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Inherit the Stars
An epic debut set on the edges of space, where one botched job could mean death—or so much worse…
Wanderlust runs in Kivita Vondir’s blood. She dreamed of salvaging like her father when she was young, and now it’s her addiction, getting her through pit stops filled with cheap alcohol and cheaper companionship and distracting her from her broken heart.
Her latest contract to hunt down a fabled gemstone is exactly the kind of adventure she craves. But this job is more than meets the eye. For one thing, her duplicitous employer has hired rebel Sar Redryll—Kivita’s former lover—to stop her at any cost. For another, Kivita’s recovery of the relic unleashes in her powerful new abilities. Abilities that everyone in the Cetturo Arm—human, alien, and in-between—desperately wishes to control…
As she avoids a massive galactic manhunt, Kivita teams up with two unlikely allies: Sar and his enigmatic new partner. Only, as the gem’s mysteries are revealed and danger draws near, Kivita begins to wonder if her ex has truly changed, or if he’s just waiting for the right moment to betray her once again…
Wanderlust runs in Kivita Vondir’s blood. She dreamed of salvaging like her father when she was young, and now it’s her addiction, getting her through pit stops filled with cheap alcohol and cheaper companionship and distracting her from her broken heart.
Her latest contract to hunt down a fabled gemstone is exactly the kind of adventure she craves. But this job is more than meets the eye. For one thing, her duplicitous employer has hired rebel Sar Redryll—Kivita’s former lover—to stop her at any cost. For another, Kivita’s recovery of the relic unleashes in her powerful new abilities. Abilities that everyone in the Cetturo Arm—human, alien, and in-between—desperately wishes to control…
As she avoids a massive galactic manhunt, Kivita teams up with two unlikely allies: Sar and his enigmatic new partner. Only, as the gem’s mysteries are revealed and danger draws near, Kivita begins to wonder if her ex has truly changed, or if he’s just waiting for the right moment to betray her once again…
464 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 3, 2015
10 people are currently reading
449 people want to read
About the author
Tony Peak
35 books340 followersTony is represented by Ethan Ellenberg of the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency. His interests include progressive thinking, transhumanism, and planetary exploration. He resides in rural southwest Virginia with a wonderful view of New River. Find out more at www.tonypeak.net
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
indefinitely-set-aside
September 10, 2017WELP, that was a short-lived endeavor. Maybe I'll try it again at a later date, but first impressions are hard to negate, and man alive, this was a DOOZY.
Yes. A doozy. That's what I said.
I was willing to overlook the heroine's one-track mind--preoccupation with *ahem* companionship is a common theme in sci-fi involving space travel. Kind of like getting out of jail. But when she walked into a bar and EVERYONE, I'm talking upwards of a dozen+ bar patrons, unabashedly want to jump her . . .
Yes. A doozy. That's what I said.
I was willing to overlook the heroine's one-track mind--preoccupation with *ahem* companionship is a common theme in sci-fi involving space travel. Kind of like getting out of jail. But when she walked into a bar and EVERYONE, I'm talking upwards of a dozen+ bar patrons, unabashedly want to jump her . . .
November 11, 2015
In his first full length novel, Inherit the Stars, Tony Park offered us a wonderful space adventure with excellent worldbuilding, interesting societal structure, gray characters and a very memorable romance.
Tony Peak is a tremendously imaginative writer. Kivita Vondir’s world is complex, very socially layered and incredibly thought-through. I loved the descriptions of technology and of Kivita’s society, but I also loved that they never overtook the narrative and became more important than the story itself. Finding balance is the single most important thing in books that rely so heavily on worldbuilding, and it is my opinion that Tony Peak succeeded splendidly.
I found Kivita to be such a difficult character to like at times, a solitary woman intent on doing nothing but salvaging. She often suffered from far too much self doubt and for the most part, I was unable to find any justification for her splendid reputation. She was known and celebrated far and wide as an amazing salvager, but she had a tendency to mess up, which confused me to some extent. On the other hand, she redeemed herself toward the end when she proved to be both compassionate and kind.
The idea of a corrupt religious leader certainly isn’t new. If I can find a fault within Inherit the Stars, it’s that Dunaar seemed a bit stereotypical as a villain. A lot more could have been achieved with his character, but as it was, he wasn’t a truly convincing or complex threat.
For those among us who appreciate a good romance above all else, there’s enough fire and heat between Kivita and Saar to burn a whole city down. Their romance isn’t at all explicit, but their chemistry is off the charts. Admittedly, the romance could have done without the third person in the mix. I really don’t appreciate love triangles and find them to be overwhelmingly tedious and emotionally exhausting, but even that can be forgiven due to some extenuating circumstances.
Unsympathetic though she might have been, Kivita was still a delight to read about. This book’s true strength isn’t admittedly in its characters, but in the worldbuilding and in many action scenes that were done so very beautifully. The next time I’m in the mood for some really good science fiction, Tony Peak’s future works will surely be at the top of my list.
August 25, 2015
An old fashioned space drama with mystic elements. Kivita Narbas had always wanted to salvage like her father. He left her his ship, the Terredyn Narbas, against the Inheritor laws forbidding the passing down of technology. She grew up on Haldon Prime waiting for her father between his trips salvaging space junk. She never knew her mother. Now that he was gone, it was her turn to make her way in the cold dark vacuum that was Space. She spent most of her time in a cryo chamber, aging slowly while those left behind on the planets she visited aged and forgot her.
Her one lost love was Sar Redryll. A fellow salvager, she had separated from him to her regret. A salvager couldn't have emotional attachments and survive. Now the head of the Inheritor religion, Rector Dunaar, has contracted Kivita to retrieve the Juxj Star, a gem that held a vast amount of data and was coveted by pirates and governments alike. Only Kivita could remove the gem from its hiding place. And was Sar hired to keep her from her mission?
