Sunday, December 30, 2012

Book #94 - In Her Name First Contact

517bcTru9UL._AA160_Looking for another science fiction story after the Harvester series, I stumbled on Michael Hicks series from an Amazon recommendation. In Her Name First Contact is the first of the series in time, though like Star Wars, it’s not the first story told by the author. He started later, and came back to this trilogy.

The writing is good, and it flows well, but not great. There are a few typos, but not bad. Overall, it’s one of the better free books I’ve read. However the story is fantastic.

Humans have colonized over a 100 worlds, and are sending out survey ships looking for more. We start with one ship, and get to know her Captain and a few officers as they run into the first alien civilization humans have encountered. They implement their first contact protocols, but are disabled and boarded before they can do anything. The invaders are blue skinned women, who use technology far beyond the humans to capture their ship, but then board the ship (unheard of in space) and slaughter the crew with swords. The only survivors, 23 of them, are then healed and taken aboard the alien vessel where they are put to battle in an arena. Only one survivors, young Sato, who is sent back to Earth with very little other than a globe that counts down the arrival of the Kreelan (the aliens) at one of the human worlds to do battle.

The author jumps between the humans and Tesh-Dar, a high preistess with the Kreelan. They are an ancient race, one that battles for honor and does so evenly. They live to find a race worthy of their skills, to test and challenge them. Reminding me of ancient Samarai, they match their weapons and technology to the other races, and do so when they invade the human space.

Most of the book is the battle between the Kreelan and humans, from different points of view. Characters develop among the humans, and the Kreelan, as the story moves between them. It’s a captivating story I could hardly put down, buying the second book as soon as I was done with the first.

Worth the read, and the first one is free as a ebook.

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