The Chronicles Of Jenson Quest - The Rise Of Va'kaar

by J. Bryden Lloyd

Jenson Quest lives with his Aunt and helps her out by working in her nursing home, where his grandfather is one of the residents. For years Jenson has heard his granddad's seemingly ridiculous tales of how he and Jenson's father fought along side a friendly alien race and other humans in the defence of the many human 'Realms'. Now, however, it seems that his granddad's ridiculous tales are, in fact, true.Accepting the choice to step forward in place of his missing father and aging grandfather, and join the ranks of the Great Drak, Jenson joins the Keepers and the batch of new recruits and sets off across the galaxy to stop the Zyll Swarm and their latest Vuron weapon, which is threatening to destroy the Keepers and leave the human realms exposed to a danger that could begin the annihilation of the entire human race.But while the Keepers, assisted by the Great Drak and the humans of the Fourth Realm hunt down the Zyll Swarm and its new weapon, one Zyll has designs on gathering the whole of the might of the Zyll together and crushing the Keepers and the human realms once and for all using a new method of tracking that will enable the Zyll to find and destroy their target planets far faster than before.To accomplish his mission, stay alive, and perhaps discover what truly happened to his father, Jenson will have to find friends and allies that he never expected to find, and lead the warriors of the Great Drak into a battle that could end in the destruction of them all.With action and adventure from start to finish, Jenson Quest opens a new dawn in Sci-fi, with new characters to follow in this and future adventures.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

478 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2011

Reviews

[Gerold Whittaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenson always discounted his grandfather's stories of aliens and other worlds - until one day he came face to face with one himself. Not only that, but the alien eseentially left him with no choice but to go with him - to join a batch of new recruits joining the ranks of the Drak.

Soon he, and the other recruits are sent off in an attempt to stop the Zyll Swarm in their attempt to annihilate everything in their path.

Somewhere in amongst all this mayhem, will he find the time - and a way - to search for his missing father?

A thoroughly entertaining read but there were a few issues which just didn't gel: why the war with such a terrible cost in lives when it was so easy to broker a ceasfire? How did the recruits become such experts in their field with such little training? Jenson' search for his missing father really ends in an anticlimax!!

There were several typos which spoiled the book, and I did not enjoy the author's use of the word "erm..." (when thinking; like "Ummm") - especially when one of the aliens started using it too (and it is used in excess of 25 times throughout the book).

Quote: "May the fours be with you!".

[Saul Tanpepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a science fiction fan long before I turned to horror and suspense. Growing up, my heroes were Heinlein and Herbert, Stewart and Verne, Asimov and Sagan. But now that I'm nearing middle age, I find myself returning to those roots. Having a child who's a voracious reader and a huge Star Wars fan probably has a lot to do with this.

J. Bryden Lloyd's Jensen Quest was a wonderful reintroduction to the genre. This first book in the saga reads like a cross between Star Trek (DS9) and Ben 10. The young eponymous protagonist is both charming yet mature beyond his years. The story is rich in description and events. The book moves at a good clip throughout. There is no question which side we are meant to like, and which side we should loathe.

It's just as clear that Lloyd is a huge fan of the genre. He takes considerable time in building the world of the story. He is a lover of language and sounds, bequeathing his characters and their ships and worlds with fantastic tongue-twisting names; the harshest, most gutteral sounds are reserved, of course, for the enemies. Devotees to the genre will easily recognize the conventional sci-fi tropes and elements that fill the pages of this work, be they paper or virtual ink.

Among indies, Lloyd's work stands out as both ambitious and well-written. There are the occasional technical slips, which would have benefitted from a copy-editor, but they are infrequent and don't detract from an otherwise engaging tale. I look forward to continuing the journey with Jensen in the second book.

One final note to the more puritan readers out there: there is some profanity. Though not excessive, nor unusual for the genre, it's something to be aware of. Lloyd's Chronicles doesn't pander to the more whimsical tendencies that are so characteristic of the Star Wars saga.

[Dixie Goode · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be up-front that I got this book as a gift from the author, but I did not promise him a good review. I had merely mentioned that, while I write young adult fantasy books, I love to read books like Ender's Game and Old Man's War and Timothy Zahn and The Star Wars extended Universe novels. I think that I have pretty demanding standards for what I expect from Sci. Fi writing and most especially when the book will consume a lot of my time. This Trilogy is a very long read, and I believe that every moment I was allowed to spend reading about Jensen Quest was a gift. I started reading and for the first several days I had a lot of free time and could not bring myself to stay away from my kindle. Then as the demands of my life kept coming up, I had to limit myself to a chapter at a time which only prolonged the pleasure. This story has heroes to cheer for, a villain who is fun to hate, and a lot of well crafted minor characters. The human race depends on a 17 year old boy to save them from an enemy they don't even know about, and as the Zyll swarm threatens, he must ally himself with a universe of protectors known as the Great Drak, while also looking for his lost father who he has only now learned was a hero of the Great Drak himself. This is a book I could recommend to my students without fear of the violence and profanity found in a lot of novels, but one with plenty of depth and adventure to recommend to my adult friends as well. I actually read this in a trilogy volume that includes volumes 1 - 3 but could not locate that edition on Goodreads

[Per Gunnar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really split on this book. It’s the kind of story, young hero discovers there’s much more to the world than he knew and goes on heroic quest, which I normally like. However, the background story and the science (or absence thereof) really really sucks.

The idea that biologically identical humans, which only differs in terms of language, religion etc, should have developed independently all over the galaxy is not very believable.

There are almost no explanations of the technology and much of it is nonsense. Fighting gloves of which you wear a single one when going into combat for instance. Or animals that pee out spaceship and weapons fuel. What kind of rubbish is that?

Also, the Keepers are at war but they haven’t built any new modern spaceships for ages and no real reasons are given.

Unfortunately this total lack of any form of believability and decent logic is just dragging the book down a lot.