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Neutral Space

Rebecca Tran (Goodreads Author)

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 7 ratings · 4 reviews

Lieutenant Jackson Peterson thought he knew who the enemy was. A bitter war with the Kelsairans made it abundantly clear. When Jackson saves a Kelsairan woman from a wrecked ship, the line is suddenly blurred. The enemy isn’t what the government said they were and he can no longer blindly follow orders. A shocking discovery leads Jackson down a sinister path of intrigue th ...more

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Kindle Edition, 170 pages

Published November 15th 2017

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Jan 11, 2018 N.N. Light rated it really liked it

Shelves: action, reviews-by-mrs-n, science-fiction

All your life, you’ve fought against a race but what happens when you rescue one and realize it was all a lie?

Jackson’s in a military prison serving his term for insubordination when a Kelsairan woman whom he rescued long ago arrives in handcuffs, accused of treason and horrific crimes. He hasn’t thought about her in years and never knew her true identity: she’s Kheda, a fierce Kelsairan warrior and the one responsible for many of his comrades’ deaths. Conflict wars within Jackson as he sifts t ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Sadie Forsythe rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2.5

This wasn't bad, just simple. Simple in it's writing and narration style and simple in it's plotting. By this I mean the writing is readable, but not elaborate (and it REALLY needs another editing pass, especially to look a punctuation), the narration is a straight forward first person, past tense monologue and the plotting is....well, here's where it all falls apart really. It's simple and not deeply thought out.

For example, in all the universe the two characters get put in the same single p 2.5

This wasn't bad, just simple. Simple in it's writing and narration style and simple in it's plotting. By this I mean the writing is readable, but not elaborate (and it REALLY needs another editing pass, especially to look a punctuation), the narration is a straight forward first person, past tense monologue and the plotting is....well, here's where it all falls apart really. It's simple and not deeply thought out.

For example, in all the universe the two characters get put in the same single prison. The male lead is already there and anticipates the female lead will be placed there when he hears she's to be jailed. (Is there only one such prison in all the universe?) There was no mention of other women (except for a single staff nurse), so I don't know if this was a co-ed prison. But when she arrived, she seemed able to wander at will and sleep wherever she wanted. She was never actually locked up at any point. That doesn't seem very prison-like to me, but it sure was convenient for the plot.

Most of the book is a romance in space, which I don't mind. I like those. But the plot is basically them running around talking to people that they already knew and somehow, miraculously uncovering, in some small amount of time, a secret that had gone undiscovered for 200 years. One of the clues they find is a copy of the original treaty, the breach of which started the war. You guys, if a war starts because someone is said to have broken a treaty, I really think someone would have thought to look at the darned thing before 200 years passed.

That war is basically just a background prop. You never feel the tension of it. The characters met ON VACATION. Yes, I know it's the space-fairing equivalent of shore leave. But it's hard to be concerned about a war when the main character trots off to go fishing and throughout the whole book they go wherever they want, including to their families, and no one ever stops them, there is never a battle, or a front, or any evidence of war.

While I appreciate that female lead was meant to be the more elite soldier, she spent the whole book being girly—changing clothes, putting on perfume, angsting about her virginity, and eventually marrying and having babies. She could have been a baker or a politician and been far more believable. Her character was too shallow and simple to actually carry what it was supposed to.

Lastly, there's the humans and kelsairans, who were less different from one another than the Americans are from the Chinese. They shared the same mores and values. Their languages must not have even been that different, because the characters learned to speak alien languages in months, in one case without anyone to even teach him. He picked it up from listening to the guards talk to one another. So again, the cultures and universe are simple and not as diverse as they need to be.

I know I sound like I've trashed this book. I was admittedly disappointed to find it as flat as it is. But it is entertaining in it's own ways, has a lovely theme, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it. I'd even be willing to read another of Tran's books. ...more

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Feb 03, 2018 Keisha Fladrick rated it it was amazing

I found this story to be original, fleshed out, and imaginative. I'm so impressed by the author's ability to write a balance of bad-ass militaristic action scenes, and meaningful inter-character connections. I enjoyed the contrast of cultures and other planets, the depth took my imagination to some awesome places. ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 Sandy Lipinski rated it it was amazing

Inspirational love story of two very much in love with everything stacked against them. A set-up, prison, military, and family acceptance.

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About Rebecca Tran

Rebecca Tran

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After her father died Rebecca Tran started writing as a coping mechanism. Her self prescribed therapy soon turned into a passion. It took two college degrees and a lot of confidence to show her work to anyone. With a a lot of editing and little encouragement she published her first novel The Rashade' in January of 2017. The sequel A Guardian Falls was released the following June. Rebecca's PNR se ...more