Chesapeake Station: it began with Serenity

This may well be the most incoherent novel I have ever read, and I've been a passionate reader for 50 years now.

I will say it's short. Very short. I am not sure it even hits novella length, what with the exceedingly slim size AND the large-print sized type- I'd guess a minimum of 14 points, while 8-10 is more standard. While it may be the rough draft of a novel, it is emphatically not currently a novel.

The author clearly put some effort into his "future history", which was less incoherent than the rest. However, all this had nothing particularly to do with the plot. The premise of "what would the world look like if..." had nothing to do with the story that followed, which could well have been set in the current day- it was a pure show more action-adventure thriller, with various plot elements that fall apart upon even minor consideration.

Like traveling times and distances. If Our Heroes are going to start in Washington DC in the morning, and hit Anchorage AK by late afternoon, their "vehicle"- which was parked in an underground parking garage- must be a jet plane. And yet, it has a trunk... There is even worse nonsense about a colony or space station or something that's 11-12 lightyears away, orbiting around a potentially earth-like planet- and our geniuses want to put another station there, orbiting it in a REALLY BIG orbit around the planet, because that'll make the distance to Earth substantially shorter! Um, no, it won't.

In a similar vein, I really doubt that the entire solar system, including Jupiter etc., would be much affected by a wobble in Earth's orbit. I doubt even more that a radioactive item roughly the size of my hand would be powerful enough to cause tsunamis in Africa when it's in the Carribbean, or to bore down to the Earth's core and threaten to explode the entire planet. Also, on a more petty note, I really doubt that 12-foot waves are enough to cause a 70+ton cruise ship to be in danger of capsizing. Cruise ships are HUGE. After a bit of poking around online- which our author ought to have done- it looks like this ship would have been something like 150 feet tall above the waterline, with maybe a third minimum of that the actual ship (the rest would be fancy cabins).

I could cite more, but let's move on.

NO characterization. NO realism in how people would react. This aspect reminds me a lot of the 1950s SF disaster movies; "ordinary folk" get caught up in events, and all of a sudden the President et alia are seeking their wisdom and input, and taking them OH-so-seriously! RIIIIGHT. That's how it works. I just bet that if you showed our political and military leaders a multi-page rant about a doomsday weapon from people calling themselves Zebulon and Stargazer, they'd be right ON that puppy; it's just that plausible!

"Serenity", by the way, is not a Firefly reference; it's the name of the cruise ship. I do not really understand why it is in the title. Similarly "Chesapeake Station" apparently orbits the planet 11-12 lightyears away, and really does not come into the tale at all. Except that at one point Stargazer (if I recall correctly) sends a beam from it to try to stop the item that is destroying Earth, and amazingly, it seems to take about 30 minutes for said beam to travel 11-12 lightyears. No explanation, naturally.

The best comparison I have is to the 1950 disaster SF movies, where "because: SCIENCE!" was given a pass and no sense had to be made as long as heroic men were heroic and stuff blew up and the day was saved. This is why those were bad movies, and this is a bad book.

I got this as an early release book through LibraryThing. I expect the author regrets that. show less

This is as a review as part of an early reviews group.

So, it is important to figure out what the correct audience for this work is. I would say about 8 or 9 years old, certainly no older than that. This is a romp of a Scooby-Doo SF novel. All that is missing is the bad guy saying "And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!" at the end.

It is a pseudo space-opera, thriller written for kids in the style of Tom Swift or the Hardy Boys. The characters are wooden and one-dimensional, the plot is safe and sanitized for young kids, and there are promises of future instalments. My view is that kids reading anything is better than kids reading nothing - so in that vein, if they'll read this all to the good. However, show more in the current environment, there are significantly better works for children of this age. show less

STOP THE PRESSES!

No, I really mean it, stop the presses: there’s a sequel planned for this book and the first volume is not even finished yet.

I know that early release book are often uncorrected and, as a result, I expect errors, but I never expected to receive a draft of a book. There are just too many “plot line miracles” occurring here for me to be happy with this book. Balancing that out, however, is what could be a really good story. I mean I sat down and was involved enough to read this book cover to cover (not a difficult feat really consider its slim size) without a pause. The only parts that seemed fully developed, though, were the preface and afterword. The rest read like an unfished draft with a lot of rough spots show more waiting to be fleshed out.

Let me begin at the beginning. Chesapeake Station: It Began With Serenity is set sometime in the late 22nd century. We are told that there have been numerous small scale wars fought all over the planet, a type of guerilla world war but it is never named as such, and nuclear weapons were used in these conflicts. In the USA, there has been a strong political move to go back to the Constitution’s roots. I’m on board with this alternate reality as it is backed with a credible fictionalized history. This is good so far (although I hope, in reality, we can avoid this scenario) as it is based on the current political state of the world.

Somewhere in the late opening of the first chapter, I start having doubts about the reality the author proposes. Enter Treagor Huntsman, a retired Lieutenant Colonel now working as a concierge in a major Washington DC hotel cum condo complex used by the upper echelons of the Capitol power structure. He is briefly sketched as a model of efficiency in his position. Again, I have no problem with this scenario. But I do have problems with this highly efficient former military person opening a package not intended for him when it is clearly something Top Secret; such a person just would not do it and we are given no motive for this drastic shift in character personality. Side note: points deducted for the author beating the poor reader about the head that the package is top secret.

And now the plot’s reality unravels. The top secret couriers actually leave the package with Treagor without anyone staying behind after it is revealed that delivery is to be entrusted only to the designated recipient. It gets worse: This extremely sensitive package is opened with screwdriver and a box cutter and the key to open the final box is actually shipped with the top secret contents!?

There is a series of reality breaks, even in the novel’s context, where a many characters are introduced that are the equivalent of Barbie and Ken dolls come to life: they are just too perfect for their roles. What’s more, some of these then take on family member to work under them with no explanation of what qualified them for these roles they are assuming. But wait, there’s more!

And, just like to book, I’m not going to explain it.

Having said all that against the book, I did finish it. I was really hooked on the initial premise. I did like the possibilities suggested by this draft, I just wanted more of it. Despite all the technical problems, this was still more readable than some other Early Review selections I have received. I’m going to keep my eye on this author; there is a lot of potential shown, but all I can muster for Chesapeake Station: It Began With Serenity is two stars. If the author and publisher pull this back, get the characters a personal trainer to work on their development and apply liberal amounts of plot putty to the holes in the plot, this could easily be a four star book. show less

As a historian this book's preface and introduction really hooked me and I was looking forward to what I expected to be an interesting science fiction take on the world, particularly the United States, after a political meltdown resulting in our nation's return to its roots. Unfortunately I did not get what I was expecting.

I say unfortunately because, while I thought the actual plot had a great deal of potential, it was poorly executed and seemed to flow with a very jerky movement, yanking me from one perspective to another with poor transitions. I don't believe that the audience needs to know everything that went into an author's world building process, but I do expect to have some world building insights. There are numerous hints show more about what is going on in the world, but many aspects that I would expect to be addressed early on, i.e. exploration and colonization of our solar system, aren't acknowledged until the end of the book. In the case of my example that's a pretty big miss considering it is a major premise of the plot.

As I read through this book, which I did in the space of a couple hours, it reminded me of watching an anime movie with poorly dubbed English. The characters were introduced and described in the word vomit of a paragraph or two and sometimes their presence in the story was odd and unnecessary. There are some potentially interesting characters in this story, some of whom aren't even the main protagonists, but they are lacking development. In addition to this, all of them are very one dimensional and I feel no connection to any of them. The one exception being a "supporting role" played by the niece of one character, I want to know her story and the why of her dedication.

This book has the potential to be a great book, but there is a lot of work left to do on it. It feels to me like the results of a NANOWRIMO endeavor which never received the editorial oversight and polish necessary for publication. I've actually read NANOWRIMO first drafts that were more coherent and structurally sound than this one and I've sent them back to the writer for fleshing out. I'm going to keep an eye out for this author, as there is some potential here, but a second book doesn't need to be written, the first one needs to be finished. show less

I won this book through the early reviewers group. The book is only 150 pages, very quick read, one day. If you like details and character back story then this book is not for you. If your looking for a book that cuts to the chase, go for it. This book is the first in a series, or episodes as it claims at the end. Overall not a bad book, for length tho, it was a page turner.

This book is a mess. Lots of description that has nothing to do with the plot, while things related to the plot are not explained. Every good character is somehow unrealistically perfect. The plot is essentially a bunch of convenient coincidences. The explained future history at the beginning doesn't really related to the rest to the story, with a bit of bonus preachiness for what seems like the author's political view.

I received this book through the early reviewers group. Science Fiction is not something I normally read but the plot description sounded like something I might really enjoy. I was 44 pages into the book before I began to figure out what the book was really about. I guess I don't have the proper mind set to really enjoy this book or say that I might find it promising. Given today's movies - I can see where someone might take this disjointed story and turn it into a typical space action packed film. I, sadly, cannot recommend this book.