Pulsar

Draconis #1

by Ethan Stand

Zhenyi Hypatia Drakos had two astrophysicists as parents, one Greek and one Chinese. They gave her a love of space and the intellect to study it. Her name, glasses and independent spirit made her the target of bullies from her first day of school. To survive Zen adapted by becoming self-sufficient and capable of fighting back. When the pulsar she discovered at age thirteen begins changing, she discovers that humans are not alone in the universe. Draconis is the story of how Zen shares this news with the world and prepares herself and the planet for what is headed their way.

Genres: Science Fiction

89 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2020

Reviews

[XR · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love when authors write strong female mains, like Zen. I have a feeling this is going to be a great series.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the start of the book, however after a while I couldn’t help but get a tiny bit irritated with the author. The way he tries to build up the mystery and tension just dragged on a bit. However I thought this was a great start to the series.
If possible I would have given 4.5 stars.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first installment is short, silly, and written with with stilted style, but is surprisingly enjoyable. Our MC is fun, and while the rest of the cast is liberally filled out with character stereotypes—there's not a single character that does anything to surprise us, they're well written and believable within their little boxes.

On its own this episode probably would have gotten 5 stars, but the later installments, while also good, drag it down the entire thing down a bit. Our MC gets preachy while at the same time being a bit of a psychopath, espousing a lot of totalitarian ideas that I suspect are common in fringe "prepper" communities. It's all justified by our narrator as being in service of the "greater good" in the face of the apocalypse, but it doesn't feel quite right. She also makes a completely inconsistent argument about agnosticism in book three (" [I] think my dad is being intellectually lazy when a lack of proof, either way, means he uncritically chooses what he wants to be true "), which is obviously an unjustifiable position and completely out of character based on everything else we know about her. The sci-fi pretense also devolves into a bit of explicit techno-mumble jargon that doesn't make any sense, which is a shame because it's not hard to buy into the initial development.

Overall a KU winner and I'll definitely continue to follow its development.

[William Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmm

First, I like it. I like the science in my fiction, and I like the whiz kid aspect.

But.

Just a bit MarySue. This teenager knows multiple martial arts, studies astrophysics in her spare time, plays the stock market, offers high level translation services in at least three languages…alongside excellent computer hacking skills, and…and…

Also, FBI? In Australia?!? It was right later, using ASIO, but another editing pass wouldn’t hurt.

I’m going to keep reading. I *do* like this style of novel. But I feel others need to appreciate it is not *outstanding*.

[Roberto Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Sue books are just like time travel books. Very, very finicky to write.

There is a fine line between a fun, enjoyable power trip and an unbelievable, unrealistic power trip. This starts with the former but ends on the latter. It he implementation was solid, it was the details that bogged it down. For the length of the story, don't worry about politics or science. Just try to enjoy the ride.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed the 6 books in this series. I would never have paid $2.99 each but with kindle unlimited they have been fun to read.

The problem with the "books" is they are very short. None of the first 6 are more than 100 pages and a few only 70-80 pages. I read the first 5 yesterday and the 6th this am. In my world that is normally a single, shorter book.

Tony/Ethan does label them as episodes and likely doesn't set the pricing.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't really interested until I found out that Ethan Stand is a pseudonym for Tony Corden. Well worth the read.