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The Settlers

(The Movement Trilogy #1)

Jason Gurley (Goodreads Author)

3.52 · Rating details · 953 ratings · 97 reviews

Book 1 of The Movement Trilogy Earth is on the brink of ruin. Great storms destroy cities. Rising seas reshape the continents. Afraid for its survival, mankind constructs a fleet of space stations in orbit, and steps off-world. Among the humans fighting for their future are Micah Sparrow, a widower who uncovers a plot to return mankind to the dark ages; Tasneem Kyoh, who u ...more

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Paperback, 314 pages

Published January 7th 2014 by Createspace (first published February 13th 2013)

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Average rating 3.52 ·

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· 953 ratings · 97 reviews

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May 26, 2014 Adam Collings rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This book was quite different to what I was expecting. It is essentially a collection of stories examining the lives of various characters living on several space stations, after the surface of Earth becomes too dangerous for long-term survival. These stories tend to have quite a lot of emotional resonance.

The early part of the book focuses on the idea of immortality, and what might happen if you attempt to create a serum to extend human life. The later part of the book looks at the formation of ...more

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Sep 03, 2014 Steve rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-apocalyptic, read-in-2014, science-fiction, audio-book

This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to; thanks to the author for providing it for free as part of his email program!

This was an interesting book, not just the storyline, but the way in which it was constructed. The main storyline deals with Tasneem Kyoh and David Dewbury during the time in which mankind is slowly moving off-planet into huge space stations because of the environmental destruction on earth. The author fills the gaps not with simple "this happened, then this happened", b ...more

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May 25, 2014 Nikki rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aliens-spaceships-and-fun

There are no quotation marks in this book. Luckily the conversations are pretty straight forward he said she said. The time line jumps ahead in leaps and bounds leaving unanswered questions about what happened to people in the past. You get to know the characters just long enough to invest in them and then they are gone and you find out they died 100 years ago. This book isn't really about the details of people. It's the details of human society as they transition to off planet life. What happen ...more

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Nov 26, 2013 Stephen Figart rated it it was ok · review of another edition

The lack of quotation marks really bothered me.

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May 27, 2016 Uzair rated it did not like it · review of another edition

WHY ARE THERE NO QUOTATION MARKS FOR DIALOG? THIS ISN'T THE ROAD. UGH. WHOEVER DECIDED THAT THIS IS THE NEW 'STYLISTIC CHOICE' PLEASE GO AWAY. ...more

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Dec 31, 2017 Empress Reece (Hooked on Books) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian-post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, own-it, first-in-series, outer-space, zzexp_2017-read, zzexp_2017-ha-tbr-tackle

3.5 stars...This book needs chapter and time separations. It was confusing to read the way it is now.

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Feb 05, 2017 MonumentToDecency rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: top-100

The Settlers, part 1 of The Movement Trilogy (actually kind of a 4 parter), is an emotional tour de force (but not overly emotional, and not emotionally draining) covering the slowly unfolding events leading up to a revolution across the twelve civilian space stations which now represent the last vestige of hope for the human species continued survival. Gee, that sounds dramatic.

...the future looks bright :)

As you've probably read in the other reviews, the premise of The Settlers is peop ...more

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Jan 17, 2018 Crow rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Surprise freebie off of Amazon.

I blazed through this book and plan on picking up the next in the series. :)

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Dec 28, 2013 Lisa Hapney rated it liked it · review of another edition

The story is interesting if a little slow at times and it skips around a lot. I read these two books one after the other as neither is very long and they have kind of joined together in my mind as they could easily have been one book with Parts 1 and 2. So I'm just going to review them in that manner as well. Tasneem Kyoh and David Dewbury are the characters that tie this story together through all the skipping around as they are the only two around for the 500 years covered in these two stories The story is interesting if a little slow at times and it skips around a lot. I read these two books one after the other as neither is very long and they have kind of joined together in my mind as they could easily have been one book with Parts 1 and 2. So I'm just going to review them in that manner as well. Tasneem Kyoh and David Dewbury are the characters that tie this story together through all the skipping around as they are the only two around for the 500 years covered in these two stories.

The writing style was peculiar in that the author chose not to use quotation marks for dialogue in either book. I don't know if he was trying to save ink on his printer or what, but I found it somewhat annoying while reading. I can't think of any reason to choose to write dialogue without proper punctuation unless perhaps quotation marks have committed some horrible crime in the future and have been outlawed. On the whole it was distracting to me as a reader. I would have given it a 4 if this had not been so.

