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Awakening: The Shard Chronicles Book 1

Ono Northey (Goodreads Author),

Nicholas Hermann (Editor)

4.44 · Rating details · 25 ratings · 15 reviews

What would you do if the country you loved covered up the reasons behind your battlefield injuries and accused you of treason and madness?
What if you thought they might be right?

Find out why readers are calling The Shard Chronicles "The Matrix meets the Bourne Identity" in this jaw-dropping urban fantasy series!

"This is the gritty urban fantasy series we've been wa ...more

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Kindle Edition, 368 pages

Published January 4th 2019

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Average rating 4.44 ·

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· 25 ratings · 15 reviews

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Jan 31, 2020 Mary Jaimes-Serrano rated it it was amazing

The mind is an exceptional journey....

This is not the type of book I generally read. I am very happy that I stepped out of my norm for this one. Northey has taken the premise of wounded soldier and PTSDs and turned the main character Steven into a character with charisma and fight. Following his journey to self-discovery kept me turning the pages. I had to know what would happen next. I look forward to following Steven's journey in the next book.

Northey has done an excellent job of creating scen ...more

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Jan 09, 2019 Julie Northey rated it it was amazing

I loved being engaged with the characters in this book because I love both "self help" books, and on the opposite spectrum, devour thrillers like Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Both are fast paced, full of martial arts & creative problem solving.
What AWAKENING adds is "more", because not only is the former vet protagonist a "real" believable flawed character, (with a physical handicap as well) but, he ends up "self helping" and evolving and growing as a person.
We, as readers, are given act ...more

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Jul 18, 2020 Phillip Murrell rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2020

I enjoy a good action story. Making the hero a SEAL (or was he a soldier or a Marine? Wrong terms kept being used) in a wheelchair with amputated legs had such promise. The book was broken into four sections. The first section absolutely delivered on that action. It was a hospital escape mash-up with elements from films like "Hard to Kill" and "Hardboiled." Combined with the excellent protagonist in Steve, made it a five-star tale. Unfortunately, section 2 significantly shifted gears to therapy ...more

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May 16, 2020 D. Peach rated it it was amazing

I’m a reader of character-driven novels. A fantastic character will keep me riveted, and this book has a six-star main character. Steve is a veteran who lost his legs in Afghanistan in an explosion that took out his team, and he wants out of the hospital. A strange murder ends up splattering his hospital room with a human smoothie and suddenly he’s on the run, learning to use a unique mental power that gets him into trouble as much as it saves him.

Why is Steve a fantastic character? He has a sar ...more

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Nov 13, 2019 J.P. Willson rated it really liked it

I think I knew right from the first pages this was going to be a series of books. It just had that feel about it. After getting a little way in I was certain of this, just how things were seriously taking their time coming together. This can and has been the downfall of many a series of books but such is definitely not the case here. It holds the attention and prolonged the suspense and kept me engaged at a good pace. It is suspenseful, perhaps a little predictable, but that could just be me. St ...more

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Jan 11, 2019 Antwan rated it it was amazing

Wow.

I went into this book looking for action and excitement. And don't get me wrong, I got that. It was very engaging and had some great action. What I *also* got was... life changing.

I cannot thank Mister Northey enough. Wow. Truly brilliant writing with an inspiring wisdom to it I've never seen within a book of this sort.

Do yourself a favor. Get this book. (I know this sounds corny but) it could actually change your life. ...more

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May 19, 2020 Grady Brown rated it it was amazing

The characters of this novel were well written and relatable. The pacing was great, which made it an exciting and exhilarating story. Overall, this book was epic beyond measure.

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Jan 11, 2019 Simon Ehrmantraut rated it it was amazing

An epic story with incredible pacing, well-developed characters, and unpredictable entertainment!

A must-read, must buy for all readers and occasions! Truly inspired

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Nov 24, 2019 Francis Mont rated it liked it

“Awakening: The Shard Chronicles Book 1” by Ono Northey was mixed bag for me. Most of the story is interesting speculation on the human mind’s ability to mold itself, based on the brain plasticity theory of neuroscience. Some of this speculation was very clever, especially his C3GUS theory, others were more on the spiritual level, but interesting nevertheless. All this psycho-speculation was sandwiched between two tightly packed action scenes, at the front and the back of the book, the latter a ...more

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Jul 26, 2020 Adam Martin rated it liked it

This novel reads like a novelization of a movie that hasn't been made yet, which is a good thing, since it's really the only way to pull off the virtual reality genre in print. Characters, pace, and locations have to keep humming at a rapid clip for this kind of modern storytelling to work, often veering towards comic books or graphic novels without pictures. For the most part this novel doesn't disappoint.

Most of the story is told in first person by Steve, a former Navy SEAL recovering from an This novel reads like a novelization of a movie that hasn't been made yet, which is a good thing, since it's really the only way to pull off the virtual reality genre in print. Characters, pace, and locations have to keep humming at a rapid clip for this kind of modern storytelling to work, often veering towards comic books or graphic novels without pictures. For the most part this novel doesn't disappoint.

Most of the story is told in first person by Steve, a former Navy SEAL recovering from an injury that has left him wheelchair-ridden and legless, and suffering from flashbacks of previous military service. He becomes embroiled with Zo, a high tech antagonist belonging to some sort of mysterious telepathic agency.

Overall, the author's voice is enjoyable: cutting, self-deprecating, sarcastic, wise-cracking and lucid. While it works well in section one, it tends to drown out the plot at the expense of atmospheric character tag commentary in the remaining sections, which is entertaining but could be subdued, allowing critical plot elements to come into sharper focus.

The middle of the novel is spent with Steve recovering from an attack at a vet hospital then tended to by his love interest Amber. It takes about six to eight plot points to get Steve back on the field, where three would do. There's not a lot to do with the recovering soldier trope, and after Steve wonders who he is about three or four times, it's time to stop getting bogged down with soul-searching and get on with the next arc.

The sex scenes are done well: erotic and brief without becoming overtly graphic or accidentally creepy.

I liked Wilks, Steve's handler, but he needs more context as a character. He barges in on Steve and Amber so many times out of nowhere that I kept picturing a character sitting on a bench in the character dugout until the story requires him to barge in, lose his temper, then go back to sitting in the character dugout.

The intrigue of the prologue could be better exploited in the middle of the novel, where the story tends to lose steam, not at the beginning when it doesn't matter. Like setting of fireworks in July, rather than January.

Chapter 55 is either a) where the novel should really start and flashbacked as needed, or b) should be moved to section one. If the the central thesis of this story/chronicle is about "myelination," the theme may have more impact towards the opening chapters, so that whatever follows hooks the reader into the central concept.

It would only serve to strengthen what already works with this author's unique voice.

...more

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Sep 07, 2020 Anastasia Hunt rated it really liked it

Warning: this book contains foul language and vivid violence.

Edit: the version of the book I was given is a little different than the version sold on Amazon, so my views pertaining to the formatting are a little skewed, I guess. The Kindle version looks much better.

Northey's writing is excellent and I found it both hilarious (mostly Steve's point of view) and greatly descriptive. The writing won't turn you off at all. What does turn me off is the atrocious formatting and lack of proper editin ...more

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Aug 23, 2020 Thomas Jr. rated it liked it

Awakening is billed as a character driven urban fantasy. It is actually a making of an urban fantasy hero tale, as the protag, Steve Jang, is transformed from a bed-ridden combat casualty into a kick-ass action hero. However, in this case, character-driven seems to translate into endless introspection, which slows the action in the book down to a crawl. The plot advances incrementally. There is endless explication of C3GUS-the system that Steve must learn to tap into his unrealized magical/psi p ...more

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Jun 08, 2020 Darrell Nelson rated it it was amazing

You know it's a good book if you go into it with a total misconception, and still completely enjoy it.
In this case the misconception was completely and totally my fault. I somehow read the title, Awakening: The Shard Chronicles BOOK 1 and didn't think it would be the first book in a series. So I was looking at it wrong, and still enjoyed it.
I was looking at as a totally stand alone book which would earn it a four star, a star taken off for ideas that were mostly explored but could go deeper. The ...more

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Jan 10, 2019 Kevin rated it it was amazing

HOLLEE SHIT!

I admit, I was pretty skeptical, but damn this is a great book. Great characters, great writing. Action, thoughtful inner dialogue, and a super interesting plot that I get the feeling is going to span several books.

When is the next one coming out!?

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