It’s really weird to read a book that starts out almost like your own life started. I mean I’m reading about Charles (Charlie) Travers, a young almost college graduate getting ready to report to his Field Artillery Officer Basic Course (FAOBC) in about a month. He just completed ROTC and was disappointed about not getting an Active Duty slot for the Infantry. Now he was headed to be an Army National Guardsman and a Field Artillery Officer. This also meant that he had to find a better job than waiting tables at the DeLucas’ small diner in Florida.
The pizza place and the DeLucas’ felt like the family that Charlie really never had. He had left home at 18 on an ROTC scholarship when his Dad declared that he’d be paying room and board if he stayed home and went to school. Charlie thought about going to California and seeing how life was vastly different from his home town of Columbus, Ohio. But, now his plans were in a mess and he had to do some thinking.
So, he goes for a walk around 3 am in the woods/park not far from his room above the pizza place. He liked to get out from all the city lights and just look at the stars. That’s when he noticed one star that seemed to be moving a little too much. It also was getting bigger and bigger while he was standing there looking up. Charlie’s life is about to change and only time will tell if it’s for the better!
He has become an alien abductee. He kind of figures this when he remembers that the “star” turned out to be a kind of round spacecraft that lifted him up from the ground. The next thing he knows is that he’s waking up but he’s in a clear box very similar to a coffin in a strange room. The box or coffin is barely large enough for him. He certainly can’t move much, but he can bend his arm, make a fist and bang against the top of the coffin lid. It doesn’t move much, but he did notice that it did move. So, using both hands, including the one that now hursts, he manages to pry open the lid. Once jumping out of the coffin, he notices he’s in a brightly lit room with a lot of other coffins. Just what the heck is going on?
Charlie hers some banging around in one of the other coffins only to notice what appears to be an antelope pushing the lid of its coffin up with its horns. It jumps out and seems to be in a panic since it starts running wildly about the room. He also hers a load roar and then see a full grown lion springing from another coffin. The lion doesn’t appear to be happy, but he also appears to be hungry. It has a choice between the antelope and Charlie, so Charlie needs to find a way out of this room.
This is only the first problem Charlie Travers will face in his new life. It seems that, yes, he’s been abducted by a robot programmed (AI) to collect different species for the Anguilar who like to put these different species in their zoos. He also finds out that this spaceship he’s on is deep in space a long, long way from Earth. He will soon meet a few other “captives” that have broken out of their coffins, one of which isn’t that friendly. He also will get to have a session with the robot and finds out that the spaceship has broken down and the robot isn’t an engineer and doesn’t know how to fix it.
Then Charlie and his fellow captives, which now include a female name Laranna, and a cyborg (part bug and part metal) call Brazzo. This is just the beginning of the strange people/creatures Charlie of Earth will soon meet. Still, he and his captives want nothing more than to go back home. And then the AI (robot) tells them something they didn’t want to hear. This ship they are on has been broken down for a long time, a very long time.
A pretty good start to an exciting new series, one that I like very much. Charlie’s not the bravest or strongest of the aliens on this ship, but he’s a quick learner and can think on his feet. He’s going to need those talents if the ever wants to get back to Earth, then again, he might not want to go back and stay. More will definitely follow in book 2, “War of the Liberator”, not available on Amazon.