This is the kind of science fiction story I love to read. I have always loved it when some ordinary person stumbles on something that will change their life for ever. They have been going about their normal existence and then something happens that is just unbelievable. That’s exactly what happens to Clive VanAble Tudor III. I don’t know which of the authors came up with the main characters name, but I wish they had put a little thought in to it because this name is kind of ridiculous (IMHO). It is unique, thought. I just don’t care for it.
Thankfully, this guy likes to go by the name Van, which is much better. Van has just lost his Grandfather which is sad considering he also lost his Father not too many years back. His Father was Naval Aviator/Pilot and died doing that job when he crashed on an aircraft carrier. His Mother apparently was long gone so Van’s Grandfather practically raised him during the majority of his youth. Van, himself, had attempted to follow in his Father and Grandfather’s footsteps by joining the Army and becoming a Ranger or some kind of bad assed operator they both would have been proud of. It didn’t happen, bum knee, saw him do his four years and other the door. So, he’d done the college thing and had decided he liked computers and coding and really just hacking the things to see how they worked. He got quite good at this, but it was nothing his Grandfather could relate to so they didn’t talk about it much.
Then his Grandfather had a stroke/heart attack and died. Now he’s basically alone except for Miryam, the family attorney and his Grandfathers friend. He’s at the Iowa farm his Grandfather owned, which is now Van’s according to the Last Will and Testament of his Grandfather Mark Tudor. He’s lived here before so the place is familiar. It’s not a real working farm since he Grandfather was actually doing work for the CIA or some other secret organization. He never told Van what he was doing, but Van always assumed it was important because his Grandfather was gone a good length of time. Van busied himself by tinkering at the old workbench he had set up in the old barn and that’s where the learned the loved gadgets and things.
But, now he wasn’t so sure about living at the farm any more. His room that he had lived in as a younger boy was still there, just like it had been so with it raining like crazy outside he decided to spend the night. Not too long after drifting off to sleep he hear’s a beeping noise that is definitely annoying. He knows this room pretty well and knows there shouldn’t be anything in it that beeps. So, he gets up and goes investigating. He finds what appears to be some kind remote in a drawer that it definitely shouldn’t have been in. It’s got one single button that has a kind of glowing ring around it, just waiting to be pushed. In his semi-wakefulness, Van thinks very little of just pushing the button, just hoping that it stops the beeping! And it does.
So, back to be he goes until he starts hearing a tapping! It’s a pretty loud tapping like someone tapping on a window pane. He gets up again and starts searching around going downstairs and into the kitchen. Above the sink is a window and that’s the source of the tapping although he can’t see outside since it’s pitch dark. But, he can feel the window vibrate from the tapping. So he’s going to open the window and let whomever’s out there what he things of their idiotic middle of the night idiocy. What flies through that window is going to change Van’s life forever in a way he could never imagine. It involves starships, criminals, planets, twisted space and a rather large AI named Perry!
I would love to have the adventure that awaits Van Tudor. It’s something everyone that probably reads sci-fi would also love to do. Space is vast and a very big mystery to us on planet Earth, but it might not just be all that empty. There may be a whole new galaxy out there we haven’t explored yet, but those out there might have explored Earth already. What happens to Van Tudor is really exciting and very pleasant to read. There is some danger in what he does, but it seems like the authors have teamed him up with just the right supporting characters to make this story go on for a long time.
I’m definitely going to read the next book, “Red Bounty”. I can’t believe this series already has six books published. Where have these books been all this time. I’m definitely going to get the next two right now. Oh, final comment, I wonder why this wasn’t titled, “Barnyard Starship”?