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The Price of Royalty
(A Machina Novel, Vol. 1)
Machinas were made to be the galaxy’s greatest super soldiers. Split into four academies, each with their own deadly abilities, machinas were thought to be machines sent from the gods. Enhanced human beings who blurred the lines between synthetic and biological lifeforms.
Upon the destruction of their home planet, Mair Ultima, machinas became disgraced. Scattered among the stars. Now they work as bounty hunters, assassins, bodyguards. Anything that involves spilling blood. Only thousands remain, the most famous of whom is Beatrix Westwood, a Valkyrie Huntress, though she prefers Trix of Zilvia.
Join Trix on her debut adventure as she attempts to rescue a kidnapped princess while evading warlords, slavers, and warring royal families with the help of her oldest friend, Yvach Aodun.
On that note, welcome to the Milky Way in Earth year 2799. It's like the Wild West and piracy's golden age rolled into one lawless expanse. Trix is feeling lucky. How about you?
Machinas were made to be the galaxy’s greatest super soldiers. Split into four academies, each with their own deadly abilities, machinas were thought to be machines sent from the gods. Enhanced human beings who blurred the lines between synthetic and biological lifeforms.
Upon the destruction of their home planet, Mair Ultima, machinas became disgraced. Scattered among the stars. Now they work as bounty hunters, assassins, bodyguards. Anything that involves spilling blood. Only thousands remain, the most famous of whom is Beatrix Westwood, a Valkyrie Huntress, though she prefers Trix of Zilvia.
Join Trix on her debut adventure as she attempts to rescue a kidnapped princess while evading warlords, slavers, and warring royal families with the help of her oldest friend, Yvach Aodun.
On that note, welcome to the Milky Way in Earth year 2799. It's like the Wild West and piracy's golden age rolled into one lawless expanse. Trix is feeling lucky. How about you?
444 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
About the author
Aleks Canard
33 books20 followersG'day, I'm Aleks. I'm from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 10, 2017
Killer debut novel from the young man. Canard has a knack for action akin to a young Matthew Reilly and creates a world as rich in detail as Tolkien.
October 19, 2019
That was a great, great book!
Wow! What a writer. Epic. Flow. Excitement. Want of more. I loved this book. Will read everything you write. Just great.
Wow! What a writer. Epic. Flow. Excitement. Want of more. I loved this book. Will read everything you write. Just great.
December 20, 2023
Good Story
Just a good book and a good series start. Looking forward to the next in line, I hope it is as good, or better
Just a good book and a good series start. Looking forward to the next in line, I hope it is as good, or better
December 5, 2024
First, let me preface. I'm no writer. I know writing is hard and I probably don't even know how hard it actually is. I say this, because I typically hesitate to criticize a book to harshly for it's writing. The author has clearly done something I never have and better than I ever could.
With that said I had real issues with the writing of this book. Specifically, there were errors, grammatically and typographically. For this I blame the editor more. Furthermore, there were many corny phrases or one-liners that made me cringe. The story is set in the far future, but there were many references to present day culture I found forced, distracting and really pulled me out of the story. Most baffling, is that I found some of the writing just not clear. Points of view would change back and forth between paragraphs. It wasn't always clear who was speaking in a group. The repeated use of "they", "them" or "their" wasn't always clear who was being referenced. It often seemed like edits had been done, things added or removed and it hadn't been all "smoothed over" to be cohesive. I'm certainly willing to chalk some of this up to my own reading comprehension, but certainly not all.
On the positive side I really liked the concept and characters the author created. I found the plot a little "meh", but I think the universe created melding technology and magic has a lot of potential. Unfortunately for me I found the cons to outweigh the negatives in this particular book.
With that said I had real issues with the writing of this book. Specifically, there were errors, grammatically and typographically. For this I blame the editor more. Furthermore, there were many corny phrases or one-liners that made me cringe. The story is set in the far future, but there were many references to present day culture I found forced, distracting and really pulled me out of the story. Most baffling, is that I found some of the writing just not clear. Points of view would change back and forth between paragraphs. It wasn't always clear who was speaking in a group. The repeated use of "they", "them" or "their" wasn't always clear who was being referenced. It often seemed like edits had been done, things added or removed and it hadn't been all "smoothed over" to be cohesive. I'm certainly willing to chalk some of this up to my own reading comprehension, but certainly not all.
On the positive side I really liked the concept and characters the author created. I found the plot a little "meh", but I think the universe created melding technology and magic has a lot of potential. Unfortunately for me I found the cons to outweigh the negatives in this particular book.
August 2, 2025
Wow, I
really
need to pay more attention going through a sample!! ... I didn't read the author's note in the beginning, or I would have known better!!
Weel, here it is: if the author's dedication goes gaga over a lot of people in the film industry, and doesn't mention any actual authors that influenced them, might be a good idea to just smile and wave!!
What burns is the author was doing a pretty good job at engagement with some Interesting characters and dialogue, and even an interesting plot line... Then we got to the ACTION parts.... And insert comic [blamo!] Everything became about how cool something sounded, whether it made sense or not!
Weel, here it is: if the author's dedication goes gaga over a lot of people in the film industry, and doesn't mention any actual authors that influenced them, might be a good idea to just smile and wave!!
What burns is the author was doing a pretty good job at engagement with some Interesting characters and dialogue, and even an interesting plot line... Then we got to the ACTION parts.... And insert comic [blamo!] Everything became about how cool something sounded, whether it made sense or not!
December 23, 2024
a slog
Unfortunately this book introduced a lot of alien races but the world building was superficial and the “Machina” exposition was to veiled to engender any real empathy with the characters. Some characters were just parodies. I hadn’t read a sci-fi + magic book before and turns out it’s not my thing.
Unfortunately this book introduced a lot of alien races but the world building was superficial and the “Machina” exposition was to veiled to engender any real empathy with the characters. Some characters were just parodies. I hadn’t read a sci-fi + magic book before and turns out it’s not my thing.
August 7, 2022
Wonderful
I've been rattling around just not really finding a book that grabbed me for awhile. Then, I found this one!!!!! Wow what a ride!!! I am a prolific and fast reader and can really go through the books. This one was great on every level I consider as required for a good escape. Great characters, even the bad ones!!!!! Lots of action and snarky interactions between characters and by God there's more to come too! What a great job Mr Canard has done! I'm ready for more!!!!
I've been rattling around just not really finding a book that grabbed me for awhile. Then, I found this one!!!!! Wow what a ride!!! I am a prolific and fast reader and can really go through the books. This one was great on every level I consider as required for a good escape. Great characters, even the bad ones!!!!! Lots of action and snarky interactions between characters and by God there's more to come too! What a great job Mr Canard has done! I'm ready for more!!!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews