Alien Love by Stan Schatt - Fast Paced Aliens Among Us Fiction

Alien Love by Stan Schatt

Not long ago, I received an email from author Stan Schatt about the release of a new novel entitled Alien Blood. I have enjoyed Stan's work in the past and eagerly headed to the Amazon website and downloaded a copy to read over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. At the same time, I found that I had missed one of the author's earlier releases entitled Alien Love. That one appeared to be a prequel to the novel Stan was alerting me to, so I also got that one. Here are my thoughts on Alien Love by Stan Schatt.

It would appear that our planet is crawling with Aliens that most of us know nothing about. They all seem to have their agendas and even use our planet as a battleground to try to solve their problems. When a dying astronaut brings this information to light, it promises to create quite a stir on the planet and something must be done before there is massive trouble for the indigenous inhabitants of Earth.

Enter former Navy SEAL, Jack Starling who is having a rough time after mustering out of the Navy. He lives alone and is having trouble finding a job not to mention suffering from a mild form of PTSD. When he witnesses a beautiful woman being abducted on a San Diego street, his training kicks in and he intervenes, saving the woman. Later, she appears at his apartment and wishes to show Jack her gratitude by taking him to bed. Jack is a little surprised at first, but goes along with the scenario. He falls hard for the woman, but there is something not quite right about her. At first he thinks she is crazy, but later learns that there is more to her than meets the eye.

Jack finds himself caught up in a roller coaster ride of twists and turns that move at breakneck speed leading to the revealing of a treaty signed with an alien race by a former president of the U.S.

The story follows the exploits of Former SEAL Jack Starling who seems to be a pretty likable guy who is down on his luck. He a big man, but while he is described as a good looking man, he is also a bit scary. He really wants to just find a job and go on with his life. He is in therapy to help him cope with his PTSD and takes medicine. He wants to keep in contact with his former SEAL brothers but is forbidden to do so by his therapist. So, as he is somewhat estranged from his family, he is pretty much alone.. When Jack finally finds his chance for some companionship, it takes some strange turns. He learns things about what is happening in his world, and about himself that brings him into contact with many other characters that are as colorful and interesting as he is. There was just enough character development in the story to make Jack seem like a real person to me, and to care about what happened to him.

While Jack was the main character, I found that I wanted to know more about the aliens. The reader is introduced to the aliens in the story with the introduction of Jack's love interest, Cassandra. When she is introduced, there is something that seems off about her. After making love with Jack for the first time, she starts talking about pregnancy and basically freaks Jack out. He is not sure he wants to pursue a relationship with her, but after a time, he finds her irresistible and goes along with it, eventually falling in love. After a time, Cassandra is revealed to be a member of an alien race that is in danger of becoming extinct. Cassandra seems to be seeking help from Jack for some unknown reason, that is until we learn an interesting fact about Jack.

I would call Alien Love a low-tech, conspiratorial, aliens among us, sci-fi novel that is very much in the vein of an X-Files type story. It was quite entertaining and a lot of fun to read. It is fast paced and well written and I read it quickly. While the story follows logically, there are numerous plot twists that provided surprise and intrigue. Even though it was not a huge part of the story, I enjoyed the conspiratorial aspects of the plot that involved the government knowing and being okay with some of the aliens begin on the planet. The astronaut in the beginning of the story had me curious and I was hoping for more on that, which did come as the story developed.

I feel like somewhat of a kindred spirit to the author because he is a fan of Star Trek, to which he makes numerous references. I was also amused that some of the aliens in the story were also mild Trekkies. They appear to be so because they wanted to know more about human culture.

While the story is quite serious, there were places where one could see aspects of Stan's sense of humor rise to the surface. There are a few moments that I had to laugh as those undertones revealed themselves.

I recommend Alien Love as a fun read, full of twists and turns, and a lot of action as well as interaction between characters. I found myself eager to read on when I had to put it down and while reading, I was engaged and entertained. I am looking forward to reading Aline Blood right after I finish writing this to learn more about the aliens and their various agendas during their interactions with humanity, both noble and nefarious.

From Stan's website, here is how he describes himself...

