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Scat
Whose DNA will escape a depleted yours or the one per cent’s?
Who owns your new you or the company?
And do you dare speak your mind on a world where the board owns the very air you breathe?
Welcome to Scat’s universe, where companies rule, regulators are corrupt and democracies are financially bankrupt; where one company will soon turn its back on a desperate, resource-poor Earth to build a galactic empire.
As powerful interests collide, outsiders must either keep their heads down or be crushed. Only one bystander has no choice at all. He stands accused of murder he did not commit. A murder that kick-starts a rebellion.
Join ex-Marine killing-machine Sebastian Scatkiewicz as he takes on the biggest corporation of them all in the biggest land-grab ever.
For independence. For freedom. For revenge.
'a great, futuristic tale', 'this story had me riveted' 'kept me spellbound'
'the coda is ... well, I was drop jawed ... I recommend the book, and eagerly look forward to seeing what Mr. Graham will do next.'
'Army of Souls', the sequel to 'Scat', is also published here on Amazon.
Who owns your new you or the company?
And do you dare speak your mind on a world where the board owns the very air you breathe?
Welcome to Scat’s universe, where companies rule, regulators are corrupt and democracies are financially bankrupt; where one company will soon turn its back on a desperate, resource-poor Earth to build a galactic empire.
As powerful interests collide, outsiders must either keep their heads down or be crushed. Only one bystander has no choice at all. He stands accused of murder he did not commit. A murder that kick-starts a rebellion.
Join ex-Marine killing-machine Sebastian Scatkiewicz as he takes on the biggest corporation of them all in the biggest land-grab ever.
For independence. For freedom. For revenge.
'a great, futuristic tale', 'this story had me riveted' 'kept me spellbound'
'the coda is ... well, I was drop jawed ... I recommend the book, and eagerly look forward to seeing what Mr. Graham will do next.'
'Army of Souls', the sequel to 'Scat', is also published here on Amazon.
- GenresScience Fiction
580 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2011
About the author
Jim Graham
3 books26 followersI was born in Bushey, Middlesex, England and grew up in Hatfield, Hertfordshire where I spent my early years covered in mud and grazes. When not gated to the garden, I stirred up neighbourhood wasp nests and made earwig and spider snacks for my baby brother.
I passed selection for the 21st Special Air Service Regiment at age 17 and was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Queen’s Regiment with which I served for several years in Northern Ireland.
Since leaving the army in 1986, I have lived and worked in Malaysia, South Africa, Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong.
I started writing scifi in September 2010 and have since published SCAT and BIRDIE DOWN, both based on events in Scat’s Universe. ARMY of SOULS, the sequel to SCAT has recently uploaded to Amazon and Smashwords. SCAT is a big 'what if'. ARMY of SOULS is more of a 'what now'. Both are space operas, which question political systems, economic dependency, compromised regulators, too big to fail businesses, and conflict and vested interest in faith. BIRDIE DOWN is more of an episodic 'shoot em up', akin to a 50s scifi pulp. BIRDIE DOWN's sequel, PHARMA, is almost done.
I live with Vivien, my Malaysian-born wife, two East Asian street dogs and four pampered cats in Asia’s World City, Hong Kong. It is the company-run city which inspired Go Down City and the Lynthax Corporation in Scat’s Universe.
Twitter @jimsgraham
I passed selection for the 21st Special Air Service Regiment at age 17 and was later commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Queen’s Regiment with which I served for several years in Northern Ireland.
Since leaving the army in 1986, I have lived and worked in Malaysia, South Africa, Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong.
I started writing scifi in September 2010 and have since published SCAT and BIRDIE DOWN, both based on events in Scat’s Universe. ARMY of SOULS, the sequel to SCAT has recently uploaded to Amazon and Smashwords. SCAT is a big 'what if'. ARMY of SOULS is more of a 'what now'. Both are space operas, which question political systems, economic dependency, compromised regulators, too big to fail businesses, and conflict and vested interest in faith. BIRDIE DOWN is more of an episodic 'shoot em up', akin to a 50s scifi pulp. BIRDIE DOWN's sequel, PHARMA, is almost done.
