The Stark Divide

This is a great science-fiction novel, and a cracking start to a gripping series. There is also a helpful glossary at the back. I’ve said this before with books. I just wish I had known the glossary was there before reading the whole book first! This would have been helpful to either, a) have it at the front or, b) mention it at the front so I know it’s there. It isn’t as easy to flip back and forth with an e-reader, but anyway, I was grateful for the added information. Not that there are a lot of unfamiliar words, but it does help to enrich and understand the world the author has created.

Finally, there are elements of everything here. An adventure, a rescue, the creation of a new world, machines with organic elements and Artificial Intelligence. The Lex character may or may not have the humans’ best interests at heart. That’s all I’m saying. In a word, this is a great novel, with awesome world-building and a plot that satisfies the sci-fi buff in all of us.

Beautifully thought out as well as soaring on the author’s on creativity and extrapolation, don’t be surprised to feel yourself wanting to be a part of this Utopia and then beginning to fear for it when all the ugliness that killed the Earth finds it’s way to Forever.

As I said, this is only the first story in a series. I can scarcely wait for the next one to be released. I need to know where the saga goes next. You will too once this saga has you hooked as thoroughly as it does me. If you love science fiction, grab up a copy now and prepare to sink yourself into a world unlike any other. It’s incredible, thought provoking, highly imaginative, and easily one of the best books of 2017!

The world building is absolutely amazing; we get to see a new world emerging through determination and survival instincts, we get to picture through the authors words exactly what a new world for humans might be like, living inside that world… it’s just amazing.

I grew up reading classic sci-fi and fantasy before I even discovered romance. So how I judge most books is along the lines of what my favorite elements are in a sci-fi or fantasy story. This story combined all those elements of my favorites like Pamela Sargent’s Earthseed, and especially Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough’s Ship Who Sang series.

The world building is absolutely amazing; we get to see a new world emerging through determination and survival instincts, we get to picture through the authors words exactly what a new world for humans might be like, living inside that world… it’s just amazing.

The characters each come to life, their hopes, dreams, fear, anger, desperation and shame comes through brilliantly, we are left in no doubt as to what the characters are going through.

The Stark Divide was a nice quick read. It was definitely a book that I didn’t want to put down unless I absolutely had to. It plays with some familiar ideas, but does so in such a way that it doesn’t feel ‘been there, done that’. In it, we’ve basically destroyed Earth, but we don’t have FTL travel yet, so we can’t quickly get to another planet.

Naturally, that means we have to turn to colony spaceships in the meantime. And that leads me into what I liked most about the book. From the initial ship that the story starts on, Coatsworth catches your imagination and opens your minds to the possibilities of meat and metal spaceships. From there, we move on to an O’Neill cylinder, but the author’s way of developing one is definitely one you rarely read about.

I’m super hoping not only is there a sequel but that it comes out quickly. I want to lose myself in the world more and see how all of the characters handle the current challenges they face and the new ones that are about to arise from the events towards the end of the book.