Secure A Copy SIMON VECTOR Originated By Jak Holding Provided As Audio Book
sci fi! I do love this genre in between my usual draw or reading, The first several chapters are descritive, You kind of need that as the world is so alien and needs good descriptors so as not to get lost, The writers did a good job with this, I find this book more of a guys type of read, lots of action, and the creatures were really, really demonic, I like the character of Simon Vector, a cyborg with determination, but he is also in part cause of the problem, An interesting read for sci fi readers, Hellish prisons in deep space holding the worst criminals around, augmented guards that ooze terrorinducing pheromones, A timid doctor and a woman who's too good at her job, You meet all of these before you truly meet the title character, but it makes what is coming all the more dramatic, Only one person can save mankind from the impending invasion, and he's almost one of the invaders, Wow! This is not a book that I would typically read but I wanted to try something a little different, This novel is set in the future at a prison for the worst criminals, I loved the setting and how it came alive, The details about the cold and the prison were very unique, I also loved the characters, Dr. Feen intrigued me. I loved how strong Anna is, Simon Vector is a must read for anyone who loves lots of action and science fiction! In a dark future universe, new author, Jak Holding, introduces us to the mysterious Science Fiction character, Simon Vector.
The scene of the action is an isolated maximum security prison, Slight spoiler, these worstoftheworst criminals are kept in check by infusing the prison guards with pheromones, These pheromones subconsciously cause the prisoners to be irrationally afraid of the guards, The fear increases as the prisoners get closer to the prison guards,
While the imagination required to create this environment is impressive, for me it just consumes too much of the book, In fact, for at least the first ten percent of book, much of the plot is dominated by the effects of the pheromones on the prisoners and visitors.
Another criticism I had with the book was character confusion, I feel like there were too many characters introduced too quickly, Additional new characters were then introduced without doing much character development of the existing ones, In the first part of the book, I frequently found myself paging back to reread sections to reestablish who was who,
For a period of time, I considered not finishing the book because it just started to feel like too much work.
Then, about half way through the book, the parallel stories finally weaved together, and the book got really exciting, If you're an action junkie, you'll love the second half of the story, In fact I'd say it progressed from about astar book to astar book, hence my overall rating ofstars,
In addition to falling into the category of Science Fiction, I'd likewise classify this story as Horror, I also happen to enjoy horror stories, but if horror stories give you nightmares, then this book probably isn't for you, This story would also be a good choice if you enjoy military Science Fiction,
Another interesting side note about the author is that "Jak Holding" is really a pen name for the collaborative work of two authors: John Jackson and Ken Chapman.
"JAK" is short for John And Ken,
I was excited to learn that there will be future Simon Vector sequels, These are scheduled to be released as Novellas, I suspect that as this talented author combo writes more, the quality of writing will only improve, I'd like to see more time devoted to character development in future stories, This will not only allow readers to form deeper connections with the characters, but it will also prevent episodes of character confusion,
Simon Vector is definitely worth a read if you enjoy Science Fiction and the team of “Jak Holding” is a pair that merits following.
I downloaded it to my Kindle and WOW! I must tell you that this book is as good as it gets! I did not put it down until I finished the entire book! I felt like I was in the book with Simon Vector! Good guys, bad guys, action lots of action, space I hope that there are more books coming! I amyears old and I recommend that you read Simon Vector! BEST BOOK since the Maximum Ride series! Guilty pleasure book.
s Arnold Swazanegger movie meets Star Trek Borg with "Alien" and "Escape from New York", Just sterotyped characters in an actionpacked story, Lots of fun! Great read, Excellent, exemplary writing. Engrossing and mysterious but ultimately left me wanting more than I got, The book lacks a proper resolution as if it was meant to be part one of a series, I really enjoyed it but the end was not satisfying,
Pick up the three entry point novellas, They are just as good and selfcontained, For those that have been fans of this genre for any serious length of time, you find that there are really two types of science fiction.
The first is scifi or space fantasy, which can be best be exemplified by Star Wars, The other is science fiction or talk and tech, which one sees when watching Star Trek, Simon Vector tries to straddle the line between the two and is mostly successful in doing so, The novel is economical in size and scope while hinting at a larger backdrop and history, using thirteen chapters and an epilogue to create a frozen, terrifying atmosphere.
There is very little filler in this novel, Everything is focused on moving the relevant story forward, As I read Simon Vector, my mind kept going back to another recent science fiction series, Mass Effect, Like the video game series, Simon Vector involves horrific entities from beyond known space seeking to convert humans into a simulacrum of life.
The sections dealing with the necroids are
quite vivid but do become a bit repetitive towards the end, It reminded me greatly of a trip through a Cronenberg bodyhorror story, My only complaint about the setting is that not enough time was spent explaining some of the science behind the technology, Im not a big fan of technobabble but I felt that the authors rushed through the explanations a little too quickly, This is a personal gripe though rather than a condemnation of the story as a whole,
As much as the structure and the background details instill a sense of reality, the characters are what people talk about and care about.
Simon Vector as a character is referred to constantly before becoming a central piece of the story, He is a godlike figure in the setting, much like the adversaries that created him, The character of Ana Bolo is the closest thing to a protagonist in the story and she fills the role of a Ripleylike character.
Lucius Feen also serves as a primary pointofview character and one can almost feel craven oozing off the character, which makes his actions later in the story feel slightly out of place, in my opinion.
There are stock characters involved in the story though, specifically Warden Rutledge and Malcolm Liddle, Rutledge works as the gruff, authoritarian character quite well, so much so that I would like to have seen a few more facets to him.
Liddle, on the other hand, is the stereotypical corporate executive sleaze and I felt his presence was a necessary evil to get what was needed from the story.
One character intrigued me even more than the title character and that was Rex Mason, To be honest, I would read an entire story devoted to this character, either as a prequel to see how he reached the Alpha Draconis prison that serves as the primary setting or as a continuation from this novel.
Overall, Simon Vector serves as an excellent adventure story that could have used some greater attention to the background details, I would not have complained if the story were longer in order to fill in those details, Definitely recommend this for people who enjoy good science fiction/horror or the Mass Effect universe,
I discovered this universe through what Jak Holding calls Entrypoint novellas, which did just what they were meant to provide an intriguing onramp to the main story.
'Entrypoint' is trademarked, and the 'about the author' note sounds less like two guys who got together to write a book than two guys who are executing a business plan that includes a novel.
But that's beside the point,
I've read two of these novellas, sitelinkCORRECTION and sitelinkCORRUPTION, which were very well done, and I expect I'll get others.
The two so far tell the stories of two characters who end up in a highsecurity prison, Simon Vector tells some of the story of what happens in the prison itself,
The two novellas were very good dark SFhorror, The main novel is dark SFhorror, but it's not as good, There are several flaws.
. Structure the story starts in media res, and relies on flashbacks and exposition to explain what's happening, The explanation often arrives late, meaning that we've muddled through our own explanation, or just skipped over some of the confusing bits, It works, but is awkward,
. Cyborgs
, Language Mostly the writing is very good, but there are a few careless errors that I found jarring enough to correct, There weren't many of these errors, but here's where you want an outside editor looking at things,
More to the point, I just wasn't very interested in a key plot point .
Which means that I've liked the entrypoints, but not so much what they were an entry to, Even this book, for that matter, reads more as a long prologue than as a complete story, It's entirely unsurprising that at the end we've only begun what promises to be a long, multipart series,
The authors have done very well with characterization and with setting, Story, in this mainline novel, is not as strong, In fact, the main storyline is a bit tired.
Fred Saberhagen and so many others have already done told this story, and there's not much new offered here, though there are hints that that could change.
I expect to pick up the other ENTRYPOINT TM novellas, I think these guys are good writers, But whether I'll continue with the main Simon Vector storyline is another question, I might give it one more try, If the plot doesn't improve, I'm not sure I'll go further,
Apologies for the awkward number and placement of spoilers, I intended to leave it all in the open, but later decided on caution, .