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bfreeman0's review against another edition
4.0
The book follows an unnamed teen trying to survive the wastelands of North America after Earth has been invaded by aliens. In the beginning, he is all alone with no memory of who he is or his past. He struggles to survive and has one very bad day. He is captured by slavers and to make it all worse he is forced to digest the meat of one of his own. He eventually escapes, meets two other escapees; El and Jessie. Jessie sacrifices himself so that the other two can have a chance of survival. One thing leads to another and the teen now called Alaric ends up in space with a fun AI as his host.
Things I Liked
I liked the characters of this book, once Alaric is no longer alone, Allen makes the characters interesting and lifelike. Even the AI has a good character and a backstory that I cannot wait to dive into.
The setting, yes it is your typical end of the world but the conflicts it creates are interesting and it always feels like Alaric will die at any minute. You are introduced to other planets the same way Alaric is which isn't jarring. The character has lost his memory rather than been in Cyro freezing which makes a nice change.
Allen doesn't clumsily add world-building or tech jargon unless it is necessary for the plot to move on, which is hard to do especially when you want the readers to understand what is going on. Allen does this in a delightful way and you are always guessing what new technology will be next.
Things I Did Not Like
It takes a while to get going, and to begin with it can be quite confusing on what is going on especially when Alaric doesn't have a name. It didn't feel like the story was going anywhere at the start which can be both a blessing and a bad thing, blessing because well that is how real life works and bad for a novel. Once it does get going, however, it pays off in big ways and the book digs its claws into you.
Final Thoughts
Yesterday I could not put this book down, it has been a long while since I've had a book draw me in so much. I keep wanting to find out what happens on the next page and the next. Before you know it it is past my bedtime and I have to begrudgingly go to sleep. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Sci-Fi, and anyone who wants to take the plunge into Space Opera. The rest of the series is already out so I would recommend picking it up as soon as you can.
This book gets a healthy 4/5, a great space opera that introduces you to a new universe.
Things I Liked
I liked the characters of this book, once Alaric is no longer alone, Allen makes the characters interesting and lifelike. Even the AI has a good character and a backstory that I cannot wait to dive into.
The setting, yes it is your typical end of the world but the conflicts it creates are interesting and it always feels like Alaric will die at any minute. You are introduced to other planets the same way Alaric is which isn't jarring. The character has lost his memory rather than been in Cyro freezing which makes a nice change.
Allen doesn't clumsily add world-building or tech jargon unless it is necessary for the plot to move on, which is hard to do especially when you want the readers to understand what is going on. Allen does this in a delightful way and you are always guessing what new technology will be next.
Things I Did Not Like
It takes a while to get going, and to begin with it can be quite confusing on what is going on especially when Alaric doesn't have a name. It didn't feel like the story was going anywhere at the start which can be both a blessing and a bad thing, blessing because well that is how real life works and bad for a novel. Once it does get going, however, it pays off in big ways and the book digs its claws into you.
Final Thoughts
Yesterday I could not put this book down, it has been a long while since I've had a book draw me in so much. I keep wanting to find out what happens on the next page and the next. Before you know it it is past my bedtime and I have to begrudgingly go to sleep. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Sci-Fi, and anyone who wants to take the plunge into Space Opera. The rest of the series is already out so I would recommend picking it up as soon as you can.
This book gets a healthy 4/5, a great space opera that introduces you to a new universe.
linziclaire's review against another edition
4.0
Full disclosure, I received a free copy of this book for an honest review.
Alright, let's get down to it. Scion of Conquered Earth is by Indy Author Michael J Allen. You know this because you're already looking it up. The book centers around a post-invasion Earth where aliens are manipulating humans into rounding up other humans to put them into slavery. The protagonist of the story is a young man with amnesia. He doesn't remember who he is or where he came from, but he understands what it takes to survive the invasion.
One of the excellent things about this author is his ability to flesh out the ancillary characters. Too many writers throw a character in simply to move the plot along instead of taking the time to round them out. Even the characters that don't speak feel as though they have depth.
The boy is on the run and trying to survive. He meets others along the way. Some are good and some are not-so-good. There is a disturbing scene that occurs when he is captured towards the beginning of the novel that makes me cringe every time I think about it. And even though I'm cringing, I'm impressed by the style of writing that brings that memory back to me.
There are a few times when it felt like we jumped from scene to scene without too much build up. He's running! He's in a museum? On a spaceship? What is happening? Once you give in a let the story take you where it wants you to go, you're in for an interesting ride. There are a couple of instances in which the author overuses a word or phrase in a short span, but nothing so conspicuous that it would distract.
So why four stars instead of 3 with this much critique? Honestly, I don't much care for the alien genre. I guess you would classify this as sci-fi, but considering I don't care for the genre but I liked the book itself? I gave it an extra star for keeping me interested.
Alright, let's get down to it. Scion of Conquered Earth is by Indy Author Michael J Allen. You know this because you're already looking it up. The book centers around a post-invasion Earth where aliens are manipulating humans into rounding up other humans to put them into slavery. The protagonist of the story is a young man with amnesia. He doesn't remember who he is or where he came from, but he understands what it takes to survive the invasion.
One of the excellent things about this author is his ability to flesh out the ancillary characters. Too many writers throw a character in simply to move the plot along instead of taking the time to round them out. Even the characters that don't speak feel as though they have depth.
The boy is on the run and trying to survive. He meets others along the way. Some are good and some are not-so-good. There is a disturbing scene that occurs when he is captured towards the beginning of the novel that makes me cringe every time I think about it. And even though I'm cringing, I'm impressed by the style of writing that brings that memory back to me.
There are a few times when it felt like we jumped from scene to scene without too much build up. He's running! He's in a museum? On a spaceship? What is happening? Once you give in a let the story take you where it wants you to go, you're in for an interesting ride. There are a couple of instances in which the author overuses a word or phrase in a short span, but nothing so conspicuous that it would distract.
So why four stars instead of 3 with this much critique? Honestly, I don't much care for the alien genre. I guess you would classify this as sci-fi, but considering I don't care for the genre but I liked the book itself? I gave it an extra star for keeping me interested.
dissidentreviews's review against another edition
4.0
A fast-paced adventure with a sympathetic main character who tries to do the right thing in a crapsack world, and later in space. Complex characters, strong plotline. Focus is on the plot and the people, but we do get to see strange worlds and alien species.
Full score for plot and characters, minus one star for style: Typos, some confusing scenes with unclear pronouns. Several conversations between three or more people have no speech tags. The reader has to guess who said what.
Detailed review on my blog: http://nouw.com/cwidmann/michael-j-allen-scion-of-conquered-earth-32516339
Full score for plot and characters, minus one star for style: Typos, some confusing scenes with unclear pronouns. Several conversations between three or more people have no speech tags. The reader has to guess who said what.
Detailed review on my blog: http://nouw.com/cwidmann/michael-j-allen-scion-of-conquered-earth-32516339
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