What do you think?
Rate this book
Family Law #2
The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet
In the first book of this series "Family Law", Lee's parents and their business partner Gordon found a class A habitable planet. They thought their quest as explorers was over and they'd live a life of ease. But before they could return and register their claim Lee's parents died doing a survey of the surface. That left Lee two-thirds owner of the claim and their partner Gordon obligated by his word with her parents to raise Lee. She had grown up aboard ship with her uncle Gordon and he was the only family she'd ever known. Him adopting her was an obvious arrangement - to them. Other people didn't see it so clearly over the picky little fact Gordon wasn't human.
After finding prejudice and hostility on several worlds Lee was of the opinion planets might be nice to visit, but terrible places to live. She wanted back in space exploring. Fortunately Gordon was agreeable and the income from their discovery made outfitting an expedition possible. Lee wanted to go DEEP - out where it was entirely unknown and the potential prizes huge. After all, if they kept exploring tentatively they might run up against the border of some bold star faring race who had gobbled up all the best real estate. It wasn't hard to find others of a like mind for a really long voyage. This sequel to "Family Law" is the story of their incredible voyage.
After finding prejudice and hostility on several worlds Lee was of the opinion planets might be nice to visit, but terrible places to live. She wanted back in space exploring. Fortunately Gordon was agreeable and the income from their discovery made outfitting an expedition possible. Lee wanted to go DEEP - out where it was entirely unknown and the potential prizes huge. After all, if they kept exploring tentatively they might run up against the border of some bold star faring race who had gobbled up all the best real estate. It wasn't hard to find others of a like mind for a really long voyage. This sequel to "Family Law" is the story of their incredible voyage.
469 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 11, 2014
333 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Mackey Chandler
35 books219 followersMackey (Mac') Chandler is retired to Rochester Michigan from a working life that spanned a large number of occupations. Mold maker, aerospace machinist, plumber, mechanic and dozen more as well as owning several businesses. This life experience and travel show in the depth and variety of his writing.
A life long time reader of Science Fiction, the authors at Baen's Bar and their evening chat room motivated him to try his own hand at writing. His first effort was a short story titled "Common Ground" which sold to the short-lived Jim Baen's Universe.
His personal favorite book is "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Other favorite authors include Michael Z. Williamson and C.J.Cherryh.
A life long time reader of Science Fiction, the authors at Baen's Bar and their evening chat room motivated him to try his own hand at writing. His first effort was a short story titled "Common Ground" which sold to the short-lived Jim Baen's Universe.
His personal favorite book is "The Mote in God's Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Other favorite authors include Michael Z. Williamson and C.J.Cherryh.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
Read
October 3, 2023Rating: minus 5
It will be a joy to write a fuller, more thorough review of the first book of this series. I am mortified that I naively expected to be able to create a road map through the god awful drivel that are the bulk of Amazon science fiction. I did not imagine that any one of my reviews as one of hundreds or more of a title would interest anyone but I was so very mistaken. It was a challenge to return polite comments to juvenile, nasty and vicious comments from the (or so I had thought) mythical anti-socialist, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, fascistic, racist and cowardly snowflake.
I now understand that my responses encouraged my savage middle class fanboys to join the little comment bands for repeated attacks. I thought them an aberration for two years until I finally admitted that the lurkers (friends who monitor but never post) were organizing these little cohesive comment clouds. My mild replies had failed to deter the idiots caught in the fantasy of becoming the richest of capitalists solely by virtue of their ethnicity, US citizenship and gender, from increasing their attack comments. My advice to any reviewer is to let loose the dogs of war early, since only the flame of truth will cause these cowardly snowflakes to melt away.
Before I continue this chore, I will visit YouTube, which despite their habit of cheating creators of advertising revenue are still less toxic than this site. I consider myself a communist again. I had forgotten the value of that perspective but was reminded by both psychotic employees and poorly socialized Goodreads members. To think that they imagine themselves equal even to the average hamster (hamsters are cool).
This revision was made possible by YouTube channels - Sound of Music Flashmob, Second Thought, Jean's Thoughts, Up and Atom, Bookslike Whoa, The Juice Media, Bobbing Along, Ship Happens, Terrible Writing Advice, Fantasy and World Music by the Fletchers, Some More News, Verilybitchie, Owen Jones, Female Warriors - Teresatessa, Atun Shei, Beau of the Fifth Column, JohnTheDuncan, The Welsh Viking. The Lady of the Library, Philosophy Tube, The Good Place, 2 Cellos, Sarah Millican, Physics Girl, Gutsick Gibbon, Planarwalker, Dungeons and Discourse, Kidology, No Justice MTG, Siobahn McCarthy, Truth to Power, Lily Simpson, Kazachka, Michael Lambert, Honest Trailers, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Jessie Gender, Ukraine News TV, Mia Mulder, It's Black Friday, Engineering with Rosie, The Shades of Orange, Anton Petrov, Eleanor Morton, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Ren Rants, Rebecca Watson, Tom Nicholas, Ben and Emily, Vlad Vexler, Ro Ramdin, Smack the Pony, Perun, iWriterly, James Somerton, Quinn's Ideas, Sarah Z, Joe Scott, Joe Blogs, Abney Park.
The world building (often absence thereof) in low end US science fiction, tells the tale. The societies are fantastical constructions written as the usually overt political backbone for these books. They are always as insubstantial, incomplete and illogical as the poorly written fiction that require it. There will be no characters worth noting, obviously awful (usually actually juvenile) dialogue, a teenaged (I have ideas concerning that pivot) and/or female protagonist (I also have ideas about this) with the charisma of hair, the full blown narcissism and the sociopathy which the NeoNazi, libertarian or Neoliberal adore. These libertarian gems are arguably the worst in this regard, since they are based on a common racist and generally anti-human interpretation of modern society. Readers do appreciate characters with which they can identify. 🤗
There can be no plot beyond a series of faux challenges or loosely connected combat sequences. With that two week slog accomplished, the writer can turn attention to the edits. A jest. American science fiction at the low end does not do editing. The editors will only deliver the quality expected by the employer and the publishers select what is printed. Publishers seem really to love the poorly planned, badly written tale featuring the sociopathic protagonist and friends winning .... something.
The background universe of this series consists of government of ???? are bad, when they pay lip service to improving the lives of the masses. I do not remember details if any were given, which is doubtful. No details of these books are worth remembering and it has been proven scientifically that retention of details of these books will damage the brain. The lunar government by way of contrast is considered fabulous and it caters only to the wealthy. One wonders where and how workers live in the lunar paradise. Silly question really, since anyone of good moral fibre and proper ethnicity is by definition very rich and the rest are inconsequential. After all, those others are the lazy and only provide services or other labour. As I write this, it almost sounds that the writer has a political message and agenda. 🤔
As usual for these libertarian fantasies, there is only one character. This character is expert in every skill for every challenge that the plot demands. That she is fourteen and the book has not described the depth of any of her training, this character would not pass muster in Harry Potter. The arrogance and self-absorption of the character exceeds that of a real life teen. If this were a movie, I doubt whether any five-star reader of the book would go onto the internet railing against the "Woke Mary Sue". As Beau of the Fifth Column might say "It is just a thought".
The dialogue is so juvenile that writer and editor must both be exceptionally untalented or the writer's lack of talent was considered a plus by the publishing staff. That would seem to imply a serious political agenda with the "story" as vehicle not entertainment. It could explain the lack of reviews for these books and the excessive number of five-star ratings. If writing a review for these, there can only be mindless gushing or brutally negative criticism. Sometimes the quality of these readers seems as questionable as the books execrable.
This next bit is brought to you courtesy of Unresolved Textual Tension, Cruising Crafts, Spacedock, Bankrupt Media, Sci-Fi Odyssey, Lily Alexandre, With Olivia, Alt Shift X, TVP World, Kayak Dreadgirl KDG, Animarchy History, Cruising Alba, The Little Platoon, The Chloe Connection, The Kavernacle, Mom on the Spectrum, Ben and Emily, Ask a Mortician, Council of Geeks, Brandon F, Jackie Rabbit, Malinda, Eileen, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Lily Simpson, Artur Rehi, ThePrimeChronus, Kat Blacque, Pike and Shot Channel, It's Black Friday, Gemma Dyer, Bobbing Along, Space 1889, Hej Sokoly, Savage Daughter, Abbie Emmons, Hello Future Me, Chris and Shell, Lore Reloaded, Certifiably Ingame, Narrowboat Pirate, Living Anachronism.
It is a pleasant surprise to read aliens as a viable society. That is an uncommon experience but not as rare as non-American characters (or any characters, really) grounded in a complete and plausible societal structure, having a personal history, a personality or growth arc. It puzzles me still to see alien development being the only hint of imagination in his or other books. Many of these alien civilizations are copied from existing cultures, see Star Trek. Others are based on historical cultures with some differences in history and allowing for space travel capability. Done well in some cases and badly in others, see Star Wars. This will be the only true attempt at writing to be found in any low end US science fiction. All libertarian rubbish is by definition low end.
The aliens in these books are more fully developed characters than any of the humans. When the book forces you to compare, it is jarring. Shallow human characters, no development, no growth make the book a hard read. This late into the series, I know that the writer has successfully reached coasting phase and now has neither need nor intention to attempt better storytelling.
The use of female characters and teens especially probably has two functions. The first is to appeal to female reader teen fantasies. The writing is poor but the vision of the female character acting with agency, which is not common to science fiction sells the remainder of the book. The hyper-sexualized adult female characters described with the same anti-social personality traits as the teens, have been touted as examples of female empowerment in other media, so female reviewers may also rationalize these away. Were they to actually look at these lunar princesses, they may notice they do nothing except runway struts. They add nothing to the book but titillation for female and male reader alike. Though for different reasons.
"Black Chronicles" is another example of libertarian Girl Power. This type of teen character has less personality than most of these low end fiction characters. They are actually devoid of personality and usually stand out as more cardboard like, than the rest of their cast. They express almost no emotion, an inability to relate to others that belongs on the autism spectrum and are an emotional black hole around which all other characters orbit. Those books are a dry recitation of the main character's continuous achievements. She or he will be of humble origins as total backstory and the book or books will document the milestones of their incredibly perfect awesomeness. A reader who does not see the message there should probably not be reading this review.
Based on reviews, female readers seem to accept the sexualization of a fourteen year old because it does not register. Their vision is that of their younger self as adult so the paedophilic reality is not an issue. To the older male reader of a certain type, this is the libertarian and cult dream of the twelve year old sex partner.
Whether recognized consciously by readers or not, this element of the book has pornographic intent and yet was accepted by an editor, then printed by a publisher. I have seen this in a number of very popular "libertarian" books. Two sisters, twelve and fourteen are groomed by the father throughout the entire book to make babies with anonymous marines in Ringo's zombie series. Scan some of the negative reviews from female readers of Ringo's zombie "Dark skies", I think that is the title. I could not write a review because I was too shocked to finish the book or to write a review. Of course the same society host very sexualized beauty pageants for six year olds and has active marriage laws allowing for twelve year old brides. This may be American culture but is still very troubling. The books are trash but their purpose is to push the message and the ratings suggest it is working.
This section was brought you by YouTube channels - Contrapoints, DUST, Andrewism, May Moon Narrowboat, UATV, The Narrow boat that James built, Second Thought, Sarah Millican, Deerstalker Pictures, Emma Thorne, Munecat, Real Time History, Alexa Donne, Shannon Makes, J Draper, Shannon Makes, Bernadette Banner, The Templin Institute, Trae Crowder, The Closet Historian, The Clockwork Reader, OrangeRiver, Owen Jones, Art Deco, Dark Skies, Dark Docs, The Trans Atheist, Lives and Histories, Red Plateaus, Geo Girl, Gutsick Gibbon, Planarwalker, IzzzYzzz, Ukraine News TV, Between the Wars, Dominic Noble.
The libertarian dream for the working class "useful idiots" is the same as for the various flavours of white nationalist and Nazi. Being the right ethnicity and that does not include most white males, will immediately after the promised social upheaval raise them to the heights of great wealth. No social connections, no education, no family support required. In "Stellar Heritage" only white working class US males from the American Midwest or western rural areas are allowed join the orbital heaven. There are exceptions for a small number of wealthy Europeans and the odd wealthy Asian, presenting massive amounts of gold, though who collects the gold is never clear. They have never read the family story of Bezos, Gates, Musk or any other billionaire household. They do not plan to, lacking the stomach to face their reality. There must be a private school aphorism "Never underestimate the stupidly of the worker, as long as he has one crust of bread more than his neighbour".
The real libertarians divide society by class and operate from class interests. Taxes should be paid by the masses, there should be no interference involving any large corporations, dividends should not be taxed at the same rate as those of the little people, etc but governmental financial support should go to the "makers" for any project. Any major community damage from financial to environmental should be mitigated by the government.
Consider that according to the US government 100,000 yearly income is the 82nd percentile. The median income is about 67,000 - 62nd percentile of taxpayers. These are not princely sums. These lives are not important to billionaires, multimillionaires or corporations. A section of these 82% of the population believe that if they support lower taxes for billionaires, their own wealth will increase. When as in Britain, human waste is dumped into coastal waters and rivers, the excuse is that the poor shareholders need their dividends. 😀 There are many more examples but why bother.
That is all that need be said of any of these dreadful political rants posing as fiction. Honestly it no longer nauseates but instead bores me to write real reviews of badly written books. This is an example of standard US low end fiction, science and other, which comprise easily more than 85% of the Amazon catalogue. The low end comes in only three flavours: Marginally Serviceable; No Effort; Insulting. This series certainly fits Insulting. It can be expensive but it is probably better to buy the decent writers than borrow these. There are some available loan gems but they are rare. Ann Christy, Rachel Aaron, Jim Butcher are several and reading reviews with substance might help findng the rest.
I admit to watching more than reading fiction at the moment, especially science fiction. If I had dropped my attempts to read low end titles sooner, I might not have lost my taste for science fiction. The streaming services almost always provide better written entertainment. The DUST and Omeleto channels on YouTube reminded me how good short films are. It is a wonder to see a complete story, background universe, relatable characters, a challenge set and resolved regardless of outcome in ten minutes. There are good stories to be found in current science fiction but seldom on Amazon.
I began using YouTube first in search of science fiction recommendations. I found those, then educational video, essayist and lifestyle channels. I was overwhelmed by choice and finally stumbled upon the book channels. 😍 They host communities of readers who are curious, thoughtful and love the world of bookish things. I discovered the dedicated educational video sites through sponsor spots on educational channels. Nebula and the rest are all worth a look and moderately priced.
As for Goodreads discourse. About eighteen months ago, I wrote a very short negative review of Powers of the Earth, a badly written salute to the sociopathic January 6, 2021 hero by Travis Corcoran. He is a self-described libertarian and vocal advocate for the return of chattel slavery, a US veteran and supporter of Putin's Russia, an employee of an unnamed US agency. He and six friends spent a year writing comments from slavery is good because "white males created history" to "socialists will transport black Americans to Jamaican plantations".
Finally Claes Rees Jr/cgr710 wrote a comment claiming They had "won" (?). I investigated and with a little help, discovered that They had flooded channels which I mentioned with sick sexual and racist comments. They did not impress the cultural essayist, the astrophysicist, the model builder, the boating couple and the many other female creators but did broadcast the perfect self-portrait of the twisted middle class American man-child to a broad multinational audience. The increase to the world's overabundance of ugliness, probably counted as a victory. USA! Yay ??
My YouTube picks of the moment.
Red Plateaus, Well Deck Diaries, Brittany Page, No Lab Coat Required, Mia Mulder, Second Thought, Mandy, Gutsick Gibbon, AllShorts, Chris and Shell, Kiko10061980, Up and Atom, Owen Jones, Verilybitchie.
About Amazon/Goodreads. Please consider treating this as potentially hostile not just toxic site. 😐
Ominous music begins. 😊 The site has not just unpleasant members but also employees who will take action against customers with whose reviews they disagree. If interested in the lengths to which certain employees will go, see my review of "Dark Horse", a good novel by Diener, Powers of the Earth or Revelation by D Ward Cornell (two equally bad books).
My limited message history was shared with third parties intent on causing me harm. The harassment included inviting Australian Intelligence to interrogate a friend for my personal information. While Americans probably find that normal, my friend feared for my safety. Goodreads to the extent that they are a separate entity are part of Kindle. Any action taken by this site is Kindle generated and Amazon oversees customer security standards as well as satisfaction of which I have seen little.That might be something to think about.
Hopefully you will not find yourself targeted but I recommend several precautions. Minimise profile information, remove lurkers, remain wary of site messaging, do not use Kindle for calendar, email, etc, screenshot the odd and the ugly. Please bear in mind that your temporary immunity rests on the whims of very damaged, morally challenged man-children who are also very American. Ominous music ends. 😊
May we all discover Good Reading! 🤗
Some of my favourite YouTube channels.
TVP News, Lily Simpson, Joe Blogs, Ben and Emily, The Narrowboat that James built, Mia Mulder, Jake Broe, Munecat, Sarah Z, Depressed Russian, Weir on the Move, Chloe Stafler, Jessie Gender, Tara Mooknee, The Cynical Historian, Brandon F, Alt Shift X, The Nomadic Crobot, Quinn's Ideas, Books with Chloe, Elina Charatsidou, Real Engineering, Kate Robson, Lily Alexandre, Real Time History, What Vivi did next, Sophie From Mars, Savy Writes Books, Karolina Zebrowska, Snappy Dragon, Cover in French, J. Draper, Between the Wars, The Cold War, France 24, Alice Cappelle, Patrick is a Navajo, Jean's Thoughts, A Day of Small Things, 2Cellos, The Book Leo, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Alizee, The Belmarsh Conference, Jill Bearup, Bernadette Banner, Abby Cox, Abbie Emmons, Shelves with Samantha, Sabine Hossenfelder, Engineering with Rosie, The Black Forest Family, Jessie Gender, Truth to Power, Danni and Joe, Book Furnace, Mauler, Lady of the Library, Odyssey, Hello Future Me, Russian Dude, Renegade Cut, Some More News, Steve Shives, Mrs Betty Bowers, The Chloe Connection, iWriterly, Library Ladder, Eckharts Ladder, Historia Civilis, Natasha's Adventures, Lorna Jane Adventures, Tom Nicholas, Philosophy Tube, DW News, Adult Wednesday Addams -2 seasons, Travelling K, Nomadic Introvert, Kathy's Flog on France, Hailey in Bookland, Fortress of Lugh, Malinda, Eileen, Apostolic Majesty, Military History Visualized, Atun Shei, Terrible Writing Advice, Widebeam and Wellingtons, Cruising the Cut, Cruising Alba, May, Operator Starsky, Books and Lala, The Shades of Orange, Books with Emily Fox, Viva la Dirt League, Merphy Napier, Beau of the Fifth Column, Michael Lambert, Dan Davis History, Three Arrows, Lindsay Ellis, Kaz Rowe, Rebecca Watson.
I wish you a glorious morning, a fine afternoon, a pleasant evening, a splendid night and may we all continue learning.
The inability to know Empathy, is the inability to be Human.
Lore, Dark Sisters
It will be a joy to write a fuller, more thorough review of the first book of this series. I am mortified that I naively expected to be able to create a road map through the god awful drivel that are the bulk of Amazon science fiction. I did not imagine that any one of my reviews as one of hundreds or more of a title would interest anyone but I was so very mistaken. It was a challenge to return polite comments to juvenile, nasty and vicious comments from the (or so I had thought) mythical anti-socialist, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, fascistic, racist and cowardly snowflake.
I now understand that my responses encouraged my savage middle class fanboys to join the little comment bands for repeated attacks. I thought them an aberration for two years until I finally admitted that the lurkers (friends who monitor but never post) were organizing these little cohesive comment clouds. My mild replies had failed to deter the idiots caught in the fantasy of becoming the richest of capitalists solely by virtue of their ethnicity, US citizenship and gender, from increasing their attack comments. My advice to any reviewer is to let loose the dogs of war early, since only the flame of truth will cause these cowardly snowflakes to melt away.
Before I continue this chore, I will visit YouTube, which despite their habit of cheating creators of advertising revenue are still less toxic than this site. I consider myself a communist again. I had forgotten the value of that perspective but was reminded by both psychotic employees and poorly socialized Goodreads members. To think that they imagine themselves equal even to the average hamster (hamsters are cool).
This revision was made possible by YouTube channels - Sound of Music Flashmob, Second Thought, Jean's Thoughts, Up and Atom, Bookslike Whoa, The Juice Media, Bobbing Along, Ship Happens, Terrible Writing Advice, Fantasy and World Music by the Fletchers, Some More News, Verilybitchie, Owen Jones, Female Warriors - Teresatessa, Atun Shei, Beau of the Fifth Column, JohnTheDuncan, The Welsh Viking. The Lady of the Library, Philosophy Tube, The Good Place, 2 Cellos, Sarah Millican, Physics Girl, Gutsick Gibbon, Planarwalker, Dungeons and Discourse, Kidology, No Justice MTG, Siobahn McCarthy, Truth to Power, Lily Simpson, Kazachka, Michael Lambert, Honest Trailers, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Jessie Gender, Ukraine News TV, Mia Mulder, It's Black Friday, Engineering with Rosie, The Shades of Orange, Anton Petrov, Eleanor Morton, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Ren Rants, Rebecca Watson, Tom Nicholas, Ben and Emily, Vlad Vexler, Ro Ramdin, Smack the Pony, Perun, iWriterly, James Somerton, Quinn's Ideas, Sarah Z, Joe Scott, Joe Blogs, Abney Park.
The world building (often absence thereof) in low end US science fiction, tells the tale. The societies are fantastical constructions written as the usually overt political backbone for these books. They are always as insubstantial, incomplete and illogical as the poorly written fiction that require it. There will be no characters worth noting, obviously awful (usually actually juvenile) dialogue, a teenaged (I have ideas concerning that pivot) and/or female protagonist (I also have ideas about this) with the charisma of hair, the full blown narcissism and the sociopathy which the NeoNazi, libertarian or Neoliberal adore. These libertarian gems are arguably the worst in this regard, since they are based on a common racist and generally anti-human interpretation of modern society. Readers do appreciate characters with which they can identify. 🤗
There can be no plot beyond a series of faux challenges or loosely connected combat sequences. With that two week slog accomplished, the writer can turn attention to the edits. A jest. American science fiction at the low end does not do editing. The editors will only deliver the quality expected by the employer and the publishers select what is printed. Publishers seem really to love the poorly planned, badly written tale featuring the sociopathic protagonist and friends winning .... something.
The background universe of this series consists of government of ???? are bad, when they pay lip service to improving the lives of the masses. I do not remember details if any were given, which is doubtful. No details of these books are worth remembering and it has been proven scientifically that retention of details of these books will damage the brain. The lunar government by way of contrast is considered fabulous and it caters only to the wealthy. One wonders where and how workers live in the lunar paradise. Silly question really, since anyone of good moral fibre and proper ethnicity is by definition very rich and the rest are inconsequential. After all, those others are the lazy and only provide services or other labour. As I write this, it almost sounds that the writer has a political message and agenda. 🤔
As usual for these libertarian fantasies, there is only one character. This character is expert in every skill for every challenge that the plot demands. That she is fourteen and the book has not described the depth of any of her training, this character would not pass muster in Harry Potter. The arrogance and self-absorption of the character exceeds that of a real life teen. If this were a movie, I doubt whether any five-star reader of the book would go onto the internet railing against the "Woke Mary Sue". As Beau of the Fifth Column might say "It is just a thought".
The dialogue is so juvenile that writer and editor must both be exceptionally untalented or the writer's lack of talent was considered a plus by the publishing staff. That would seem to imply a serious political agenda with the "story" as vehicle not entertainment. It could explain the lack of reviews for these books and the excessive number of five-star ratings. If writing a review for these, there can only be mindless gushing or brutally negative criticism. Sometimes the quality of these readers seems as questionable as the books execrable.
This next bit is brought to you courtesy of Unresolved Textual Tension, Cruising Crafts, Spacedock, Bankrupt Media, Sci-Fi Odyssey, Lily Alexandre, With Olivia, Alt Shift X, TVP World, Kayak Dreadgirl KDG, Animarchy History, Cruising Alba, The Little Platoon, The Chloe Connection, The Kavernacle, Mom on the Spectrum, Ben and Emily, Ask a Mortician, Council of Geeks, Brandon F, Jackie Rabbit, Malinda, Eileen, Don't F@ck with Ukraine, Lily Simpson, Artur Rehi, ThePrimeChronus, Kat Blacque, Pike and Shot Channel, It's Black Friday, Gemma Dyer, Bobbing Along, Space 1889, Hej Sokoly, Savage Daughter, Abbie Emmons, Hello Future Me, Chris and Shell, Lore Reloaded, Certifiably Ingame, Narrowboat Pirate, Living Anachronism.
It is a pleasant surprise to read aliens as a viable society. That is an uncommon experience but not as rare as non-American characters (or any characters, really) grounded in a complete and plausible societal structure, having a personal history, a personality or growth arc. It puzzles me still to see alien development being the only hint of imagination in his or other books. Many of these alien civilizations are copied from existing cultures, see Star Trek. Others are based on historical cultures with some differences in history and allowing for space travel capability. Done well in some cases and badly in others, see Star Wars. This will be the only true attempt at writing to be found in any low end US science fiction. All libertarian rubbish is by definition low end.
The aliens in these books are more fully developed characters than any of the humans. When the book forces you to compare, it is jarring. Shallow human characters, no development, no growth make the book a hard read. This late into the series, I know that the writer has successfully reached coasting phase and now has neither need nor intention to attempt better storytelling.
The use of female characters and teens especially probably has two functions. The first is to appeal to female reader teen fantasies. The writing is poor but the vision of the female character acting with agency, which is not common to science fiction sells the remainder of the book. The hyper-sexualized adult female characters described with the same anti-social personality traits as the teens, have been touted as examples of female empowerment in other media, so female reviewers may also rationalize these away. Were they to actually look at these lunar princesses, they may notice they do nothing except runway struts. They add nothing to the book but titillation for female and male reader alike. Though for different reasons.
"Black Chronicles" is another example of libertarian Girl Power. This type of teen character has less personality than most of these low end fiction characters. They are actually devoid of personality and usually stand out as more cardboard like, than the rest of their cast. They express almost no emotion, an inability to relate to others that belongs on the autism spectrum and are an emotional black hole around which all other characters orbit. Those books are a dry recitation of the main character's continuous achievements. She or he will be of humble origins as total backstory and the book or books will document the milestones of their incredibly perfect awesomeness. A reader who does not see the message there should probably not be reading this review.
Based on reviews, female readers seem to accept the sexualization of a fourteen year old because it does not register. Their vision is that of their younger self as adult so the paedophilic reality is not an issue. To the older male reader of a certain type, this is the libertarian and cult dream of the twelve year old sex partner.
Whether recognized consciously by readers or not, this element of the book has pornographic intent and yet was accepted by an editor, then printed by a publisher. I have seen this in a number of very popular "libertarian" books. Two sisters, twelve and fourteen are groomed by the father throughout the entire book to make babies with anonymous marines in Ringo's zombie series. Scan some of the negative reviews from female readers of Ringo's zombie "Dark skies", I think that is the title. I could not write a review because I was too shocked to finish the book or to write a review. Of course the same society host very sexualized beauty pageants for six year olds and has active marriage laws allowing for twelve year old brides. This may be American culture but is still very troubling. The books are trash but their purpose is to push the message and the ratings suggest it is working.
This section was brought you by YouTube channels - Contrapoints, DUST, Andrewism, May Moon Narrowboat, UATV, The Narrow boat that James built, Second Thought, Sarah Millican, Deerstalker Pictures, Emma Thorne, Munecat, Real Time History, Alexa Donne, Shannon Makes, J Draper, Shannon Makes, Bernadette Banner, The Templin Institute, Trae Crowder, The Closet Historian, The Clockwork Reader, OrangeRiver, Owen Jones, Art Deco, Dark Skies, Dark Docs, The Trans Atheist, Lives and Histories, Red Plateaus, Geo Girl, Gutsick Gibbon, Planarwalker, IzzzYzzz, Ukraine News TV, Between the Wars, Dominic Noble.
The libertarian dream for the working class "useful idiots" is the same as for the various flavours of white nationalist and Nazi. Being the right ethnicity and that does not include most white males, will immediately after the promised social upheaval raise them to the heights of great wealth. No social connections, no education, no family support required. In "Stellar Heritage" only white working class US males from the American Midwest or western rural areas are allowed join the orbital heaven. There are exceptions for a small number of wealthy Europeans and the odd wealthy Asian, presenting massive amounts of gold, though who collects the gold is never clear. They have never read the family story of Bezos, Gates, Musk or any other billionaire household. They do not plan to, lacking the stomach to face their reality. There must be a private school aphorism "Never underestimate the stupidly of the worker, as long as he has one crust of bread more than his neighbour".
The real libertarians divide society by class and operate from class interests. Taxes should be paid by the masses, there should be no interference involving any large corporations, dividends should not be taxed at the same rate as those of the little people, etc but governmental financial support should go to the "makers" for any project. Any major community damage from financial to environmental should be mitigated by the government.
Consider that according to the US government 100,000 yearly income is the 82nd percentile. The median income is about 67,000 - 62nd percentile of taxpayers. These are not princely sums. These lives are not important to billionaires, multimillionaires or corporations. A section of these 82% of the population believe that if they support lower taxes for billionaires, their own wealth will increase. When as in Britain, human waste is dumped into coastal waters and rivers, the excuse is that the poor shareholders need their dividends. 😀 There are many more examples but why bother.
That is all that need be said of any of these dreadful political rants posing as fiction. Honestly it no longer nauseates but instead bores me to write real reviews of badly written books. This is an example of standard US low end fiction, science and other, which comprise easily more than 85% of the Amazon catalogue. The low end comes in only three flavours: Marginally Serviceable; No Effort; Insulting. This series certainly fits Insulting. It can be expensive but it is probably better to buy the decent writers than borrow these. There are some available loan gems but they are rare. Ann Christy, Rachel Aaron, Jim Butcher are several and reading reviews with substance might help findng the rest.
I admit to watching more than reading fiction at the moment, especially science fiction. If I had dropped my attempts to read low end titles sooner, I might not have lost my taste for science fiction. The streaming services almost always provide better written entertainment. The DUST and Omeleto channels on YouTube reminded me how good short films are. It is a wonder to see a complete story, background universe, relatable characters, a challenge set and resolved regardless of outcome in ten minutes. There are good stories to be found in current science fiction but seldom on Amazon.
I began using YouTube first in search of science fiction recommendations. I found those, then educational video, essayist and lifestyle channels. I was overwhelmed by choice and finally stumbled upon the book channels. 😍 They host communities of readers who are curious, thoughtful and love the world of bookish things. I discovered the dedicated educational video sites through sponsor spots on educational channels. Nebula and the rest are all worth a look and moderately priced.
As for Goodreads discourse. About eighteen months ago, I wrote a very short negative review of Powers of the Earth, a badly written salute to the sociopathic January 6, 2021 hero by Travis Corcoran. He is a self-described libertarian and vocal advocate for the return of chattel slavery, a US veteran and supporter of Putin's Russia, an employee of an unnamed US agency. He and six friends spent a year writing comments from slavery is good because "white males created history" to "socialists will transport black Americans to Jamaican plantations".
Finally Claes Rees Jr/cgr710 wrote a comment claiming They had "won" (?). I investigated and with a little help, discovered that They had flooded channels which I mentioned with sick sexual and racist comments. They did not impress the cultural essayist, the astrophysicist, the model builder, the boating couple and the many other female creators but did broadcast the perfect self-portrait of the twisted middle class American man-child to a broad multinational audience. The increase to the world's overabundance of ugliness, probably counted as a victory. USA! Yay ??
My YouTube picks of the moment.
Red Plateaus, Well Deck Diaries, Brittany Page, No Lab Coat Required, Mia Mulder, Second Thought, Mandy, Gutsick Gibbon, AllShorts, Chris and Shell, Kiko10061980, Up and Atom, Owen Jones, Verilybitchie.
About Amazon/Goodreads. Please consider treating this as potentially hostile not just toxic site. 😐
Ominous music begins. 😊 The site has not just unpleasant members but also employees who will take action against customers with whose reviews they disagree. If interested in the lengths to which certain employees will go, see my review of "Dark Horse", a good novel by Diener, Powers of the Earth or Revelation by D Ward Cornell (two equally bad books).
My limited message history was shared with third parties intent on causing me harm. The harassment included inviting Australian Intelligence to interrogate a friend for my personal information. While Americans probably find that normal, my friend feared for my safety. Goodreads to the extent that they are a separate entity are part of Kindle. Any action taken by this site is Kindle generated and Amazon oversees customer security standards as well as satisfaction of which I have seen little.That might be something to think about.
Hopefully you will not find yourself targeted but I recommend several precautions. Minimise profile information, remove lurkers, remain wary of site messaging, do not use Kindle for calendar, email, etc, screenshot the odd and the ugly. Please bear in mind that your temporary immunity rests on the whims of very damaged, morally challenged man-children who are also very American. Ominous music ends. 😊
May we all discover Good Reading! 🤗
Some of my favourite YouTube channels.
TVP News, Lily Simpson, Joe Blogs, Ben and Emily, The Narrowboat that James built, Mia Mulder, Jake Broe, Munecat, Sarah Z, Depressed Russian, Weir on the Move, Chloe Stafler, Jessie Gender, Tara Mooknee, The Cynical Historian, Brandon F, Alt Shift X, The Nomadic Crobot, Quinn's Ideas, Books with Chloe, Elina Charatsidou, Real Engineering, Kate Robson, Lily Alexandre, Real Time History, What Vivi did next, Sophie From Mars, Savy Writes Books, Karolina Zebrowska, Snappy Dragon, Cover in French, J. Draper, Between the Wars, The Cold War, France 24, Alice Cappelle, Patrick is a Navajo, Jean's Thoughts, A Day of Small Things, 2Cellos, The Book Leo, Overly Sarcastic Productions, Alizee, The Belmarsh Conference, Jill Bearup, Bernadette Banner, Abby Cox, Abbie Emmons, Shelves with Samantha, Sabine Hossenfelder, Engineering with Rosie, The Black Forest Family, Jessie Gender, Truth to Power, Danni and Joe, Book Furnace, Mauler, Lady of the Library, Odyssey, Hello Future Me, Russian Dude, Renegade Cut, Some More News, Steve Shives, Mrs Betty Bowers, The Chloe Connection, iWriterly, Library Ladder, Eckharts Ladder, Historia Civilis, Natasha's Adventures, Lorna Jane Adventures, Tom Nicholas, Philosophy Tube, DW News, Adult Wednesday Addams -2 seasons, Travelling K, Nomadic Introvert, Kathy's Flog on France, Hailey in Bookland, Fortress of Lugh, Malinda, Eileen, Apostolic Majesty, Military History Visualized, Atun Shei, Terrible Writing Advice, Widebeam and Wellingtons, Cruising the Cut, Cruising Alba, May, Operator Starsky, Books and Lala, The Shades of Orange, Books with Emily Fox, Viva la Dirt League, Merphy Napier, Beau of the Fifth Column, Michael Lambert, Dan Davis History, Three Arrows, Lindsay Ellis, Kaz Rowe, Rebecca Watson.
I wish you a glorious morning, a fine afternoon, a pleasant evening, a splendid night and may we all continue learning.
The inability to know Empathy, is the inability to be Human.
Lore, Dark Sisters
June 6, 2022
Slow beginning but over all a good read!
June 2, 2019
Four and a half stars. It is hard not to compare this to "Family Law" since both books are part of the same series and by the same author. This is not nearly as ground breaking as the first book and many of the new characters are not nearly so fully developed. There were also many more typos than in "Family Law". It felt a little just a bit rushed; as a new fan of Chandler's work I can appreciate the hurry but it does show.
The few negatives aside; this was a great, fun read. Our characters go on a mission to explore deep space and make first contact a couple times over. It is well done even if 'first contact' stories are fairly common in sci-fi. It isn't often when I look up from my book and have to take a moment to realize that there won't be an intelligent grizzly bear looking over my shoulder, that is how good Chandler is at creating a believable universe with believable characters. This may not be considered great literature, but it was so good that I forgot to eat a couple times...
Update: 5.23.2015
In the hopes that Family Law #3 will be out soon I reread this and still enjoyed it very much. Chandler has been reworking a number of his works, and I was hoping the text this time would be a little cleaner. If it was, I sure didn't notice. Still many misused and a few miss-spelled words.
The few negatives aside; this was a great, fun read. Our characters go on a mission to explore deep space and make first contact a couple times over. It is well done even if 'first contact' stories are fairly common in sci-fi. It isn't often when I look up from my book and have to take a moment to realize that there won't be an intelligent grizzly bear looking over my shoulder, that is how good Chandler is at creating a believable universe with believable characters. This may not be considered great literature, but it was so good that I forgot to eat a couple times...
Update: 5.23.2015
In the hopes that Family Law #3 will be out soon I reread this and still enjoyed it very much. Chandler has been reworking a number of his works, and I was hoping the text this time would be a little cleaner. If it was, I sure didn't notice. Still many misused and a few miss-spelled words.
January 10, 2022
Very good! I am really enjoying this series!
October 5, 2023
A good continuation of the story line. The connection between me and the main characters still remains at arms length and whatever it takes for an author to make the connection hasn't happened.
The science fiction elements of the story are wonderful and that's why I've continued. This book had a lot happening, and it ended with parts unresolved, so I will have to listen to book 3 eventually - already purchased the third audio book of this series.
However, I have decided a re-listen to a book from a favorite UF series is preferred (Rivers of London) where there's more of a character connection and enjoyable narration with unique character voices.
The science fiction elements of the story are wonderful and that's why I've continued. This book had a lot happening, and it ended with parts unresolved, so I will have to listen to book 3 eventually - already purchased the third audio book of this series.
However, I have decided a re-listen to a book from a favorite UF series is preferred (Rivers of London) where there's more of a character connection and enjoyable narration with unique character voices.
June 24, 2022
While this story included several explorations of different political structures and the associated philosophies, similar to the first book, there was something important missing - Lee! For the first 2/3 of the story, she pops in here or there with a quip or a suggestion, and for the latter part she spends all her time with the most human-like alien they encounter.
Other reviews indicate that Lee does not return to prominence, so I won't be reading them.
Other reviews indicate that Lee does not return to prominence, so I won't be reading them.
November 19, 2021
New Wonders and New Friends
This is the second book in a continuing series and the first book needs to be read before this book can be appreciated. The story ends at a natural break, however it is not finished at the end of this book and you’ll want to know what happens next, but at least that book is already available. The complete reading order for this series and the connected series 'April' is given here.
Lee wanted to go on a voyage deep into the unknown and thankfully Gordon and enough other people want to join that endeavour. After buying two of the ships Gordon ‘claimed’ in the last war, from the Derf, their now three-strong fleet are going with others who want to benefit from their discoveries. This is a commercial enterprise but both the Fargoers and Red Tree Clan from Derf are sending people who can speak in an official capacity for their governments. Whilst the mission may be principally trade, there will be opportunity for politics too.
Within a few months they have managed to score some vastly rich mining areas that will make everyone on the expedition rich beyond belief. Then they meet their first intelligent life and things become a little more tricky.
I am enjoying this series tremendously. Though this book feels less personally and immediately perilous for Lee and Gordon there is a little low level hum of anxiety about their safety. I love the imagination the author has about what they encounter on their journey, both the places and the species they come up against, along with foreign cultures that they have to understand in order to communicate and trade with.
Lee seems to be growing more mature in this book as she is less naive and a little older at 14 years old. She is becoming more aware of her standing as a woman of great wealth and knowing that with great wealth comes the opportunity to change things in a positive way for others if she can just work out how to do it. She continues to be curious, friendly and open, though she’s considering whether being sneaky ever has merit in certain situations.
Gordon has achieved a great level of respect amongst the members of his ‘Little Fleet’ as it has become known. His accomplishments in the war with USNA have become legendary incredibly fast. Because of his ability to sneak attack and manipulate situations he is held in a position of respect, along with a healthy dose of fear. He has grown into his position of commander and he reminds me of his father William who we only briefly got to know in the last book.
I love how we get to know lots of new characters in this book. There are those on the journey with them, but also those we meet along the way. I really enjoy how different species find things in common despite their differences, both physical and cultural.
As this series is nowhere near done, I’m really looking forward to reading the next book.
This is the second book in a continuing series and the first book needs to be read before this book can be appreciated. The story ends at a natural break, however it is not finished at the end of this book and you’ll want to know what happens next, but at least that book is already available. The complete reading order for this series and the connected series 'April' is given here.
Lee wanted to go on a voyage deep into the unknown and thankfully Gordon and enough other people want to join that endeavour. After buying two of the ships Gordon ‘claimed’ in the last war, from the Derf, their now three-strong fleet are going with others who want to benefit from their discoveries. This is a commercial enterprise but both the Fargoers and Red Tree Clan from Derf are sending people who can speak in an official capacity for their governments. Whilst the mission may be principally trade, there will be opportunity for politics too.
Within a few months they have managed to score some vastly rich mining areas that will make everyone on the expedition rich beyond belief. Then they meet their first intelligent life and things become a little more tricky.
I am enjoying this series tremendously. Though this book feels less personally and immediately perilous for Lee and Gordon there is a little low level hum of anxiety about their safety. I love the imagination the author has about what they encounter on their journey, both the places and the species they come up against, along with foreign cultures that they have to understand in order to communicate and trade with.
Lee seems to be growing more mature in this book as she is less naive and a little older at 14 years old. She is becoming more aware of her standing as a woman of great wealth and knowing that with great wealth comes the opportunity to change things in a positive way for others if she can just work out how to do it. She continues to be curious, friendly and open, though she’s considering whether being sneaky ever has merit in certain situations.
Gordon has achieved a great level of respect amongst the members of his ‘Little Fleet’ as it has become known. His accomplishments in the war with USNA have become legendary incredibly fast. Because of his ability to sneak attack and manipulate situations he is held in a position of respect, along with a healthy dose of fear. He has grown into his position of commander and he reminds me of his father William who we only briefly got to know in the last book.
I love how we get to know lots of new characters in this book. There are those on the journey with them, but also those we meet along the way. I really enjoy how different species find things in common despite their differences, both physical and cultural.