I live with Vivien, my Malaysian-born wife, two East Asian street dogs and four pampered cats in Asia’s World City, Hong Kong. It is the company-run city which inspired Go Down City and the Lynthax Corporation in Scat’s Universe.
Twitter @jimsgraham
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 20, 2017
I read this book a few years back when it was still new-ish and enjoyed it. I'm re-reading it now, and enjoying it much more than I did the first time through.
In essence what we've got here is a "Heroic Space Rebellion" story, in which a plucky band of rogues take down an evil space empire. The nuts-and-bolts of the story aren't that original, but if absolute originality was an absolute requirement in art, then the first Western ever filmed would also have been the last. What you do within that framework is the important - and hopefully interesting - thing, and Graham does a really good job here.
We're introduced to our protagonist in one of a seemingly endless series of drawn out middle eastern wars. He's a US Marine, and exceptionally good at his job. We see his last mission of the war, and then we jump forward a decade, where he's signed on as a civilian worker for a mega-corporation that runs the Grecos solar system, several hundred light years from earth. The solar system is effectively a "Company town," and the colonists don't like it. A rebellion ensues, and our hero ends up thrust unwillingly into a leadership position because it's basically that, or let everyone die. We then get extended conflict, daring do, and a huge twist ending that I'll not spoil. There's also a running subplot involving a "First Contact" situation.
What makes it all is Scat, the protagonist, himself. He's likeable, smart, quick to act, and doesn't have a lot of patience when he's being lied to. We see a more-or-less worm's eye view of the world through him, first in the war, then as a blue collar stiff on an asteroid mine, then as an unwilling informant on the planet Trevon, then as a reluctant turncoat, and finally as a full-on leader of the rebellion. His personality drives the book. Trevon is a genuinely interesting location as well. I also like that the book spends a good deal of time on elements usually glossed over in self-published novels of this sort, like 'how much fuel does it take to get from here to earth? How much fuel do we have? How do we get more fuel?' and 'how long does it take to terraform a planet?' I'm a sucker for marginally-habitable worlds in SF, and Trevon is essentially a planetwide version of the Antarctic Palmer Peninsula: Habitable, but not easy and not especially pleasant.
"Go Down City" is the center of much of the action in the book, a large city built in a narrow valley with the top glassed over to protect it from the elements. Unlike most SF, it *feels* like a real place. The author lived in Hong Kong for many years, and I suspect much of "Go Down" is based on the feel of that.
The action sequences are very well written. The author was in the British Army for a long time, and that really shows.
If I have a quibble, it's just that Scat is American (From Illinois), but sounds British. He uses British slang, colloquialisms, and so on. This is a pretty minor nit to pick, however.
On the whole, a good book and I recommend it.
The book has a sequel ("Army of Souls") and a sort of interquel or side-story ("Birdie Down") that takes place literally BETWEEN two chapters of this book. Both are quite good. Mr. Graham was hard at work on another side story ("Big Pharma") when he passed away late 2016, and a friend of his is presently wrapping that story up with access to his notes, so hopefully that will see publication before the end of this year.
In essence what we've got here is a "Heroic Space Rebellion" story, in which a plucky band of rogues take down an evil space empire. The nuts-and-bolts of the story aren't that original, but if absolute originality was an absolute requirement in art, then the first Western ever filmed would also have been the last. What you do within that framework is the important - and hopefully interesting - thing, and Graham does a really good job here.
We're introduced to our protagonist in one of a seemingly endless series of drawn out middle eastern wars. He's a US Marine, and exceptionally good at his job. We see his last mission of the war, and then we jump forward a decade, where he's signed on as a civilian worker for a mega-corporation that runs the Grecos solar system, several hundred light years from earth. The solar system is effectively a "Company town," and the colonists don't like it. A rebellion ensues, and our hero ends up thrust unwillingly into a leadership position because it's basically that, or let everyone die. We then get extended conflict, daring do, and a huge twist ending that I'll not spoil. There's also a running subplot involving a "First Contact" situation.
What makes it all is Scat, the protagonist, himself. He's likeable, smart, quick to act, and doesn't have a lot of patience when he's being lied to. We see a more-or-less worm's eye view of the world through him, first in the war, then as a blue collar stiff on an asteroid mine, then as an unwilling informant on the planet Trevon, then as a reluctant turncoat, and finally as a full-on leader of the rebellion. His personality drives the book. Trevon is a genuinely interesting location as well. I also like that the book spends a good deal of time on elements usually glossed over in self-published novels of this sort, like 'how much fuel does it take to get from here to earth? How much fuel do we have? How do we get more fuel?' and 'how long does it take to terraform a planet?' I'm a sucker for marginally-habitable worlds in SF, and Trevon is essentially a planetwide version of the Antarctic Palmer Peninsula: Habitable, but not easy and not especially pleasant.
"Go Down City" is the center of much of the action in the book, a large city built in a narrow valley with the top glassed over to protect it from the elements. Unlike most SF, it *feels* like a real place. The author lived in Hong Kong for many years, and I suspect much of "Go Down" is based on the feel of that.
The action sequences are very well written. The author was in the British Army for a long time, and that really shows.
If I have a quibble, it's just that Scat is American (From Illinois), but sounds British. He uses British slang, colloquialisms, and so on. This is a pretty minor nit to pick, however.
On the whole, a good book and I recommend it.
The book has a sequel ("Army of Souls") and a sort of interquel or side-story ("Birdie Down") that takes place literally BETWEEN two chapters of this book. Both are quite good. Mr. Graham was hard at work on another side story ("Big Pharma") when he passed away late 2016, and a friend of his is presently wrapping that story up with access to his notes, so hopefully that will see publication before the end of this year.
January 3, 2013
The Story
Scat, by Jim Graham is an imaginative and intriguing story set in the far future that follows Sebastian Scatkiewicz, a.k.a. Scat - an American in the US Marine Corps and decorated war hero. After ‘retiring’ from the Marines he finds himself on a distant planet working in a mine. He gets caught up in a riot there, and is shipped to another planet where he is unwillingly swept up in a planetary rebellion. The major players in the war that ensues are not governments so much as mega-corporations, a regulatory commission and the people of the planet he’s on. All he wanted was to do his tour of duty in the mine, get paid and buy a patch of dirt to settle on. Now he’s embroiled in a war and he has to choose a side.
Mr. Graham employs some unique science and offers a very dark view of corporate domination that may appear all too realistic given the way things are going. The story undergoes several convolutions that turn the plot on its head and leaves you guessing where it will end up, and I love the twist at the end that serves up retribution for the villainous. All of the villainous.
Technical
The story is engaging and well told. At times the pace slows, but overall it does hold the reader’s attention. The major complaint in this category is the number of editorial flubs: sentences that were rewritten and left artifacts behind and a high number of words that got past the spell checker but are the wrong word for the sentence: ‘thus’ instead of ‘this’, etc. The manuscript really needed one more editorial pass, and best if it was a different set of eyes. Authors tend to be too familiar with the work and don’t see these mistakes.
One thing that really bothered me as I read the book was the use of single quote marks rather than double quotes on all dialogue. I assumed this was a glitch in the eBook conversion script. In discussing this with Mr. Graham after writing this review, he pointed out that in British English, quotation marks are called inverted commas, and the single ones are used more frequently than the double for direct speech. I mention this here not as an objection but for the enlightenment of anyone else who is as clueless about this as I was.
Characters
Through the course of the story we are introduced to a great many characters and they are of all manner of race and ethnicity. I found it odd that so many of them spoke with British colloquialisms and slang.
The dialogue was natural and easy. Humor slipped in at appropriate times, yet most of the characters did not stand out as real or likable. Somehow they just didn’t click with me. But, this is the first book in a series, and I have found that authors sometimes withhold the information that builds a character until subsequent books.
Summary
An intriguing and imaginative story filled with all manner of wonderful Sci-fi gadgets and situations, that could have been an excellent read were it not for the lack of editing and the somewhat flat characters.
Scat
Scat, by Jim Graham is an imaginative and intriguing story set in the far future that follows Sebastian Scatkiewicz, a.k.a. Scat - an American in the US Marine Corps and decorated war hero. After ‘retiring’ from the Marines he finds himself on a distant planet working in a mine. He gets caught up in a riot there, and is shipped to another planet where he is unwillingly swept up in a planetary rebellion. The major players in the war that ensues are not governments so much as mega-corporations, a regulatory commission and the people of the planet he’s on. All he wanted was to do his tour of duty in the mine, get paid and buy a patch of dirt to settle on. Now he’s embroiled in a war and he has to choose a side.
Mr. Graham employs some unique science and offers a very dark view of corporate domination that may appear all too realistic given the way things are going. The story undergoes several convolutions that turn the plot on its head and leaves you guessing where it will end up, and I love the twist at the end that serves up retribution for the villainous. All of the villainous.
Technical
The story is engaging and well told. At times the pace slows, but overall it does hold the reader’s attention. The major complaint in this category is the number of editorial flubs: sentences that were rewritten and left artifacts behind and a high number of words that got past the spell checker but are the wrong word for the sentence: ‘thus’ instead of ‘this’, etc. The manuscript really needed one more editorial pass, and best if it was a different set of eyes. Authors tend to be too familiar with the work and don’t see these mistakes.
One thing that really bothered me as I read the book was the use of single quote marks rather than double quotes on all dialogue. I assumed this was a glitch in the eBook conversion script. In discussing this with Mr. Graham after writing this review, he pointed out that in British English, quotation marks are called inverted commas, and the single ones are used more frequently than the double for direct speech. I mention this here not as an objection but for the enlightenment of anyone else who is as clueless about this as I was.
Characters
Through the course of the story we are introduced to a great many characters and they are of all manner of race and ethnicity. I found it odd that so many of them spoke with British colloquialisms and slang.
The dialogue was natural and easy. Humor slipped in at appropriate times, yet most of the characters did not stand out as real or likable. Somehow they just didn’t click with me. But, this is the first book in a series, and I have found that authors sometimes withhold the information that builds a character until subsequent books.
Summary
An intriguing and imaginative story filled with all manner of wonderful Sci-fi gadgets and situations, that could have been an excellent read were it not for the lack of editing and the somewhat flat characters.
Scat
August 5, 2016
Amazing. A gripping story which starts like a space opera, gradually playing itself out all over this arm of the Milky Way, then suddenly it blossoms into something every different: something the author planted the seeds for from the start, but the reader tends to miss for the space opera.
For a first novel, an amazing feat. Yes, it finished without telling the whole tale, but it drew the reader far enough along to provide short term closure.
There was a jarring gap in the middle--intentional I think--where previous plot points are resolved without telling the reader how. Off stage, as it were. In fact, several major actions occupy off stage.
Scat, the protagonist, is human enough to engage readers tired of too many superhuman humans.
A very good read. (After I digest it for a few day, I may award another star.)
For a first novel, an amazing feat. Yes, it finished without telling the whole tale, but it drew the reader far enough along to provide short term closure.
There was a jarring gap in the middle--intentional I think--where previous plot points are resolved without telling the reader how. Off stage, as it were. In fact, several major actions occupy off stage.
Scat, the protagonist, is human enough to engage readers tired of too many superhuman humans.
A very good read. (After I digest it for a few day, I may award another star.)
November 28, 2012
Scat is Jim Graham’s first novel. Best described as a hard science-fiction thriller, the dialogue-driven plot revolves around ruthless resource-based political machinations worthy of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Like Dune, there is also a struggle for planetary independence. While lacking the mystical allure of Herbert’s Muad’ Dib, the book’s main character - hard-nosed laconic ex-soldier, Scat - makes a far more believable rebel leader. We follow his travels and exploits throughout the novel. However, Graham has chosen to use multiple points of view so we sometimes briefly see things through the eyes of other characters.
Events unfold in a number of distinct locales, each one very distant from the others. Notable among these are the Sinai desert on Earth, a mining camp on the small airless planet Prebos, the wonderfully depicted Go Down City on the planet Trevon, and a secret base on planet Runnymede run by the villain of the piece, the giant oppressive corporation Lynthax (an entity so powerful that it has its own warships).
Scat comes to life fairly well, although his low-key, stay out of trouble style means it takes a while to get the sense of him. We more quickly get a good feel for his more expressive friend, “Birdie” Goosen. The novel’s most easily grasped character is Lynthax’s vicious head of planetary security, Petroff. Baddies are seldom subtle. Other characters tend to be just names.
The novel has some notable lines. Graham is himself ex-military and only a soldier would understand the level of risk well enough to write, “The occasional round ripped through the air a little ways off, and the rocks crunched underfoot, but other than that it was remarkably peaceful.” The rest of us would be making like sheets of paper on the ground! Later, Scat gets into an up elevator on Trevon, a near-Earth-gravity world, after spending six weeks in the low-gravity mining camp on Prebos. Graham neatly captures his character’s weakened state with, “It was a brutally fast ride.”
There are also occasional evocative pieces of descriptive writing. I would like to have seen a few more of these. My favourite is the moody silent “bus” ride from the Trevon spaceport to Go Down City. Graham crisply depicts the bleak barren landscape, the snow blowing across the road, and lays on an absorbing description of the city lodged within an immense 450-metre-deep gash in the frozen planet’s surface.
The underground mining camp on Prebos is reminiscent of the titanium operation in “Outland,” the sci-fi thriller where Sean Connery plays the beleaguered outpost sheriff. As in the movie, we get a realistic look at rough tough working men in a dangerous and stressful workplace where off-hours entertainment is limited.
While the overall tone of the novel is sober, Graham works in flashes of humour: the running gag about Scat’s escalating number of salaries is a treat. To add even more spice, we have a mysterious derelict alien vessel replete with bizarre technology. This provides a terrific late plot twist that moves the novel onto a completely new plane and, presumably, sets up for the sequel.
The plot twists a number of times as the story progresses. Just when you think you see where things are going, they suddenly start going somewhere else. I enjoyed this immensely. My interest level got a nice boost at every turn.
At the cost of extending an already lengthy review, I want to say something about an important question raised by Graham’s novel (I love speculative fiction that does this): who will take humankind into space? It is already clear that it will not be government. Politicians are useless here because electors will not vote for massive expenditures on what can only be a speculative adventure – at least in the early going. Like it or not, the job must be done by huge corporations. They are the only entities with both the financial resources and the freedom of decision-making necessary to shoulder the risk. Graham is making the valid point that once such powerful well-funded organizations get beyond the reach of Earth-bound governments there will be no one there to make sure they behave themselves. Democratic nations must ensure that wherever corporations go, proper responsible government goes with them.
Scat is a big, intelligent, interesting novel. If you enjoy hard gritty sf with plenty of well-handled dialogue, you will not go far wrong with this one.
Events unfold in a number of distinct locales, each one very distant from the others. Notable among these are the Sinai desert on Earth, a mining camp on the small airless planet Prebos, the wonderfully depicted Go Down City on the planet Trevon, and a secret base on planet Runnymede run by the villain of the piece, the giant oppressive corporation Lynthax (an entity so powerful that it has its own warships).
Scat comes to life fairly well, although his low-key, stay out of trouble style means it takes a while to get the sense of him. We more quickly get a good feel for his more expressive friend, “Birdie” Goosen. The novel’s most easily grasped character is Lynthax’s vicious head of planetary security, Petroff. Baddies are seldom subtle. Other characters tend to be just names.
The novel has some notable lines. Graham is himself ex-military and only a soldier would understand the level of risk well enough to write, “The occasional round ripped through the air a little ways off, and the rocks crunched underfoot, but other than that it was remarkably peaceful.” The rest of us would be making like sheets of paper on the ground! Later, Scat gets into an up elevator on Trevon, a near-Earth-gravity world, after spending six weeks in the low-gravity mining camp on Prebos. Graham neatly captures his character’s weakened state with, “It was a brutally fast ride.”
There are also occasional evocative pieces of descriptive writing. I would like to have seen a few more of these. My favourite is the moody silent “bus” ride from the Trevon spaceport to Go Down City. Graham crisply depicts the bleak barren landscape, the snow blowing across the road, and lays on an absorbing description of the city lodged within an immense 450-metre-deep gash in the frozen planet’s surface.
The underground mining camp on Prebos is reminiscent of the titanium operation in “Outland,” the sci-fi thriller where Sean Connery plays the beleaguered outpost sheriff. As in the movie, we get a realistic look at rough tough working men in a dangerous and stressful workplace where off-hours entertainment is limited.
While the overall tone of the novel is sober, Graham works in flashes of humour: the running gag about Scat’s escalating number of salaries is a treat. To add even more spice, we have a mysterious derelict alien vessel replete with bizarre technology. This provides a terrific late plot twist that moves the novel onto a completely new plane and, presumably, sets up for the sequel.
The plot twists a number of times as the story progresses. Just when you think you see where things are going, they suddenly start going somewhere else. I enjoyed this immensely. My interest level got a nice boost at every turn.
At the cost of extending an already lengthy review, I want to say something about an important question raised by Graham’s novel (I love speculative fiction that does this): who will take humankind into space? It is already clear that it will not be government. Politicians are useless here because electors will not vote for massive expenditures on what can only be a speculative adventure – at least in the early going. Like it or not, the job must be done by huge corporations. They are the only entities with both the financial resources and the freedom of decision-making necessary to shoulder the risk. Graham is making the valid point that once such powerful well-funded organizations get beyond the reach of Earth-bound governments there will be no one there to make sure they behave themselves. Democratic nations must ensure that wherever corporations go, proper responsible government goes with them.
Scat is a big, intelligent, interesting novel. If you enjoy hard gritty sf with plenty of well-handled dialogue, you will not go far wrong with this one.
January 16, 2013
I need to be upfront with the fact Jim Graham is my brother but don’t think me bias. It can be the hardest thing to comment about a sibling’s work, especially if the work is something that doesn’t normally interest you. Firstly I don’t read a great deal; secondly I went off sci-fi after watching a triple bill of Star Wars, with Jim, back in the early 1980’s... I had tried reading an early draft of ‘Scat’ on my PC but couldn’t get into it; he classed me as a lost cause.
Having bought my own tablet over Christmas I thought I’d try again. With Jim failing to get my hint of sending me a free finished copy I had to buy one, I think that’s worth one missing star to start with! Using a new toy helped me get out of my head it was my big brother who had written the book. By the time the novelty had started to wear off I had been hooked into the story, characters and style of writing. I’m not sure if you understand how painful this is to write!
I always knew he was good at telling tales, I had been clipped around the ears enough as a result of his childhood stories. My wife had also pestered him in the past to write but she didn’t expect this sort of thing (she slept through 2/3rds of the Star Wars trilogy) he’s still to explain himself to her...
Other sci-fi fans have laid out the storyline and their thoughts but as an infrequent reader I must say the book was hard to put down. Once I had finished it I downloaded (paying again!) and read ‘Birdie Down’ in quick time. I’m now twiddling my thumbs waiting for Jim to finish ‘Scat’ part two and add to the Rebellion saga. I guess if I stop pestering him he might get them done quicker.
I believe this book would suit anyone with an interest in the 'what if' of tomorrow. It works on human strengths and weaknesses whilst giving us a glimpse into a corporate dominated world where the shareholder has more power than a government. Wars have always been about resources, Scat's world doesn't try to hide it behind religion or false democratic mandates.
Having bought my own tablet over Christmas I thought I’d try again. With Jim failing to get my hint of sending me a free finished copy I had to buy one, I think that’s worth one missing star to start with! Using a new toy helped me get out of my head it was my big brother who had written the book. By the time the novelty had started to wear off I had been hooked into the story, characters and style of writing. I’m not sure if you understand how painful this is to write!
I always knew he was good at telling tales, I had been clipped around the ears enough as a result of his childhood stories. My wife had also pestered him in the past to write but she didn’t expect this sort of thing (she slept through 2/3rds of the Star Wars trilogy) he’s still to explain himself to her...
Other sci-fi fans have laid out the storyline and their thoughts but as an infrequent reader I must say the book was hard to put down. Once I had finished it I downloaded (paying again!) and read ‘Birdie Down’ in quick time. I’m now twiddling my thumbs waiting for Jim to finish ‘Scat’ part two and add to the Rebellion saga. I guess if I stop pestering him he might get them done quicker.
I believe this book would suit anyone with an interest in the 'what if' of tomorrow. It works on human strengths and weaknesses whilst giving us a glimpse into a corporate dominated world where the shareholder has more power than a government. Wars have always been about resources, Scat's world doesn't try to hide it behind religion or false democratic mandates.
September 17, 2012
Scat by Jim Graham is a great, futuristic tale involving everything you could expect to come from a Sci-fi story; be it rebels wanting to break their chains to Earth or frightening, very god-like aliens. The word Scat is actually a person, a high ranking Earth soldier with the last name Scatkiewicz. Soon after the story begins, he is hired to act as a spy and help keep an eye on the ever-growing society of those who live away from the planet, people who find that their lives and work only produce what is endlessly gobbled up by the very overpopulated Earth.
Living as a spy to try getting close to people can start to make that spy see things from the ‘enemy’s’ point of view. Before long Scat almost considers himself to to be one of the colony-rebels. His experience as a soldier before-hand makes him to be a quite worthy adversary. The problem that his enemies face is deciding if it would do them better to rid the universe of is anger for them or to try using his strength as their own asset.
This story had me riveted. I enjoyed the interactions between the people, and the descriptions of futuristic technology. The idea of the controller aliens and their technology caught me as sickeningly fun.
Living as a spy to try getting close to people can start to make that spy see things from the ‘enemy’s’ point of view. Before long Scat almost considers himself to to be one of the colony-rebels. His experience as a soldier before-hand makes him to be a quite worthy adversary. The problem that his enemies face is deciding if it would do them better to rid the universe of is anger for them or to try using his strength as their own asset.
This story had me riveted. I enjoyed the interactions between the people, and the descriptions of futuristic technology. The idea of the controller aliens and their technology caught me as sickeningly fun.
May 6, 2014
Took me a while to get into this, and I almost stopped reading it altogether a few times, but ultimately I'm glad I finished it. The author has created an interesting world here, and built it up really nicely. The action is slow, though, with more of a told-and-not-shown feel to it in places. And the military aspects were a bit forced feeling to me.
But, I would definitely call this successful sci-fi. The setting's futuristic elements were flawlessly presented, and the writing in general was smooth and easily readable. Definitely a read for fans of militaristic science fiction.
But, I would definitely call this successful sci-fi. The setting's futuristic elements were flawlessly presented, and the writing in general was smooth and easily readable. Definitely a read for fans of militaristic science fiction.
January 21, 2013
This book definitely started my reading habits again, it introduced me to the space opera and what defines it. The short chapters meant that it is very easy for me to read on the go and each chapter has an excitement to it that makes me want to continue reading and looking for more. If you are looking for good sci fi, this is a good book to start.
Disclaimer: I know the author.
Disclaimer: I know the author.
July 3, 2013
Action packed and a good read.Just one complaint. The rebellion ended too abruptly for me, and I later found the missing attacks to have been included in a seperate novel, Birdie Down. Well worth a read though and The Watchers, introduced at the end, look interesting and are the subject of his sequal novel.
August 13, 2012
We are proud to announce that SCAT has been honored with the 2012 B.R.A.G.Medallion - this is a book well worth your time and money!
April 3, 2013
This was a fun military sci-fi read and a interesting combination of viewpoints. I look forward to the sequel.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews