Deep Sky (Harper Thriller)

I've been a big fan of Patrick Lee's "Breach" stories since stumbling across "The Breach" a few years ago. I thought that the stories were pretty inventive, the characters enjoyable and overall just a great entry into the techno-thriller genre.

"Deep Sky" is the final book in the trilogy, and while I enjoyed it, I feel it's a bit tepid when compared with the earlier novels. Travis Chase is back in this third installment, and "Deep Sky" starts off with a bang as we discover that an ordinary suburban house hides a deadly weapon which is soon used in an attack on Washington and the President.

Soon, Travis Chase, Paige Campbell and everyone at Tangent find themselves targeted by the same people who attacked the White House, and the clock is ticking towards another doomsday as they scamble to find out who and why someone is taking out everyone associated with The Breach. Patrick Lee once again populates his novels with the cool Breach "technology" that are a trademark of these stories. "The Tap" is not quite as fun as the "Whisper", but is still kind of cool.

I think the biggest problem with "Deep Sky" is that it follows the excellent "Ghost Country" which was right on the heels of un-put-downable "The Breach", two of the most exciting novels in recent years. And while "Deep Sky" does a nice job of wrapping up the series, it doesn't manage to retain the pace it set in the earlier novels.

Overall this was a great series and I would highly recommend you pick up all three tales. If you're a fan of sci-fi thriller there is plenty here to enjoy.

This is the third in the three part "Breach" trilogy, and you should purchase all three:

-- if you love science fiction
-- if you love strong characters, like Travis Chase
-- if you love a puzzle, a series of unexplained incidents
-- if you like internal logic, where things do not just "happen"

This book finishes the story of Travis Chase, drawn into the top secret government project to control the Breach, an opening to another dimension, a conduit for strange items that drop through, an occasion for global conspiracies that seem to exist in part because of Travis -- not just to him.

The story telling is sharp. The author creates difficult situations, but does not break the train of logic... requiring solutions that are strong, credible, and well devised.

I really enjoyed all three books.

A friend recommended this series because I am a fan of science fiction. While it was engaging, it depresses me that people think of this as science fiction. I suppose it qualifies, but it's what I think of as junk sci-fi. Almost none of it is based on real science, plausible science, or even techno-babble that might be confused for plausible science. The "breach entities" are very similar to magic devices used by Harry Potter characters; they're tools to enable characters to advance the plot where the author wants it to go.

That said, the series works as a thriller if you can put up with the standard thriller tropes. There is a ticking clock and the characters constantly escape peril only to find more peril. There are bombs, guns, murders, explosions, and tablet computers that can hack into government satellite feeds or find credit card receipts from 25 years ago. It all ends as it should, with a character who knows stuff filling in the blanks for our heroes, having not told them earlier because...it would have been bad. I guess

The Breach Trilogy is a sci-fi gem.
*Warning: The Breach Trilogy should be read in the order the 3 books were published, this will enhance reading pleasure and comprehension. The 3 novels are NOT stand alone reads—IMHO.
Patrick Lee’s science fiction Breach trilogy is a terrific sci-fi thriller. The first novel, The Breach, begins the saga with Travis and Paige when an ion experiment goes terribly wrong bringing about the breach, a tear in the earth’s space time continuum, into existence. The breach anomaly is studied and slowly became understood as strange items/devices known as “entities” periodically came through the breach from the “other side”—the future or maybe the long distant past?. The human condition as such, one man attempted to control the breach but ultimately he failed ending the first book.
The second installment of The Breach trilogy is Ghost Country and centers on an “entity” from the future/past that allows people to transit the breach into the future and return. This part of the sage chiefly deals with time travel and the dangers therein when the wrong people gain control of the time travel devices sent through the breach to the present. Their altruism, bordering on insanity, resulted in a terrible future of death and destruction before they themselves were eliminated by Travis and Paige.
The third and concluding Breach trilogy novel is entitled Deep Sky and it is a blockbuster gem. It successfully ties together the entire Breach trilogy with a dynamite conclusion that answers ALL nagging questions. What a tremendous literary accomplishment. My only negative comment is I was sad to see it all end and hope, like Star Trek or Star Wars, the journey would/could continue!
Character development was superb and kept all three books fresh and entertaining. The two main protagonists, Travis and Paige, evolved through all 3 novels in a very engaging way keeping the saga both interesting and engaging.
No gratuitous sex, language or violence. Great sci-fi writing and interesting time travel dilemmas and conundrums discussed.
I have now read all of Patrick Lee’s science fiction books and can say he is definitely at the top of the sci-fi genre. All are clean, crisp believable stories that pay attention to detail with no over-the-top literary hyperbole. Main characters grow and yes some die but hey that makes for real life suspense. The time travel aspects are handled realistically, as can be hypothetically surmised, and greatly enhance the overarching futurist storyline. Well done Patrick Lee, Well Done, and I am eagerly looking forward to you next book after Signal—5+ stars!
NOTE: To Repeat, it would greatly enhance the viewer’s reading pleasure and comprehension to read the Breach trilogy novels in order. In my estimation none of the novels are stand alone reads. Hence my using the same review for all three books.

