I should have read the author’s bio (at the back of the book) first. This book is written by an English author who is an accomplished martial arts expert. I am neither! I know nothing about London (although I have been through Heathrow) and I know absolutely nothing about English cars or police procedures. Further, I can’t speak any Asian language and have a hard time just understanding my native language, English, as spoken by south Texans!
So, this book was entirely science fiction to me; a lot of science fiction. It took me a long time to read since it is an “epic” or a very long story made longer by the incredibly difficult names used for most of the characters. And there are a ton of characters which are introduced everywhere in the story. For example, “Tuduh Fadah” is a name that will show up midway through the book. I bet you can’t even guess what this person does or is and you’re probably laughing out loud when you pronounce the name. Most of the names are like this. I think they are Asian or at least Oriental which seems to be the prevailing cultural throughout the book. That’s fine with me, but man, the names are
hard to read! Be forewarned.
The story line is pretty good, overall. Some schoolteacher finds out the hard way that he’s not what he thinks he is by a long shot. He almost gets killed without knowing why. From that point on, all he’s trying to do is get home to his wife, but his travels take him far away from Earth and to another planet and I believe to another galaxy. I do not know how the author keeps all the characters names straight. He does have a glossary and a couple of Appendices at the back of the book which you’ll probably want to refer to often.
I liked the author’s effort. I am not a fan of the martial arts nor do I understand much of how or why anyone would fight this way. In south Texas, we just take care of business with our concealed handguns (soon to be open carry)! If I’m close enough for you to touch me with one of your fancy kicks then I’m just stupid! Still, a lot of you might just like all this kicking and jumping around and can visualize it much better than I can. There is a lot of fighting, both physical combat and space combat. Oh, and you get introduced to the Teroseriak, a huge T-Rex kind of animal that eats anything!