This is a rip roaring novel of intrigue and weaponry that soars across light years to a satisfying conclusion. Our heroine doubts herself many times. Will she prevail? Read it and see!
I received an advanced copy in return for a review.
Her one lost love was Sar Redryll. A fellow salvager, she had separated from him to her regret. A salvager couldn't have emotional attachments and survive. Now the head of the Inheritor religion, Rector Dunaar, has contracted Kivita to retrieve the Juxj Star, a gem that held a vast amount of data and was coveted by pirates and governments alike. Only Kivita could remove the gem from its hiding place. And was Sar hired to keep her from her mission?
This is a rip roaring novel of intrigue and weaponry that soars across light years to a satisfying conclusion. Our heroine doubts herself many times. Will she prevail? Read it and see!
I received an advanced copy in return for a review.
November 25, 2015
Inherit the Stars is a fast paced space opera with some of the most interesting world building I’ve read since Walter Jon Williams’ Praxis series. Set in a time where mankind has forgotten its origins, a theocracy rules based on the belief that the technology of a precursor race, the Vim, will offer salvation. Savants possess the capability to decode and transmit some of the Vim technology. (The Savants remind me of psychically enhanced characters from early Philip K Dick stories or even a bit of what the Spice effects do for characters in Dune.) All of this, along with the competition between the alien races for the Vim technology, makes for a universe that I hope we get to visit again.
Somewhat atypical of Space Operas I’ve read, there doesn’t seem to be straight up heroes. Indeed the use of more complex, realized characters, adds an adult wrinkle to the Space Opera plot and setting, which doesn’t get in the way of the childlike sense of fun and wonder. If anything, instead of one of the kids on the playground having to be Luke, here most of the characters are more Han-like with their own murkier motivations. Except for the head rector, he’s definitely more of a Vader. Every playground has that one kid that should probably be watched a bit more closely.
The ending of this book is fantastic, a perfect mix of the sentimental and plot driven action, which provides the culmination of this story, while at the same showing that there’s so much more left to explore in this world. Here’s hoping for more adventures in this universe.
Somewhat atypical of Space Operas I’ve read, there doesn’t seem to be straight up heroes. Indeed the use of more complex, realized characters, adds an adult wrinkle to the Space Opera plot and setting, which doesn’t get in the way of the childlike sense of fun and wonder. If anything, instead of one of the kids on the playground having to be Luke, here most of the characters are more Han-like with their own murkier motivations. Except for the head rector, he’s definitely more of a Vader. Every playground has that one kid that should probably be watched a bit more closely.
The ending of this book is fantastic, a perfect mix of the sentimental and plot driven action, which provides the culmination of this story, while at the same showing that there’s so much more left to explore in this world. Here’s hoping for more adventures in this universe.
February 6, 2016
There is something about debut novels, the author is putting everything they got into it, often they have worked on it for longer and harder than most that will come later. No deadlines, just years of tweaking and perfecting. The raw talent before it is fully honed.
Tony Peak is a first time author who think will get better and better with each novel. That is not to say I didn't enjoy this one. There were some growing pains here. Nothing that kept me from enjoying this old school style space opera that used never skimped on world building despite spending most of it's page count off-worlds.
The story of Kivita Vondir, a orphan space salvager who inherits her father's ship and travels the stars alone when she is dragged into a intergalactic conflict. In her latest job she is hired by a religious order to find a gemstone that contains data stored that can only be reached by psychics called Savants. Things get more interesting when her ex- a man named Sar is hired to beat her to the gemstone. Once they get the stone Kiv is pulled into a wider universe she didn't know she was a part of. At this point it becomes clear that Peak has built a traditional Joseph Cambell style hero's journey.
This far future (I think it's our future?)space opera uses a well thought-out religious mythology that seemed influenced by both Phil K. Dick and Dune at the same time. I know that is a crazy combo but that is the crazy thing about the beliefs and skills of the Savants in the story.
The only thing that didn't work for me. Peak did a great job building this mythology that reflected the Cambellian post Star Wars space fantasy, and put his mythology through great fully realized space battles. At the same time he spent a great deal of time mixing those elements with the hard science of space travel. I felt like the book would have been better off to fully deal with the fantasy elements and less on the technical aspects that seemed to try and ground the story at times.That said Peak used the time dilation and the long space journeys for good emotional impact.
I have to admit here that while I have never met Peak in the real world, I enjoy following him on Facebook. I probably would not have picked up this book otherwise. I do want to see where this series goes but I think it has as much to do with wanting to see what Tony Peak does next or how he grows in the future. I think Peak is a more exciting author than this is an exciting book. I hope to see more creations inside and outside of this universe he has created.
Bottomline, it is a well done hero's journey space opera. If you are looking for more of this type of novel it is great place to start.
Tony Peak is a first time author who think will get better and better with each novel. That is not to say I didn't enjoy this one. There were some growing pains here. Nothing that kept me from enjoying this old school style space opera that used never skimped on world building despite spending most of it's page count off-worlds.
The story of Kivita Vondir, a orphan space salvager who inherits her father's ship and travels the stars alone when she is dragged into a intergalactic conflict. In her latest job she is hired by a religious order to find a gemstone that contains data stored that can only be reached by psychics called Savants. Things get more interesting when her ex- a man named Sar is hired to beat her to the gemstone. Once they get the stone Kiv is pulled into a wider universe she didn't know she was a part of. At this point it becomes clear that Peak has built a traditional Joseph Cambell style hero's journey.
This far future (I think it's our future?)space opera uses a well thought-out religious mythology that seemed influenced by both Phil K. Dick and Dune at the same time. I know that is a crazy combo but that is the crazy thing about the beliefs and skills of the Savants in the story.
The only thing that didn't work for me. Peak did a great job building this mythology that reflected the Cambellian post Star Wars space fantasy, and put his mythology through great fully realized space battles. At the same time he spent a great deal of time mixing those elements with the hard science of space travel. I felt like the book would have been better off to fully deal with the fantasy elements and less on the technical aspects that seemed to try and ground the story at times.That said Peak used the time dilation and the long space journeys for good emotional impact.
I have to admit here that while I have never met Peak in the real world, I enjoy following him on Facebook. I probably would not have picked up this book otherwise. I do want to see where this series goes but I think it has as much to do with wanting to see what Tony Peak does next or how he grows in the future. I think Peak is a more exciting author than this is an exciting book. I hope to see more creations inside and outside of this universe he has created.
Bottomline, it is a well done hero's journey space opera. If you are looking for more of this type of novel it is great place to start.
November 13, 2015
4.5 stars
Really enjoyed this, read it all in one sitting today. Review at The Book Nympho:
http://thebooknympho.com/2015/11/inhe...
Being an Ace Roc star is wonderful, taking me back to the science fiction and fantasy books which it turns out I still love and have missed. Why wasn’t I reading these books? I grew up totally loving Star Trek (reruns after school) and Star Wars. I read lots of this genre through high school and college.
On Goodreads, the classification seems to be science fiction. To me, this seems like urban fantasy or maybe more accurately, space opera. There is a strong heroine who grows and learns more about the world and herself than her original notions. She has loved and lost, and now he’s turned up again like a bad penny. There are futuristic and paranormal elements and different species.
This space opera has a war which is already being fought, just not everyone realizes it. And I enjoyed this book, by the way. The strategy, planning and battles engage my mind. The people capture my feelings. The heroine, as well as others, have some difficulty in determining who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Not everyone tells the truth. I know; I’m shocked.
It’s trying to figure out what’s black and white, when really it’s gray. The moral dilemmas of who lives and dies to achieve the goals, or who is lost when you are doing the best you can. In any of the books with military type actions, it should be easy, our main character is the white hat and so are their allies. But this doesn’t always work out to be true.
And then there is figuring out the WHY. The motivations tell more about which side someone took and will take in the future. This all adds more to a book, than just the action, and the relationships of various sorts.
I think Inherit the Stars is the first in a series and it will be interesting to learn more about this world and these people. I read it all in one sitting. What will happen now?
Really enjoyed this, read it all in one sitting today. Review at The Book Nympho:
http://thebooknympho.com/2015/11/inhe...
Being an Ace Roc star is wonderful, taking me back to the science fiction and fantasy books which it turns out I still love and have missed. Why wasn’t I reading these books? I grew up totally loving Star Trek (reruns after school) and Star Wars. I read lots of this genre through high school and college.
On Goodreads, the classification seems to be science fiction. To me, this seems like urban fantasy or maybe more accurately, space opera. There is a strong heroine who grows and learns more about the world and herself than her original notions. She has loved and lost, and now he’s turned up again like a bad penny. There are futuristic and paranormal elements and different species.
This space opera has a war which is already being fought, just not everyone realizes it. And I enjoyed this book, by the way. The strategy, planning and battles engage my mind. The people capture my feelings. The heroine, as well as others, have some difficulty in determining who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Not everyone tells the truth. I know; I’m shocked.
It’s trying to figure out what’s black and white, when really it’s gray. The moral dilemmas of who lives and dies to achieve the goals, or who is lost when you are doing the best you can. In any of the books with military type actions, it should be easy, our main character is the white hat and so are their allies. But this doesn’t always work out to be true.
And then there is figuring out the WHY. The motivations tell more about which side someone took and will take in the future. This all adds more to a book, than just the action, and the relationships of various sorts.
I think Inherit the Stars is the first in a series and it will be interesting to learn more about this world and these people. I read it all in one sitting. What will happen now?
July 10, 2016
I was pleasantly surprised at how well this book flowed! The action kept coming, and I only felt like the story dragged in one part near the end... I found a slog through the bowels of a derelict ship from three viewpoints to be pretty boring. Just when you think it's something is going to work in one way, often, but not always, it didn't turn out that way! It was a fun read!
I also liked how the furry people had a fun way of talking that put an over emphasis on certain words, and how the space people had really expressive cryoports. Well, the cryoport thing was weird at first, because they seemed like oddly visible nipples at first, but as the story progressed they became more analogous to an involuntary set of facial expressions.
I had to knock a star off for the lame reveal at the end though. The basic premise is that humans in the far, far, far, future are stuck in some weird armpit of a random galaxy, filled with space trash and old, oddly explodey stars, and they revere an alien race called the Vim, who they think put them there, because they think that if they find enough of their old trash, they can figure out how to get back to where they came from, with nice yellow stars and planets that don't suck. They have faster than light space travel, but only a relatively crappy and slow version. There are a number of factions:
1: humans that still look like humans but some are psychic (some of them are augmented to read Vim datacore gems)
2: space humans (who are hairless and have cryoports installed as babies)
3: furry humans (who are very strong and can sing in a way that affects other humans like a sleep potion, or harms the slime aliens)
4: Kith (hydrogen eating ogre things that are all on this one planet in the middle of nowhere)
5: ridiculously evil slime aliens with better tech than anyone else
So, the first reveal is that the Vim , whoever they are, created the sometimes-psychic/furry/spacey humans out of original humans. This was expected, because hey, we're all original humans reading this now, so it was just kind of meh to watch the characters figure it out.
The second reveal is that the Vim had all the types of humans working for them on their ships doing different things. The furry ones were warriors, the space ones were whatever, and the human ones were in charge of some nebulous ship jobs (cryosleep jockeys?) Also, the Kith, who seem like mindless monsters, were also in there somewhere as warriors. This was pretty cool.
The third reveal is that the whole point of the sometimes-psychic humans was the psychic part. There is a bad political faction that snatches up the psychics and either kills them or enslaves them to read vim datacores for them, representing only source of new info and tech, so they can control access to technology in general. Also, the main character is psychic. Also, she's super psychic! And a queen! Thais was actually pretty cool too.
The final reveal is that (shocker) the evil slime aliens are super evil! They hate the Vim! The Vim drive off the slime aliens using the psychic humans, which are actually weapons against the slime aliens! They put the humans in the trash part of this random galaxy on purpose, so that the psychic-ness of the humans would drive them away! Not only that, there are oodles of other places around the universe in the same situation, and the slime aliens have been destroying them one by one, trying to trick the occupants into using the psychics to call the Vim back, so they can blow them up!
Here's the thing. None of that final reveal makes any sense whatsoever.
1: Why do the slime aliens hate the Vim so much? At one point they claim that they were enslaved by the Vim, but then revealed that was a lie, and really they just really, really wanted to kill them all for some reason. It was suggested that it was because the Vim were someplace they couldn't reach. So what?
2: Why do people revere the Vim? I can see that at first it's because they're seen as gods. But later we find out that they genetically modified humanity, then stashed them out in the middle of nowhere as a living, humanoid wall against the slime aliens. Evidently the psychic humans were supposed to ward off the slime aliens with a range that extended to deep space (the furries could do that at close range with their singing voices, but that seemed lame). Then they made it so that they could be recalled... maybe? For one thing, only the slime aliens knew how to call them back. The other thing is that when they did open up some weird wormhole thing, the Vim ships just sat there on the other side and allowed themselves to get blown up! They even psychically blame the main character for opening the way to them. What a bunch of weird jerks! You'd think they could just shut it off from the other side!
3: The thing is, the Vim's plan to ward off the slime aliens clearly didn't work! The slime aliens just showed up and started killing worlds with no problems. This is never explained. How long have the humans been stuck in the trash galaxy? It seems like things started to go wrong one thousand years ago, but maybe all the time before that was long enough for the system the Vim had set up to go awry? The slime aliens did evidently destroy other areas before getting to this one.
4: The slime alien's plans didn't make any sense either! Instead of just starting a human breeding and indoctrination program to make themselves a pet super psychic, they show up in a new cradle of civilization, wreck some stars to make people feel antsy, make deals with people in power and have them KILL all the psychics they can find, then eventually try to find random ones that crop up from time to time and try to convince them that they aren't evil by basically saying 'Hey, don't look at those horrifying abominations over there that we created, we're totally not evil'. Also, it turns out that psychic humans can be detected over radio, so they could easily duplicate that with their own radio devices. The humans do it at the end!
So yeah, the whole Vim/slime alien dynamic makes no sense. That bothered me!
I also liked how the furry people had a fun way of talking that put an over emphasis on certain words, and how the space people had really expressive cryoports. Well, the cryoport thing was weird at first, because they seemed like oddly visible nipples at first, but as the story progressed they became more analogous to an involuntary set of facial expressions.
I had to knock a star off for the lame reveal at the end though. The basic premise is that humans in the far, far, far, future are stuck in some weird armpit of a random galaxy, filled with space trash and old, oddly explodey stars, and they revere an alien race called the Vim, who they think put them there, because they think that if they find enough of their old trash, they can figure out how to get back to where they came from, with nice yellow stars and planets that don't suck. They have faster than light space travel, but only a relatively crappy and slow version. There are a number of factions:
1: humans that still look like humans but some are psychic (some of them are augmented to read Vim datacore gems)
2: space humans (who are hairless and have cryoports installed as babies)
3: furry humans (who are very strong and can sing in a way that affects other humans like a sleep potion, or harms the slime aliens)
4: Kith (hydrogen eating ogre things that are all on this one planet in the middle of nowhere)
5: ridiculously evil slime aliens with better tech than anyone else
So, the first reveal is that the Vim , whoever they are, created the sometimes-psychic/furry/spacey humans out of original humans. This was expected, because hey, we're all original humans reading this now, so it was just kind of meh to watch the characters figure it out.
The second reveal is that the Vim had all the types of humans working for them on their ships doing different things. The furry ones were warriors, the space ones were whatever, and the human ones were in charge of some nebulous ship jobs (cryosleep jockeys?) Also, the Kith, who seem like mindless monsters, were also in there somewhere as warriors. This was pretty cool.
The third reveal is that the whole point of the sometimes-psychic humans was the psychic part. There is a bad political faction that snatches up the psychics and either kills them or enslaves them to read vim datacores for them, representing only source of new info and tech, so they can control access to technology in general. Also, the main character is psychic. Also, she's super psychic! And a queen! Thais was actually pretty cool too.
The final reveal is that (shocker) the evil slime aliens are super evil! They hate the Vim! The Vim drive off the slime aliens using the psychic humans, which are actually weapons against the slime aliens! They put the humans in the trash part of this random galaxy on purpose, so that the psychic-ness of the humans would drive them away! Not only that, there are oodles of other places around the universe in the same situation, and the slime aliens have been destroying them one by one, trying to trick the occupants into using the psychics to call the Vim back, so they can blow them up!
Here's the thing. None of that final reveal makes any sense whatsoever.
