publishing (February 1, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004LX0B9M

     Price: Kindle $2.99 (good bargain!)
     Genre: Thriller

See My Rating here

Product Description

Medical student Jacob Christianson is sent by church elders to investigate a murder within the polygamist enclave of Blister Creek, Utah. He brings his sister Eliza, who at seventeen, must choose a husband from three old men jostling for power within the church hierarchy.

Jacob discovers that the murdered woman has been killed in accordance with secret blood oaths taken within the polygamist temple. Together with his sister, he uncovers a plot to overthrow the church leadership, with murders that reach beyond the community and into the “gentile” world.

Review:  I found this book to be really well written and the plot gripping.

The author portrays great detail about the traditions and rituals of the polygamist sects within the Morman church. There are conflicting thoughts and emotions presented through the characters relating to the church community as well as the horrors that exist when members twist the faith into a religious cult.

Jacob, as a medical student, has some secular exposure beyond the community he has been raised in. Although he honors his church and elder’s directives he is also mindful of the world’s authority outside that church community.  He is able to use his medical skills in forensic observances to help his investigation.  However he has to walk a fine line to balance the rights, rituals and protective forces in the church against exposing the evils that he discovers.  He is faced with lies and resistance as he begins the investigation. Then as he proceeds with danger around him, he has to deal with the added pressure from his father and others to help his sister choose (or choose for her) a husband. 

Eliza is a very bright young woman who respects her church family but wants more than to be a brood mare.  She is highly sought after as a healthy and intelligent wife. However, she is unhappy being presented with the choice of three not very desirable prospects. Eliza has one brother who is already excommunicated by the church and she misses him and doesn't fully understand the lack of mercy and forgiveness towards him. The pressures on her and the unhappiness she sees stir her with thoughts of rebellion.

In the Mormon community presented by this author some wonderful rules of duty and obedience have become twisted up by evil men. The elders have isolated themselves to the point that they seem to want blind obedience without considerations to mercy or compassion for human mistakes and feelings. They reject youths for "natural" sins yet they do not see the bigger evil and corruption in their midst. The elders would rather cover up a murder than have outside authorities question or interfere with their practices.

The tension builds and builds as Jacob and Eliza find more clues to bigger problems in the community that appear to have led to the murder.  The last third of the book is definite nonstop page turner quality.  This book is not only an excellent thriller, but it causes one to think about the emotions and effects involved in living in such a restrictive community.

xxx

I received this book from the author for an honest and unbiased review.