Dimensional Shift: First Step

Dimensional Shift #1

by Michelle Stone

Volume 1 of the Dimensional Shift Trilogy

A catastrophic infection of land based plant life motivates a wealthy investor and his colleagues to make the ultimate push for survival. He, his daughter, and a brilliant young team of scientists do the unthinkable. They take the first step off planet Earth.

The story is a fresh look at science fiction set in the very near
future. Stone creates unique technologies, an alternative history, and a weaves together a compelling number of disassociated threads to craft a very readable dystopian saga.

The Dimensional Shift Trilogy: First Step, Waters of Babylon,
Millenarians.

Genres: Science Fiction

329 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2012

About the author

I've been mulling the science of my stories over in my mind for years before I ever turned to the keyboard. If you mostly love the military aspects of a science fiction series, you'll probably find my books strenuous. I'm not a military writer. As a fan of music, history, and science, I've included some of it in my books. I use common terms from the sciences. I also attempt to clarify in two or three levels of explanation for those unacquainted with the terminology. I understand that not everyone will be familiar with biology or how a telescope works. Additionally, I've also written these volumes knowing that some of the technology development is not that important to many readers. I've therefore made a concerted attempt to write these works so that even those who glaze over those sections still have a fulfilling story to read. Finally, I've made a strenuous attempt to keep the books focused on my subject material. I'd really like a teenager to pick one up and learn something from it someday. As a result, the violence and intimacy in my stories lack the visceral nature we've come to expect as a society. Yes, there are some military expletives, but they've been toned down considerably and certainly nothing worse than what you'd see on television.

The two first novels of the Dimensional Shift saga are self-contained. You won't be left hanging on for the next book. I've left clues and fragments of ideas on which I shall build in the future.

I enjoy feedback from my readers. I enjoy getting good ideas and scifi concepts from friends and others. Send them to me! My email address is available at the end of each of my books.

Reviews

[Jay Batson · Rating 2 out of 5]

So here's the quandary with this book. I'd like to give it a high rating, but I just can't.

The good:
- The SciFi ideas are interesting.
- The SciFi technologies / concepts are "explained" more than a typical SciFi book, but the explanations don't go so far as to fall down because flaws are revealed in the explanation. This was the author's intent (as stated in the intro), and generally she succeeded.
- The story is interesting enough that I'm now onto the 2nd book in the series, and I'll probably read the last (because it's hard for me to start something & not see it thru to the end, no matter how much I dislike it).

The bad:
- I don't know how to say it, but the writing is simply sub-par. There's a bunch of problems, ranging from the way the writer describes how a character thinks / talks-to-self, to too-telegraphic chapter titles, to somewhat lame-sounding fill-ins of what happened in an interim time to some non-main-character, etc.
- The editing is atrocious. Please pay the $1,000 it takes to hire a professional editor. This goes for both types of editing: writing feedback / control (e.g. "this doesn't work too well; try X") to copy editing (missing / extraneous punctuation, etc.)
- And one minor nit: It occasionally seems like a cross between a SciFi book and a chic book; there's this little romance between a couple of the main characters, and the way the writer develops this puts summer beach-read text into the middle of a SciFi drama. It's just too disconcerting for me.

So honestly, Two Stars for the book. The writer is promising; but hire a real, professional, good editor - it'll do wonders for the resulting product.

[Tommy Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this as a free book from Amazon recently. The characters were very engaging and the science fiction elements quite interesting and I appreciated the level of explanation provided. At first, I found the "millenarian" storyline to be distracting and unnecessary, but seeing that one of the sequels focuses heavily on that makes it "foreshadowing." I felt that disasters escalated too quickly and went too far.

I liked the main characters and what they were doing. I'll probably read the rest of the series at some point.

[Ron · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quit after 33 pages. Doesn't anyone proofread books anymore?
Page 8, "the guard proffered." (as in "said")
page 6, "Kelt swaggered up beside her."
page 13, Seventy failed tests with no change in methodology? Fit's Einstein's definition for insanity.
page 18, "he drew a modest salary and neither did his executives." (Going to give his secretary a raise because she's neat, maybe OCD.)
Not engaged; gave up.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the scientific backing for the scifi aspects of this book and the general premise. The character developments that were woven through history were cool. But I had some issues with the actual story. First, the dialogue bothered me, especially those of the teenagers. They just didn't sound believable. No matter how smart and mature a teen is, they should still sound like a teen. All of the dialogues basically sounded like the same person to me, just with different motivations and emotions. The plotline itself had way too many loose ends and conflicts thrown on top of conflicts to the point that it became unengaging. Also, the chest fixation with Akhi was weird.

[Judith Leah Magill · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting concept. Kept my interest throughout.

The story is mainly geared to a young audience with brilliant teenage heroes. Very futuristic. Ethical standards are promoted so I would recommend it for younger readers.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially found this book fascinating. I loved the detailed science explanation. It felt believable and enriched the story telling. Yet, as the novel progressed, the author introduced new threads to the plot. They were only loosely connected and my interest waned. Despite really wanting to like this book, I just couldn't rate it any higher. I wished the plot had been tighter. Maybe the subsequent books in the series will help. I liked the overall story enough that I will probably look for them.

[Nuno Furtado · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, the story concept is interesting so i hopes the book got better as it progressed. Alas that is not the case. Terrible editing, forced and repetitive wrting, contrived dialog and a romance that seems forced makes it a bad read. All these things make you come out of the story and into real life

[knittygirl78 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick read; it was a free download via kindle. I'm not sure if I'll read the others in the series. If they are also free, I will probably at least try the next one. If not, I am not sure I'll pay for the next books in the series.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great very near future scifi/techno thriller. Looking forward to reading the ore books in e series.