1: Why do the slime aliens hate the Vim so much? At one point they claim that they were enslaved by the Vim, but then revealed that was a lie, and really they just really, really wanted to kill them all for some reason. It was suggested that it was because the Vim were someplace they couldn't reach. So what?
2: Why do people revere the Vim? I can see that at first it's because they're seen as gods. But later we find out that they genetically modified humanity, then stashed them out in the middle of nowhere as a living, humanoid wall against the slime aliens. Evidently the psychic humans were supposed to ward off the slime aliens with a range that extended to deep space (the furries could do that at close range with their singing voices, but that seemed lame). Then they made it so that they could be recalled... maybe? For one thing, only the slime aliens knew how to call them back. The other thing is that when they did open up some weird wormhole thing, the Vim ships just sat there on the other side and allowed themselves to get blown up! They even psychically blame the main character for opening the way to them. What a bunch of weird jerks! You'd think they could just shut it off from the other side!
3: The thing is, the Vim's plan to ward off the slime aliens clearly didn't work! The slime aliens just showed up and started killing worlds with no problems. This is never explained. How long have the humans been stuck in the trash galaxy? It seems like things started to go wrong one thousand years ago, but maybe all the time before that was long enough for the system the Vim had set up to go awry? The slime aliens did evidently destroy other areas before getting to this one.
4: The slime alien's plans didn't make any sense either! Instead of just starting a human breeding and indoctrination program to make themselves a pet super psychic, they show up in a new cradle of civilization, wreck some stars to make people feel antsy, make deals with people in power and have them KILL all the psychics they can find, then eventually try to find random ones that crop up from time to time and try to convince them that they aren't evil by basically saying 'Hey, don't look at those horrifying abominations over there that we created, we're totally not evil'. Also, it turns out that psychic humans can be detected over radio, so they could easily duplicate that with their own radio devices. The humans do it at the end!
So yeah, the whole Vim/slime alien dynamic makes no sense. That bothered me!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 17, 2015
"Inherit The Stars" is an epic debut. The story takes place in the "Cetturo Arm" a segment of a galaxy that houses several dying star systems. Among the star systems live many races of humanoids and one race that is disturbingly and definitely non-humanoid.
But the race that dominates the Cetturo Arm doesn't actually live there, at least not anymore. There's an ancient race called the Vim. You would almost call them mythical if not for the hard physical evidence of their existence. Salvagers like Kivita Vondir, for instance, sometimes come across derelict Vim spacecraft full of valuable technology that the other races pay good money for, because the technology in the Cetturo Arm seems to be the result of reverse engineering moreso than technological achievement.
Oh, but we've only scratched the surface of Tony Peak's worldbuilding. You see, the Vim didn't just leave behind old hunks of space tech, but also gems and rocks called datacores. They're biological/technological data interfaces that can only be accessed by certain humans called savants. But savants are weeded out as children then either enslaved or killed. At least, that's the plan. Because there are certain powerful factions who want to control all Vim knowledge to keep their people under the proverbial goverment thumb.
Of course there's a resistance. And what if one of those savants was able to escape to the resistance and share that Vim knowledge with everyone? What if that savant happened to be extraordinarily powerful? What if she happened to be acting out a plan thousands of years in the making? These are the kind of questions that Tony Peak asks. So while "Inherit the Stars" is a fun read, I wouldn't call it a light read.
As far as the story goes, I had very little to complain about. Sometimes I got a little confused. The plot is thick and has a lot of moving parts. But I never felt like I'd missed anything substantial or ruinous to the story. There were just a few times I'd liked to have been able to ask the author a question about the specifics of a situation. Other than that, there was really just that 'wake her up with a true love kiss' in the last few pages. I could have really done without that. C'mon Tony. C'mon.
There were some writing blunders in the book that I can't ignore. More than just a typo here and there. There seemed to have been an automatic grammar program that screwed up several verbs. For instance, the previous alien race the Vim would have a singular verb, i.e. "The Vim has been missing a long time."
One thing that became montonous and annoying of the course of 450 pages was Mr. Peak's use of repetion. Apparently there's a polymaterial used in just about everything in this galaxy, so the author uses the prefix for everything; polyboots, polycuirass, polygauntlet, polygloves, polysuit, polywannacracker. For starters, it's a sort of cheap way to make something common sound science-fiction-y. Also, after you introduce this little gimmick, you can taper it off as you go along. I don't need polyboots on page 400 if I've had the same language in pages 1 through 399.
He does the same thing to describe a certain races eyes. He calls them 'white within azure' which sounded like a really nice description the first two times I heard it. But later it seems he's trying to use it to denote some emotion or facial expression and it's simply not up to the task. And again, you just get tired of reading the same words over and over.
Stylistically, sometimes I think Tony gets in his own way. For the most part we get transparent, hardworking prose. But sometimes he falls in love with a sentence that's not quite purple but shading into indigo. Just a little bit more red ink from a really hard-nosed editor might have made things a little smoother. And, once in a while, there was a sentence or even paragraph that simply did not make sense. Either there were too many characters with not enough proper nouns, or the sentence was constructed in a 'mixed metaphor' way. For instance "Now anyone seeking Kivita could do so." That's not an improper sentence, but it's not what he meant to say. People could have sought her all along. Now they stood a chance to find her because there was a tracking beacon on her ship.
If not for the nit-picky writing stuff this would be an easy 5 stars for me. I loved the story and on every little twist in the plot. I look forward to the sequel and anything else Tony Peak has to offer.
But the race that dominates the Cetturo Arm doesn't actually live there, at least not anymore. There's an ancient race called the Vim. You would almost call them mythical if not for the hard physical evidence of their existence. Salvagers like Kivita Vondir, for instance, sometimes come across derelict Vim spacecraft full of valuable technology that the other races pay good money for, because the technology in the Cetturo Arm seems to be the result of reverse engineering moreso than technological achievement.
