I normally don’t read books like this that try to cram three books into one, but in this case, I’m very glad I did. These three books, “Ad Astra”, “Stellar Legacy”, and “Deep Waters”, are full of excitement. They really got me into reading them and I could hardly stop when the time came. I read all three pretty quickly and the transition from one book to the other is pretty seamless. Additionally, the author didn’t waste a lot of time re-writing the previous book in the first chapter or two of the second and third. He conveniently condensed the story down to what was essential so if you were to pick up book two or three and start reading, you’d have a good idea of what happened before. Of course I wouldn’t recommend you doing that, but you could.
One of the thinks I like/disliked about these stories is that the author sets things up so the obvious is going to happen. I mean, it’s frustrating sometimes for me, the reader to read what is happening now and just know what’s going to happen in a few chapters down the road. I really can’t tell you what these particular things are because I’d be giving away the story so just know that what you read about happening is going to happen and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it! Now that sounds interesting, right?
Well, it would be if some of the things that happened weren’t so obvious. Say some guy on your team who you have worked with for quite some time, trusted and valued as a member of the team, suddenly says he doesn’t agree with what you’re doing. Most people would probably remove that guy from the team immediately just to be on the safe side. Oh, well, that’s what most people would do, but not in a science fiction book. And that’s typical of the rest of the stories. The main characters all get caught in some kind of a bad situation because they didn’t think it would happen to them or just didn’t think far enough ahead to prevent the situation in the first place.
Anyway, the main characters are John Caraway (a very rich entrepreneur), Dan Wynn (former Mission to Mars pilot), Beth Wynn (Dan’s ex-wife and Chief Engineer), Charline Foster (a computer genius), and Andrew (Andy) Wakefield (Security Specialist). They each have a significant role in what will be happening and each brings a certain special skill to the team. Still, you’ll find out that Dan is in a wheelchair, which is kind of unusual for a storybook character, but it works very well.
You’ll also find out that there is a Book 0 which I didn’t know about until I got into these books. It’s titled “Finding Satori” and it free if you follow the link in the first book. I haven’t read it yet, but I might. None of these books are very long, but all three together make a pretty interesting and lengthy story. I have also found out that this series is out to eight books. I found books 4-6 in another set on Amazon and have already purchased them. I got book seven at the same time, so you can see I’m very much hooked on the series. The author’s writing is very good. He has put together a very exciting space story, although he makes thing aggravating by not doing what I think would be common sense stuff prior to getting into certain situations.
So, good reading and “Ad Astra Per Aspera”.