I Guess We're Heroes

by Graham Fluster

A team of scientists discover intelligent alien life, and start a dangerous race to capitalize on the opportunity. As the decades pass, however, first contact fades from living memory, and is mysteriously absent from any official historical records.

For the next five centuries humanity ventures out to the stars, their various political factions leaving no shortage of problems for an enterprising crew to make a living off of. The mercenaries of Specialized Support Contractors were only looking for small jobs befitting their fledgling company, but soon find themselves forced into the limelight when their employer’s ambitions place an ancient alien weapon in their possession. Digging deeper into the origins of their cargo brings even more heat from vested interests who want the truth of humanity’s first contact with alien life to be kept secret. With entire planets caught in the crosshairs of a looming interstellar war, any choice the mercenaries make could have catastrophic consequences.

282 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2022

About the author

Graham Fluster’s love of writing began with creating stories for tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, GURPS, and D20 Future, and has since evolved into the (slightly) less chaotic formats of science fiction and fantasy novels.

Reviews

[Barbara Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking for your next Sci-Fi read? This is the book for you! I Guess We’re Heroes opens with a team of scientists (Alice, Ryota and Gideon) discovering a new alien life form named Red. A portion of the book follows their journey in learning about Red’s origins and skill set. Despite their initial intentions, outside influences (fame, greed, power, knowledge and political agendas) begin to distort their actions. Also included is another timeline that ties directly to the scientists’ discoveries. If you are not a fan of dual timelines - do not fret. The switches between time periods, people and places are easy to follow. A potential obstacle many readers face when dealing with the Sci-Fi/dystopian genre is the over abundance of new information, futuristic terms and inventions. Fluster does an excellent job allowing the reader to learn and follow along with these new developments without having to backtrack or take notes. As an avid thriller/suspense reader, I love obtaining bits of information that come together to form one cohesive image. The suspense builds steadily as individual decisions (driven by altered motives/influences) begin to unravel the temperamental nature of each group’s journey. A factor that emphasizes this is that the characters have genuine human responses to the situations they find themselves in. How each character responds emotionally/physically to the tension, stressors and moral dilemmas creates twists and turns I could not see coming. There were many occasions I found myself saying, “just one more chapter”, after I promised myself I’d put the book down. The thrill kept me at the edge of my seat until the very last page. I cannot wait to see what Fluster writes next!

-Story and language is easy to follow
-Successful suspense and plot twists
-Filled with action and intrigue
-Unique and enjoyable characters (I love Mei and Jack!)