Oh, but we've only scratched the surface of Tony Peak's worldbuilding. You see, the Vim didn't just leave behind old hunks of space tech, but also gems and rocks called datacores. They're biological/technological data interfaces that can only be accessed by certain humans called savants. But savants are weeded out as children then either enslaved or killed. At least, that's the plan. Because there are certain powerful factions who want to control all Vim knowledge to keep their people under the proverbial goverment thumb.
Of course there's a resistance. And what if one of those savants was able to escape to the resistance and share that Vim knowledge with everyone? What if that savant happened to be extraordinarily powerful? What if she happened to be acting out a plan thousands of years in the making? These are the kind of questions that Tony Peak asks. So while "Inherit the Stars" is a fun read, I wouldn't call it a light read.
As far as the story goes, I had very little to complain about. Sometimes I got a little confused. The plot is thick and has a lot of moving parts. But I never felt like I'd missed anything substantial or ruinous to the story. There were just a few times I'd liked to have been able to ask the author a question about the specifics of a situation. Other than that, there was really just that 'wake her up with a true love kiss' in the last few pages. I could have really done without that. C'mon Tony. C'mon.
There were some writing blunders in the book that I can't ignore. More than just a typo here and there. There seemed to have been an automatic grammar program that screwed up several verbs. For instance, the previous alien race the Vim would have a singular verb, i.e. "The Vim has been missing a long time."
One thing that became montonous and annoying of the course of 450 pages was Mr. Peak's use of repetion. Apparently there's a polymaterial used in just about everything in this galaxy, so the author uses the prefix for everything; polyboots, polycuirass, polygauntlet, polygloves, polysuit, polywannacracker. For starters, it's a sort of cheap way to make something common sound science-fiction-y. Also, after you introduce this little gimmick, you can taper it off as you go along. I don't need polyboots on page 400 if I've had the same language in pages 1 through 399.
He does the same thing to describe a certain races eyes. He calls them 'white within azure' which sounded like a really nice description the first two times I heard it. But later it seems he's trying to use it to denote some emotion or facial expression and it's simply not up to the task. And again, you just get tired of reading the same words over and over.
Stylistically, sometimes I think Tony gets in his own way. For the most part we get transparent, hardworking prose. But sometimes he falls in love with a sentence that's not quite purple but shading into indigo. Just a little bit more red ink from a really hard-nosed editor might have made things a little smoother. And, once in a while, there was a sentence or even paragraph that simply did not make sense. Either there were too many characters with not enough proper nouns, or the sentence was constructed in a 'mixed metaphor' way. For instance "Now anyone seeking Kivita could do so." That's not an improper sentence, but it's not what he meant to say. People could have sought her all along. Now they stood a chance to find her because there was a tracking beacon on her ship.
If not for the nit-picky writing stuff this would be an easy 5 stars for me. I loved the story and on every little twist in the plot. I look forward to the sequel and anything else Tony Peak has to offer.
February 17, 2017
Where to start. Yes, this is the author's first book, and yes, it shows. The ideas are great... the characters... oh, the characters...
Let's start with what I like. I like the idea of space salvager characters - they are one step off from space archaeologists, which are close to archaeologists, which I was at one point. So I have a soft spot for that character type. Shiny jewels to be recovered/stolen? Awesome! Various alien races - again, something of interest. A dying solar system - a nice concept, and gives things a bit of urgency, though at a slower rate than you'd think. The descriptions of the various locations are good too... but can't save this.
Now for the bits I don't like: Kivita. Kivita is, as another reviewer delightfully put it, too stupid to live. Which I can only assume is an attempt to make her less of a Mary Sue because, other than her poor choices, she is the worst sort of Mary Sue. Around page 300 I got so tired of the main character and her amazingness that I took this quiz: http://www.springhole.net/writing/mar..., she racked up 86 points. Well over the 50 needed for the "Your character is almost certainly a Mary Sue, and a bad one at that." classification.
What makes her so awful to read? Everyone wants her. And I don't just mean But wait, there's more!
But it isn't just Kivita that bothered me. The villains were laughable cliches. All they missed were the twirling of mustachios as they cackled over their evil plans.
It's almost to the level of watching cheesy campy Sci-Fi shows like the original Battlestar Galactica, but it is missing that lovable campy quality.
Let's start with what I like. I like the idea of space salvager characters - they are one step off from space archaeologists, which are close to archaeologists, which I was at one point. So I have a soft spot for that character type. Shiny jewels to be recovered/stolen? Awesome! Various alien races - again, something of interest. A dying solar system - a nice concept, and gives things a bit of urgency, though at a slower rate than you'd think. The descriptions of the various locations are good too... but can't save this.
Now for the bits I don't like: Kivita. Kivita is, as another reviewer delightfully put it, too stupid to live. Which I can only assume is an attempt to make her less of a Mary Sue because, other than her poor choices, she is the worst sort of Mary Sue. Around page 300 I got so tired of the main character and her amazingness that I took this quiz: http://www.springhole.net/writing/mar..., she racked up 86 points. Well over the 50 needed for the "Your character is almost certainly a Mary Sue, and a bad one at that." classification.
What makes her so awful to read? Everyone wants her. And I don't just mean But wait, there's more!
But it isn't just Kivita that bothered me. The villains were laughable cliches. All they missed were the twirling of mustachios as they cackled over their evil plans.
It's almost to the level of watching cheesy campy Sci-Fi shows like the original Battlestar Galactica, but it is missing that lovable campy quality.
