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War & Mir #1
Ascension
When Taharqa "Harq" Douglass injures his eye in a freak accident, he discovers that his bizarre immigrant doctor friend Thago is more than a mere muckle-mouthed fish-out-of-water, but an interplanetary "Warmunk" investigating a cosmic mystery and fighting a war across this solar system. Learning that he possesses of the visionary capacity of chronosis, Harq finds himself drafted into Thago's mission to rescue a princess, free an enslaved boy, and transform an age-old conflict that could claim millions of lives. Fighting against fanatics and sheltering inside the doomed Soviet space station Mir, Harq faces the starkest stakes of his evolve or die. See the book
- GenresScience Fiction
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 20, 2012
6 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Minister Faust
22 books68 followersMinister Faust is a long-time community activist, writer, journalist, broadcaster, public speaker and martial artist in several disciplines.
Minister Faust refers to his sub-genre of writing as Imhotep-Hop--an Africentric literature that draws from myriad ancient African civilizations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughters, where he also runs Canada's top bean pie bakery, Desserts of Kush.
Minister Faust refers to his sub-genre of writing as Imhotep-Hop--an Africentric literature that draws from myriad ancient African civilizations, explores present realities, and imagines a future in which people struggle not only for justice, but for the stars.
He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughters, where he also runs Canada's top bean pie bakery, Desserts of Kush.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 17, 2012
Minister Faust brings his command of language and rhythm to a fever pitch in his first space opera epic. The result is a hyperkinetic, fun, self-aware, high-octane space romp through the Solar System we never knew existed.
Ascension is the first third of a full-fledged novel, and as such, it's burdened with introducing tons of SF concepts, characters, and even linguistic elements. Mercifully, in a move not dissimilar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the protagonist is an Earth man like us, so we get to share his bewilderment. This allows Minister Faust to dive head first into his fully realized universe, allowing us to catch our breath only when the narrator does so as well.
The setting is definitely cool, one of the rare ones in SF that doesn't feel directly derived from a Western society. Rather, it's a mishmash of a number of influences, both Western, Asian, and African, but also entirely its own thing. The most clever element, in my opinion, was the alien languages. The protagonist's gradual learning of a number of them reveals the languages' unique grammars, and as a speaker of four languages including Mandarin, I was delighted by how non-English they were: I recognized some elements of Mandarin, with the repetition of emphasis words ("good-good"), and Indian languages when employing pronouns that are situational (such as 'you-woman'). This ain't no simple transliteration into gibberish-sounding words.
As for the plot, this early in the overall story arc of War & Mir it sounds purposefully satirical, as it involves ancient orders of war monks, prophecies of the one that would bring balance, and rescued prophetic child slaves. There's already some major hints that Minister Faust merely deploys these tropes so he can fully deconstruct them, as he did so well in From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain. The first book already brings a sledgehammer to a 'rescue the princess' trope.
As a stand-alone book, Ascension suffers from having to introduce a massive world with complex histories, without the payoff of a finale. But as the first third of a self-contained epic, this book is definitely on the right track. I look forward to things feeling a bit more familiar as we enter the second volume, and I'm curious to see Minister Faust start pulling the Jenga pieces from the bottom of his grandiose edifice.
Ascension is the first third of a full-fledged novel, and as such, it's burdened with introducing tons of SF concepts, characters, and even linguistic elements. Mercifully, in a move not dissimilar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the protagonist is an Earth man like us, so we get to share his bewilderment. This allows Minister Faust to dive head first into his fully realized universe, allowing us to catch our breath only when the narrator does so as well.
The setting is definitely cool, one of the rare ones in SF that doesn't feel directly derived from a Western society. Rather, it's a mishmash of a number of influences, both Western, Asian, and African, but also entirely its own thing. The most clever element, in my opinion, was the alien languages. The protagonist's gradual learning of a number of them reveals the languages' unique grammars, and as a speaker of four languages including Mandarin, I was delighted by how non-English they were: I recognized some elements of Mandarin, with the repetition of emphasis words ("good-good"), and Indian languages when employing pronouns that are situational (such as 'you-woman'). This ain't no simple transliteration into gibberish-sounding words.
As for the plot, this early in the overall story arc of War & Mir it sounds purposefully satirical, as it involves ancient orders of war monks, prophecies of the one that would bring balance, and rescued prophetic child slaves. There's already some major hints that Minister Faust merely deploys these tropes so he can fully deconstruct them, as he did so well in From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain. The first book already brings a sledgehammer to a 'rescue the princess' trope.
As a stand-alone book, Ascension suffers from having to introduce a massive world with complex histories, without the payoff of a finale. But as the first third of a self-contained epic, this book is definitely on the right track. I look forward to things feeling a bit more familiar as we enter the second volume, and I'm curious to see Minister Faust start pulling the Jenga pieces from the bottom of his grandiose edifice.
January 25, 2022
Rip-roaring excitement and sharp writing drive a roller-coaster of a plot that doesn't lack in emotion, social conscience, and the humour of mashing the everyday with the cosmic. While there are some typos, this didn't distract from the great characters and story. This is how awesome The Phantom Menace could have been.
August 31, 2016
I used to read a lot more sci-fi than I do, so maybe this is just me being out of touch--but I had to spend a lot more time than I was prepared to spend in decoding this book. It's cool that it employs alien languages, but I think there was too much jarringly different syntax for me to parse in such a short span (the book is less than 200 pages). I liked the concept of the story itself, but I found the odd formatting and colon usage distracting. I guess it was just more work than I was prepared for, for too little reward. For what it's worth, the action scenes were edge-of-the-seat intense, and I did get a real "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" vibe from it in places, which was fun. There were parts I thoroughly enjoyed. I just wish I there'd been more of those to offset the others.
My enjoyment of this story was hampered by a couple of other more mundane factors, the first being the apparent lack of copy-editing. I found about 10 typos and punctuation errors (besides the above-mentioned colon use), and in a book this short, that bugged me. Also (and this is likely outside the author's control), I thought the price was set surprisingly high for a book that, as it turns out, is only the first third of a bigger work...and paying over $15 for a paperback less than 200 pages long bugged me too. I think if I'd known what I was getting into, I would've waited for the three pieces to come out all at once, hopefully bound into an omnibus, and hopefully edited a little better. Sorry if this comes off sounding nit-picky, but in the last few years it seems like editing has really taken a back seat in the publishing world, and it's a peeve I can't overlook. Mass-market publishing content copy is supposed to be flawless. I can excuse maybe one or two typos in a 400+ page book, but not 10 in half that length.
Anyway, overall...not entirely my cup of tea; however it was a very creative endeavor which sported vivid writing and some pretty memorable, well-developed characters, and it did have some good powerful moments.
My enjoyment of this story was hampered by a couple of other more mundane factors, the first being the apparent lack of copy-editing. I found about 10 typos and punctuation errors (besides the above-mentioned colon use), and in a book this short, that bugged me. Also (and this is likely outside the author's control), I thought the price was set surprisingly high for a book that, as it turns out, is only the first third of a bigger work...and paying over $15 for a paperback less than 200 pages long bugged me too. I think if I'd known what I was getting into, I would've waited for the three pieces to come out all at once, hopefully bound into an omnibus, and hopefully edited a little better. Sorry if this comes off sounding nit-picky, but in the last few years it seems like editing has really taken a back seat in the publishing world, and it's a peeve I can't overlook. Mass-market publishing content copy is supposed to be flawless. I can excuse maybe one or two typos in a 400+ page book, but not 10 in half that length.
Anyway, overall...not entirely my cup of tea; however it was a very creative endeavor which sported vivid writing and some pretty memorable, well-developed characters, and it did have some good powerful moments.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews