The Heirs of Earth

Children of Earthrise #1

by Daniel Arenson

We hide in shadows. Our planet is lost. We are the last humans, and we must go home.

Two thousand years ago, aliens destroyed Earth. Our fleets shattered. Billions died. The last humans fled a burning planet, heading to the stars.

Today we are still refugees. Hungry. Afraid. Our enemies hunt us everywhere.

So we hide. On distant asteroids. In rundown space stations. In deep caves on frozen worlds. And we dream.

Of green hills. Blue skies. Golden fields. We dream of Earth.

And for the first time, we have hope.

A few of us, just a handful of brave souls, form the Heirs of Earth. We are humans who stand tall. Who fight back. Aliens call us terrorists. The humans we save call us heroes. We have starships, weapons, and warriors. We can bring humanity home.

Earth is far. We have not seen her in many generations. But we have not forgotten. Earth is our heritage. Earth is our birthright. We will return!
________

In 2016, the Earthrise series became a surprise bestseller, captivating hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. Set two thousand years later, Children of Earthrise begins a new story, one for both new readers and old fans.

Genres: Science Fiction, Aliens, Fantasy, Amazon, Fiction, Audiobook, Space

444 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 17, 2017

About the author

Daniel Arenson is a bookworm, proud geek, and USA Today bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction. His novels have sold over a million copies. The Huffington Post has called his writing "full of soul." He's written over forty novels, most of them in five series:

EARTHRISE — They came from deep space. They came to destroy us. Against the alien onslaught, Earth stands alone. But we will fight. We will rise. We will win. Start reading with Earth Alone, the first novel in this military science fiction series.

REQUIEM — Welcome to Requiem, an ancient kingdom whose people can grow wings and scales, breathe fire, and take flight as dragons. Requiem is explored in six trilogies, which can be read in any order. If you're new to Requiem, you can start reading with Requiem's Song (you can download it for free). For fans of dark, gritty fantasy like A Game of Thrones.

MOTH — Discover Moth, a world torn between day and night—its one half drenched in eternal daylight, the other cloaked in endless darkness. For fans of classic fantasy worlds such as Middle Earth and Narnia. Start reading with Moth, the first novel in this epic fantasy saga.

ALIEN HUNTERS — Got trouble with aliens? Call the Alien Hunters. A group of scruffy mercenaries, they'll remove the pest for you. Low rates. No questions asked. Start reading with Alien Hunters, the first book in this space opera series. For fans of Star Wars, Firefly, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

KINGDOMS OF SAND — Enter a world of sand and splendor, a world where gladiators battle in the arena, where legionaries and barbarians fight for glory, and where empires rise and fall.

Reviews

[Randy Bias · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible prose

I could barely read it. I wanted it to be good but the writing is overwrought and cliche filled. I don’t mind a little of this but the first chapter was non-stop. Like reading an essay from a high schooler who is trying to write what they think you want to read. I gave up after chapter one.

UPDATE: on a whim I gave it another try and pushed through a bunch of chapters. It just gets worse. And where do all of these people come from who rate this 4 or 5??

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly crafted

Hard to get into a story where a starship puts on the "brakes" during combat and where the ability of the starships in combat are not consistent from battle to battle. And do not get me started about a human surviving in outer space without a suit "because it was only 19 seconds". Why did he spend the time to write so poorly. Very disappointed.

[Ben Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I powered through this book because I liked the concept. I’d describe it as pure space opera. The science didn’t matter as technology was mere scenery for the story. That’s space opera and it’s done well.

What bothered me took a long time for me to articulate. The characters are all tragic and suffering. The story really beats you over the head with each characters psychological axe to grind. It became weary and tedious by the end. The fights were all like reading a video game. Good guys against a horde and laying waste to them in ever more absurd ways until you reach the boss battle and then it gets really silly. So that is the over arching pain I found in the story.

Duncan was TOS Scotty and McCoy in one. It never connected with me. The accent was absurd anyhow.

The human weapons were ... silly. If your mindless scorpion horde is invulnerable to small arms you get bigger arms. If humans couldn’t figure that out in 2000 years they deserve to be extinct. It was absurd how they loved their guns that could hurt their enemy.

The human spaceships had missles and cannons but never reloaded or ran out. They were ineffective until the story needed them to be and that just didn’t ring true.

The humans had no tactics. Charge the horde, take a bunch of losses, now release the effective weapon (flame thrower) and charge take a bunch of losses, now release your ace in the hole, air cover. I eye rolled so hard it hurt my head.

The whole humans are pests things didn’t work. All the aliens encountered were dumb as dirt why are they hated. No context there just an itch the book didn’t scratch.

I don’t like writing such a negative review. Clearly the author took the time share his work with the hope of profit. I respect that. It’s just not the story for me.

[Gerard E. Trigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent character development, good story, but the battle scenes were horrendous. Little or no planning before going into battle. I am not a military person, but even I could see the flaws in their method of attack.

Spoiler alert. In the big climatic battle they attack through a well guarded wormhole with limited access and egress rather than taking the time to go around and attacking from an unknown direction, or of even sending probes through to get intelligence on what they would be facing before hand. It was no wonder that they lost. No intelligent species that has any history or knowledge of war would act in such a rash and unthinking manner.

The natural armor of the arachnid aliens is unrealistically strong and impervious to weapons.

[Mick Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is gripping and compelling: I finished it not too long ago, his characters are believable and the story line flows easily. We will see what books 2 brings us.

[Mark A · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has interesting ideas but to much repeating and overwritten for me

[Terry Mcmullen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really wanted it to be a good read, but I was skipping a lot hoping to get to something interesting. I finally gave up.

[Kelvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heirs Of Earth is an action pack fantasy romp set in space. Full of Deus Ex Machina where POV characters find themselves in a unwinnable, unlivable or otherwise impossible situation, and yet you can always bet they'll wiggle a way out of it, somehow.

"Got jettison in space with no spacesuit...? here comes a random ship in the nick of time."

"Find yourself all alone racing towards an enemy armada of ten thousand ships...? no prob, here comes some random reinforcements right when you need them."

"Behind enemy lines with no hope of escape shy of a miracle...? no prob, here comes our people to save us..."

The list goes on and on... but this isn't even the worse of it all. But one thing I can say about Arenson is that he has great premises for books. Only, the execution of those premises fall flat and miss out on huge opportunities to make the story even greater, IMO.

So, here is my review for Heirs Of Earth

The Story.

For what the plot delivers on its 400+ page count is was very small if not incoherent at times. The plot jumps right into action at the start, establishing the big bad that'll loom in the background. We are introduced to four main characters who would drive the plot forward, but really, they are just there to be flung from one outrageous action scene to the next. Some call this story science fiction but really its reads like a parody space opera, especially with the description of the "alien" characters.

The aliens are nothing spectacular nor originally refreshing. It's like the author just googled anything about animals and just based his aliens off the photos of lions, fishes crabs. Literally one race of aliens are clayfish that fly in crab shaped UFOs. Then they're sentient rocks that fly spaceships shaped like rocks because... why not?

All these aliens have a grip against humans because... uh... *scratches head* honestly, I have no idea. However, there is an explanation as to why these pseudo-animal aliens all have a mad on hate for humans... but it isn't explained AT ALL! Literally one POV character knows the truth behind the hate but he literally says I can't tell no one because they're not ready uhhh... yeah dude, I REALLY think all of humanity is ready to hear whatever you got t say about that.

Outside of the poor alien qualities, the human characters are marginally better. My favorite character was Emet, because he seemed the most "human" when it came to reacting and responding to threats or changes in the story. The other POV characters were just... all right. Outside of repeated character points Arenson bashes us over the head with, the characters hardly evolve into fully rounded characters.

My least favorite character had to be Rowan, really because she is the most unrealistic of the cast. I laughed every time she kept referencing early 21st century--mid 20th century pop culture and calling it "nerdy" when she is 2000 years culturally removed from a period when these references were remotely relevant. How would a human--facing galaxy wide genocide--know what nerd culture is? Why would a human 2000 years in the future be fixated on contemporary pop culture like Stranger Things? In the book, the Earth wasn't destroyed until the year 2300, so was there any culture that survived pass 2018 or did we all just decide to stop evolving technologically because nostalgia? Who knows.

These are small pet peeves that are forgivable. But what's not forgivable were the so-called space battles in this book. Unless physics dramatically alter in the near future about everything we know about space, but one cannot "press the breaks to stop" a starship like a car in space. Afterburners are useless in space and so are iron space ships. I mean, I just laughed every time a space ship "burned" or "listed" in a vacuum after taking damage. Then again, this story is just fantasy with a superficial plotline that's hidden behind the explosive action scenes.

If you are searching for a deep, plotline with complex characters, you may still enjoy Heirs Of Earth. It's good entertainment but easily forgettable once you close the book. The action scenes give this book the life it deserves. Outside of that, there isn't much story.

[Red Tide · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird

Maybe I'm not quick enough to follow this story. The writing is not very good with dialogue that made me cringe and a premise that's foggy. For a 1940's science fiction serial it would be mediocre but still hard to follow.

I didn't get past about twelve percent of the book and here's what stopped me. Humanity lost a war and lost Earth but what was the war about? What were the battlelines, interstellar or within the Solar system only? If limited to the solar system then it's an extinction event, no followup needed. If it's interstellar, where is the scattered infrastructure that would make life possible for the remnants of humanity? Why is there a border with other species that the destroyers of humanity can cross freely with no consequences? Why does this insect-like race have such a hatred for humans out of all the species in the book? After two thousand years, wouldn't they get over their mad?

You get my point. It's silly plot married to cartoon characters. That couple then moved in with the lack of logic and lazy writing twins. That just how it seemed to me.

[Michael Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wherever a human was in danger, the Heirs of Earth would be there.

It's been two thousand years since Addison Elizabeth Linden-Emery ate her last hotdog, since Marco Emery wrote his last book, since Einav Ben-Ari, the Golden Lioness, had led the forces that saved the Earth. Two thousand years since the Earth was lost and humans had been forced to scrounge for survival with nowhere to call home, reviled and scorned by alien races, exterminated as pests by most species.

Descendants of the famous families, David Emery and Emet Ben-Ari had acquired a small fleet of spacecraft, mostly freighters, which they armed. Theyestablished the 'Heirs of Earth' to protect humans across the Milky Way galaxy. Their oath 'Wherever a human is in danger the Heirs of Earth will be there' became their battle cry as their small fleet crossed space seeking humans in trouble and rescuing them. They sought to save humanity while searching for their homeworld, Earth, lost for hundreds of years. Their only memories of their home came from the Earthstone, a crystal data store of all Earth's history and culture, literature and art. A difference in their goals and methods drove a rift between the founders, Ben-Ari and Emery, and eventually split them apart. David and Sarai Emery, with their two young daughters, Jade and Rowan, left the Heirs to make their own way, taking the Earthstone with them. They had not been seen or heard from for nearly 15 years.

Emet Ben-Ari and his daughter, Leona, held the Inheritors together, rescuing humans wherever they could with the help of fellow Inheritors. Emet's son Bay had left the Heirs of Earth after the death of his girlfriend, killed by Scorpions. He blamed his father for her death and spent his time drinking, gambling and wasting his life.

Rowan Emery found herself abandoned and hiding in the airducts of space station "Paradise Lost", kept company by a tiny dragonfly shaped AI and the Earthstone she wore on a chain around her neck. She didn't remember much from before Paradise Lost, only something about a crystal cave and her sister Jade.

These characters form the basis for the Heirs of Earth series, a remarkable new series by Daniel Arensen. The characters are vibrant and colorful, brought to life by this master storyteller. The action is bloody and dark, raising chills with heart-pounding ship-to-ship battles, hand-to-claw skirmishes, blasters vs. bullets combat, some of the most intense action readable (or hearable)! I found it impossible to put the book down. I can't wait for the next part of this series! Fortunately, Daniel is a master at quickly publishing his work, so I won't have long to wait.

You don't have to read the Earthrise series first, but why not? The references to that story and characters are found throughout Heirs of Earth, but aren't really spoilers. So you don't NEED to read Earthrise, but you WILL enjoy it!

I had the great good fortune to be allowed to read the ARC copy of this work, but I'm going to buy it as soon as it comes out so I can read it again! And again! It's that good!

[Rex Grigg · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a pinch, I'll read a cereal box.

I've been reading books by Daniel Areson lately.

I may have been better off reading cereal boxes.

Daniel's books seem to have been written by a prepubescent boy with little to no grasp of physics, firearms, the military, and almost every other subject.

His books are rife with plot holes, mistakes, and nonsense.

Brakes on a spaceship! Spaceships that quit moving when their means of propulsion is disabled, ships swooping around in space without regard to inertia. SHOCKWAVES in space from an explosion.

In an earlier book, he confuses a submachine gun with an assault rifle.

Machine guns are still being used for SPACE COMBAT hundreds of years in the future.

Let's talk for a minute about the use of projectile weapons in space. There are a couple of problems. 1. The projectiles are going to be moving much slower than the targets or firing ship.
2. They don't stop. Once sent into space they are going to keep going until they either hit something or are sucked into a gravity well. That bullet might only be going 1000 meters a second...but when something moving at orbital velocity hits it there's going to be a lot of damage. Unless you are able to accelerate the projectile to a significant percentage of the speed of light, think rail gun, any projectile firing weapon in space is not going to work well.

The way Daniel writes at one second these space used machine guns barely damage a target and on the next page they are blowing things out of the sky (how do you blow something out of the sky in space?)

When it comes to space combat Daniel seems almost unable to think in three dimensions. Hell, he has stricken ships FALLING, when not even close to a gravity well. Daniel confuses combat in space with combat in a gravity well/atmosphere.

I'll continue reading these books because I hate reading cereal boxes in bed. I keep hoping that at some point Daniel will grow up, take a few writing classes and at least an intro to Physics.

[Jeff Go · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not hard to please when it comes to light entertainment. But this was hard to listen to. Everything is very cliched. It's like humans left Earth in the early 21st century and 2000+ years later, the only memory of Earth was the last 20 years of pop-culture. It's lazy writing.

But the composition of set pieces and setting up the main characters are good enough. I haven't quite finished the book, but I am interested in seeing how the 2 main families return and how the Heirs find the Earth to inherit it.

I may not make it. How many times do I have to be told that such and such a place is the Den of Evil, the worst of the worst of immorality, etc. I mean, if the universe is as bad as is written, are those human dens of immorality really all that immoral to the other crustacean creatures that seem to inhabit the universe?

Speaking of crustacean creatures and how hated the humans are across the universe (and I mean hated above hated, so hated that even the ones who aren't actively searching for humans to exterminate them, they call for exterminators to get rid of their infestation), but Bae, in this awful universe, spent more than 3 days at Paradise Lost, a place that "don't serve human pests", drinking himself drunk and mucking virtual girls. Of course, who's going to spend the time to create human girls in a virtual world for a creature that all of the universe considers pests with nothing more than a consideration to kill them. I mean, really, think of the ugliest animal on Earth, the worst of all the pests - is anyone really going to create porn for that creature?

I'm half-way through the book, and it is so tedious with explaining and describing the same thing over and over again. And then making references to 1990s - 2010s pop culture.

[Tex · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of the book and decided to provide my honest review, which I have.) The Heirs of Earth (Children of the Earthrise Book 1) is a complex Fantastical Journey. It is apparent that the author is not only a writer of fantasy but a reader and devotee of fantasy. I say this because character development, environment, despair, and happiness are felt by the reader. Once you start to get into the book, it swallow’s the reader up - and “The Heirs of Earth” becomes a page-turner. How could it not, with the romance in the midst of war, desperation of the daily need to survive, and always on the run from a deadly hunter? I commend the author on the structure of the book – the many layers needed to allow several stories to survive on their own and interact with each other successfully. The characters were on a spectrum of great depth to allow you to feel a desperation to the sparest of which to convey coldness such as the hunters. I am tap-dancing that I experienced reading The Heirs of Earth (Children of the Earthrise Book 1). Looking forward to the next book. Recommendation: Read the Book it’s terrific. –Tex. ( P.S. I bought the book.)

[Richard L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a coming of age, finding themselves, girl meets boy story, this book is a good teen/young adult book. Writing is OK. Could be better. Technical geeks and those schooled in physics will notice some errors. The humans fight from retrofitted, old and rusting, yacht sized cargo spaceships against state of the art dreadnoughts the size of a small town. The humans fire shells and torpedoes against ships firing plasma and nuclear weapons. Credibility is stretched a tad bit to far. Another example, a rifle that uses cartridges can only penetrate one inch into the scorpion's exoskeleton. In the next scene the rifle can blow the scorpions head off. The pace of the book is fast. The under fed humans fight many battles day after day. I suspect their death rate from sheer exhaustion would be greater than those deaths caused by the scorpions. Turn off your mind and get caught up in the adventure of under dog humans fighting against extinction by the evil scorpions. You will want to read all the books in the series. If you can't abide the distortion of facts then this first book in the series will be sufficient to satisfy your appetite for any more.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard one to rate for me. I will sum up my thoughts for those who want a quick response and explain why later.
If you are looking for a Asimov science fiction space tale move on now. If you are interested in action and combat with daring heroics ask yourself what is more important - the battlefield or the character. If it is not the character then move on. This easy read happened to take place in space not on a planet with dragons or spell casters. If you want to believe that those characters can exist and survive what you cannot imagine that is what happens here. The plot and characters supersede all in the book. It doesn't matter what the weapon does to the enemy, it just works or it doesn't. Can the ship fly or flee not sure but it would be the option that works best to move the plot on.
I gave this a little higher rating than normal because of the characters how they became the end result. What was the reason for this book? Does the author want to leave a message? Is this a learning experience or just a good time? I pushed on and discovered the answer for myself. Will you do the same?

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Serious continuity errors, a few grammar errors, and several factual errors make this book a bit of a trial to read for the fact oriented scifi fan, but it's still a decent story, and for those who could care less about such things, it will probably be an excellent read.
Unfortunately, I can't get past the whole screaming humans when they get ejected from their fighters in open space, the ships that behave like they're on a planetary surface when they're fighting in open space, and the fires that burn out of control in open space as well.
There's more, but you get the idea. These kinds of lack attention to details just irritate me too much for me to enjoy the story, especially in a genre that has ironed out all of these bugs many many years ago.
Regardless, most fans will find this an enjoyable read I'm sure, since the story itself isn't bad.
I'm not yet sure if I'll continue the series or not, but that shouldn't stop anyone else from enjoying all the books in the series themselves.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can really feel that the author was having fun designing all the awkward varieties of aliens, I appreciate that. I'm not so much buying all those varieties flying around in space ships and co-existing, but artistic license.

I enjoyed the story arc and bits of creativity that the author put into the story, but I found the situations/escapes to be a bit juvenile (with adult-only scenes). The writing was decent though and it's an easy read.

Goodreads tells me that it took me a month to read this book though, and I know that's because I questioned a few times whether I wanted to keep reading. I did finish it though, and can say that the story and writing didn't decline as the book went on, nor did it blow me away though.

So, in the end, I wouldn't go out of your way to read this. But if you're interested and perhaps looking to get entwined in a new book series, give this one a try, maybe it will catch you.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I enjoyed the first Earthrise series and had high hopes for this one. I was not disappointed. I was glad to see it referenced/tied into the original storyline but was actually it's own story. The overall writing and story is actually good and not cheesy like a large selection of current sci-fi novels.

--Slight spoiler, skip this paragraph if you wish--

I did have a problem with some continuity throughout the story. The humans at this point we're supposed to have been away from Earth for millenia yet every now and then they had the ATTITUDE and PERSPECTIVE of someone from our time, such as the line about being lower than flies on the social status ladder. Every time that happened I was ripped out of the story and back into reality. That really hurt the flow. This is why it lost a star in the rating.

--

I definitely recommend people who enjoy sci-fi first read the Earthrise series then read this one.

[Nils-Petter Löf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boken utspelar några tusen år in i framtiden. Människan är avskum. Hatad och jagad. Vi lever som råttor i rymden, utspridda i slummen och på rostiga skepp. Ingen har sett jorden på flera generationer och samtidigt har vi endast ett enda riktigt minne från vår forna kultur. En kristallliknande sak som innehåller all var konst, filosofi och liknande som vi skapat.

Förvänta dig inte en vacker historia. Denna är blodig, rostig, mordisk och hemsk. Den är ändå spännande men har ett mörker som väcker illusionen om rymdens dunkel på allvar. Överallt är människor hatade. Men framförallt från ”skorpionerna”. En rovdjursliknande ras som har bestämt sig för att utrota mänskligheten, en gång för alla.

[Bhuwan Chand · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tables have been turned, humans, who've always considered themselves to be all powerful and a special creation of the nature, are considered lowest of the low (pests) and are slowly exterminated by a truly powerful alient race. Humans are home-less, running around alien worlds to save their life, either hated or being laughed at by most alient races.

The premise of this story sounds really bleak. There are few sparks of life in this utter darkness. And Daniel Arenson is doing a damn good job of keeping our hopes and interest alive in the rag-tag band of Human survivor, trying to get back to their home - The Earth...

The first book of the series very promising, hope the rest are also equally well written...

[Gregoire · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5 *
L'idée de départ aurait pu être passionnante mais l'auteur accumule les répétitions (descriptions, cérémonies etc) presque mot à mot, certains caractères sont irréalistes (comment Rowan survit elle seule et depuis la tendre enfance dans les tuyauteries de la station ? ...) et certains détails se contredisent (l'utilisation des armes à feu contre les scorpions) bref si vous êtes un lecteur assidue de Space Opera vous aurez du mal à croire en cette histoire au thème qui aurait pu être mieux exploité en évitant les incohérences et les répétitions qui finissent par enlever de la crédibilité au suspense (for Earth !!!)

[Dominic G. Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry, but if this was designed for an adult audience, then it was very poorly written. Very cliched. No real attempt to use real-world physics when spaceships were maneuvering and said nothing about artificial gravity and how it kept on working even when a ship's engine and power sources had been almost demolished. He also kept repeating the same phrases on numerous occasions, which I think is just lazy. It certainly didn't make me want to read any more in the series, which is a pity as the premise and the back story weren't too bad.

If he is a best selling NY Times author, then it certainly wasn't for this book.

Sorry Daniel.

[Gay Deputee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love all of Daniel Arenson's books and was quite worried in the beginning of this book. It just didn't grab me like his other books did. But by about the first 25% of the book, i had gotten more familiar with the characters and more comfortable with the various surroundings. By 50%, I was totally committed to the book. It is fast paced with likable main characters and a bevy of aliens that are interesting. Well done once again.

[Patricia Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing!

This novel is very thought provoking. Humans exiled from earth and living in hiding from species of insects and other animals. Fighting to save humans from torture and death at the claws, pincers, and stingers of the Scorpion king and his army. Fighting to regain the Earth and rebuild their lives and bring new lives into a world of peace. Follow the lives of Emet, Leona, Rowan, and Bates they deal with their own internal battles as well as those of the here and now.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

I enjoyed this novel's content and engaged with its characters. Even so, I recognize there's mediocrity creeping throughout. The dialogue is slightly more than corny, and I'm especially curious why Arenson utilizes a most obvious historical reference (incidences of human genocide and the Holocaust in particular) without providing much allegorical insight or editorial on the matter. Such an omission comes off a bit as a lack of creativity. Will definitely read on, but the obvious mirroring of our own accounts of history demands more depth.

[Roh Bawt · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style just didn't suit me. It was constantly trying to wax poetic at all times which for me pools me out of the story making it harder to relate to. Also some things early on were so nonsensical that I kept expecting the character to wake from a dream. That didn't happen.... And I stopped trying to get through the story.

For some, likely even many, this style may be very appealing. But for those like me who don't think it terms of poetry and want to connect with a story this just may not be a book for you.

[Bob Moyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-moving story that was hard to put down. Very suspenseful and the author's creativity with respect to aliens is absolutely amazing. The only thing I did not like about the book is that there was so much repetition which I attribute to some sort of writing style. There is a song that was sung three or four times at different points in the book. There were other emotional thoughts or sayings that the characters would repeat over and over and over again. Other than this minor annoyance it was well worth the read and I recommend.

[Brenda Mcallister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok read. Many slow spots and repetitions. There were a lot of fight scenes and space battles but the wounded bounced back up and immediately started fighting or flying with no recovery time at all. The story is an advanced race discovered our world, decided they wanted it and proceeded to kill or drive off all humans. Now scattered through the galaxies where they are treated as vermin, the ragtag band of a couple dozen ships take on a war with superior force, finding more survivors and rescuing them and finding Earth and taking it back. All hail humans,mighty force of the galexies.

[Paul McCarthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I persevered as I always like to finish a book once started. At page 235, I finally gave up. I've no idea how this book gets the high ratings it does. I can only imagine it's read by those who've not read mostly well written books.

This book has a poor plot line with no back story of how humanity got to the situation they are in. The characters are one dimensional and the universe is poorly thought through. It's almost as if he's sat with a focus group of ten year old and discussed ideas for creatures to use.

I bought the series, thankfully it was a Kindle offer so they only cost 99p.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

I like the premise of this story. The set up is good, but the writing is ROUGH. The repetition on things described in the previous page is obnoxious and unnecessary. The characters of Rowan, Bay, and Leona are fine. I’d like to learn more about the weaver. But Emet is intolerable. Where some details are repeated, others are completely missing. I’m torn to finish the series because I like to complete things, but I don’t think I can endure a series of books written like that.