Monday, March 9, 2015

The Far Bank of Rubicon / Erik Wecks


Reviewed by: Sooz

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera

Approximate word count: 105-110,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
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Author:

Erik Wecks is a full-time writer with completed fiction and non-fiction works. He lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife and three children. He also writes for blogs such as GeekDad.com, LitReactor.com and you can find more information on Erik at his website ErikWecks.com.

Description:

Jonas, a young prince in the House of Athena, sees his life go from peaceful and boring to becoming a soldier in a war that is looking to bring down the empire. As one of the few shining moments in a war that the Empire may not win, Jonas has to figure out how to save the Empire from the Unity.

Appraisal:

I have to be in a mood for a “space opera” because I am usually investing a lot of time into them with getting to know characters, learning history of a new galaxy, and obtaining deep background information that sometimes may not happen in other types of genres.

The Far Bank of Rubicon offered exactly what I was looking for when I picked it up. Intrigue. Struggle. Believable characters. Strange, new worlds.

Author Erik Wecks writes the book chronologically, starting when one of the main characters is a child. While the timeline tends to jump a bit, we learn about the main characters by catching up with them through important moments that lead up to the start of a galactic war.

I found it very easy to root for the perceived good guys and hoping the characters to succeed. But The Far Bank of Rubicon is only the first volume in The Pax Imperium Wars. There is much, much more to be told with the first book as a starting point.

I did find it a bit wordy. The longer I read, the more I enjoyed the Far Bank of Rubicon and the world the Wecks had created. However, it started a bit slow. One issue is that it often read like something that would play out on a TV screen, and that doesn’t always translate well for a book.

Good or bad (I haven’t figured out which yet), it reminded me of Battlestar Galatica, the early 2000s version with the high jacking of electronics, the name Athena, and going on the run in space.

Overall, it was enjoyable and I look forward to seeing how the series plays out.

FYI:

This is the first volume in the series.

Rating: ****Four Stars

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