In the Black

I dove into this novel based on some comments deep in a scifi subreddit, thinking I had found some buried treasure that only the real ones knew about. Instead, I was met with some of the most droll, unoriginal, and poorly written pages I've ever had the misfortune of reading. Only after revisiting that same page later did I realize that these comments were being sarcastic, with the commentors poking fun at the author. This led me down a rabbit hole investigating this author's online exploits, which are (frankly) worthy of a documentary on their own. It was only after investigating this Patrick Tomlinson that I finally understood what exactly it was that I hated about this book; the self importance he exudes online is expressed in every word he farts into existence. When I tell you I struggled through the quarter of this book I managed to read, I mean it. I had to stop when the cringing began to cause me physical pain. His "subtle" political references (such as the all-female space crew headed by a Captain Kamala, or the Mega-Corporations that control the human's airspace) reek of the same boot-licking left wing commentary that his twitter is known to produce (and that's coming from a leftie). This book isn't even worth reading in a "The Room" type of way. There is no quirky, so-bad-it's-funny element here. Just a waste of money and a waste of an afternoon investigating how such garbage came into existence. Moving forward, I am rooting for Patrick. I hope he can refocus his energy from these other "many hats" he claims to wear and reexamine the elements that make for original and compelling scifi. Until then, I would avoid this material unless you're short on firewood. If you're looking for compelling and dramatic scifi, you're in the wrong neighborhood.

Same old generic heroes, tech that has no basis in physics, garbage plot that completely inverts personalities of characters to go from one plot line to another, shallow stereotypical characters.... the list goes on and on. One example is a spy stealing an anti-gravity drive from a planet and adding nitrogen oxide to boost and make a better drive for his home planet. One where he got that from? fast and furious lol. Don't waste your money on this junk folks.

Don't waste your time reading this garbage

Generally enjoy sci-fi but this was not what I expected. Too many holes to truly get into the story so it lost my interest.

Author does not grasp regulatory credits 🤡

Exceedingly boring, poorly written

I found this book at a bargain bin, and being the sci-fi lover that I am, decided to take the gamble and purchase it. I greatly enjoyed the premis, characters, and plot, but the writing itself was a bit over fleshed. At times paragraphs felt like they were padded just to increase the word count. This book would be perfect if the fat were trimmed so to speak. But otherwise, definitely a nice read and a fantastic deal if you can find it for clearance

This book is a fun read. The cold war feel of posturing and testing will be familiar, with twists to keep the pages turning. The characters are well developed, dialogue is "real" enough, and there are moments of humor amid the drama. Science fiction can get into the weeds with technicalities, but Tomlinson manages to make us believe the technology without making it so much of a central theme as to be distracting. The tech is just a part of the characters' lives, as it should be. Satisfying story with sequels (hopefully) ahead. Highly recommended!

This book is a fun read. The cold war feel of posturing and testing will be familiar, with twists to keep the pages turning. The characters are well developed, dialogue is "real" enough, and there are moments of humor amid the drama. Science fiction can get into the weeds with technicalities, but Tomlinson manages to make us believe the technology without making it so much of a central theme as to be distracting. The tech is just a part of the characters' lives, as it should be. Satisfying story with sequels (hopefully) ahead. Highly recommended!