Ken McConnell

In some regards this is an old-fashion space opera with starship battles, aliens, robots, and all the rest (which I love). It also told a good story, with decently engaging character development and different perspectives. It is unfortunately littered with unbelievable aliens -- I mean who really believes a civilization maintains a space empire while ruled by mystic religions and soothsayers. The human side is more believable, with short-sighted politicians, but sadly infested with "silicants" who are robots fighting for liberation but who have all the depth of development of a wind up clock -- did the author not read the early Asimov! Yet it was an engaging story that held me to the end, and I will probably grab the next in the series and see how it develops.… (more)

The premise and plot are great. Main characters are pretty good as well. I love the detective (cop), Plait and would have loved to see more of him.

Ken is a personal friend. He normally writes Sci-fi, so this mystery is a departure for him, a step on the wild side, so to speak. This book turned out to be written in 3rd person omniscient (which Ken says wasn't actually his intention), and that POV wasn't done as well as I could have hoped. There were some techinical problems, as well as some editing errors, and a few continuity issues. I posted what I found to Ken so he can fix those for the 2nd edition, since this is a self published book.

I wish Ken all the best, and will continue to support his endeavors, especially with these Joshua Jones Mysteries. I look forward to beta reading his future stuff. :D… (more)