REVIEW: Jupiter Justice

Title: Jupiter Justice

Author: Donald J. Hunt

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Price: $2.99 (ebook) / $11.74 (paperback)

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services

ISBN: 978-1516972548

Point of Sale: Amazon  

Reviewed by: Chris Gerrib

Full disclosure – I am a member of the author’s writing group and read partial drafts of Jupiter Justice before it came out.  Having said that, I paid full price for my copy and really enjoyed reading it.  It’s a great near-future romp.

Set in a plausible mid-future Solar System, Jupiter Justice is the story of Rico Schroeder.  Thanks to fusion power, the Solar System is open for business, but fusion power is slow – or at least slower than humans would like.  Rico is part of one international team working on his generation’s X-Prize, developing a working anti-matter space drive.  It’s a very high-stakes endeavor, not just for the prize money but for political and economic control of the Solar System.

The stakes are high enough that people are getting killed over the competition.  Rico has to make an abrupt transition from his test-pilot job back to his previous profession – cop – and figure out who done it.  That’s if Rico can stay alive long enough, as his investigation puts him immediately in the murderer’s cross-hairs.

Don writes in a brisk and clear style, and he’s done a lot of research getting his facts right.  There’s a bit of romance thrown in, as Rico rekindles an old flame, and plenty of action.  I found the story well-written and enjoyable.  I think you will too.

9/10

The Indie Writers Support Website

Cold Coffee Café Press has been sharing the information that The Indie Writers Support Website (http://indiewritersupport.com) webmaster 'Judd Miller', allegedly has the legal name of Korede Abayomi.

Abayomi and is reported to be subject of a current arrest warrant. He is also the owner of highly questionable publisher ParaDon Books.

As such any authors who have shared credit card information with The Indie Writers Support Website may wish to take precautions, and possibly rethink maintaining author pages on this site.

REVIEW: Void Contract

Title: Void Contract: Gigaparsec Book 1      

Author: Scott Rhine  

Genre: space opera

Price: $2.99 (ebook) $8.99 (trade paperback)

Publisher: Amazon Digital Servces

ISBN B00VJEPHPE

Point of Sale: Amazon

Reviewed by: Chris Gerrib

Void Contract is the story of Max Culp, human medic and assassin.  In the fairly far future, humanity has developed faster-than-light ships, made contact with various alien races and in true human fashion fought a war with one race.  Humanity won that war, although the alien race defeated in said war still exists.  Oh, and there’s an over-race, the Magi, running around, who bestow technology on other races as they see fit.

In this very interesting world, Max, a !Kung tribesman descended from a group resettled from a dying Earth, is trying to make a living.  Max does so by killing sentient beings.  In the first chapter, he’s doing so to repay a debt to the aliens who protected his people.  Then, via a circuitous set of events, Max finds himself responsible for a “Goat” (Satyr-like alien) named Reuben, and forced to kill people to save Rueben.  This is where things get interesting.

Frankly, I like these kind of books.  Who wouldn’t want to travel the stars, cracking wise with various alien races?  Personally, even if they are shooting at me (and I’m highly allergic to bullets) I’d be glad to sign up.  Having said that, I’m a sucker for these kind of stories.  It’s hard to do them wrong.

Fortunately, Scott Rhine understands what makes this fun, and he delivers.  There’s the right amount of war-weariness, wise-cracking and do-or-die in his story.  There’s also a nice refreshing bit of sex, and not one but two mysterious aliens of difference species.  This is space opera, not science fiction, so the science is of the “I push this and X happens” variety, but in this genre that’s frequently considered a feature, not a bug.  Overall, a nice romp through a world that I’d like to visit, warts and all.