I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The Short:
Fiero One
Mantis Force #1
By: R. J. Amezcua
3/5 Stars
What: A starship
crew is forced into an unexpected conflict on a foreign planet.
Recommended to those
who like: Space opera, loosely Christian, large casts of characters.
The Long:
I have so many thoughts about this
book that I’m not even sure where to start. Some parts of it were stellar (pun
intended), while other parts left me feeling disappointed.
The crew of the Osparatta is sent
on a simple rescue mission that quickly goes awry. Failing ship systems, a
short-handed crew,
and the rise of an ancient enemy are more than any of them
were prepared for. Will they be able to band together, or will their lack of
experience be their downfall?
This book had a rather Star Trek-y
feel to it, which I enjoyed. (I’m not a hard core Trekkie by any stretch of the
imagination, but I do enjoy the new movies). There’s a large cast of colorful
characters who have to work together in order to solve problems and save their
ship. Unfortunately, so many characters got launched at me in a short amount of
time that I had difficulty keeping them straight. Just when I was getting to
where I felt I knew a sub-group of characters, I would get taken to another
group who I had to learn to like, then sent to another group, and so on.
The plot proceeded in a similar
manner. The author clearly put a lot of effort into creating a multi-layered plot
that will eventually tie together. I love plots like this; however, there was
just a little too much going on at once. There’s a planetary battle, a ship
catastrophe, planetary politics, a virus outbreak, natural disasters, and views
from the antagonist going on all at once. As of yet, very few of them have
connected, though I assume they’ll intersect later in the series. Some of the
sub-plots didn’t seem to connect at all to our crew members and I had a
difficult time caring about those plots; it almost felt like I had been sucked
into another story.
One aspect of the story that I did
enjoy was the world-building. The universe is a complex one with many different
belief systems, ideologies, and cultures. Also, the author spends a lot of time
talking about food—something of which I approve.
The Bottom Line: This book had a great concept, but there was just
too much going on at once for me to really, truly enjoy it.
Goodness, it sounds like there was a lot going on! How long was the book? Sometimes it's alright if the book is like 800 pages long or something, but I agree, if there's too many plots and characters it can all get a bit much. I'm glad the world building was great, though :)
ReplyDeleteSomewhere between 300 and 400 pages. It was definitely more of a plot that you would expect out of an 800+ page novel. Thanks for the comment!
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