Patrick Lee is very talented and I looked forward to the conclusion of his trilogy. But... there was just too much willing suspension of disbelief required and the last few pages read like he was working to a deadline only hours away. And then it still left the reader hanging. Gaaa!

And really, Patrick, did you HAVE to use an invisibility suit? Jo Rowling (Harry Potter) should demand payment for a copyright violation!

As several others have mentioned, you must read all three in order for this book to make sense. On the flip side of this, they are pretty fast reads in general.

Now to the nitty gritty: This is some of the better hard sci-fi that I've read in the last few years. It is hard science fiction, meaning that the book plots are fundamentally revolving around the science aspect, rather that the 'science' being a thinly veiled cover for a standard thriller plot.

The premise is novel in that it isn't simply the discovery of an alien artifact which centers the plot rather it is a steady stream of artifacts whose use, source, and purpose are indeterminable. What IS novel is how Mr. Lee invokes this premise and uses it to build a fast paced, intriguing, and compelling world set right around our contemporary milieu yet completely and utterly overshadowed by the fantastic artifacts and their mysterious origin.

The books were well edited, and the author does a good job of not tiring out the reader with an overuse of catch phrases and cliches.

The final book - and so ultimately the series - is a contradiction. It has one of the best and most unexpected plot twists I've come across in a long time among the hundreds of works I've read. I also find the staging for the ending to be well done, which (unlike some of the reviewers) I very much liked. I came away with that indefinable eerie sensation you get after watching some of the better early Twilight Zone episodes. It left me feeling introspectively discomfited and pondering what I would do. It caused me me to be vaguely dissatisfied in that everything wasn't perfectly wrapped up. That isn't a bad thing as I found myself speculating on the future of the world he created, wondering "what if?". I suppose the dissatisfaction comes from being conditioned by the mass produced, churned out slop that is most sci-fi and the way they feel they have to spoon feed us the finish.

Patrick Lee isn't a Bradbury or Asimov (yet), as he lacks the breadth of scope and underlying foundational insight into the human (and alien) psyche, but he is definitely an excellent read and well worth the purchase. I'm eagerly waiting for additional works, and as he matures as a science fiction writer I see strong potential for future works to be top shelf sci-fi classics.

I would certainly recommend this series be added to the collection of any science fiction library from the casual reader to the hard-core collector.

Deep Sky is the 3rd Book in the Breach series. The Breach is an accidental wormhole created in 1978, and strange alien technology comes through periodically. The first two books deal with adventures around specific alien technology called "entities."

This book is also another adventure based on the use of Breach Technology, however this adventure is about solving a mystery in which the President of the USA was killed, and some sort of deadline of 24 hours starts ticking before something awful happens. Our heroes, Travis, Paige and Bethany, all folks who work with Breach entities, are not only struggling to find out who killed the POTUS and why, but to find out what the terrible event that will happen in 24 hours.

My beef with the book is based on the explanation of the Breach that is given to us at the end. Why it exists and how. Quite frankly, I felt the author decided he was getting tired of writing these Breach Books and decided to wrap this up quickly, and the explanation just disappoints.

My sister recommended Breach to me in 2008. So I had it sitting around and then I read it, I loved it. Then when Ghost Country came out I read that in a heartbeat and loved that. But this book takes the cake. This is my favorite from the series. Lee does a terrific job of leading you and and giving you enough answers to keep you going. The suspense is terrific and I think the end is exactly what it should have been. I don't want to tell you at all what happens but if you liked the other two books you'll love this one. It moves at a faster pace than Ghost Country. This book also does a good job at reminding you of past events without boring you with content you already know. The twists are terrific and honestly I have no bad feelings towards this book. I'm sad to see the series end, but I'm quite satisfied with the overall series.

Patrick Lee has given us an action packed, thoughtful sci-fi trilogy with his Travis Chase novels. The last book in the series (as far as we know) - Deep Sky - winds up the trilogy with a good story that answers some questions, but leaves others to your imagination. If you're looking to have the ending spelled out for you, you will be disappointed. If you like thought provoking endings, however, you will enjoy it.

My one warning about this book: If you don't remember the first two books very well, go back and read them before you read this book. Lee makes frequent references to the events in those books without rehashing them, so you will be lost if you don't remember what happened.

After finding "The Breach" on accident while bored on vacation, I became an instant fan of Patrick Lee and his Travis Chase/Tangent series. Each book is intense, fast paced and riddled by mysteries and techno-babble sci-fi. The mysteries and techno-babble remain in "Deep Sky," as well as the quick tempo and a ticking-clock, end-of-the-world consequence if they all fail. Yet, this novel fails in several specific instances; namely, that he intersperses his fast action sequences with over-wrought info-dumps. His previous novels had a steep learning curve, but he was able to inform the reader during moments of action. "Deep Sky" tries to mimic the earlier success and mostly succeeds. Where it fails, however, the change in pace is glaring and disjointed. Furthermore, the conclusion to the novel itself felt rushed so that Mr. Lee could adequately conclude the trilogy. That conclusion would have merited its own novel, and in this context seems tacked on to this novel making both less than they might have been. Nonetheless I enjoyed this novel. I read it in a single evening and was left satisfied.