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The Alliance Conflict #1
The Earth Conundrum
Captain Solear and the crew of the Alliance cruiser Sunflower just learned a terrible secret – their enemy, the Hiriculans, have subjugated a technologically inferior alien race and are using them for pilots. These pilots aren’t very good, but now the Hiriculans can trade fighters on a one to one basis and win a war of attrition. Captain Solear races back to Advranki Prime and addresses the Alliance Senate. He recommends that the Navy implement the same policy. If the Hiriculans are going to use an inferior race to pilot fighters, then the Alliance must do the same with Humans. The Senate assembles a small team to travel to Earth to determine if Humans can become fighter pilots. They find that video gamers make excellent fighter pilots. Captain Solear is now faced with the Earth Conundrum. If he tells the Alliance Senate the truth about the Humans’ fighting ability, the Hiriculans will move to conquer Earth and the Alliance will be forced to stop them. It will start an all-out war. However, if he lies, the Alliance may not secure the only resource that could prevent their eventual defeat.
380 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2015
About the author
Jeff Sims
8 books6 followersJeff graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Industrial Engineering and later obtained a masters degree from Ashland University.
Jeff has spent the last 20 years working in various quality roles and has worked at companies that made motorcycles, steel, beer, and semis.
Jeff's favorite saying is - find the root cause and take appropriate corrective action.
Jeff has spent the last 20 years working in various quality roles and has worked at companies that made motorcycles, steel, beer, and semis.
Jeff's favorite saying is - find the root cause and take appropriate corrective action.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 22, 2015
This is one of those books that popped up in my recommendations on Amazon. Usually I have enough in my pipeline to not bother about those but occasionally I do go for them just to expand my horizons a bit. Quite often I find some new author that I like or at least another good book. This time I am afraid that my in the spur of the moment purchase was a bit of a mistake.
I am not sure whether the author wanted to make this book a comedy or if he was aiming for the young adult segment and aimed too low or whatever. In my point of view he failed with whatever he tried to do. This book is definitely not a book for adult military sci-fi readers and certainly not for hard core sci-fi fans. The story and especially the aliens are downright silly. Well, the core of the story is actually one of my favorite type of stories but the implementation is so nonsensical and silly that it is simply not fun to read. The book seems to float in some no-mans-land between a children’s book and a young adult book.
Note that the rest of this review might contain a mild spolier or two.
For starters the aliens believe that humans eat aliens. Not only the children believes this but the adult aliens of a star faring species, who allegedly have watched Earth for 300 years, actually believe that humans will eat them. Another little twist is that some of the aliens on the bridge of a military starship are having emotional fits and starts to cry every now and then. Apparently this is a racial trait. Yeah right, “sorry commander I missed the enemy battleship because I was crying at the time”. Not funny.
Then we have the alien navy in general, or whatever goes for a navy in the Alliance. Military discipline is non-existent and a commander can never rely on his orders being executed. When launching fighters he never knows if and when the fighters will launch since the pilots might be too scared that someone might shoot back at them. What the fuck! He even has to argue with defense and trafic control computers in order to be able to go where he is ordered to go. His XO is baffled when he is asked to get a corridor on the ship painted and in the end asks a civilian relative to do it…in a military stardock! Pilots have to haggle with some useless computer AI to get the missile loadout they need. Of course the alien pilots are totally clueless so they never know what they need but as you surely realize from the book blurb the humans are about to enter into the equation. Needless to say the humans do know what they need.
The nonsense continues when the Alliance council orders a mission to Earth, a mission vital to the survival of the Alliance, and assigns the mission to a small team who by all means are fairly likable but who are clueless about what is actually required for the mission to be a success and are, of course, not properly briefed about this in any way. To make matters worse these people go off on their own to make a few bucks and starts various businesses on Earth. As I wrote above the story is simply too nonsensical to be any fun. The authors knowledge of military matters seems to be next to none as well. The ludicrous alien navy might be an attempt to be funny but destroyers suddenly being larger than cruisers indicates to me that his military “expertise” comes from watching Star Wars.
It is really a shame with all this nonsens since the core of the story is a good one and it could have been a good book. There are a few saving graces. After all the fumbling around, stupidity and aliens running away as soon as the humans try to approach the them (humans eat aliens, remember?) eventually the humans finally gets the chance to show the alien nincompoops how a real military behaves. The results are highly predictable and these parts of the book was actually somewhat enjoyable to read. Not very realistic but quite fun.
Apart from these parts I struggled with dragging myself through most of the rest. I am afraid that this book, while managing to stay out of my rubbish shelf, ends up among my 2 out of 5 stars ratings on Goodreads where, so far, only 4 other books reside today (out of 79 books this year). This book ought to be more clearly marked as a children’s or, at least very very young adult, book on Amazon.
I am not sure whether the author wanted to make this book a comedy or if he was aiming for the young adult segment and aimed too low or whatever. In my point of view he failed with whatever he tried to do. This book is definitely not a book for adult military sci-fi readers and certainly not for hard core sci-fi fans. The story and especially the aliens are downright silly. Well, the core of the story is actually one of my favorite type of stories but the implementation is so nonsensical and silly that it is simply not fun to read. The book seems to float in some no-mans-land between a children’s book and a young adult book.
Note that the rest of this review might contain a mild spolier or two.
For starters the aliens believe that humans eat aliens. Not only the children believes this but the adult aliens of a star faring species, who allegedly have watched Earth for 300 years, actually believe that humans will eat them. Another little twist is that some of the aliens on the bridge of a military starship are having emotional fits and starts to cry every now and then. Apparently this is a racial trait. Yeah right, “sorry commander I missed the enemy battleship because I was crying at the time”. Not funny.
Then we have the alien navy in general, or whatever goes for a navy in the Alliance. Military discipline is non-existent and a commander can never rely on his orders being executed. When launching fighters he never knows if and when the fighters will launch since the pilots might be too scared that someone might shoot back at them. What the fuck! He even has to argue with defense and trafic control computers in order to be able to go where he is ordered to go. His XO is baffled when he is asked to get a corridor on the ship painted and in the end asks a civilian relative to do it…in a military stardock! Pilots have to haggle with some useless computer AI to get the missile loadout they need. Of course the alien pilots are totally clueless so they never know what they need but as you surely realize from the book blurb the humans are about to enter into the equation. Needless to say the humans do know what they need.
The nonsense continues when the Alliance council orders a mission to Earth, a mission vital to the survival of the Alliance, and assigns the mission to a small team who by all means are fairly likable but who are clueless about what is actually required for the mission to be a success and are, of course, not properly briefed about this in any way. To make matters worse these people go off on their own to make a few bucks and starts various businesses on Earth. As I wrote above the story is simply too nonsensical to be any fun. The authors knowledge of military matters seems to be next to none as well. The ludicrous alien navy might be an attempt to be funny but destroyers suddenly being larger than cruisers indicates to me that his military “expertise” comes from watching Star Wars.
It is really a shame with all this nonsens since the core of the story is a good one and it could have been a good book. There are a few saving graces. After all the fumbling around, stupidity and aliens running away as soon as the humans try to approach the them (humans eat aliens, remember?) eventually the humans finally gets the chance to show the alien nincompoops how a real military behaves. The results are highly predictable and these parts of the book was actually somewhat enjoyable to read. Not very realistic but quite fun.
Apart from these parts I struggled with dragging myself through most of the rest. I am afraid that this book, while managing to stay out of my rubbish shelf, ends up among my 2 out of 5 stars ratings on Goodreads where, so far, only 4 other books reside today (out of 79 books this year). This book ought to be more clearly marked as a children’s or, at least very very young adult, book on Amazon.
June 16, 2024
Basic set up and plot should be excellent but the writing is aimed at elementary school ages. Some characters are likable.
