![\"\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8387\/8635119424_1ee3be6c10_o_d.jpg\")
Alien Empire, by Anthony Gillis, is an interesting read that disappoints in only one way.<\/p>\nAlien Empire, by Anthony Gillis, is an interesting read that disappoints in only one way.<\/p>\n
The central character is history professor, Haral Karden, who specializes in first contacts between cultures.\u00a0 When a fleet of alien ships appears at the edge of the solar system, heading inward, he is included in a group of leaders who are assembled to greet them.<\/p>\n
Upon their arrival, the ambassador for The Elders; an ancient, spacefaring race,\u00a0 tells the world of The Galactic Protectorate, where hundreds of thousands of worlds enjoy peace, plenty and prosperity.\u00a0 He invites them to join this union of worlds and offers to share amazing Elder technology that will provide cheap clean power, improved manufacturing and brotherhood among the nations.<\/p>\n
Politicians attempt to use the event to bolster their own power.\u00a0 Much of the populace embraces the invitation.\u00a0 Professor Karden asks himself, \u201cWhat do they want in return.\u201d<\/p>\n
Together with a quirky pair of scientists, a manufacturing mogul, and a linguist, Karden answers that question, along with the related concern of \u201cWhat happens if we decline?\u201d and unwittingly set themselves up as leaders of a revolt.<\/p>\n
The story is highly imaginative and the characters are unique and heartwarmingly humorous at times.\u00a0 They are all compelling and endearing.\u00a0 Quite a few more are added as the story unfolds, but somehow they all remain individual and memorable.<\/p>\n
The story is well told.\u00a0 The writing is crisp and fast paced.\u00a0 There are a few surprises along the way, and it holds the reader\u2019s attention well.\u00a0 Although this is a military adventure with a great deal of destruction and death in the telling, the author does not turn it into a gore-fest, I appreciate that.\u00a0 There are also a couple of love interests, but they remain low-key: romantic but not smutty, so this is a book acceptable for all ages and dispositions.<\/p>\n
My only gripe and the reason this book didn\u2019t get 5 stars is that the editing is terrible.\u00a0 I lost count of the times where I found a word missing, or extraneous, or the wrong word.\u00a0 Obviously chaff left after the passage was rewritten and never looked at again.\u00a0 A final editorial pass before tossing it \u201cout there\u201d would have made this a 5 star read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alien Empire, by Anthony Gillis, is an interesting read that disappoints in only one way. Alien Empire: The Story The central character is history professor, Haral Karden, who specializes in first contacts between cultures. When a fleet of alien ships appears at the edge of the solar system, heading inward, he is included in a … Continue reading “Book Review: Alien Empire”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,13],"class_list":["post-4973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-share-the-love","tag-review","tag-scifi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21551,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4973\/revisions\/21551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}