Pilot X

Pilot X is a new science fiction novel by Tom Merritt being released today, March 14, 2017. This is a fun, fast read, perfect for a lazy weekend. Which, incidentally, is exactly when I read this book.

So what did I think of it?

Well, first, it’s fun.

In this book we follow our main character, Pilot X, as he flies through space and time in his ship Verity while rising through the ranks of his home planet. Pilot X is an Alendan, a race of humanoid beings who have mastered the art of time travel who have dedicated their lives to preserving proper timelines and overall policing of the galaxy. Many years are spent by Pilot X brokering peace with the Alendan’s longtime enemies, the Sensaurians and the Progons. Only, it was a false peace show more Pilot X was unwittingly brokering. There are deeper, hidden motives and the entire fabric of reality is threatened by a devastating war hidden from the entire galaxy.

The prose is straightforward, not flowery or very descriptive. If you are looking for long, beautiful paragraphs about the scenery, this book isn’t for you. However, if you’re looking for a fast paced adventure through time and space with direct and at times humorous prose, this is the book for you. Concerning the text and layout, there were a few section breaks which I had to question. The oddest editorial choice as far as sections breaks go was in the middle of a scene. There was no chapter break, just a section break where the story went immediately back to the same scene mere seconds after the last line of the previous section. Now, I did get an early copy, so there is a chance that this was changed for the final edition. However, I did notice this occurring more than once.

For better or worse, the story is reminiscent of Doctor Who. And I mean very reminiscent.

The Alendans are, basically, Time Lords. Their worries are fairly aligned with traditional Time Lord concerns. You know, preserving fixed points in time and the like. There are a couple of wonderful scenes where Pilot X confronts his enemies with small speeches of the sort the Doctor uses.

So, it might not be overly original. But it was still tons of fun. Things get a little ‘timey-wimey’ in a few places. I was a bit confused by the logic and surprisingly non-paradox inducing scene where Pilox X spends a total of four years with two other versions of himself. Hard sci-fi this is not.

While I did enjoy this novel, it did take me some time to get into this novel. I think part of this is the main character. Pilot X definitely had much more personality in the latter half of the book. Now, I understand why this is, and I actually rather admire the author for constructing the character this way. We follow Pilot X over the course of many years. The character development within that time is palpable, particularly in his personality. Heck, even Verity’s AI system has character development.

Still, I did enjoy reading about the person Pilot X became more as opposed to the person he started out as.

So. Do I recommend this book? Yeah. If you’re looking for a sci-fi adventure story to read on your commute or a deep space time travel novel to pass the time until a new season of Doctor Who comes out (it feels like it’s been ages since we’ve gotten a new season of that show) then you should pick up a copy of Pilot X. If you want a little more description in your novels, or if frequent section breaks make text difficult to read for you then this book may not be exactly what you’re looking for. show less

"Physics abhors a paradox. It took a lot more energy than a little anger to rip causality from its rails and change the course of a whole reality."

Tom Merrit’s Pilot X told the story of a pilot, named X, who was tasked with ending a time war that was devastating the universe – a war between his own people, the Alendeans, and their enemies, the Progons and Sensurians. He alone held the power to stop the war and bring peace to the galaxy. But at what cost?

If you're interested, you can watch Tom Merritt's book trailer for Pilot X!

I thought the premise of the story was interesting. I love a good story about space travel and otherworldly adventures. Not only that, but the cover was attractive (yes, I can be vain at times). Because of show more this, I was excited to dive right in.

However, the story just didn’t thrill me. It seemed to be missing some crucial piece that made me unable to connect. I did not feel any particular attachment to Pilot X or to Verity in particular. I did not like Pilot X’s character; he seemed a little pretentious. Although he was often making jokes, some of them failed to make me see the humor. Don’t get me wrong, there were some particularly funny parts (essentially any witty banter exchange between Pilot X and Verity made for a good time), but overall I did not really get Pilot X’s humor.

I was also disappointed in the world-building. I felt that the author missed a huge opportunity. He introduced several interesting planets and races – for example, both the Progons, “a race of pure electricity that houses themselves in great machines,” and the Sensurians, “a unified megaorganism that can split up into smaller bits down to single cells” seemed rather interesting – but I feel like they were treated more as an afterthought rather than as a whole, sentient race. Instead, we see Pilot X attempting to make peace with each of these races individually – where one tries to poison him and the other tries to drive him mad – but ultimately, these races were not that thrilling. This ultimately made them seem not all that thrilling.

Overall, this book had a feeling of being unfinished. Because it was so short (only 179 pages), I felt like the author missed an opportunity to really focus on character-building and world-building, something for which I would have gladly read more pages.

Don’t get me wrong, it really wasn’t a bad book. Unfortunately, at least for me, I don’t think it lived up to its potential.

If you're interested, check out this (and other reviews) on my blog!
https://allisonsadventuresintowonderlands.wordpress.com/2017/02/20/tom-merritts-... show less

got this book for free from Shelf Awareness. Pilot X is an Ambassador of the Alendans, a race that can time travel and are the guardians of the time line. They are in an interdimensional war with a slug-like hivemind race and race of sentient electricial machine. Pilot X is faced with the decision of letting the universe collapse or erase the existence of all 3 races. A little slow in starting but it sped up quite nicely and it was a very satisfying read.

4 stars - This is a short book, and i listened to the Audible version. The narrator did a very good job. The story centers around the career of a pilot who flies a space ship/time machine. He can make journeys to different places and times. He begins as an apprentice/trainee, becomes a pilot, then an ambassador, then an instructor, and finally a pilot again. The best thing about the book is the way it handles time travel. Merritt addresses the conundrum of Pilot X not altering things in the past which can change the present or future, while still accomplishing his missions. It's enjoyable and the story is well told. You find yourself interested, wondering how he can solve each problem without destroying all of civilization in the process.

Pilot X is the last surviving member of his species. The time-traveling Alendrens have been wiped out by a temporal paradox doom's day device. Set off by Pilot X.

An interesting look at time travel, and what an advanced society where time travel is common place would be like.

The audiobook narration of this book is *terrible*. I gave it the entirety of my commute home, and it's pretty much 'unreadable' with this narration.

So far, this book seems to be Doctor Who with the serial numbers filed off. I like Doctor Who, so I'll give it another try with paper or Kindle, but my non-audio 'to read' pile is much taller and slower moving so I may not get back to this book for awhile.

Well, that was a fun, fast read. A little short sci fi novel to break up the heavy lifting I'm doing with ancient history and epic high fantasy reads.