I got tired of the ridiculous navy, where doing one’s job is optional and it stopped being funny quickly, so skipped the middle 60% to read the last 5 chapters.
I got tired of the ridiculous navy, where doing one’s job is optional and it stopped being funny quickly, so skipped the middle 60% to read the last 5 chapters.
November 7, 2022
I'm at maybe 10% of the book now. I'm giving a one star initially, only for how creeped out i am by victor, and his pet-collar.
("I will never let you touch me !"
Victor pressed a button on a controller. Crista went limp and fell on the bed. She was wide awake and conscious, but she couldn’t move her arms or legs. “You will, anytime I want.. '')
This victor is supposedly one of the good guys. I don't trust male authors for this reason. The way the scene is discribed glosses over the horror of it. They lack the full awarness women have about consent and their writings reveal some of their fantasies .
This supposed criminal, had her skin bleached without consent and had been married off without consent by her government and then, given to the costody of some guy/ smuggler with a controller.
I m creeped out of my skin. And i'm just at like the first pages of the book. I'll be furious if the author choses to reward this guy's behaviour or normalize (by portraying the victim as not much bothered by the treatment) it as the story progresses. After he demonstrates his ability to rape her if he wanted, His reassurance that '' he could but won't'' adds to the creepiness of the stockholm syndrom he is gearing for.
Ps: as i suspected. A page after that scene, and the woman supposedly is excited and impressed by her jailor. Yep. Only a Male author would imagin such absurdity. No concept of the horror of being a woman deprived of consent .
(Christa said “Hi, I am Crista and this is my husband Victor.” Victor noted that she had said husband without hesitation and only a little anger. That was definitely an improvement. He couldn’t blame her too much though; because from her point of view he had drugged her, kidnapped her, bleached her skin white, forced her to marry him, dragged her off-planet, and put an control collar around her neck to keep her from hurting him.) it's like hearing the inner thoughts of a rapist or stalker or something. Oh ! He can't blame her too much.
And that's how this author imagins a woman would react to such subjugation. With a little leftover anger after a few hours. anger forgotten because her master takes her on a space trip. Yeay !
I'm angry coz this issue could have been avoided, by simply making it about taking custody of a criminal without the forced marriage and the rape threat parts. And i would have enjoyed the book without revulsion.
Ps: i suspect general gender biais. There's this supposedly overly emotional race, but then the author presents a woman Cowy (pilot) from that race who has sudden hysterics, but her male counterpart, the scientist, is so in control of his emotions that he intentionally provokes everyone around him (huh. The women really. Whom he flasters by his wit) and yet, is utterly unperturbed himself.
("I will never let you touch me !"
Victor pressed a button on a controller. Crista went limp and fell on the bed. She was wide awake and conscious, but she couldn’t move her arms or legs. “You will, anytime I want.. '')
This victor is supposedly one of the good guys. I don't trust male authors for this reason. The way the scene is discribed glosses over the horror of it. They lack the full awarness women have about consent and their writings reveal some of their fantasies .
This supposed criminal, had her skin bleached without consent and had been married off without consent by her government and then, given to the costody of some guy/ smuggler with a controller.
I m creeped out of my skin. And i'm just at like the first pages of the book. I'll be furious if the author choses to reward this guy's behaviour or normalize (by portraying the victim as not much bothered by the treatment) it as the story progresses. After he demonstrates his ability to rape her if he wanted, His reassurance that '' he could but won't'' adds to the creepiness of the stockholm syndrom he is gearing for.
Ps: as i suspected. A page after that scene, and the woman supposedly is excited and impressed by her jailor. Yep. Only a Male author would imagin such absurdity. No concept of the horror of being a woman deprived of consent .
(Christa said “Hi, I am Crista and this is my husband Victor.” Victor noted that she had said husband without hesitation and only a little anger. That was definitely an improvement. He couldn’t blame her too much though; because from her point of view he had drugged her, kidnapped her, bleached her skin white, forced her to marry him, dragged her off-planet, and put an control collar around her neck to keep her from hurting him.) it's like hearing the inner thoughts of a rapist or stalker or something. Oh ! He can't blame her too much.