As this series is nowhere near done, I’m really looking forward to reading the next book.
October 3, 2021
The aliens are interesting, as is the plotting. That said, I have three objections:
1: Lee comes across as a bit too perfect and good at everything even though she is 14.
2: The author is clearly a Libertarian old white guy who thinks he has it all figured out and is smarter than most people, and it makes the authorial voice come across as condescending. Additionally, the characters sort of blend together at times because they feel like a mouthpiece for personal views.
3: I feel very weird that, at the end, adolescent Lee is being heavily encouraged to hook up with a guy more than a hundred years older, as though that isn’t super creepy.
1: Lee comes across as a bit too perfect and good at everything even though she is 14.
2: The author is clearly a Libertarian old white guy who thinks he has it all figured out and is smarter than most people, and it makes the authorial voice come across as condescending. Additionally, the characters sort of blend together at times because they feel like a mouthpiece for personal views.
3: I feel very weird that, at the end, adolescent Lee is being heavily encouraged to hook up with a guy more than a hundred years older, as though that isn’t super creepy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2014
Long Voyage of the Little Fleet, is just as much fun as Family Law. The characters are warmly realized, with flaws, motivations, and weaknesses that make them sympathetic and heroic at times. The science of exploration, and economics, is explored in depth, which for me really makes the whole thing seem real. This is a world I'd love to live in. It's not perfect, but it feels REAL.
September 30, 2017
Great story! Horrible editing!
Another great story! Lee has a smaller art in thisbook but all the characters are fun.
But the editing is pitiful. It's definitely worth editing and re-releasing.
Another great story! Lee has a smaller art in thisbook but all the characters are fun.
But the editing is pitiful. It's definitely worth editing and re-releasing.
June 29, 2018
This was a very good book. It's not the same as the first book, in that there's more exploration, more alien negotiations, more alien races, more planets, and even more political maneuverings, but that is the very thing that makes it interesting. We get to see Lee grow as a person and as a fleet (dare I say commander?), not exactly, but close enough. Gordon plays a major role as well, and while there's much fewer earth interaction, we get to see lots of planetary systems, including those we already know, as well as a goodly number of new ones. Alien claim systems are discovered, and I was (slightly) disappointed we didn't get to solve some of the mysteries presented here, but I'm told there will be more books in the series, so I for one am very excited to hear that. This has some combat, but it's not primarily a combat oriented story, so those who love their space opera to be loaded down with ship to ship battles won't be left out, but they may not be as happy with this book as they might otherwise be with something like Honor Harrington volumes. On the other hand, there's a whole lot here to love, and the width and depth of the story is absolutely amazing. I read the audio version, and while the narrator does a pretty good job, I'm not convinced this one was handled as well as the first book. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable read, and I'll likely stick with this format for future books in the series. If you're a fan of world building, and discovery, then you'll have plenty in this story to sink your teeth into. I was disappointed the story ended where it did, but it had to end somewhere, and it doesn't drop you off in the middle of a climactic scene like so many authors like to do, so definitely points for that. These books work well as standalone books too, so if you don't have the first one in the series, you'll be missing some of the background, but you won't have any major obstacles to your enjoyment of the story, and that's the way a book should be. Highly recommended to anyone who likes their science fiction well rounded, there's a little bit of everything here, and should appeal to a wide range of readers. It does slow down at parts, but it never gets boring in the least, and there's plenty of left over questions for future books to be just as exciting.
October 9, 2017
In the first book in this series the author created an interesting young female main character, but for the first third of this book she is only a ‘bit part’ player. He did the same in the April books, where she was the most interesting character, but he eventually relegated her to a minor role.
I‘m afraid this did annoy me and coloured my view of the first half of the book.
The story starts quite slowly and I must admit I was getting quite bored. The first quarter was just jumping from one system to the next with very little happening.
Eventually they meet the ’Badgers’ and the story picks up a little, with Lee becoming more prominent. The negotiations with the ’Badgers’ and the conflict with the ’Biters’ were quite interesting for a while, but the book did begin to drag and I found myself skipping pages. Unfortunately the story just petered out and I thought the ending was very unsatisfactory.
I‘m afraid this did annoy me and coloured my view of the first half of the book.
The story starts quite slowly and I must admit I was getting quite bored. The first quarter was just jumping from one system to the next with very little happening.
Eventually they meet the ’Badgers’ and the story picks up a little, with Lee becoming more prominent. The negotiations with the ’Badgers’ and the conflict with the ’Biters’ were quite interesting for a while, but the book did begin to drag and I found myself skipping pages. Unfortunately the story just petered out and I thought the ending was very unsatisfactory.
November 15, 2019
After Family Law, this was a bit of a disappointment. Given that (most of) the aliens discovered were good additions to the story line, I grew weary of the explorer ships jumping from one star system to another to another ad nauseam, and almost gave up a third of the way through the book. And as with the 1st book, I took umbrage to a young teen girl drinking alcoholic beverages without any overt reactions from her companions. Unfortunately, the editing did not improve with the 2nd book; maybe that’s a built-in penalty for the readers of self-published books. The characters, particularly the starship crews could have been developed more fully, and no attempt was made to determine the aliens’ names for their kind; the explorers just named them Biters, Badgers, Bills, Sasquatch, etc. which does not seem to be the way to win friends and influence “people.” Hopefully the 3rd book will have more to offer.
November 30, 2021
Chandler, Mackey. The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet. Family Law No. 2. Kindle, 2014.
I am a fan of stories that speculate about the possibilities of interstellar commerce. I enjoyed the first volume of Mackey Chandler’s Family Law series in which Lee, the orphaned daughter of a planet exploring parents, is adopted by her alien crewmate, Gordon. Together they market their find on Gordon’s home world and wrestle with the bureaucracies of Earth. In The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet, Gordon and Lee launch an exploratory mission on a larger scale. There are aliens aplenty, both in their multispecies fleet and in the new sectors of the galaxy they explore. The main strength of the novel is following the characters as they work to establish trading relationships with species with whom it is very difficult to communicate. Will they like coffee or find it disgusting? All this is fun, but I think Chandler misses a bet by making Gordon rather than Lee the central character. 3.5 stars.
I am a fan of stories that speculate about the possibilities of interstellar commerce. I enjoyed the first volume of Mackey Chandler’s Family Law series in which Lee, the orphaned daughter of a planet exploring parents, is adopted by her alien crewmate, Gordon. Together they market their find on Gordon’s home world and wrestle with the bureaucracies of Earth. In The Long Voyage of the Little Fleet, Gordon and Lee launch an exploratory mission on a larger scale. There are aliens aplenty, both in their multispecies fleet and in the new sectors of the galaxy they explore. The main strength of the novel is following the characters as they work to establish trading relationships with species with whom it is very difficult to communicate. Will they like coffee or find it disgusting? All this is fun, but I think Chandler misses a bet by making Gordon rather than Lee the central character. 3.5 stars.
May 18, 2023
Overall very enjoyable with interesting cultures and worlds and space travel. The technology levels were reasonably explained if a bit fantastical.
But:
-There were quite a few typos.
-The story felt too contrived. The 14 year old protagonist would state a thing and it would happen. We haven’t met any new aliens in a while? The only possible reason would be the first one the MC came up with. And the events she predicted would occur very quickly after everyone else starts taking her advice. Everything worked itself out pretty quickly and at no point was I really worried about anything.
-Everything felt too simplistic. Who is good vs who is evil. What is just and right vs wrong. Etc.
Ultimately, this is a slow cotton candy read for me. Nothing particularly novel or thought provoking, but a happy ending is guaranteed.
But:
-There were quite a few typos.
-The story felt too contrived. The 14 year old protagonist would state a thing and it would happen. We haven’t met any new aliens in a while? The only possible reason would be the first one the MC came up with. And the events she predicted would occur very quickly after everyone else starts taking her advice. Everything worked itself out pretty quickly and at no point was I really worried about anything.
-Everything felt too simplistic. Who is good vs who is evil. What is just and right vs wrong. Etc.
Ultimately, this is a slow cotton candy read for me. Nothing particularly novel or thought provoking, but a happy ending is guaranteed.
September 5, 2017
Sucked right in (possible spoilers)
I've been reading speculative fiction for decades. Some brilliant, some not so much. This series has been a treasure so far.
This book is a much slower read than the first, with good reason.
They found four space faring species. One with whom they find much in common. There is a great deal of learning of cultures. One species so authoritarian it was not worth contact. Two allied species of the friendly first contact species. Finally a mystery species we have much to learn of as yet.
The characterization is a delight. The politics are fascinating.
I've been reading speculative fiction for decades. Some brilliant, some not so much. This series has been a treasure so far.
This book is a much slower read than the first, with good reason.
They found four space faring species. One with whom they find much in common. There is a great deal of learning of cultures. One species so authoritarian it was not worth contact. Two allied species of the friendly first contact species. Finally a mystery species we have much to learn of as yet.
The characterization is a delight. The politics are fascinating.
October 28, 2022
Very Good read as expected
I am invested in the story Series, and I am anxious to see what happens next.
I do hope some new boots are published for the prior April Series
I have not been satisfied fully and I have a greater appetite for more April SERIES BOOKS than I thought I would.
Thanks for another good read and Kindle Assisted Reader which I used to read the book to me while I worked on other jobs around the house.
I am invested in the story Series, and I am anxious to see what happens next.
I do hope some new boots are published for the prior April Series
I have not been satisfied fully and I have a greater appetite for more April SERIES BOOKS than I thought I would.
Thanks for another good read and Kindle Assisted Reader which I used to read the book to me while I worked on other jobs around the house.
December 7, 2022
I liked the first one better, but this was good. Among other dubious things, it had old sayings that they used constantly during conversations teaching the aliens about them. Also, the Badgers were coincidentally much like the travelers. There were more major differences with the other beings, but there wasn't much about them. I'll be interested in how the advanced and completely different beings introduced toward the end of this book are developed in the next book.
November 22, 2024
About 25% in. Not certain I’m going to continue.
One review pointed out the author sounded like an Old White Guy™️ and I think that feels accurate. Gordon no longer seems anything other than a human in a fur suit. Ditto Thor.
If that’s designed to show the communality of all, okay, but it doesn’t really come across that way.
Also, I am not seeing the interpersonal interactions that were a highlight of Family Law. Lee is a construct, not a character.
One review pointed out the author sounded like an Old White Guy™️ and I think that feels accurate. Gordon no longer seems anything other than a human in a fur suit. Ditto Thor.
If that’s designed to show the communality of all, okay, but it doesn’t really come across that way.
Also, I am not seeing the interpersonal interactions that were a highlight of Family Law. Lee is a construct, not a character.
August 3, 2020
Laws and chit-chat
I think it moved too slowly. Too much character development, background, laws, chit-chat and not enough action. Flip-side of the same coin is some people LIKE chit-chat. Also, the story of meeting other life and intelligence are something like The Voyages of the Enterprise, which are fabulous. Customs, mores, and laws are examined in some detail.
I think it moved too slowly. Too much character development, background, laws, chit-chat and not enough action. Flip-side of the same coin is some people LIKE chit-chat. Also, the story of meeting other life and intelligence are something like The Voyages of the Enterprise, which are fabulous. Customs, mores, and laws are examined in some detail.
January 14, 2022
This kept my attention with good character development and believable technology. I thought that the reaction of characters to situations was better in this book than the first in the series. On the other hand it became difficult remembering which species/race the characters were by their names since there were so many.
October 14, 2025
Aliens with duck bills
Aliens with Duck bills build starships. Some authors in their zest to express the diversity of life go overboard. Consequently stretching the boundaries of suspension of belief too far. Thus I find myself midway through the book asking, "why am I reading this garbage?"
Aliens with Duck bills build starships. Some authors in their zest to express the diversity of life go overboard. Consequently stretching the boundaries of suspension of belief too far. Thus I find myself midway through the book asking, "why am I reading this garbage?"
October 30, 2017
Really enjoying this series
First, I love the pace of the story, there is time to develop the characters, supplies and infrastructure are believable, rather then ready instantly. It is hard to conceptualize that amount of wealth but I think the author handles it well.
First, I love the pace of the story, there is time to develop the characters, supplies and infrastructure are believable, rather then ready instantly. It is hard to conceptualize that amount of wealth but I think the author handles it well.
January 23, 2022
Very enjoyabe.
I enjoyed the story line and character development
ent. The meeting of new species and strategies for learning languages and culture can be used when meeting new people. I find it very thoughtful.
I enjoyed the story line and character development
ent. The meeting of new species and strategies for learning languages and culture can be used when meeting new people. I find it very thoughtful.
May 6, 2022
so much cool first contact
I love all the different species and trying to figure out how to do first contact. Same characters from the first book but they are in some new and very interesting scenarios. Lots of problem solving.
I love all the different species and trying to figure out how to do first contact. Same characters from the first book but they are in some new and very interesting scenarios. Lots of problem solving.
Read
May 18, 2025It's an actual real read of value in the line of the Dean of science fiction.
I refuse to give anything five stars. This is as good as I've read in years. It's science fiction. It's adventure,drama,critique of our humanity and praise for intelligence and veracity.
I refuse to give anything five stars. This is as good as I've read in years. It's science fiction. It's adventure,drama,critique of our humanity and praise for intelligence and veracity.
July 13, 2025
Book 2 in the series
Lee, Gordon, and the others put together a small fleet to explore and make claims for profit. They find themselves in several new situations with new species. A great story.
Lee, Gordon, and the others put together a small fleet to explore and make claims for profit. They find themselves in several new situations with new species. A great story.
August 30, 2025
Science fiction!!
The characters and how they interact makes me want to keep reading. The writing is well done and keeps the reader's interest. As a matter of fact when I finish this review I'll get the next book in the series. See you there!
The characters and how they interact makes me want to keep reading. The writing is well done and keeps the reader's interest. As a matter of fact when I finish this review I'll get the next book in the series. See you there!
August 28, 2018
Interesting
A great series so far , with great character development. Held my interest so much that I basically read it straight through.
A great series so far , with great character development. Held my interest so much that I basically read it straight through.
May 7, 2021
Not enough stars!!
Marvelous action and people! The humor was spot on and had me laughing. The different aliens were done very well.
Marvelous action and people! The humor was spot on and had me laughing. The different aliens were done very well.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews