Michael J. Martinez

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Bizarre earthquakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason. However, when rocks shake off their ancient dust and begin to roll—seemingly of their own volition—carving canals as they converge to form a towering structure amid the ruddy terrain, Lt. Jain and her JSC team realize that their routine geological survey of show more a Martian cave system is anything but. The only clues they have stem from the emissions of a mysterious blue radiation, and a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself.

Lt. Thomas Weatherby of His Majesty’s Royal Navy is an honest 18th-century man of modest beginnings, doing his part for King and Country aboard the HMS Daedalus, a frigate sailing the high seas between continents . . . and the immense Void between the Known Worlds. Across the Solar System and among its colonies—rife with plunder and alien slave trade—through dire battles fraught with strange alchemy, nothing much can shake his resolve. But events are transpiring to change all that.

With the aid of his fierce captain, a drug-addled alchemist, and a servant girl with a remarkable past, Weatherby must track a great and powerful mystic, who has embarked upon a sinister quest to upset the balance of the planets—the consequences of which may reach far beyond the Solar System, threatening the very fabric of space itself.

Set sail among the stars with this uncanny tale, where adventure awaits, and dimensions collide!

My Review: Swashbuckling naval battles against heinous French pirates! In space!! Benjamin Franklin on an inhabitable Ganymede, and an alchemist to boot!

Manned permanent habitations on Mars! Greedy corporate slimebuckets causing havoc and costing people their lives! Space bureaucracies throttling (or doing their best to, anyway) any initiative in their subordinates!

Either one of those makes a darn good yarn, a familiar-enough plot to keep the pages turning and still, in Martinez's capable hands, the yawns at bay. Both together gave me the geekgasm of a lifetime. Lt. Shaila Jain, RN, is the kind of kickass leader and quick thinker that gives young women today a chance to develop a sense of agency, owning their own power and future. It doesn't hurt that she falls for a handsome man with a French accent, and then spends the books trying to keep him safe from his own inexperience and lack of fighting ability.

Makes a nice counterpoint to 3Lt. Thomas Weatherby, RN, whose career in the 1779 Navy also takes him into space. Now the fun begins, as the alchemical nature of manned space flight in this era is revealed by the number of ways it can and does go wrong. One of those ways leads poor Weatherby to a space equivalent of the Caribbean pirate port, Port Royal, Jamaica. And there Weatherby finds a drunken alchemist who becomes his best friend and a serving wench (in more than one sense of the word) who becomes his One True Love. Unlike Jain's French paramour, though, Weatherby's is perfectly capable of kicking ass and taking names by herownself. Bit shocking to a stodgy middle-class tradesman's son who has bought himself into the higher status of the officer corps.

Among our delicious surprises is the existence of a bona fide intra-solar system alien species, the Xan of Saturn. Their colonial outpost is Callisto, again an inhabitable world unlike in our own just as amazing solar system. The Xan and their intra-solar system rivals based on Mars had the kind of war that our paltry timeline threw itself in WWI, leaving devastation on Mars, an exploded fifth planet called Phaeton (now called the Rocky Main, to our blah asteroid belt), and one Martian survivor who, for his evils, is imprisoned in interdimensional space.

Throw all this into the pressure cooker, turn the fire up high, and let 'er rip. The resulting explosive action propels every character onto a course not entirely predictable, and as the pieces of hot story fly around, a lot of painful damage gets done. But like the "self-building" pyramid on Mars, the story reassembles itself into a satisfying similar-but-different shape. If the tale isn't to your taste ::side-eye:: the resolution as it is will be good enough to leave the book as finished and whole in your mind.

Me, I want more. Now. Ahoy, Second Chance! One to board, please! show less

This is a rare, wonderful instance of the second book being better than the (very awesome) first. Martinez masterfully develops his Cold War 1949 with superpowered American "Variants" facing off against like-gifted Soviet agents on the world stage. He doesn't need a lot of time for set-up; the book zooms from page one. I really appreciated his exploration of politics and settings of that time period that I am ignorant of--particularly Syria. Beneath all of action and political suspense, show more there is the underlying question of how the Variants gained their powers... and that plot develops in some intriguing ways right at the end. I'm very anxious to see where the series goes from here! show less

MJ-12: Inception is an alternate history sci-fi thriller involving a group of people who have been given super powers by an anomaly created in the aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing at the end of World War 2. These "Variants" - as they are called throughout the book - are recruited by the American government into a program known as the Majestic 12. Their goal: be an extra force for the United States Intelligence and Military communities. Naturally, things just get more complicated from there show more as Cold War tensions and former Nazi scientists are woven into the story. It's really quite something.

This was quite a surprise. I've been familiar with the general lore of the Majestic 12 UFO conspiracy for a few years, and when I saw this book, I was immediately intrigued by the title. Obviously, just by reading the summary, it's clear that this book has very little to do with the Majestic 12 mentioned in UFO conspiracy circles. But that's one of this book's greatest strengths.

It draws heavily upon aspects of the conspiracy (including using some of the names in the original MJ-12 document) as well as weaving in other real-world political and military figures into this story of a bunch of humans turned into superhumans by an anomaly caused by the Atomic Bomb being dropped and being recruited by the American government as part of a top-secret intelligence and military program. The book goes so far as to include mockups of MJ-12 documents (relating to whatever has just happened in the novel) to lend even more credence to the idea that this is based off the supposed real life MJ-12. (The origins of the real life MJ-12 even get a clever nod in one scene in the first third of the book; it was really clever.)

I expected this book to be like the Transformers film, but in novel form. I expected a mindless summer blockbuster style thriller. But what I got was something better. If we're going to continue using the analogy of movies here, MJ-12: Inception is closer to a Marvel movie than a Transformers film. It's very much still an action-thriller, but there's a lot of time and care spent developing the characters and their involvement and chemistry with each other.

You'd think a story that's basically sold as "what if the X-Men were spies?" wouldn't bother to actually have depth, but you'd be wrong. There's a lot of depth. One of the characters, Cal, repeatedly questions the morality of what he's being asked to do. He spends great deals of time trying to rectify his potentially destructive powers and his Christian faith. Another character, Maggie, allows herself to get swept up and consumed by her powers, leading other characters to question whether or not this is a wise or safe move.

It's little touches like that that make this book stand out and become something better than the pulpy story it looked like it would be. I really can't emphasize just how surprised I was by this. I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you're a fan of spy novels, thrillers, superheroes, or alternate histories, you should definitely check this book out.

Be warned, it's the first of a series - and it ends on a cliffhanger. Not a terrible one, the main plot is wrapped up in the novel, but there are some teasers left that will make waiting for the sequel (coming out in September) difficult. Color me excited for more of these books! Kudos, Michael J. Martinez. You hit this one out of the park. show less

Since the year is wrapping up, I decided it was a good time to read the book since it will likely be up for award nominations. So I started reading. I was hooked. There are two very diverse parallel worlds that intersect in the novel: future Mars where earthquakes and weird things are happening that should not, and an alternate 1779 where the British Navy uses alchemy to fly schooners through space and battles against rebels on Ganymede. Then I reached page 138 of my book. It skipped to page show more 187. I screamed to myself and skimmed ahead, finding that 50 pages later, it again started at 187 and flowed through the end from there.

I was desperate enough to know what happened that I bought the Kindle version, and switched between electronic and print to finish the book. I can definitely say that the book is worth the purchase price in both money and eaten bugs.

The Daedalus Incident is just plain fun. It mixes scifi with magic. The characters are fantastic. Lt. Jain is a tough cookie, using her wits to survive the improbable on Mars. Lt. Weatherby is definitely easier to relate to within his own perspective, because as a man of his time period, he certainly has particular ideas about the roles of women. That was okay by me, because he felt true to his time period. It was also a delight to see other historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin. I love a good alt history, and dropping the Revolutionary War into deep space is something I have not seen done before. I really enjoyed both parts of the book for very different reasons, and I'm impressed at how Martinez spaced out the events and tension.

There is a major deus ex machina in the form of Weatherby's journal. In the end, the device is a bit corny and convenient, but I was having so much fun with the whole book that I found the device to be quite forgivable, though I can see other readers getting irked by it.

I will keep this book in mind when nominating for awards in the coming year and already have the sequel on my wish list.... though I might just check to make sure all the pages are there first thing. show less