And Again

Welcome to Sarnia by Jan Musil

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for a review.

Summary: Foundation book for a planned series Science Fiction Epic Series.In their desire to expand Terrans decided that the risks involved in capturing and colonizing the planet known as Sarnia were well worth incurring.

A mere forty years on they lost that gamble. Big time.

136 years later, many things have changed. Some never do.

Review: A science fiction novel that takes place in a world where everyone has to explain their thoughts and actions to everyone, even if it’s only in their own thoughts.

I liked science fiction that takes place on different planets, especially multiple planets. Welcome to Sarnia only takes place on one planet, but it has some history and a good set up with plenty of opportunity for drama (four races on one planet). There were a large number of characters and I did have trouble keeping track of all of them. The characters themselves were pretty decent, but what I couldn’t stand was how every thought or action was explained in great, unnecessary detail. I felt like I was reading info dumps for so much of the book. I also got annoyed by the constant repetition. The author must have described a character’s lilting voice at least five times in a few pages. I get it.

While I did not always understand what was going on (it was hard to tell when it from an alien’s point of view as compared to a human), I did enjoy the intrigue about the alien races and individual characters. Everyone’s certainly out for something. I liked that women were viewed as capable and were warriors along with the men. The main conflict, a taryn, was a conflict that might not mean much on a larger scale or even a global scale, but it certainly meant a lot to the humans. I wasn’t quite sure what a tayrn was, but it will be interesting to learn more about that along with the Sarnians. Perhaps future books will be better since the world has already been set up in this one.

Rating:

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to those that enjoy science fiction stories that take place on other planets.