Source: Tristan James – I received this in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: Ever-Sea Press
Series: Paradisi Exodus #1
Edition: eBook, 117 pages
Genre: Science Fiction
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble*
*I receive a small monetary kickback from Amazon purchases
Rating: 4/5
In the last decades of the twenty-first century, ten families seeking to escape an increasingly devastated Earth focus their power and wealth on constructing spaceships that will allow a select few to leave Earth and colonize the world they call New Eden. Here, on their new home in the Paradisi System, these Founding Families hope to avoid the environmental and political disasters that were destroying Earth. But they find that the world they claim for their own is already inhabited, and the Ddaeran, although human in their appearance, possess abilities that the Founders and their descendants find both intriguing and frightening…
In near future 2094, Earth is on the brink of nuclear winter. A secret evacuation is already underway, and Solomon Reach and his crew have guaranteed passage on the last starship to leave for colonization and exploration of a new planet in the Andromeda galaxy. When Solomon learns of a betrayal that will have catastrophic consequences, he is faced with an impossible choice: who will live and who will die?
Paradisi Escape is part of a larger series of books all set in the same universe, but taking on different story-lines and characters…similar to what Star Wars has done with their expanded universe. It’s an intriguing idea and when done properly it turns into something rich and fun. And if this book says anything about the others in both this series and the Paradisi universe, then we are in for a treat.
Paradisi Escape centers around Soloman Reach, the very well educated owner of Reach Corps, the group responsible for building and maintaining the ships that will save a portion of humanity and ferry them to their new home in the Andromeda galaxy. He’s strong welled, well spoken, and unfailingly loyal. In other words he’s the perfect focus for this high stake mission to make sure his crew can make it to their new home safely. I really appreciated the amount of backstory he was given, and the time the author took to let us see him in different elements. And then there are the hosts of side characters with their different personalities, my favorite being Vida and Dextra. The report between Dextra and Soloman was really great, and there witty little jabs at each other really helped bring some ease to the tension.
And to top it off, for a science fiction book as short as this one it does a very good job at setting up the world around them. There are so many little details placed through out the plot, and even once the action got started. I think it was a wonderfully held balance between that straightforward action book and one that has enough detail so that you feel comfortable picturing the situation but leave you wanting to see more. Plus the science guys! The science and tech sound so cool, and plausible, and it’s easy to see a lot of research and time went into figuring out what would work best for the world and how it might work. Also…there is a cliffhanger, you’ve been warned. I personally like a good cliffhanger, so it ending where it did actually left me sort of giddy. I like being unsure and excited about where the next book is going to go, and if you leave me hanging I’m definitely going to come back to the series.
Overall it’s a great start to a series, with plenty of tension, action and likeable characters. It makes me excited to see what this series will hold, and what the larger multi-author universe is going to be like.
In Libris Veritas 