And that's how this author imagins a woman would react to such subjugation. With a little leftover anger after a few hours. anger forgotten because her master takes her on a space trip. Yeay !
I'm angry coz this issue could have been avoided, by simply making it about taking custody of a criminal without the forced marriage and the rape threat parts. And i would have enjoyed the book without revulsion.
Ps: i suspect general gender biais. There's this supposedly overly emotional race, but then the author presents a woman Cowy (pilot) from that race who has sudden hysterics, but her male counterpart, the scientist, is so in control of his emotions that he intentionally provokes everyone around him (huh. The women really. Whom he flasters by his wit) and yet, is utterly unperturbed himself.
September 28, 2015
I really enjoyed the start to this original space opera, especially the nuanced humor throughout.
The majority of the book is written from the aliens' point of view. Usually, aliens are portrayed as a mysterious, contiguous force, but in this novel we get to see the aliens as individuals and get a glimpse into their lives.
Most sci-fi stories describe how humans react to meeting aliens. This one focuses on how aliens react to meeting humans. It is clear from the prologue to the conclusion that all three alien races have been taught to fear humans as a cross between savages and modern day boogeymen. As individual aliens are forced to begin working with humans though, they are (somewhat) able to set their fears aside and work together.
The majority of the book is written from the aliens' point of view. Usually, aliens are portrayed as a mysterious, contiguous force, but in this novel we get to see the aliens as individuals and get a glimpse into their lives.
Most sci-fi stories describe how humans react to meeting aliens. This one focuses on how aliens react to meeting humans. It is clear from the prologue to the conclusion that all three alien races have been taught to fear humans as a cross between savages and modern day boogeymen. As individual aliens are forced to begin working with humans though, they are (somewhat) able to set their fears aside and work together.
August 30, 2015
What a great sci-fi adventure!
This book really hit the spot, interesting characters , great story, really a great beginning of hopefully a series of books? please...
What I liked, gamers not in any way shape or form treated like some sort of losers/rejects. This seems like the beginning of a series so some of the characters are not as fleshed out as others, but I enjoyed the ones that are. Really a interesting story and seems to remind me of a movie... hahaha.
What I didn't like, the next book is not out, did not seem to see any major spelling errors or grammar problems.
Kudos to the author, I really enjoyed this book, and hopefully anticipate the next one.
This book really hit the spot, interesting characters , great story, really a great beginning of hopefully a series of books? please...
What I liked, gamers not in any way shape or form treated like some sort of losers/rejects. This seems like the beginning of a series so some of the characters are not as fleshed out as others, but I enjoyed the ones that are. Really a interesting story and seems to remind me of a movie... hahaha.
What I didn't like, the next book is not out, did not seem to see any major spelling errors or grammar problems.
Kudos to the author, I really enjoyed this book, and hopefully anticipate the next one.
August 30, 2015
What happens when someone is underestimated?
A very good start to a series I would like more of the human view point later on Especially liked the underlying theme that the "humans" may just have more going on than the aliens figured. I really hope it keeps the light hearted misunderstandings and entendre coming.
A very good start to a series I would like more of the human view point later on Especially liked the underlying theme that the "humans" may just have more going on than the aliens figured. I really hope it keeps the light hearted misunderstandings and entendre coming.
October 21, 2015
Fun and light
Fun if a bit silly at times. The story moves well though the spelling could use a little more work.
Fun if a bit silly at times. The story moves well though the spelling could use a little more work.
January 25, 2016
Excellent!!
A must read. I love how the aliens react to the humans. And the only problem I had was it wasn't longer.
A must read. I love how the aliens react to the humans. And the only problem I had was it wasn't longer.
November 1, 2020
Not bad
Not bad story, has been done before. Will read next book in series. Its Kindle Unlimited so give it a try.
Not bad story, has been done before. Will read next book in series. Its Kindle Unlimited so give it a try.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews