Kevin L. Nielsen's "Colonial Prime: Humanity"...A Book Review

Kevin's book, Colonial Prime: Hunanity and a book I wrote, came out within a few months of each other, if I remember correctly. They're both published by Immortal Works. They're both science fiction, and they both have a boy/young man as an integral part of the story. I know this book pretty well--I should, I edited the audiobook version...

Not once,

But twice.

That's yet another story.

I should say from the onset that I enjoyed the book very much. It's not long, I believe less than 50k. When the audiobook goes live, it'll be less than four hours long, and if you listen to it on double speed, it'll fly by.

But the short length isn't the best things about Colonial Prime, for me, there's a lot packed into its pages. It's like eating a snack that's really really good.

Colonial Prime is the name of a ship, one in a convoy on a decades-long journey across space to populate a new planet. They're leaving the troubles found on their home planet--political strife, wars, the bad side of humanity--behind. The problem is, because they're human, those failings don't stay behind on Earth, they're brought with them.

Captain Amara Corrin pilots the Colonial Prime. A single mother, her son Jaelyn accompanies her on the journey. Amara's not only has responsibility for her son, but for everyone else in the fleet. The trouble really begins after the ships have been out a year. They receive a transmission from Earth and then things really hit the fan. The middle and third acts center around what happens once that message in received and how it could doom the entire mission. Amara, Jaelyn, and others have a real (and literal...) fight on their hands.

This is the second Kevin L. Nielsen book I've read. Though completely different genres, I love Nielsen's writing style. It seems effortless, as if the words that make up the story were meant to go together. We know enough about the main characters to empathize with them without becoming bored by over-explanations or ramblings by the author. We care about the people in a short period of time. We can also relate to their situation, even though they're aboard a spaceship trying to save the human species and we're on Earth, trying to make our mortgage payments and understand fake news.

The book is labeled YA, but it's really for anyone. Younger readers who like science fiction will enjoy this. Though there are battles and death, Nielsen doesn't gore-it-up more than necessary. It's a book I recommend.

If you'd like to order the book yourself, click: HERE to access the Amazon page. And, once the double-edited audiobook version comes out, you can order that, too.