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mellhay's review against another edition
3.0
Marcus Powell, aboard Crossline - a one man spacecraft, thrusts into space with the warp drives that could bring space travel to a new age. Powell understands what the maker of the warp drives talked him about nights before launch. When in outer space, to keep going. Marcus jumps an unexpected second time, and another. Six jumps later Marcus takes in the sight of Saturn. Powell is readying to return to Earth when he sees another ship mixed between Saturn's rings. A ship that looks identical to his. Secretively, they thought something was out here and if Powell saw it, he was to destroy it. Marcus isn't a man of killing without being attacked. When he is attacked and pursues the ship, what Marcus finds on the other side of the flash is...mind numbing.
Keela is looking for her husband, missing two years now in a ship like Marcus's. A world at war and prophecy's. They want to get away from their war and find another habitable planet to live on in peace.
There is a mix of American Indian heritage and believe here. It is the connection between the parallel worlds. Or helps keep things at our attention we might be missing. Yet there is a small bit of misunderstanding as the one relating the tiny bits of information is a little girl, and pronunciation is a little off.
I really liked Powell's thoughts on Earth and life on page 8:
The Earth was an elegant marble, cool and slick, glossed with a sheen of perfection. Continents set against the deep blue oceans. Immense white weather swirls. Never before did he truly consider just how magnificent the planet was. How the atmosphere around it had just the right mixture of gases to sustain life. How the Sun kept it warm. How the Moon influenced the tides. How stars inspired dreams. How our place in the Universe - our very origin - was still unknown to us.
The worlds are parallel to each other. People aren't all that you think they are. There is a twist to it all.
We have a few characters here. There is Marcus Powell, his wife and child. They are an interesting family. Not the combination you would expect, but that is life through and through. I really enjoyed his wife's spunk and the connection his daughter has. You have to read to understand. There is Dale Aranuke who works in charge at the space center. Dale is...a jerk for lack of a better word. But there are reasons why. Then we have Buddy Rheams Jr. Interesting fella here. He seems to be the one pulling all the strings for his desired end.
Russ starts us right into space, quickly. This is great. Russ uses memories of the preparation period to explain things as we are going. I like this as we don't get bored with life before we get to the story. We get the back stories as we go. We do take a step back in time with Buddy Rheams Jr. to learn his motives. All is easy to follow as you read through, knowing when and where you are each step along the way.
I knew going in what the book was about. I thought I'd enjoy it a but more. But, the story is calmer than what I usually read, and found it's not quite for me. Not that it's not well done, it is. But I needed more...fight. After reading Finders Keepers, I thought this book would have more humor in it than it did. It had funny spots, but I was expecting more.
This book is a great read for those who travel space and alternate worlds. A science fiction fan through and through would enjoy it.
Keela is looking for her husband, missing two years now in a ship like Marcus's. A world at war and prophecy's. They want to get away from their war and find another habitable planet to live on in peace.
There is a mix of American Indian heritage and believe here. It is the connection between the parallel worlds. Or helps keep things at our attention we might be missing. Yet there is a small bit of misunderstanding as the one relating the tiny bits of information is a little girl, and pronunciation is a little off.
I really liked Powell's thoughts on Earth and life on page 8:
The Earth was an elegant marble, cool and slick, glossed with a sheen of perfection. Continents set against the deep blue oceans. Immense white weather swirls. Never before did he truly consider just how magnificent the planet was. How the atmosphere around it had just the right mixture of gases to sustain life. How the Sun kept it warm. How the Moon influenced the tides. How stars inspired dreams. How our place in the Universe - our very origin - was still unknown to us.
The worlds are parallel to each other. People aren't all that you think they are. There is a twist to it all.
We have a few characters here. There is Marcus Powell, his wife and child. They are an interesting family. Not the combination you would expect, but that is life through and through. I really enjoyed his wife's spunk and the connection his daughter has. You have to read to understand. There is Dale Aranuke who works in charge at the space center. Dale is...a jerk for lack of a better word. But there are reasons why. Then we have Buddy Rheams Jr. Interesting fella here. He seems to be the one pulling all the strings for his desired end.
Russ starts us right into space, quickly. This is great. Russ uses memories of the preparation period to explain things as we are going. I like this as we don't get bored with life before we get to the story. We get the back stories as we go. We do take a step back in time with Buddy Rheams Jr. to learn his motives. All is easy to follow as you read through, knowing when and where you are each step along the way.
I knew going in what the book was about. I thought I'd enjoy it a but more. But, the story is calmer than what I usually read, and found it's not quite for me. Not that it's not well done, it is. But I needed more...fight. After reading Finders Keepers, I thought this book would have more humor in it than it did. It had funny spots, but I was expecting more.
This book is a great read for those who travel space and alternate worlds. A science fiction fan through and through would enjoy it.
aishwaryadeengar's review against another edition
5.0
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is an amazing adventure story revolving around the boy who was chosen to test a new spacecraft.
The story has everything from a great storyline to witty dialogues, conflicts and realistic characters but that does not make the book slow and difficult to get around but instead the author has managed to keep it exciting and fun as its really fast paced. The thoughts conveyed through this book are quite deep and worth pondering over.
I would recommend it to everyone who needs a break from the monotony of trashy over hyped novels.
This is an amazing adventure story revolving around the boy who was chosen to test a new spacecraft.
The story has everything from a great storyline to witty dialogues, conflicts and realistic characters but that does not make the book slow and difficult to get around but instead the author has managed to keep it exciting and fun as its really fast paced. The thoughts conveyed through this book are quite deep and worth pondering over.
I would recommend it to everyone who needs a break from the monotony of trashy over hyped novels.
bookdrag0n's review against another edition
3.0
In this unpredictable Sci-Fi by Russ Colchamiro, star pilot Marcus Powell is about to make history. He is testing out Taurus Corporation’s new warp thrusters, hopefully allowing him to travel through space at warp speed…Or which may simply blow up, destroying both the multibillion-dollar technology as well as pulverizing his body. But Powell is a risk taker. Leaving his wife and 5-year-old daughter back on Earth, Powell takes the leap, literally. Leaping through space, disobeying direct orders from Tower Command, Powell finds himself among the rings of Saturn, where he finds another ship just like his. What does this mean? As Powell follows this mystery ship, nothing will ever be the same for him again. Caught up in an unfamiliar war, can Powell do what he must to survive in order to get back to his girls on Earth?
Beginning this novel, I was expecting it to go an entirely different way, with the classic Star-Wars-esque intergalactic fighting and aliens and the like. However, Crossline definitely took an unfamiliar turn! Rather than wearing out the already over-done classic space opera plot, this novel decided to dive into a much more philosophical and thought-provoking time-travel story. It seemed that with every chapter, a new mind-blowing idea popped up! There’s time-travel, a sort of telepathy between characters, alternate universes, magic muffins, an idealistic war, and newfangled technology. This novel was chock-full of craziness!
Regarding the writing style of the novel itself, it is extremely detailed and descriptive. In fact, it was almost a bit too descriptive for me, but I tend to like more plot movement rather than description in my books. There was a lot of onomatopoeia and somewhat overdone descriptions of various experiences that each of the characters went through, but this did definitely fully immerse me into the story itself. I felt as if I could not only see what was happening, but also feel and hear all the surroundings. Along this same note, there was a lot of character building, as we were able to glimpse into the pasts of various characters and see previous events that occurred to them, shaping their personality and mentality. One thing that bothered me with the writing style was that there was a LOT of very short, choppy sentence chunks at multiple points in the book. I don’t know if I’m just a picky reader or what, but each time I came across these, it would unceremoniously throw me out of the book. It especially occurred during long segments of dialogue. I also did not particularly enjoy the parts of the book in which Jesse spoke, because for one, it simply slowed down my reading, as I tried to figure out what exactly she was saying. But also, most 5-year-olds I know can speak much better than that, and so it was not very realistic, linguistically speaking.
The characters themselves were very quippy, with several one-liners that got a hearty chuckle out of me. I liked that there were multiple POVs throughout the book so that we could more deeply connect with each of the characters, rather than just Powell. I especially enjoyed Buddy’s POV (though I do think it went on a little too long, was a little too detailed) and getting to know this “unique” character. One thing that I did not quite understand about the characters, however, was each of their unnecessary identity crises. IT seems that every single one of the characters were fighting with themselves about who they should be and who they actually were. Additionally, I think this made them have weird interactions with the rest of the characters, and they all tended to get mad at each other for random reasons that I could not discern. To me it was a bit annoying and made the characters less likeable. But they definitely had their redeeming qualities as well!
One particular aspect of this novel that I found fascinating was the bit of Native American folklore interspersed. This becomes more obvious near the end of the book, but it was interesting to learn a bit more about that culture and see how it influenced the characters. It was also interesting with the kind of magic embedded in the story. I am not sure if I enjoyed that aspect or not yet, I am still processing. I think it may have been better just to have had the time travel and alternate universes rather than ALSO including magic muffins and telepathy and a small child being able to control people, but it definitely gave a unique spin to the book!
Overall, this was a good read to stretch my mind out a bit. It was unpredictable, original, and contained a fair bit of crazy within its pages. Definitely an entertaining read, less for those looking for a realistic, emotional read; best for someone who just wants a bit of sci-fi and mind-blowing while on vacation or just before bed!
Beginning this novel, I was expecting it to go an entirely different way, with the classic Star-Wars-esque intergalactic fighting and aliens and the like. However, Crossline definitely took an unfamiliar turn! Rather than wearing out the already over-done classic space opera plot, this novel decided to dive into a much more philosophical and thought-provoking time-travel story. It seemed that with every chapter, a new mind-blowing idea popped up! There’s time-travel, a sort of telepathy between characters, alternate universes, magic muffins, an idealistic war, and newfangled technology. This novel was chock-full of craziness!
Regarding the writing style of the novel itself, it is extremely detailed and descriptive. In fact, it was almost a bit too descriptive for me, but I tend to like more plot movement rather than description in my books. There was a lot of onomatopoeia and somewhat overdone descriptions of various experiences that each of the characters went through, but this did definitely fully immerse me into the story itself. I felt as if I could not only see what was happening, but also feel and hear all the surroundings. Along this same note, there was a lot of character building, as we were able to glimpse into the pasts of various characters and see previous events that occurred to them, shaping their personality and mentality. One thing that bothered me with the writing style was that there was a LOT of very short, choppy sentence chunks at multiple points in the book. I don’t know if I’m just a picky reader or what, but each time I came across these, it would unceremoniously throw me out of the book. It especially occurred during long segments of dialogue. I also did not particularly enjoy the parts of the book in which Jesse spoke, because for one, it simply slowed down my reading, as I tried to figure out what exactly she was saying. But also, most 5-year-olds I know can speak much better than that, and so it was not very realistic, linguistically speaking.
The characters themselves were very quippy, with several one-liners that got a hearty chuckle out of me. I liked that there were multiple POVs throughout the book so that we could more deeply connect with each of the characters, rather than just Powell. I especially enjoyed Buddy’s POV (though I do think it went on a little too long, was a little too detailed) and getting to know this “unique” character. One thing that I did not quite understand about the characters, however, was each of their unnecessary identity crises. IT seems that every single one of the characters were fighting with themselves about who they should be and who they actually were. Additionally, I think this made them have weird interactions with the rest of the characters, and they all tended to get mad at each other for random reasons that I could not discern. To me it was a bit annoying and made the characters less likeable. But they definitely had their redeeming qualities as well!
One particular aspect of this novel that I found fascinating was the bit of Native American folklore interspersed. This becomes more obvious near the end of the book, but it was interesting to learn a bit more about that culture and see how it influenced the characters. It was also interesting with the kind of magic embedded in the story. I am not sure if I enjoyed that aspect or not yet, I am still processing. I think it may have been better just to have had the time travel and alternate universes rather than ALSO including magic muffins and telepathy and a small child being able to control people, but it definitely gave a unique spin to the book!
Overall, this was a good read to stretch my mind out a bit. It was unpredictable, original, and contained a fair bit of crazy within its pages. Definitely an entertaining read, less for those looking for a realistic, emotional read; best for someone who just wants a bit of sci-fi and mind-blowing while on vacation or just before bed!
si0bhan's review
3.0
I love a good science-fiction read, and Russ Colchamiro’s Crossline appealed to me on numerous levels. Thus, I was more than willing to dive in with the hope of being wowed.
With Crossline, we have a science-fiction novel that includes more aspects than you would imagine. There’s a bit of space travel, there’s an alternate reality and an alternate dimension, there’s visions of the future, and plenty more. Through following different characters at different points in the timeline, we get to experience a wide range of things across multiple locations.
Although Crossline was addictive, I wasn’t quite as crazy about it as I had hoped to be. I think a part of it was my sense of humour jarred with what we had in this one. There were a couple of things that made me smile, yet I feel as though many people would have let out laughter at plenty of other points too. Therefore, I did not find some of the things to be funny in the way they were clearly intended to be.
Despite the humour not matching with mine, the story did leave me addicted. I was curious to see how everything came together and had a lot of fun watching all the pieces come together. There were a lot of things to bring together in this one, and they were tied up well. It’s certainly a book that leaves you wanting to turn the pages through your desire to see how things play out.
Overall, Crossline was an addictive read.
With Crossline, we have a science-fiction novel that includes more aspects than you would imagine. There’s a bit of space travel, there’s an alternate reality and an alternate dimension, there’s visions of the future, and plenty more. Through following different characters at different points in the timeline, we get to experience a wide range of things across multiple locations.
Although Crossline was addictive, I wasn’t quite as crazy about it as I had hoped to be. I think a part of it was my sense of humour jarred with what we had in this one. There were a couple of things that made me smile, yet I feel as though many people would have let out laughter at plenty of other points too. Therefore, I did not find some of the things to be funny in the way they were clearly intended to be.
Despite the humour not matching with mine, the story did leave me addicted. I was curious to see how everything came together and had a lot of fun watching all the pieces come together. There were a lot of things to bring together in this one, and they were tied up well. It’s certainly a book that leaves you wanting to turn the pages through your desire to see how things play out.
Overall, Crossline was an addictive read.
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