Nevertheless, once I got past the grammar the story was really pretty well done and I found it interesting. In the first part, The Settlers, humans are fleeing Earth to live in orbital space stations constructed to save the population from the greed and lack of foresight humankind has shown which has resulted in the planet's weather, volcanoes, etc. being destabilized to such a point that it's becoming unsafe to live on the planet. Having just been saved from certain death on the planet below that has been destroyed at their hands they are more willing to pull together to try to make a go of continuing the species.

By the time we move to the second part of the story, The Colonists, humankind is once again suffering under greed and corruption from those who feel obligated to try to control others in a totalitarian state where the Onyx class lords over the Machine class. People are mad and revolution is in the wind (or the air filtration systems as the case may be). I just watched Elysium the other day so it is difficult not to draw a comparison between the two story lines.

All in all the story itself was good and I was pretty interested. As I mentioned above, I would have given these a 4 if not for the distraction of the improper punctuation or lack thereof. ...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Peter Petermann rated it liked it · review of another edition

So, I started reading this book after reading the description. The description however teases a different story than the book provided.

Now, before I go on, I want to mention something which annoyed the crap out of me. I'm not a native English speaker, and this might have made this issue worse for me than it probably is for others, but the author in my opinion deserves a slap in the face for the way he chose to write dialogues. He is not using any quotation marks at all, which makes it hard enou So, I started reading this book after reading the description. The description however teases a different story than the book provided.

Now, before I go on, I want to mention something which annoyed the crap out of me. I'm not a native English speaker, and this might have made this issue worse for me than it probably is for others, but the author in my opinion deserves a slap in the face for the way he chose to write dialogues. He is not using any quotation marks at all, which makes it hard enough to read, mixing up speech and action, and on top of it, he does things like for 7, 8 lines in a row have "something one of the characters says, said character 1", which makes it cumbersome to read by the repetition alone. It is as if the author, who has written more than this book, still hasn't discovered language as his tool of trade, but solely relies on his fantasy to be transfered somehow.

Now about the content, the storyline covers a huge frame of time, which is split into many smaller stories (I'm even struggling to call 'em that, as it is really more a bunch of frames from each story), which are loosely connected through the main story arch.
And that loose connection is a bit of the problem. Most of those frames don't progress the main storyline, they are just snapshots of people living at specific moments of those storyline, and because they are just snapshots, they aren't developed far enough to be satisfying. The main storyline seems to happen in the background, often without reason, motivation, triggers or explanation. Which is also not satisfactory.

In the end I see a big story, which I would have been interested in reading, I see a lot of those smaller stories, which I would have been very interested in exploring, but the book falls short to deliver on either one.

In my opinion, if the author would have taken this book as his blueprint for a series (and yes I'm aware that it is part of a series), in which he'd explored the little frames episode by episode, but with the detail and completeness they deserve, and more glue to tie it together as a whole, this book could be a 5 star series.

The way it is I'm struggling to give it even 3, which I ultimately will, as in everything it is lacking, it still somehow managed to create a desire to look closer at the universe Gurley is creating there. ...more

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Dec 02, 2013 Mike Forrest rated it liked it · review of another edition

I did enjoy this book, the premise intrigued me and it had a good storyline, but I did have some issues which detracted from what it could have been.

Firstly, I'm not a fan of the writing style. The narrative didn't feel like it flowed smoothly, and I found myself re-reading paragraphs repeatedly because I couldn't tell who was speaking, if they were speaking at all, or making an observation or just the author describing what they were feeling.

My other main issue with the story as a whole was the ...more

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Mar 22, 2015 Trevor Vass rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This novel is less science fiction than it is a study of human tragedy. The story could have been plunked down in the middle of any world ending scenario (the fall of the Roman empire, the end of Mayan civilization, etc.) and it would have worked just as well. As other reviews have pointed out the choice to jump around between times and characters is a detriment to the tale, and the author's unique dialogue choices are likewise irksome (he chooses not to use quotation marks).
Overall while the no ...more

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Dec 01, 2013 Maddie Finch rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I give it 2 stars, 1 for effort and 1 for the ideas. However, the book is unreadable, the plot jumps years between chapters, the location and context and society wildly changes without any indication, the reader is left wondering what's going on, dialogues are incomprehensible due to missing punctuation,.... It all feels like running around in a bad and confusing dream. This story has a lot of potential to be epic but would need to be written across many books with a lot more meat on it's bones. ...more

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Jul 15, 2017 D.J. Morand rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Standard grammar rules need not apply

I don't know why anyone publishes a book without following the basic tenants of grammar. When two people have a conversation use quotations. I hoped it was only the introductory chapters, but no it was not. I cannot abide poor editing and grammar, regardless of the story. ...more

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Aug 21, 2014 Tess rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow! Once again I am amazed by Jason Gurley's writing, he really is one of the best.

The Settlers had me hooked from page one, right through until the very end. Loved this series. ...more

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Apr 19, 2020 Shh... One More Chapter rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

I didn't get very far, which is disappointing because the story had potential. I'm all for creative liberties, but you have to use basic punctuation. Without quotes, it's simply too hard to follow. ...more

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Sep 09, 2018 A Silent Bookworm (Jessica Parker) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: popsugar-reading-challenge-2018

This book takes place over the course of approximately 100 years. The story is about people migrating from a dying Earth to space stations. One space station becomes a sociological experiment (and not in a good way).

I have read more sci-fi books for this reading challenge than I have in my entire life combined. I took on the challenge to expand my horizons in different genres. I will say, though, it is books like this one, that are turning me off from the genre. While I did enjoy the story, the ...more

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Apr 22, 2018 Danny Corona rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Enjoyed the book

The way the stories were told and the main plot is still in the background, I enjoyed it. Though there was a lack of quotation marks, I was able to follow it just fine. I'm not sure if the author intended it or not, I haven't seen any evidence of it. Hope he sees all these reviews and give us an answer. ...more

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Sep 15, 2017 Anton rated it liked it · review of another edition

Just Ok

Sadly, the book failed to capture and hold my attention. Hard to explain why, but i didn't care about the characters, and there is no coherent plot. I liked the world setup though
...more

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Sep 18, 2017 C.M. Lee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Such a good book, looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy and following this world.
Jason Gurley has created an immersive world that draws you in and makes you invested in a character in a very short period of time. So good, I can't believe I had never read anything by him before. ...more

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Dec 02, 2017 Vic rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Thought provoking

I enjoyed the style of the story. How we found out about the world around the characters by what was happening to others and not necessarily directly to them. Yet other times it was direct action. A very different method of story telling.

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Jun 27, 2020 Lee Jenkinson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

While seemingly a little disjointed to me, this book nevertheless kept me hooked until the end. The scope of the story and the world it takes place in is satisfyingly large scale without sacrificing the characters dimensionality. Overall, a good read.

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Aug 31, 2020 Frederico Bianchini rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A story about humanity leaving a devastated Earth... But not only that, The Settlers tells little stories about people and their feelings around humans conquering space, immortality and their own humanity.

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Nov 16, 2020 Mr Frank Fitzpatrick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Good start but with some flaws

This was a decent read but it has flaws. It seems to jump about without reason especially the dialogue with his dead wife which I found distracting. Will try a sample of volume 2 and see how it goes.

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Feb 07, 2021 Corinne Hughes rated it liked it · review of another edition

I listened to this on Audible. It's a really fascinating structure for a sci-fi novel. It spans a long period of time from various perspectives that intertwine in very subtle ways. Over the course of time, we learn the ins and outs of this future world as rebellion brews. ...more

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Nov 12, 2016 Tiffany rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: i-give-up

I. Just. Can't! The conversations are immature at best. I can't connect with the characters. 1/3 of the way into the book, you should care about the story. I don't. Annoying. ...more

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Dec 22, 2017 Kavita Favelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

Classic sci-fi themes nicely handled and appealing characters too
An enjoyable book, some classic sci-fi themes nicely handled and appealing characters too.

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Jul 10, 2018 Brenda Worley rated it liked it · review of another edition

A little too archaic for me.

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Aug 30, 2018 Adam Mahler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Great series start

I really liked this book. The premise is interesting and I enjoyed the way the story was told and how it all unfolded.

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Jul 07, 2020 Ernest Burdett rated it liked it · review of another edition

Jumped around

It wasn't a bad book and it held my attention. It just just jumped around a lot and sometimes didn't seem to have a point. ...more

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About Jason Gurley

Jason Gurley

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Jason Gurley's bestselling self-published novel, Eleanor, was acquired by Crown Publishing and reissued in 2016. He's the author of Greatfall, The Man Who Ended the World, and other novels, among them Awake in the World, due in 2019 from Roaring Brook Press. He lives and writes in Scappoose, Oregon. ...more

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Quotes from The Settlers

“because when a person has a dream that they've dreamed of their whole life, and they don't get a single chance to accomplish it in the single life that belongs to them, they just sort of wither inside,” — 0 likes

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