Mantis Force #1
By: R. J. Amezcua
What: A starship crew is forced into an unexpected conflict on a foreign planet.
Recommended to those who like: Space opera, loosely Christian, large casts of characters.
I have so many thoughts about this book that I’m not even sure where to start. Some parts of it were stellar (pun intended), while other parts left me feeling disappointed.
The crew of the Osparatta is sent on a simple rescue mission that quickly goes awry. Failing ship systems, a short-handed crew,and the rise of an ancient enemy are more than any of them were prepared for. Will they be able to band together, or will their lack of experience be their downfall?
This book had a rather Star Trek-y feel to it, which I enjoyed. (I’m not a hard core Trekkie by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy the new movies). There’s a large cast of colorful characters who have to work together in order to solve problems and save their ship. Unfortunately, so many characters got launched at me in a short amount of time that I had difficulty keeping them straight. Just when I was getting to where I felt I knew a sub-group of characters, I would get taken to another group who I had to learn to like, then sent to another group, and so on.
The plot proceeded in a similar manner. The author clearly put a lot of effort into creating a multi-layered plot that will eventually tie together. I love plots like this; however, there was just a little too much going on at once. There’s a planetary battle, a ship catastrophe, planetary politics, a virus outbreak, natural disasters, and views from the antagonist going on all at once. As of yet, very few of them have connected, though I assume they’ll intersect later in the series. Some of the sub-plots didn’t seem to connect at all to our crew members and I had a difficult time caring about those plots; it almost felt like I had been sucked into another story.
One aspect of the story that I did enjoy was the world-building. The universe is a complex one with many different belief systems, ideologies, and cultures. Also, the author spends a lot of time talking about food—something of which I approve.
The Bottom Line: This book had a great concept, but there was just too much going on at once for me to really, truly enjoy it.