Tension Builds Steadily... Mira Approaches

STORY: I was impressed with Paul E. Cooley's venture into deep space with this first book in the Derelict series. A massive exo-solar exploration ship, missing for forty-three years, returns as an out of control derelict. The Sol Federation Marines of S&R Black are thrown into the breach to recover everything they can with very little preparation. A handful of marines to stop the largest ship ever built, complacent from constant training and boredom at Neptune station, they must quickly gel as a team to confront the unknown.

Arriving at the derelict, the recovery will not be as simple as their orders implied. Artificial Intelligence systems are used in station and shipboard to "assist" with the recovery. Or?

NARRATION: Mr. Cooley narrates his own book as comfortably as if I were reading it myself. He knows how expressive he wants each character to be. His voice range provides a distinction between each character that is pleasing to the ear.

Will be looking out for book 2!

3 people found this helpful

Aliens meets Event Horizon

I'll start with the negative. If you don't like cliffhangers and absolutely must know what happens, this may not be the book for you(Or at least until the entire saga is available of course).

I found that the story read and generated the same atmosphere and feeling as Event Horizon. That is to say it is a Sci-Fi romp that gives enough interesting science and theory to established a believable world on the surface, with cool technology and history. Don't dig too deep(in science) or you'll encounter the horror/fantasy underbelly(which is not a bad thing in my opinion). This IS NOT hard Sci-Fi, don't unfairly rate it for not being something it isn't aiming for.

Characterization is superb. He accomplished what few do and gives you a world with character. Sure it's cold and unforgiving, even plotting against you, but you feel the danger waiting in the dark.

In short, don't come here for a WH40K space marine world. Instead explore the darkness of space in a cruel world to find a dead ship.

2 people found this helpful

This is not a book about a derelict ship. Nothing happens.

The writing is good, but this book is about people preparing for a mission to go to a ship, not about a derelict ship. The latter quarter of the book felt like clickbait and only gives the promise that there will be a mystery. I understand the need to world-build, but not at the expense of the story.

1 person found this helpful

Slow

Well written. However story line is very slow to develop. Three hours into book before anything interesting started to occur.

1 person found this helpful

Good story so far

I liked it. Interesting universe and vision of the future. I found that the book went by rather fast.

1 person found this helpful

Not what you think it is....

This book is great if you love a long build up with a small amount of action. There are a couple of things you need to know before you purchase this book. First off if you have military experience and don't like inaccurate portrayals of it; This book will get on your nerves. This guy has done no research on how the military works. He destroys entire groups of characters by adding in odd sex scenes that just seem awfully placed. Plus, if you are or have been in the military you know that sex between two people in the same command structure is bad for moral and unit cohesion. Not to mention that it is extremely illegal. This book spends a full 7 hours to build up the story, then uses the remaining 1 hour and 46 minutes to disappoint you. The only reason i can come up with for the other two reviewers to like this book is because they are close friends to the author. I would rate this book a 0.5/10 would not even read this author again. This is my first book review.... I hated it that much...

15 people found this helpful

Missing a resolution

While the story was well written the overall planning ad plotting left much to be desired. I realize that this is the first novel in the series However, in writing a series the author should incapsulate all the elements of the story segment. Each book should be able to stand on its own. While I greatly enjoyed the book I did not think there was an adequate ending.

2 people found this helpful

Boring, then infuriating

this book, sadly isn't worth the time to listen to. The majority is full filler that does little to provide details. if the tone it wanted to set was dull then it succeeded. only about 2 hours of this book has interesting Content, the rest could have been cut. the last part became infuriating when the "marines" spotted movement and didn't report it. as for Mr. Cooley, he has a calming voice, which does not help with this story at all. I have the second book in my Library, but I don't think I'll ever listen to it after this first showing

I think this book was suppose to have pictures.

Listened to this book in one go on a road trip and I don’t recommend it. I found it boring, generic and word bloated. Probably could have been a great 5 hour book.
Without spoilers -
Extremely minimal details given about the characters and the surroundings they find themselves in. It’s actually almost impressive how much I don’t know about the characters after spending almost 9 hours with under 16 entities.
With a single exception the characters are not described much beyond a name and given almost nothing in the way of character traits. I don’t need to know the characters boot size but with so little I didn’t picture them as people just androgynous figures moving about. I hope the physical book had a picture or sketch of the crew for reference. Without a basic connection to the characters engaging with the story was tedious.
Surroundings suffer from the same lack of description or vagary to the point of irrelevance.
Can’t go much further without spoiling stuff because there was so little substance.

In my opinion stories have characters, settings and plot. The Who, the where and the why is kinda the minimum. With such vague characters there is no who to relate to. The setting is so sterile there is no world to immerse yourself in. And the plot could be the best ever but without A Character to care about and settings to engage in it may as well be a list of facts that happened.

Since finishing this book and the time of this writing it’s been 3 days and I couldn’t tell you more then 2 names from this book if that helps to show how much of an impacted they had.

This entire book

This entire book felt like it could have been a single chapter or 2 in a typical novel that was stretched and packed full of so much detail that it became tedious at times, and mind numbing at others. While I understand the importance of world building this left me begging for something, anything to happen, and just as something finally happened it ended. My ears are sore from this one.