Coup de Main

by Dean M. Cole

Pulled from circulation by the author.

This novella has been replaced by a new, full length novel, SECTOR 64: Ambush.

Based and expanding on the highly rated novella, Coup de Main, SECTOR 64: Ambush delivers a broader scope with twice the action, richer scenery, and additional characters drawn with greater depth. Please navigate to SECTOR 64: Ambush to find the ebook and paperback.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

268 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2011

About the author

Dean M. Cole is a Texas-based author, former combat helicopter pilot, and current airline pilot. A reclusive caffeine junkie, he writes fast-paced sci-fi adventures loaded with action and techno-thrills. His bestselling Dimension Space series has earned thousands of five-star reviews—and might one day trigger a robot uprising if his characters ever gain sentience.

D.M. Cole is his thriller-writing alter ego, launching a new tropical thriller series starting with Silent Waters—a fast-paced ride featuring seaplanes, remote islands, and trouble that wants you dead. No aliens this time. Just humans.

Join the Facebook group Dimension Space Series by Dean M Cole for updates and discussion.

Get a free novella and audiobook when you join the Copilot Club at the DeanMCole site.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really enjoy science fiction as a whole, and I really wanted to like this book. However, that did not happen. A barbaric alien race is vaporizing everyone on the planet and it's U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Jake Giard and two of his fellow wing-men to the rescue! Unfortunately, they could not rescue me from falling asleep during most of the book...


My biggest issue with this book has nothing to do with the story itself. The copious amount of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, tense, and grammar errors made me cringe constantly. I started to mark these instances, but they are so common that I soon gave up. I understand that this novel is self-published and probably never graced the eyes of an editor, but I am a firm believer that one should edit one's work before submitting it to the general public. I'm far from perfect in these areas myself, but I do know how to use spell check and failing to catch so many errors makes the entire text seem sloppy and may cause the eyes of avid and critical readers to spontaneously bleed. Lines such as "Let's not waist [sic] Major Pell's sacrifice..." and referring to the "soul" of a shoe make me wonder how much attention the author paid to what he was writing.


The author of this novel, Dean M. Cole, is an Army vet and pilot and he uses his expertise in this area to be highly descriptive when it comes to pilot protocol and physics throughout the book. I appreciated that he is so knowledgeable, but it often left me wondering what he was talking about. I'm not well versed in physics or pilot lingo, so I felt a little left out in some parts. Another word usage problem I found was the unbelievable number of times "buddy" is used. This became a problem before I even finished the first chapter!


I had a very difficult time connecting with any of the characters and I think this was because of how weak the majority of them are. For an Air Force fighter pilot, Victor Croft is amazingly faint at heart. He is so scared and anxious almost the entire book, to the point that I was shocked he never broke down and cried. This is pretty unbelievable behavior for a war vet. I also felt that Jake's girlfriend Sandy was completely unnecessary. She played no important role in the book and only caused unnecessary distractions from the plot line.


I did appreciate the basis of the plot though. I loved that the author made the human race descended from wayward aliens. Also, the technology introduced throughout the novel was very fascinating- especially the "Turtle" ship and EVA suits. the author showed great vision and creativity in the invention of these items.


Overall, I found the dialogue to be painfully cheesy and riddled with a vast over-abundance of cliche phrases, such as "assuming makes an ass out of you and me" and "the more things change, the more they stay the same." The characters are flat and not memorable, and a little more original content would have been nice.. I give it a one-star rating.

[Hal Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might have read a revised edition of Sector 64, but I thought it an engaging tale. I thought the pacing and dialogue were better than what I've often seen from Big 6 first time authors. There were spots in the book that perhaps betrayed Cole's status as a first-time author--that happens often with a writer's debut novel. But all-in-all, I thought he proved himself to be one heck of a storyteller, and I'm looking forward to Dean Cole's next book in the series.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book from the Goodreads Firstreads program.

I love the premise of this book. The human race is descended from a lost colony of the dominant race in the galaxy and once we (and any other race they find) reaches a certain technological point, first contact is made and the new race is slowly integrated into galactic society. On earth this of course happens at Roswell. Not all races appreciate this however and this is the crux of the story. One of the more violent races that is warring with the Angorians finds out about Earth and sets a trap there.

The story centers around 3 Air Force pilots who are in the secret program. Unfortunately the characters are not well developed and I found the dialogue to be extremely cliche and boring at times. There are also a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. However, the worst part is that there are a lot of internal inconsistencies. In one paragraph it says that 8 fighters are attacking. 1 gets destroyed, leaving 7, yet in the next paragraph there are 8 again. There are several more instances like this.

I realize that this is a self-published book and I give the author credit for coming up with an excellent story, however had he had a professional editor and proofreader the story would have been far better and more readable.

Overall it is an easy to read book with a good story, but the amateurism is a significant drag and reduced it from 4 stars to 3.

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the story to be tedious and not very engaging. Characters were without depth and the invading aliens were pathetically trite. I'd say the author was imagining his scenes as if they were a movie, and then described them as such.

[Me · Rating 1 out of 5]

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[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish. Great start then boring!