Disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for writing a review.
Liberator is a very good debut offering from authors Nick Bailey and Darren Bullock. It is hard core military science fiction and contains significant violence – quite gory in places – throughout. For me there was just a little too much testosterone flying around (even from the female protagonists) but for many that is going to be just what you are looking for! I was very pleased to find relatively few editing errors; a failing that so many debut novels, especially indie ones, suffer from. Not perfect but hugely better than many I’ve read recently. The writing is a little uneven (not unusual in a debut), being bit awkward and clumsy at the start before the authors really found their pace. After that if flowed much better and the dialogue in particular improved.
The story is quite straightforward though with some questions that will, I suspect, only be answered in sequels that I feel sure will be following along. A team of disbanded mercenaries regroup to save one of their own who has been abducted. Many challenges are encountered and overcome, usually with much violent fighting.
The pacing is generally excellent; this is military adventure SF that is far more about the ride than any deep meanings and for that a good pace is essential. And Liberator succeeds in providing a fast paced exciting ride from cover to cover, that only slips occasionally when the authors introduce flash backs in what I consider to be some rather inappropriate places and so losing that pace. This is something I come across time and time again with new authors; there is often a need to, for example, explain the relationship between two protagonists by recalling some previous event or meeting, and that is fine… in the right place and, generally, the middle of an action scene is not the right place. Although not done often in Liberator it does happen and when it does that excellent pacing is interrupted.
The characters are likeable where they need to be and there are enough of those likeable characters to keep the reader engaged however they are a little clichéd; hard bitten but lovable commander getting the squad back together, incredibly gifted but socially handicapped geek, silent ninja type etc. Also too many of them are just so good that the book is sometimes nudging into superhero territory; for example the aforementioned geek seems to be better than the rest of the entire universe put together and the ratio of dead baddies to goodies is simply enormous. Now that’s possibly a slightly unfair criticism as this sort of SF adventure is very commonly (and very popularly) played out by exactly these sort of characters and in this manner and in many ways that very accessibility just adds to the fun. And this book does provide a lot of adrenalin fuelled fun!
All in all a great piece of military SF, if a little too testosterone charged for my personal tastes. This is a great debut that deserves to have a large readership.
Liberator is a very good debut offering from authors Nick Bailey and Darren Bullock. It is hard core military science fiction and contains significant violence – quite gory in places – throughout. For me there was just a little too much testosterone flying around (even from the female protagonists) but for many that is going to be just what you are looking for! I was very pleased to find relatively few editing errors; a failing that so many debut novels, especially indie ones, suffer from. Not perfect but hugely better than many I’ve read recently. The writing is a little uneven (not unusual in a debut), being bit awkward and clumsy at the start before the authors really found their pace. After that if flowed much better and the dialogue in particular improved.
The story is quite straightforward though with some questions that will, I suspect, only be answered in sequels that I feel sure will be following along. A team of disbanded mercenaries regroup to save one of their own who has been abducted. Many challenges are encountered and overcome, usually with much violent fighting.
The pacing is generally excellent; this is military adventure SF that is far more about the ride than any deep meanings and for that a good pace is essential. And Liberator succeeds in providing a fast paced exciting ride from cover to cover, that only slips occasionally when the authors introduce flash backs in what I consider to be some rather inappropriate places and so losing that pace. This is something I come across time and time again with new authors; there is often a need to, for example, explain the relationship between two protagonists by recalling some previous event or meeting, and that is fine… in the right place and, generally, the middle of an action scene is not the right place. Although not done often in Liberator it does happen and when it does that excellent pacing is interrupted.
The characters are likeable where they need to be and there are enough of those likeable characters to keep the reader engaged however they are a little clichéd; hard bitten but lovable commander getting the squad back together, incredibly gifted but socially handicapped geek, silent ninja type etc. Also too many of them are just so good that the book is sometimes nudging into superhero territory; for example the aforementioned geek seems to be better than the rest of the entire universe put together and the ratio of dead baddies to goodies is simply enormous. Now that’s possibly a slightly unfair criticism as this sort of SF adventure is very commonly (and very popularly) played out by exactly these sort of characters and in this manner and in many ways that very accessibility just adds to the fun. And this book does provide a lot of adrenalin fuelled fun!
All in all a great piece of military SF, if a little too testosterone charged for my personal tastes. This is a great debut that deserves to have a large readership.
