Interesting, he does a better job writing than he does singing anyway. ( )

Interesting, he does a better job writing than he does singing anyway. ( )

In the near future, the US has the space station Empyrean under the control of Director Samuel Lord and has now decided to send up FBI personnel to govern this station. These FBI men have been dubbed the Zero-G men. The US, Russia, and China are all still competing with one another for supremacy but some new science has upped the stakes. Something is mimicking natural disasters on the Earth and the Moon, wreaking havoc with a station-born super vine, and causing nanites to go off kilter and basically create a kind of walking, talking cyborg zombie. Sounds pretty crazy, huh? Wait! There’s more! There’s plenty of espionage going on as well as shifting loyalties. Our heroes zoom from place to place in a vain effort to rescue everyone. I truly didn’t know if the Zero-G men would be able to save the day.

This is a convoluted action-adventure story that has bits and pieces of scifi tossed into it. There are concepts I really liked but the execution was sloppy or only half carried out. First, let’s talk about the 80 year old Samuel Lord. He’s our guide through out the story, offering advice to the younger crowd, keeping the station functioning with his wisdom, and calling the hard shots when a man of action is needed. He’s basically an 80 year old Captain Kirk (William Shatner’s famous character in the original Star Trek series). Yep. Shatner wrote a main character based on himself (or, at least a character he played for years aged several decades). In some ways this worked for the good, bringing up the nostalgia of watching the Star Trek TV series. In other ways, it meant that certain plot points and even some dialogue were completely predictable.

I was very excited about the pansexual character, Adsila, who is also a full-blooded Cherokee. This story in general is very sexual-orientation friendly. Adsila, as a pansexual, has the ability to shift from male to female at will. So, A+ for concept. Unfortunately, the execution fell short (C+ at best). Adsila’s Cherokee heritage is merely nodded at and not an integral part of his/her personality. Also, there are times when gender biases become apparent in the writing. Nearly all of Adsila’s action scenes happen when he is in the male gender. There was some comment about how Adsila finds it easier to be focused as a man….. which quirked my eyebrow. If it had been one single comment, I could say it was simply that character’s experience and let it be. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. There were several similar remarks along those lines.

At first I was pretty excited by all the scifi bits. I love having futuristic tech incorporated into a scifi story. I believe it is one of the main things that makes scifi science fiction. Once again, we have A+ for concepts and Cs for execution of these science-y bits. In the end, I felt the scifi tech was simply window dressing to an action flick. Having said that, as an action flick, there is never a dull moment in this tale. Things are always in motion. We might not always get where the story is going or why it’s going there, but it is always in motion.

All together, it was an OK story. I think another round of solid polishing would have made this a good story. Not an outstanding story, but a good one. There is a lot of ground being covered in this novel and as such, some of it was pretty sparse. I think it could have used less intrigue, less future tech, and perhaps a smaller cast so that each bit of science could shine and each character could reach their full potential.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The Narration: William Shatner is William Shatner. He starts off with a pretty even pacing but shortly falls into the odd cadence he has become known for. On one hand, this was soothing because I am a Star Trek fan and this sounded like a really long, convoluted Star Trek episode in some ways. However, there were times when I became fatigued over his odd staccato speech pattern. Also, Shatner doesn’t perform character voices very well, and sometimes doesn’t do so at all. As such, I really had to pay attention to keep track of who was talking. ( )

I didn't think it was bad, but then, I'm not usually into sci fi all that much, mostly urban fantasy. I did not find the techno-speak all that intimidating either. The plot was kind of so so with not as many twists as I hoped.
But. The characters were pretty well done. DD Samuel Lord is vintage Kirk/Shatner, so there is plenty of wry wit and dry humor to keep it all interesting. If you don't take it all so seriously, you can enjoy it! As far as plot recap, see publisher's blurb. ( )

I received this book free from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for a fair and honest review. Thank you!!

Zero G is set in the year 2050, the FBI governs outer space, and an 80-year-old Samuel Lord has been appointed as associate deputy director of Earth operations on the space station Empyrean.
A Dr. Saranya May arrives with the news that her research has been stolen from her lab base on the moon. Japan is devastated by an unnatural tsunami, which appears without any warning. At the same time, the Chinese space station has gone suspiciously quiet, and Lord begins to suspect that Dr. May knows more about what is going on than she is telling. It’s up to Lord and his crew to solve the mystery of this catastrophe before another can occur.

I really wanted to like this book, I really did. I’m a fan of Shatner’s Star Trek books and this books description was interesting, so I was looking forward to an entertaining read. That’s not what I got.

I found the book bland. It seemed loaded with technical detail and science terms which I usually like to read but this just seemed like filler to me. A way to place more words and pages in an unoriginal, cliched narrative. The group of characters are ethnically diverse, but they are woefully under used, one-dimensional and just background scenery for the main character, Lord.

As an example there are two potentially interesting characters Ziv Levy, a former human turned mercenary cyborg and the second-in-command Adsila Waters, a young Cherokee FBI officer who was genetically engineered to be able to change gender at will. Levy’s backstory is only alluded to, with a brief mention of his cyborg abilities, while Waters is made up of the usual threadbare clichèd Native Americanisms.

This book could have been so much better, but it was just a struggle to finish, never mind stay interested. ( )