In The Shadow Of A Giant - A Short Story by Joseph Graff - A Great First Story From A Young Author!

In The Shadow Of A Giant - A Short Story by Joseph Graff

I received a copy of this for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

In this short story, written by fifteen-year-old Joseph Graff, the reader will find the makings of an author who may be a future major force in Sci-Fi literature.

It was quite by accident I discovered this short story a few days ago. 

In The Shadow of a Giant is a story of about 3500 words, and there is a lot packed into those words. It has everything one could want in a good sci-fi tale, but it can be read in just a few minutes. Young Joseph sets the stage brilliantly with descriptions that are detailed and colorful, but more importantly, they are very visual in the mind. The story unfolds and we get to meet the good guys and the bad guys. There is even enough character description to get a good idea of who they are and what they are actually about.

While the tale itself is well written with more show than tell, the text is also enhanced with several illustrations that add to the enjoyment of the story.

An Old Empire has fallen. The resources of a nearby asteroid belt have been depleted, and the Empire has fallen on hard times punctuated by graft, corruption, and nepotism. Fleets of ships from the remnants of the Empire depart the Space City of Albion to forage for resources to keep the city alive, but also to improve their own position and conditions.

There are many dangers for the rag-tag fleets that work diligently to keep themselves space-worthy. Along with that, they also can become victims of piracy in deep space. No one can trust anyone else in this situation, as there are even acts of sabotage between the fleets themselves.

It is everyone for themselves in a place, once prosperous, but now in severe decline.

There are two principal characters that go head-to-head in this story.

The first character we meet is Commodore Gideon Adira, the commander of the Fulcrum fleet of ships departing to forage neighboring star clusters for raw materials. Initially, he appears as a hero. He's a handsome guy and is a benevolent leader to his people. But, like any heroic character in a good story, Adira has flaws.

The other character, Adira's main opponent, is Ivan Morozov. There isn't much background on Ivan, but he is a mean one who will react with violence based on mere suspicion.

Adira and Morozov meet in deep space to settle a score, one that has apparently been building for a good many years. Of course, this precipitates an epic, well-written battle scene.

My takeaway from this tale is to remember that when it comes to survival, there are no white hats and black hats. Along with that, when brute force meets a force that can think, the outcome is often with those who fight with their brains, and not their muscle.

As a bonus, included after the main story, is a sample from another upcoming story by Joseph.

In the Shadow of a Giant is a great first effort from this new, young author. He has a great sense of form and wrote a logical, easy-to-understand story that is entertaining. I guess, probably the best recommendation I can give is to say, when I finished this tale, I wanted more!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Joe, 15 years old Scouting Patrol Leader, has been reading aloud since he was an infant. By two he was finding typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in thick textbooks edited by many people. At three he impressed the head of Montessori Schools of New Jersey so much that he said Joe should not be on local TV but on international TV instead - to show to the world what is possible in a three-year-old: he could count to twenty in at least six languages, he was starting to speed read and he could do math well beyond his years. At four he was correcting the "answers" given for his I.Q. test. We never put him on TV so he grew up speed reading - and writing - his very favorite literature, fantasy and science fiction.

Well, there it is...

Qapla!