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Stars of Charon
Scientists thought that nothing could survive the terraforming process. But when the chemical fires of creation swept across the surface of Eridani III, something survived. Elicio, a young man with twisted memories of alien lives long past rises from the ashes of the reforged world. With the fate of a colony in the balance, Eli is thrust into an adventure that takes him across the stars in a race to solve the mystery of his origins.
- GenresScience Fiction
298 pages, Paperback
First published June 11, 2014
11 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Sam Coulson
3 books6 followersSam is a mercenary wordsmith who has worked as a professional writer in a variety of professional industries from California to Virginia. Armed with a handful of degrees he earned from CalPoly (San Luis Obispo), and the University of Glasgow (Scotland, duh), he spends his free time writing fiction.
His first book, Stars of Charon, is part of a forthcoming four-book sci-fi adventure series.
His first book, Stars of Charon, is part of a forthcoming four-book sci-fi adventure series.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 6, 2018
"Stars of Charon" is one of those books I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it has an intriguing mystery at its core, and I found myself loving and rooting for its main character and being enthralled at some of the novel's concepts. On the other hand, there are some fairly cliche elements to the story, and the book was so littered with grammatical errors that I'm rather shocked it got past an editor (if it ever saw an editor at all). Still, I enjoyed this book despite the flaws, and found it told a multi-layered and entertaining story despite some of the cliches and errors.
Elicio wakes up on a planet that has just been terraformed for human habitation... which is shocking in and of itself, because no life forms are supposed to survive the terraforming process. With no memory of who he was before awakening, Elicio -- known as Eli -- must put his trust in the world's colonists, including the colony's no-nonsense leader and said leader's headstrong daughter Ju-lin. But when the colony comes under attack, Eli and Ju-lin must leave the planet to discover what's going on. In doing so, they will uncover not only a traitor within the colony's ranks, but a conspiracy that could have devastating repercussions for their world... and Eli will learn startling things about his own past and its link with the attack on the colony.
"Stars of Charon" feels like a homage to space operas of the past, such as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," and it does have some of the same tropes and cliches of those genres. You have your ultra-logical alien race and your honor-bound warrior alien race (Vulcans and Klingons anyone?), you have your trio of naive young man/headstrong leader's daughter/rogueish smuggler (Eli, Ju-Lin, and their eventual ally Loid are pretty much Luke, Leia, and Han in all but name), you have your ancient conspiracy linked to ancient precursor aliens (shades of Stargate)...
HOWEVER, having all these cliches and elements doesn't necessarily make a story fail, because I'm a firm believer in the fact that you can still tell a fresh new story with old elements -- just look at "Star Wars" itself. And while "Stars of Charon" liberally borrows elements from other sci-fi epics of the past, it melds them together to tell its own compelling story. I enjoyed seeing Eli grow as a character, and witnessing his journey towards uncovering his past and determining his future was very satisfying.
I still believe this book should have gotten a better editor, however. The author has a bad habit of splicing two sentences together with a comma, and some of the word choices and punctuation came across as weird to me. Good editing is just as important to a book as good storytelling, and sadly this book should have been edited better.
I'm disappointed to learn that the sequel to this book doesn't focus on Eli... but nonetheless, I quite enjoyed "Stars of Charon," and wish its author all the best in his future endeavors. He's built a fascinating universe and given us a compelling hero, and I'm curious to see where the author goes from here on out. Just get a better editor...
Elicio wakes up on a planet that has just been terraformed for human habitation... which is shocking in and of itself, because no life forms are supposed to survive the terraforming process. With no memory of who he was before awakening, Elicio -- known as Eli -- must put his trust in the world's colonists, including the colony's no-nonsense leader and said leader's headstrong daughter Ju-lin. But when the colony comes under attack, Eli and Ju-lin must leave the planet to discover what's going on. In doing so, they will uncover not only a traitor within the colony's ranks, but a conspiracy that could have devastating repercussions for their world... and Eli will learn startling things about his own past and its link with the attack on the colony.
"Stars of Charon" feels like a homage to space operas of the past, such as "Star Trek" and "Star Wars," and it does have some of the same tropes and cliches of those genres. You have your ultra-logical alien race and your honor-bound warrior alien race (Vulcans and Klingons anyone?), you have your trio of naive young man/headstrong leader's daughter/rogueish smuggler (Eli, Ju-Lin, and their eventual ally Loid are pretty much Luke, Leia, and Han in all but name), you have your ancient conspiracy linked to ancient precursor aliens (shades of Stargate)...
HOWEVER, having all these cliches and elements doesn't necessarily make a story fail, because I'm a firm believer in the fact that you can still tell a fresh new story with old elements -- just look at "Star Wars" itself. And while "Stars of Charon" liberally borrows elements from other sci-fi epics of the past, it melds them together to tell its own compelling story. I enjoyed seeing Eli grow as a character, and witnessing his journey towards uncovering his past and determining his future was very satisfying.
I still believe this book should have gotten a better editor, however. The author has a bad habit of splicing two sentences together with a comma, and some of the word choices and punctuation came across as weird to me. Good editing is just as important to a book as good storytelling, and sadly this book should have been edited better.
I'm disappointed to learn that the sequel to this book doesn't focus on Eli... but nonetheless, I quite enjoyed "Stars of Charon," and wish its author all the best in his future endeavors. He's built a fascinating universe and given us a compelling hero, and I'm curious to see where the author goes from here on out. Just get a better editor...
April 29, 2017
This is Coulson's debut novel, and it is certainly worth the read. Necessarily, because he is introducing a new world and new life forms, the first few chapters cover a lot and challenged my imagination, but soon the characters and plot jelled into a thoroughly satisfying story. Can't wait for book two in the series!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews