George Ellis (10)

An original take on the apocalypse, but a bit of a light-hearted romp through what should have been a lot more horrifying. A healthy dose of suspension of disbelief was also needed, such as characters who never even held a gun are acting like seasoned commandos after plinking a few cans in the backyard. And speaking of characters, way too many, with not enough development. It seemed like the first 75% of the book was just introducing character after character, and then they rush straight show more into the climax and epilogue without enough substance in between. show less

Ellis, George. Wreckers: A Denver Boyd Novel. Zero Atmo Pub., 2021.
Wreckers is a very readable indie space opera. Denver has inherited a spacecraft designed to rendezvous with damaged ships, repair them, or haul them to a repair facility or junkyard. His crew consists of a one-eyed cat named Pirate and a ship’s AI called Gary that tells annoying jokes from ancient sitcoms. When Denver answers a call from a federation warship, he finds himself rescuing a young woman with considerable show more martial arts skills. She claims to know what happened to Denver’s missing father. Action ensues. Great literature? No. A fun evening. Yep. 3.5 stars. show less

Tow-trucks in space. When you can invent anything you want, why on earth would you cross a Star Wars X-wing with a mustang chevy. It sounds just a ludicrous as it's described and very poorly integrated into a plot by having severla hundred years of culture stagnate and pick up the best of the 2000s rather than ever develop anything of their own.

A young lad, Denver Boyd inherits his uncle's spaceship and towing business (really I was not at all convinced that spaceships will just 'break show more down' in space (and they'd still have momentum which isn't mentioned)). Most of the towing is managed by a major agency which has a deal with the Imperial army a hidebound set of rule followers, neither of them particularly keen on independent traders making a living. The weird ship is one of the most powerful going though, at least in terms of power/mass, and so Denver makes a good enough living. However when a chance encounter with the local pirate leader puts him in the crosshairs between all three, Denver realises he's going to have to be cleverer than usual.

Not helped that I read a better, but very similar book very shortly afterwards, so the two sets of characters remain slightly jumbled. But even so this was ok ish, a bit rocky in places with a decided failure of humour in the attempts to come across as macho. show less

Pure pulpy space-opera. And I mean that in the best way possible.

I hope there are more of these.