"Futurist, technologist, novelist, and a person curious about many things. The roll call of jobs I’ve held over the years includes but is not limited to autopsy assistant, police department administrator, salesman, sales manager, literature professor, telecommunications professor, and technology analyst, and research director. I’m a full-time writer now and live in Carlsbad, California with my wife, Jane. My plate’s pretty full right now with writing projects. I’m writing primarily mysteries at the moment when it comes to fiction and non-fiction books on careers and retirement. I have always loved technology and politics almost as much as writing."

You can find a more complete list of both his fiction and non-fiction work on his website, and there is a short list of his works at Amazon.com.

Well, there it is...

Qapla!

Home Run: Smuggler's Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper By Nathan Lowell - Just Plain Good Storytelling

Home Run: Smuggler’s Tales From The Golden Age Of The Solar Clipper Book #3 by Nathan Lowell

Author Nathan Lowell continues to amaze and entertain me with his Golden Age of the Solar Clipper books. In this latest release, Nathan takes us on an adventure that features the two stars of the Smuggler’s Tales, Natalya Regyri and Zoya Usoko. In this story, Natalya and Zoya, having basically gotten rich from their dealings in the second book of the series, Suicide Run, decide that it is a good time to take a little rest and relaxation. They arrive at the home of Zoya’s grandparents, which happens to be in an asteroid and also serves as the corporate headquarters for Usoko Mining, one of the largest and oldest mining operations in the Western Annex.

Upon arrival, the two women, who have spent the last five years moving around Toe Hold Space doing odd jobs, are warmly welcomed by Zoya’s grandparents, Konstantin and Madoka. They are the owner/operators of the massive mining and metal refining operation that is Usoko Mining. Before Natalya and Zoya can really get settled and enjoy a little time off, a report comes in that one of the remote smelting stations of the company has stopped transmitting information. Natalya and Zoya take the Peregrine, Natalya’s small shuttle, out to investigate. What they find is that the operation has been obliterated in an expanding cloud of debris. As the women approach where the operation was stationed, they find partially destroyed ships and disoriented people, and no trace of about 200 Usoko Mining employees. It isn’t long before the women find that there has been a small group of extortionists that have been traveling around Toe Hold Space with a nuclear bomb and threatening to destroy numerous operations if their demands are not met.

Unfortunately for the criminals, their bomb detonated before they could make their demands and took out the smelter. Natalya and Zoya solve the crime, but that leaves a multi-billion credit hole in space where the smelter was. Zoya decides that they must rebuild the smelter as it is a key operation of her family’s company. The smelter was in a prime place in that sector of space and is important to everyone there, not to menton to Usoko Mining.

Zoya contacts her grandparents at Big Rock, the name of the asteroid where the company is headquartered and receives the reply, “Do whatever is necessary.” With that phrase in mind, Zoya, with Natalya’s help, begin rebuilding the smelter.

Much of the science fiction I read involves some large scale conflict, such as a war between civilizations, or a large population of people fighting some natural or manmade catastrophe that threatens to wipe out the population. These stories usually involve the use of very advanced technology and weaponry that can destroy entire planets. I am not saying that there aren’t some great stories with those parameters, but every now and then, I like to take a break from such intense tales. Nathan’s Golden Age of the Solar Clipper universe allows me to step back and just enjoy good storytelling. But that is also not to say that there isn’t plenty of intensity, especially in this book.

There are plenty of tense moments, they are just not high-tech, but rather they are between the characters in the book. The way that Nathan writes his characters is what I find most appealing about his stories. The major characters always seem to me like real people. They are not superhuman, but rather more like all of us, in all shapes and types. Natalia and Zoya are friends (not a couple, as they both point out to nearly everyone) that have graduated from the Port Newmar Academy. They originally intended to work their way up through the ranks as Spacers, perhaps eventually becoming Captains of their own ships. Both are very intelligent and are not afraid to work. They are also quite able to take care of themselves and are very strong female characters, and in Home Run, the reader has an opportunity to see just how strong.

In the first two books in the Smuggler’s Tales, I felt that Natalia was the stronger of the two characters. Probably because she is the one that owns the ship that her and Zoya travel in, but in Home Run, Zoya becomes the star when she is handed a huge responsibility that is very important to the family business. She really steps up and shines in this story and shows that she is up to the task. She seeks and listens to advice from others, but when it comes down to making the hard decisions, she makes them and moves forward without second-guessing herself. Along with the two main characters, there are several other supporting and peripheral characters that, while not as well fleshed out, they still come alive through Nathan’s excellent writing.

For me, the main theme throughout the whole book seemed to be making the hard decisions. Zoya is faced with numerous decisions to make, and to a lesser degree, Natalia also has some. It all comes to a head when both of the women are placed in a position to make major life decisions, and while it didn’t surprise me which directions they chose to go, I would have been happy either way because it seemed to be a win-win situation.

In any case, I highly recommend Home Run as a great Sci-Fi tale while at the same time recommending that one reads the series in order beginning with Milk Run, then Suicide Run. For that matter, I recommend anything that Nathan Lowell has written in his Golden Age of the Solar Clipper universe, but be sure to read them in order. I am pretty sure that once you get into these stories, you’ll be hooked and want to read all of them.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

Star Trek: Discovery: Fear Itself By James Swallow - A Great Story Featuring Saru Learning To Deal With Fear

Star Trek: Discovery: Fear Itself by James Swallow

With a new Star Trek series will also come new books set in and around the new series. Several Trek regular authors are up to the task of telling some fascinating stories, mostly surrounding the characters we (at least those of us who watch) see on the show. So far, Fear Itself is the third installment of the new Discovery novels, and it focuses on a character that, up until now, I have not really cared for, namely the Kelpien officer, Saru. So before I get any feathers ruffled and generate a bunch of hate mail, or whatever kind of trolling anyone has in mind, just let me say that I personally did not like the character. That is not to say that Saru is not well written, or that the actor, Doug Jones, doesn’t do a great job portraying him, but Saru just makes me nervous.

The events of Fear Itself take place about four years before the premier of Discovery. Philippa Georgiou is the captain of the U.S.S. Shenzhou, and Saru is a lieutenant aboard that ship, along with Michael Burnham, also a lieutenant.

When the Shenzhou detects a damaged ship in a sector that is between space claimed by the Tholians and the Peliar, they send hails to see if the damaged vessel is in need of assistance. When there is no response, Captain Georgiou takes it upon herself to lead the Shenzhou on a mission to offer aid, if needed. An away team is formed that includes Saru. After the Peliar ship is stabilized, Saru discovers that the cargo hold of the ship contains many Gorlans that are living in primitive conditions. When Saru makes contact with the Gorlans, they tell him that they are living as they choose and the Peliar also try to convince him that they are only refugees and are being relocated to another planet. Saru senses that what he is hearing from both parties may not be completely true and begins to investigate. What Saru finds is that things are not all what they seem, nor what he has been told. When the commander of his away mission is incapacitated, he is forced to take command of the away team aboard the Peliar ship and he finds himself forced into making several very difficult decisions. Will he be up to the task or will his natural tendency toward caution get in the way?

As mentioned before, Saru is a Kelpien, a race of humanoids from a planet that has a binary food-chain system, in other words, the inhabitants are predators or prey. Kelpiens are the latter, they are the prey on their planet, and nearly every other species are predators. Saru tells about his race even being hunted, bred, and farmed as livestock. According to Saru, Kelpiens live in a constant state of danger beginning at birth. It is their nature to avoid situations that are risky or dangerous which has earned them the reputation of being cowardly. Kelipens have threat-ganglia that present themselves when danger is perceived. When a Kelpien is faced with a new situation, they automatically assume it is dangerous and that they are under attack until they are not. They would seem not to have the fight-or-flight response to dangerous situations, rather, it is their nature to take flight in any case.

In this story, it would seem that Saru is very concerned with trying to learn how to conquer his fear, but not having a great deal of success. He has a holographic device in his quarters that projects threats to him in different forms and he tries to cope with them. Like many of us who are fearful of things, Saru works to conquer that fears. A person who is afraid of flying might go to therapy, take some sort of medication, or perhaps just force themselves to get on a plane and deal with it. Or one might just take the bus or drive instead and not ever get near a plane. Saru has many fears to deal with in Fear Itself. There is the fear of going into an unknown situation full of unknown people. He also fears that everything he is trying to do might go wrong and someone he cares about, or a crewmate might be hurt or killed. Keep in mind that fear is part of the character’s nature.

It is difficult for one to go against one’s nature. We all have certain propensities that, no matter how hard we try, we just cannot seem to change. In the case of Saru, he temporarily loses the confidence of the away team when the leader is incapacitated and Saru, being the most senior officer, finds himself in command. While there are several themes running through the book, Saru’s fear and how he deals with it is the strongest theme. Most of the way through the book he is constantly trying to conquer his fear and behave as a Starfleet officer should, or at least how he sees most of them behave as they perform their duties. Just when it looks like everything is going to go to pieces, a young female Gorlan tells Saru that instead of trying to deny fear, that he should embrace it and use it to help him solve the problems. This is a huge turning point in the story for the main Character. By taking that advice and using his fear as an advantage, he is able to get things under control and carry forward to the eventual resolution of numerous problems. Bravo to the author for this plot point instead of taking the easy way out and making Saru temporarily fearless.

It is pretty plain to me that James Swallow had to give a lot of thought to this story and it’s telling. Thanks to him, I have a better understanding of the character from the television series and a better appreciation of the behaviors and attitudes that Saru displays on the television show.

Now the question is whether I like Saru any better than I did before I read the book? Well, I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not going to answer that. However I will say that I liked the growth of the character in this book which made it a fun read. I recommend this book along with the other character studies that have been penned in this new Discovery line of novels.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

Empty Space Comics by Michael Jan Friedman - Boosting The Signal

Empty Space #1 by Michael Jan Friedman, Illustrated by Ciao Cacau and Lettered by James Campbell

There is a new comic series available and the price is extremely reasonable! For those of you familiar with the work of Mike Friedman, there is no need to tell you that this is going to be good. Mike is the author of numerous novels both in and out of the Star Trek universe. Recently he has published a collection of his own short stories that I reviewed on this blog. That was called Cabal and Other Invocations of the Muse. At any rate, I am writing to help get the word out about this new series of comics by one of my favorite authors, and a good friend.

Normally, I try to get in on the funding of Mike's projects, but for some reason, I missed this one. Unfortunately, I don't know a great deal about the comic itself, but you can read what it is about on Mike's Kickstarter for Empty Space #1.

If you don't have time to see that, here is what is on the promo for the book...

"Empty Space #1: The Awakening

 "Captain Robinson Dark wakes up on a ship similar to his own but eerily different. He knows he can get to the bottom of the mystery if he can find this ship's captain and crew. But where are they?"

If you are intrigued, as I am, you may purchase the first installment of this story at Mike's ComiXology page.

Now, you are going to have to excuse me, I have to go an order a comic!

Well, there it is...

Qapla'!

The Fall Of Hyperion by Dan Simmons - Stories Are Resolved, But There Are More Questions

The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

After reading Hyperion, there was no doubt in my mind that I would be reading the rest of the novels in the series. I enjoyed the first novel so much that I grabbed the second novel and started reading even knowing that there were other things I should be reading for the book podcasts I am on.

In Hyperion, the first novel in the series, seven pilgrims are sent to the planet Hyperion, an out of the way planet on the edge of Hegemony space. The pilgrims are to seek out the Shrike, a creature of mythical proportions. The shrike is known for causing much pain and suffering to its victims. While traveling to a place on Hyperion known as the Time Tombs, the characters decide that they will tell each other their stories of encounters with the Shrike. The journey to the Tombs is long and it is thought that the stories will help the pilgrims get to know each other, understand why they were chosen to make the trip, and for entertainment purposes. Along with the pilgrim’s stories, there is war on the way with a race known as the Ousters, who are planning to conquer Hyperion.

One thing that is certain as far as I am concerned, is that The Fall Of Hyperion is a very complicated book and I am finding it difficult to summarize, but I will try. So, as they say, here goes nothin’...

It would seem that there are three distinct stories going on in this book. That of the pilgrims as they move in and around the Time Tombs, but sometimes it is told as a communication from Brawne Lamia (one of the pilgrims) to Joseph Severn, the second of a pair of “cybrid” reincarnations of the poet John Keats. Lamia has been fitted with a subcutaneous device that allows her to transmit the experiences of the pilgrims to Severn. Severn receives these transmission in the form of dreams that he can remember. He reports his dreams to the leader of the Hegemony of Man, CEO Meina Gladstone. For a good portion of the story, we see what is happening to the pilgrims through the dreams related by Severn.

Along with the exploits of the pilgrims, there is a war that is raging in space between the Hegemony and the invading Ousters. At the beginning of the story, CEO Gladstone is being advised by a few high-ranking officers of the FORCE, or the Hegemony military. The commanders have analyzed the Ousters numbers and their attack on Hyperion and report that the Hegemony forces will, in short time, easily defeat the Ousters. This proves to be a gross overstatement and the war quickly gets out of hand as the Ousters overrun the Hegemony forces and begin attacking Hegemony occupied worlds. There are billions of lives at stake, even though the Ousters do not travel by Farcaster (a type of transportation that allows one to travel from place to place instantaneously; it also connects all of the worlds in the Hegemony). Instead, the Ousters use what is known as Hawking Drive which is much slower, but that doesn’t matter because the Ousters seem relentless.

When CEO Gladstone learns that the Ousters are not flesh and blood beings, but rather are TechnoCore androids, she hatches a plot to destroy the Farcaster network where the TechnoCore (much like our internet, but far, far more sophisticated) resides.

The most compelling part of the story is the fate of the pilgrims themselves. They are:

• Martin Silenus - Poet who is hoping to finish an epic poem called the Hyperion Cantos.
• The Consul - A diplomat who is bitter toward the Hegemony, and has also been an agent of the Ousters.
• Brawne Lamia - A private detective who had/has a relationship with Joseph Severn.
• Sol Weintraub - A scholar who is bringing his infant daughter to the Time Tombs to reverse an infliction that is causing her to age backward toward her birth. Rachel, Sol’s daughter became ill when touched by the Shrike as an adult archaeologist studying the Time Tombs.
• Fedmahn Kassad - A former FORCE officer who seeks to destroy the Shrike and kill Moneta, the Shrike’s keeper and Kassad’s former lover.
• Lenar Hoyt - A Catholic priest who is hoping to die so his mentor Father Paul Dure can live again. He wears a thing called the Cruciform that allows him to be resurrected as Dure upon his death.

All of their stories are compelling and if you want to learn more about them, you’ll just have to read the book. If I summarize much more, I will be giving some major spoilers, even beyond the ones I have already given.  Let just suffice to say that The Fall of Hyperion is a complicated story that is very involved and engaging. There are many facets to this story and they all seem to be interwoven in such a way that makes is hard for me to summarize in just a short space without telling the story.

As in the previous volume, I loved the way that the story unfolds and how Simmons writes it. He changes voice numerous times as he moves from one character to another, but the descriptions of what things look, feel, and smell like are quite poetic. The use of language in this book is beautiful. His descriptions of people, places and things are just fun to read as well as providing a complete picture that I was able to visualize as I read. The places he talks about in this book are places that are colorful and interesting and I would love to visit them myself. As for the people, they become entities that one cares about and are engaging; even the not-so-nice characters are living, breathing people while one reads.

The main motivation I had for reading this second book in the Hyperion series was to find out the fate of Sol Weintraub and his daughter Rachel. This was the most compelling story for me and I was not disappointed in the outcome. I could feel Sol’s pain as he had to make decisions, very difficult decisions, and finally came to the conclusion that he was going to have to trust the Shrike to grant his wish to restore Rachel to normal. Along with Sol’s story, the other pilgrims stories were just as appealing and interesting in their resolutions, but for some reason, I latched onto that one character, who, to me, was the one that had suffered the most. I do think that whoever reads The Fall of Hyperion, may find that while they sympathize with all of the pilgrims, as well as many of the other characters, that each reader may be able to identify more with one than the others.

I found this series when I searched for science fiction to read that would be something new and different. In looking back over what I read, while it may be classified as Sci-Fi, it is also a story that might appeal to Fantasy fans as well. I think that putting this book, and the one before it into a single category might limit who would enjoy these books. It is very much a work of fantasy; there are some very ‘magical’ things happening in this story that makes me think it is a Sci-Fi and fantasy story. There is the Shrike that would cause nightmares in many people, there is the quest of one individual character to take the Shrike down, and there is even a ‘magic’ carpet that carries one character across the planet to return with help.

In any case, the Hyperion Cantos books are well worth looking at whether you are a fan of one genre or the other. In my estimation, they are entertaining, engaging, and fascinating stories that are well written. But reader be warned, they are also very complex in their content and, should you decide to give the series a look, you will need to pay attention.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!

Perry Rhodan #1: Enterprise Stardust & #2: The Radiant Dome - Fun Retro Sci-Fi from Germany

Perry Rhodan: Enterprise Stardust & The Radiant Dome By K.H. Scheel and Walter Ernsting

Just as I was finishing another book and wondering what to read next, a friend on Facebook ended my wondering by telling me about a series of books that I had never heard anything about. That is probably because the books he pointed me to is a German pulp fiction series that began publication in 1961 and is still going today. The Perry Rhodan series is found in novella form and is widely popular in Western Europe. Even though there was an attempt to bring these stories to the United States in the late 1970’s, it never caught on. When I looked the name up on Google, I discovered I could easily spend the rest of my life catching up on these stories, if they were all translated into English. My friend sent me the first 120 novellas in the ePub format that I have to convert into the Mobi format to read on my Kindle (yeah, there’s an app for that).

The first two novellas I have read so far involve a first contact situation. In Enterprise Stardust, American astronaut and physicist, Major Perry Rhodan, leads the first expedition to the moon in a spacecraft called the Stardust. With all of his crew’s training complete and the spacecraft outfitted with enough supplies for the trip, the ship launches for the several-days long trip to the moon. Unfortunately, there are some radio emission from the lunar surface that cause the ship to malfunction forcing Rhodan to crash land on Earth’s only natural satellite. The Stardust ends up near the south polar region of the moon, just out of the line of sight with the Earth and their base in Nevada. Fortunately for the crew, the damage to the ship is minimal and easily repaired, but the radio emissions are preventing the Stardust from a return trip. In an effort to learn and correct whatever is causing the radio interference, Rhodan leads a few of his crew on a ride to the source of the problem

Upon arrival, the Terrans discover a huge spherical ship that belongs to an alien race calling themselves Arkonians. They appear to be an interesting race. The leaders are intelligent, but the rest of the crew only seem interested in playing some sort of video games, and outside of that, would seem to be imbecilic. The main body of work is carried out by artificial intelligences in the form of robots. The commander of the alien ship is a female who is quite militant and has a great deal of disdain for the inhabitants of Earth, considering them to be low class of intelligence, at least by their standards. On the other hand, there is also an Arkonian scientist on board the alien craft that finds humanity quite fascinating, which saves Rhodan and his companions from being killed out of hand.

Perry notices that the Arkonian scientist is not well and Rhodan callus upon a doctor from the Stardust who examines the Arkonian. The doctor discovers that the scientist has leukemia and will die without treatment. After talking with the alien commander, Rhodan is able to convince her to allow him to take the scientist back to Earth to be cured of the blood disease. Perry and his crew travel back to the Earth knowing that if he lands at his base in Nevada, the military will take the Arkonian into custody. This will likely trigger a nuclear war between the superpowers on the planet, which appears to be imminent anyway. WIth the help of the Arkonians, the Stardust returns.  Rhodan lands his ship in the middle of the Gobi desert where none of the Earth’s superpowers will have access to the alien scientist before he can devise a defense. Rhodan is very concerned that if the alien should fall into the custody of any one government, they would try to wring secrets out of him to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents. This is where the first story leaves off.

The second installment, The Radiant Dome, picks up where the first ends with Rhodan, his crew, and the Arkonian scientist in the Gobi. The ship is being protected by an invisible dome that is generated by a machine on board. Further, the Arkonian commander is also transmitting a field that renders nuclear weapons inert. The scientist is treated with a miracle medicine and is cured of leukemia, but remains in a coma while his body heals from the stresses that has been placed upon it. In the meantime, the superpowers all gather to try to convince Rhodan that he has to turn over the scientist and tell everything he and his crew has learned. Rhodan remains steadfast in that he is not going to cooperate and announces that he is setting up his own superpower to thwart the plans of the three existing powers, knowing that they will only exploit the Arkonian and his knowledge to further the cause of war among them.

When the commanders of the superpowers learn that they are being stopped by the Arkonians still on the moon, they launch three manned rockets to destroy the spacecraft on the moon. The rockets are armed with a type of weapon that cannot be affected by the Arkonian damping field At the same time, they begin a heavy bombardment on the dome that is protecting Rhodan’s ship in an attempt to overload the generator and take it out. The three ships make it to the moon and deliver their cargo of bombs, but not before the alien commander escapes to Earth, joining Rhodan and her fellow Arkonian. The dome generator is about to overload and burnout when the Arkonian scientist wakes from his coma and explains how to repair the machine.

Despite being stranded on Earth, the commander accepts that she and her scientist compatriot will never be able to return to their home. That is where The Radiant Dome ends, I presume that the story will continue in the third novella.

First off, I will say that I enjoyed these stories a lot, and what I didn’t like was mostly technical in nature. While the translation of the text was very good, there were a few typos here and there that weren’t too distracting, however the formatting of the translation from the ePub format to the MOBI was not at all good and, for the most part, caused me some confusion as I read the story. The paragraphs, in many places, ran together and the dialog was hard to follow. Often times I had trouble knowing which character was saying what and had to reread a lot to make sense of it. After a while though, I was able to adapt to the problems and with a little careful reading, I was able to enjoy the story. That is the only complaint I have about these stories. I corrected this by downloading an ePub app on my iPad. The formatting is far better and will make the text easier to follow.

I liked pretty much everything else about the stories. They are short and easily read in one or two sittings, and they are focused. There is also a lot of story packed into the text including details that are well described and offer a vivid backdrop. In Enterprise Stardust, the writers go into some detail on the structure of the ship and how it gets to the moon. It was pretty astounding to me how close the writers came to describing a mission to the moon that wouldn’t take place for over eight and a half years before the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon. Rhodan was in command of a three-staged vehicle that used chemical propellant for the first two stages, then used nuclear power to make the trip to the moon. So while not being totally accurate, the authors pretty well understood how things might be done.

I also enjoyed getting to know Perry Rhodan, hard-nosed commander but also a man with principles. He is smart and can make snap decisions. All around the perfect man for the job, whatever it may be. He makes me think of other characters such as Buck Rogers, Doc Savage, Flash Gordon, and others that filled the same role as a flawless hero that never lets his friends down. Not only is Rhodan able to think his way out of situations, he is also a charmer to boot, as one might expect from a character from the early 60’s. He was able to get the captain of the alien vessel to go along with his ideas despite her better judgement. It would be interesting to read a more modern version of one of these stories to see if the women are made to be stronger as we move into this era.

Rhodan is accompanied by a few companions in these two novellas and they all look to his leadership and knowledge for guidance in nearly every situation. It is quite amusing how Rhodan remains in complete control of himself while everyone around him continually goes to pieces until the leader intervenes and brings everyone back to their senses.

The technology is quite far fetched all the way through, but that is one of the things that make the stories interesting. In the days of past sci-fi, the fantastic was what people wanted. The more over the top it was, the better. In today’s sci-fi, it seems that people want what is at least plausible. I suppose that is because what seemed out of reach fifty years ago has now become reality.

In any case, I had fun reading these stories and have several more that I can call upon between books to read for podcasts run out. The Facebook friend that suggested I read some of these books said that if I start I will get hooked and what to continue reading. I will continue reading the Perry Rhodan stories, but I think I will be interspersing them with other, more modern stories.

Well, there it is…

Qapla’!