Author TJ Hapney

Description/Book Blurb:

What began for Molly as a simple journey to retrieve her father’s old spaceship, has turned into an epic adventure with far-reaching consequences. For years, she dreamed of reconnecting with her past. Now she’s going to meet it in a way she never expected: Head-on.

Her father is alive. Her mother’s memories are trapped inside his old ship. She’s on the run from her very own Navy, and now has been tasked with the impossible:
Rescue her parents. Save the galaxy. End a war.

Before she can begin, however, Molly must first help a friend in need. One of her crew members is in trouble, a life hanging by a slender thread. There’s only one place to turn: the home world of Humanity’s sworn enemy, the very race Molly and Cole have been trained to meet in battle and have been conditioned to fear and loathe.

Planet Drenard. The next stop for the starship Parsona.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

This installment in the Bern series takes Molly and her crew to Drenard, the home of the enemy humans have been fighting for years. Once again this story is pretty much a non-stop action adventure sci-fi ride. The main characters in these stories are somewhat young, but that hasn’t detracted from my enjoyment of the series at all. It would probably be enjoyable to teen sci-fi fans, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t meant for the rest of us to read. I hate it when people complain that the characters in a story are too young and that because of that it must be a young adult book. Some pretty heavy stuff happens in these books including fairly graphic violence and the characters’ reactions to those happenings, which doesn’t generally happen in young adult books to my knowledge.

Molly is a young woman who has had a lot thrust upon her. She’s been kicked out of the Flight Academy and is now traveling through the galaxy in the hopes of rescuing her parents. Molly follows her heart when it comes to making and protecting her friends, which often leads her into dangerous circumstances. Despite this Molly perseveres and tries to do what she feels is right even when it doesn’t seem to be in her best interest. Molly, Cole, Walter, Edison and Anlyn are the main characters in this installment of the series and they have to overcome fear and hatred to continue on their mission.

Their adventure leads them into dangerous territory and even more dangerous circumstances to try to win their freedom. The characters are easy to identify with and I found it easy to get caught up in the story. Reading science fiction has been my love since I was a teen (over 30 years now). In that time I’ve developed a love of hard sci-fi, military sci-fi and dystopian sci-fi, as well as action adventure sci-fi. This book is definitely none of the first three, but fits nicely into the action adventure category. If you are looking to have someone include long theoretical formulas in the book, then this probably isn’t the book for you. If you enjoy stories that dart around the universe meeting new characters and going new places while the characters run for their lives and try to figure out the clues that will lead to their survival, then I think you would enjoy this story.

There were a few spelling errors and incorrect word usage, but not so much as to be a real problem. This is one of Hugh Howey’s earlier works and I suspect that as Mr. Howey’s career moves forward he isn’t spending much time going back to edit his first books. I more than understand this. I published a romance that I wrote 20 years ago primarily as a test of how to market an e-book. Several people have commented that they didn’t like the way it ended and that they wanted more,  but I don’t have any interest in rewriting that book as I’m now 60,000 words into my new sci-fi book and am looking forward, not back. Oops, guess I’m wandering off topic. Nevertheless, I am about to finish the third book in this series and have thoroughly enjoyed reading these books thus far. There are some far-fetched things from time to time, but who am I to say what will happen in the universe as time passes. Perhaps Hugh Howey really knows the Bern Seer.