July 25, 2016
Don't you hate it when a book has you enthralled then changes course and just kind of fizzles? That's what happened to me here. I was definitely in the mood for some Sci Fi, just came off reading a good Sci Fi comic, I'm loving some Dark Matter and I was ready for more, so the stage was set for enjoyment. I liked the main character, I was interested in everything that happened initially and actually wanted to know more about how the galaxy got the way it was. I figured her visions were leading to a specific place and potentially a show down and unfortunately as that time got closer the novel got less interesting. We knew what was probably going to happen, and the inevitable big fight was looming... I have to admit I really, really don't like big fights. I just can't get into hundreds of pages of people shooting each other, closing airlocks, performing maneuvers, etc etc etc. I barely finished this and only my curiosity as to the conclusion kept me going. It happened as I thought it would, so I could have saved myself the trouble, but after enjoying the beginning 3/4ths of this so much I wanted to give it a good shot at completion.
November 9, 2015
Originally posted at http://kimheniadis.com
Thanks to being part of the Ace/ROC street team, I’ve been reading more Science Fiction, and enjoying the great selections they are sending. Inherit the Stars by Tony Peak was another excellent read.
From the last paragraph in the description it makes it sound like this is more of a romance then space adventure. While there is some romantic elements, to me this was more of a fast-paced space adventure with lots of side plots and back stabbing. And I was eagerly turning the page to find out what would happen next.
At first I got a bit of an Indiana Jones adventure vibe mixed with Firefly. Kivita reminded me a bit of Jane from the TV show. Then it turned into an epic space odyssey with a bit of Mad Max thrown in when we met the pirates.
I feel as if I write too much it would give away various parts of the plot. I want this review to go on and on, to let you know how awesome the book is, and that you need to read it.
Instead I’ll just say; Go get yourself a copy, take a couple of days off from work, and enjoy this awesome Sci-Fi novel.
Thanks to being part of the Ace/ROC street team, I’ve been reading more Science Fiction, and enjoying the great selections they are sending. Inherit the Stars by Tony Peak was another excellent read.
From the last paragraph in the description it makes it sound like this is more of a romance then space adventure. While there is some romantic elements, to me this was more of a fast-paced space adventure with lots of side plots and back stabbing. And I was eagerly turning the page to find out what would happen next.
At first I got a bit of an Indiana Jones adventure vibe mixed with Firefly. Kivita reminded me a bit of Jane from the TV show. Then it turned into an epic space odyssey with a bit of Mad Max thrown in when we met the pirates.
I feel as if I write too much it would give away various parts of the plot. I want this review to go on and on, to let you know how awesome the book is, and that you need to read it.
Instead I’ll just say; Go get yourself a copy, take a couple of days off from work, and enjoy this awesome Sci-Fi novel.
January 28, 2016
This book is proof that there is no substitute
for wandering the stacks at a book store
This title just happened to catch my eye
and the jacket copy finished the job
I bought it with only the 1st couple pages read
the opening lines are gripping
the main character Kivita Vondir is a SALVAGER
seeking out the remnants of the superior tech from the past
she only wants a simple life but Destiny has something else in mind
She becomes embroiled in the machinations
of the church to control all technology
Aside from a wonderful hard SF story
this book has characters that seize your attention
and demand you care about them from the 1st page
all the characters in this book are fully fleshed out
even the villain has a deep and compelling backstory
This is one of the best books
I have read in a long time
for wandering the stacks at a book store
This title just happened to catch my eye
and the jacket copy finished the job
I bought it with only the 1st couple pages read
the opening lines are gripping
the main character Kivita Vondir is a SALVAGER
seeking out the remnants of the superior tech from the past
she only wants a simple life but Destiny has something else in mind
She becomes embroiled in the machinations
of the church to control all technology
Aside from a wonderful hard SF story
this book has characters that seize your attention
and demand you care about them from the 1st page
all the characters in this book are fully fleshed out
even the villain has a deep and compelling backstory
This is one of the best books
I have read in a long time
January 7, 2016
By the way this book ended, I'm assuming there will be more to come. If so, this was a pretty good start. The characters were decent, the story was intriguing, and there was definitely a lot of action, keeping things moving along. I was slightly confused by some of the alien background and politics, especially with regard to the Vim and what exactly transpired historically. I would have even enjoyed a longer book with more insight into the various groups of people. I was a little concerned nearing the end of the book that there would be no one left but finishing the book, one definitely ends with a lot of questions and the feeling that things are just getting started. I look forward to reading any subsequent books.
November 6, 2015
I first became acquainted with this novel when Tony began posting chapters of it in the Online Writers Workshop. Tony is a great writer whose short fiction I've always admired, but I'll admit I struggled through the first few chapters of Inherit the Stars. I prefer hard science fiction that gets me thinking about future possibilities. What we have here is an adventure story with lots of space battles, something that I thought I had outgrown with the advent of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. Yet as I read on I found myself starting to enjoy the story, which has a nice retro feel to it. I rooted for Kivita and her efforts to uncover the secrets of the Vim. Tony is gifted at weaving a suspenseful and multilayered plot that comes together in a powerful and satisfying climax.
December 10, 2015
This book is a great start to a new Science Fiction/Space Opera series. I really enjoyed reading it. It reminded me in many ways of C.J. Cherryh's Alliance-Union Universe. It has a good amount of action with several races of humans and aliens all contending for power in their section of space and all of them wanting to control an ancient artifact and the human woman who found it in order to meet the legendary race of beings known as the Vim. The Vim are supposed to have advanced technology that will give the race who has access to it the upper hand over all the other races in their sector of space. I will definitely read any other books that are forthcoming in this series.
Read
November 23, 2015Got to 25% and called it quits. It's just not holding my attention right now. I'll try it again later, but since someone's waiting for it, I'm sending it back to the library.
July 23, 2016
wow just wow, I want more. what a roller coster
October 11, 2022
A fun read overall with some very good world building and a slew of different inhabitants. The story is along the lines of a space opera - could see this being a series and there is a ton of backstory revealed in the visions that abound in the book.
My real beef is that it is overlong and too intimately detailed - especially some of the action scenes. I found myself in the will-this-ever-end frame of mind for the last part of the book.
My real beef is that it is overlong and too intimately detailed - especially some of the action scenes. I found myself in the will-this-ever-end frame of mind for the last part of the book.
July 14, 2017
This book was painful to read.
September 24, 2020
A run of the mill Space Opera ! It was OK but nothing special ! I've read better and I've read worse !
Read
May 29, 2021DNF
Read
July 27, 2021DNF
Read
July 8, 2022DNF @ 7% Does not count to reading goal.
Just couldn’t get into this book and wasn’t enjoying.
Just couldn’t get into this book and wasn’t enjoying.
March 5, 2016
I won my copy of Inherit the Stars through a giveaway at SF Signal.
Inherit the Stars is a far future space opera. The story involves various races, their beliefs about an older race that has disappeared, and actions they take in relation to this older race. The protagonist, Kivita, plays a central role in all these interactions, though in the beginning she doesn’t know why.
Overall, I enjoyed Inherit the Stars. I can’t count it among my favorites, but it was a decent first novel and sets the stage for future stories. It did contain many heavily used tropes and at times felt too much like a hollywood movie. Some of the speech patterns became a bit annoying and a few of the names seemed jarring, taking me out of the narrative to focus on the name. Overlooking any faults, though, it was a fun read.
Inherit the Stars is a far future space opera. The story involves various races, their beliefs about an older race that has disappeared, and actions they take in relation to this older race. The protagonist, Kivita, plays a central role in all these interactions, though in the beginning she doesn’t know why.
Overall, I enjoyed Inherit the Stars. I can’t count it among my favorites, but it was a decent first novel and sets the stage for future stories. It did contain many heavily used tropes and at times felt too much like a hollywood movie. Some of the speech patterns became a bit annoying and a few of the names seemed jarring, taking me out of the narrative to focus on the name. Overlooking any faults, though, it was a fun read.
November 13, 2015
We are very much living in a Renaissance of Great Space Opera. Between the Expanse, Jacey Bedford's novels,and numerous others, Space Opera is back baby.... this book falls right in the middle of this Renaissance... and reminds us that in a Renaissance, not every work is the Mona Lisa.
This was a good book with interesting characters. Unfortunately, I couldn't care about any of them. Perhaps there was just too much going on; perhaps the characters weren't 'real' enough for me; perhaps there was just too much back-story to delve into in a first book.... perhaps some combination of the three. I will read the next book in the series, assuming there is one... but I won't be checking every week on Goodreads for news of it.
This was a good book with interesting characters. Unfortunately, I couldn't care about any of them. Perhaps there was just too much going on; perhaps the characters weren't 'real' enough for me; perhaps there was just too much back-story to delve into in a first book.... perhaps some combination of the three. I will read the next book in the series, assuming there is one... but I won't be checking every week on Goodreads for news of it.
November 21, 2015
I'm sorry; I really wanted to like Inherit the Stars. The premise sounded fascinating, but I skimmed the first half of the book. The primary characters were not very likeable, the multiple points of view were a little confusing, and the female protagonist was often Too Stupid To Live. However, the book got much more cohesive and interesting in the second half, and I breathed a sigh of relief...until the killing and the dying started. I could have handled all the deaths until the one on page 406. That death was gratuitous, in my opinion, and needless. With so much sorrow in the world, I have no desire to read a book with so few bright or hopeful pages.
April 4, 2016
At least, as read as it's going to get, which is about 20%. Peak seems to want to alienate readers with strange letter combos (so they sound/look alien, right?) designed to slow down reading, with strange speech quirks (Cheseia seems to have to include truly or actually in every sentence, which is truly, actually irritating), with gratuitous comments about female jiggling (or lack thereof). If that's his goal, he has succeeded with me. I don't want to finish this book (despite a review that said it gets better after halfway until it tanks near the end), especially since it's only the beginning of a series. Sigh.
January 10, 2016
A rather pedestrian space opera that starts off strong, with some interesting worlds, technology, and concepts but quickly degenerates into melodrama and cliche. I didn't find any of the characters particularly engaging and it was a real struggle to get through the last third of the book. That being said if you like light hearted space adventure with comfortable, familiar ideas and themes, you could do a lot worse than this. Not a bad first effort, but not fresh enough for me to bother with the rest of the series.
July 20, 2018
Unfortunately I did not finish reading this book. It wasn't what I expected. It switches POV which is something I personally find annoying but the idea and plot are good. Kivita is a strong character and had the story only been told through her I might've finished it. This review should by no means discourage anyone else from reading it because even though I didn't enjoy it someone else will. I may come back to it some day but for now I have other books I wanna read.
August 21, 2016
A mixed bag all the way around.
Interesting backdrop, with weird holes in it.
Interesting characters,that sometimes turn into tired stereotypes.
A plot that wanders around all over the place - Pirates, alien menace, thriller, love story, you name it, it's in there.
Readable, but not outstanding.
I gather this is a first novel, so perhaps "shows promise" is the best label.
Interesting backdrop, with weird holes in it.
Interesting characters,that sometimes turn into tired stereotypes.
A plot that wanders around all over the place - Pirates, alien menace, thriller, love story, you name it, it's in there.
Readable, but not outstanding.
I gather this is a first novel, so perhaps "shows promise" is the best label.
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