Industrious

Synchronicity Trilogy #2

by Michael McCloskey

The People's Republic of China dominates half the globe, balanced only by the combined power of the decaying Western world. As main players in a new age of expansion, the Chinese reach outward to establish many stations throughout the solar system.

Sun Xinmei is a bold and devious young graduate of Tsinghua University in Beijing who becomes intimately embroiled in the system wide slave trade as an agent of the Ministry of State Security.

Li Feng is a brave young man destined to serve as an officer in the Divine Space Force of the PRC. As such he's trained to lead robotic weapons as much as the men who follow them into battle.

Promised to each other, Xinmei and Feng hope to lead successful careers and someday cross paths again to share prosperous lives.

Though space itself proves to be a harsh frontier, they discover that the greatest obstacles to their plans are the inhabitants of the space stations that dot the solar system.

Industrious is the second book of the Synchronicity Trilogy. Its events are concurrent with events in Insidious.

Genres: Science Fiction

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 4, 2011

About the author

I am a software engineer in Silicon Valley who dreams of otherworldly creatures, mysterious alien planets, and fantastic adventures. I'm also an indie author with over 150,000 paid sales and another 150,000 free downloads.

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Reviews

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Industrious tells the same events than Insidious but this time from the POV of the United Nations Space Force earthly antagonists: the Chinese Divine Space Force.

Not an uninteresting idea but this book is somewhat less good compared to the first because it suffers from two flaws:

First, the books are not interchangeable. Without the knowledge of events in Insidious, Industrious wouldn't make much sense. It gives more Intel on the Spinners and that's it.
I think the idea of two books that can be read in any order would have been a + to the series.

Second, the characters are totally flat. Good PRC little soldiers Xinmei and Feng present no real personalities. Their only concerns are obeying orders and succeeding their respective missions which makes them very very dull and bland.

Now let's see if Ingenious concludes the trilogy better.

[Shelley Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, but not as much as the first one in this series, Insidious. It was not as fast paced, and I didn't get as attached to the characters. It was, however, definitely a good companion to the first book, and was still quite exciting despite being the same story told from a different point of view. I have to add that there were further adventures not mentioned in the first book which were interesting and engaging. More depth was added to the story in this book including more background on China and more information on the spinners. I am looking forward to reading the third book in the series.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read. The differing perspective from the first book sheds light on an entirely different sector of a universe that although mentioned we hadn't seen previously in other works. Looking forward to book three.

[Joel Stanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting take!

Very, very well done! I don’t want to give away too much, though it comes out quickly in the story. Great 2nd book with a very interesting approach.

[Scott Entrikin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good sequel

I'm enjoying this series. I liked seeing some of the same stories but from a totally different perspective with new twists. Very nicely done.

[Dodie Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit disappointed with the second book of the trilogy. This was the story of Chinmei (Xinmei), a character from book one. This book was the of the same incidents told through her eyes.

[Laz the Sailor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second in the series, and is not quite as strong or inventive as the first. Thankfully the 3rd book is better.