Becoming Human: A Dystopian Post Apocalyptic Novel (Exilon 5 Book 1)

I stumbled over this title by some Twitter-peeps - or "Tweeps" - & was intrigued by the synopsis (never under-estimate the power of a good synopsis!). Very glad I did. As a fan of the "Dune" & "Foundation" sci-fi classic books (not to mention the classic sci-fi films & tv series), I revel in a good plot about how people may potentially exist in the future. If you identify with this, you won't be disappointed. Literally starting with a big bang, this book became a real page-turner for me. I can honestly say I have warmed to these well-created characters (both the goodies & the very baddies) & am looking forward to more action & drama in the next book of the trilogy. For a self-published book, I am most impressed with the high calibre of Green's writing (as she says in the notes, she has revised this version of the novel to reflect her development as an author). While not in the "New York Times Bestseller" category, this writer shows a panache that hopefully, will only get better & better. A really good read.

I have read much sci-fi over the past 50 plus years. This first effort is better than from some more experienced writers stories over the years. Will I buy the next two in this trilogy? Probably so, having finished the first volume. However,this first has some issues that give me pause. It was very difficult to become involved. I nearly...did not. The pace is somewhat tedious with too much character building for too many seemingly marginal characters from too many organizations. If they are become more important in the next volumes, that is the place to flesh them out. Don't depend on me, the reader to remember all that detail for the next volume. It is way too much like picking 10 or more roads on one side of a map and trying to follow them to the other side remembering all the cities along each road and every point at which they cross and which were paved and...and. Well, you get the idea. Because of the obscurity, it only really caught my interest the last few chapters. I became caught up in four or five of the characters by that point and really want to know what comes next. Volume II will hopefully start off a bit more briskly??? If a writer is going to give detail of a technology, they should have a good feel for that technology or get advice from someone who does. It is easy for weaknesses at that point to dampen the readers "Willing suspension of disbelief" so necessary in reading fiction. The Wizard almost lost Dorothy that way. The basic underlying "surprise" in the story is a variation on a theme seen in several stories over the years and with only a very limited number of possible outcomes. I am curious if the next two volumes will hold the attention and truly surprise one with a new twist on the outcome. That is a tall order. I say all this not as a "Critic" but as one explaining what I and probably many others look for in a book I might buy and enjoy. If a true recognized "Critic" loved it, I most likely would do neither. This book demonstrates why I read Indie books and have enjoyed doing so immensely. Yes, some self-published books don't deserve to see the light of day, but this isn't one of those. Far from it. It was exciting and it had mystery. It sets up the next book while still giving you closure in this one--a difficult task for a book in a series. But it isn't perfect, though close. If Amazon had half stars, I'd give it 4 and a half, but since I round up, it's a 5. I didn't know if it was going to be a 4 or a 5 until the very end. I was leaning toward 5 when I noticed that there was only 10% of the story left. It was then that I realized that the ending was probably going to be abrupt and it was a little bit. How abrupt it was would determine if the rating went down to a 4 or up to a 5 (from a 4.5 of course). A 4 would have left me feeling cheated because I wouldn't have learned enough about the terrifying secret the author refers to in the synopsis. It's a 5 because I learned just about everything about the secret (though the author could always throw a curve ball in the second book). The last bit of knowledge comes in quickly during a conversation in the last 5% of the story. A little bit of an info dump, but I'm splitting hairs. The ending's fine. Ignore what I just said. Another problem some might have is with the number of view point characters. But it's hard not to with this kind of story. There's a large cast of characters, some of them on Earth, some on Exilon 5. At least it was written in 3rd person. I don't think I would have been able to read it in multiple 1st person. There were times that I was slightly confused and just had to keep reading, but for me that happens with any book with a large cast of characters. At that point I'm more concerned with how much I'm enjoying the story. If I am, I tend to ignore any confusion on my part. And when it was over, I immediately checked Amazon for book 2. Darn, I'll have to wait. I want to share something but to do so fully would be to spoil the ending (and I'm not going to do that), so this won't make sense unless you read the book and pick up on what I did. I'd barely started reading when I asked myself, "Is the author lazy?" It was a minor thing, so I kept reading. When I got about half way--maybe a little more--I realized it wasn't laziness but foreshadowing (I just didn't understand the minor detail at the time), which kind of explains why I wasn't surprised by the ending or even the set up of the ending. I saw it coming but not because I'm super sluethy or whatever. No, I saw the ending coming because I was being nit-picky and picked up on the foreshadowing before it became super obvious (which is the ending). That probably didn't make any sense. Just read the book. If you don't get it, I'll be happy to explain it to you. (This is an invitation to the author as well. If you'd like to know what I'm talking about, just ask.) I am glad that I got a chance to read this book. I received this at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review

This was a fair sci-fi read. The storyline isn't new (humans have ruined Earth for habitation, terraforming, evil/immoral scientists), but Ms. Green's characters and plot are reasonably engaging. I like how none of the main characters are teenagers. Her writing is fine in short passages, but she tends to repeat herself. For example, she makes multiple references to one of the character's lack of cosmetic surgery. This book would have benefited from better editing (although the proof-reading was good - spelling and grammar were mostly correct). Overall I just didn't find it exceptionally captivating, and I don't plan on reading the rest of the series. I think a big limitation might be the number of characters she introduces and how unrelated they are for most of the book. It was slow going because it was hard to follow everyone. She did eventually tie them all together satisfactorily, but I didn't get to know or care about any of them enough to see what happens next. Unfortunately the plot and action weren't interesting enough to make up for the fractured character development. The author seemed to be trying for sci-fi noir, but it fell a little flat. This might be an interesting read for people who haven't read a ton of science fiction and are looking for dystopia with actual adult characters.

This is the 2nd book I've read written by Eliza Green; she has done a great job at writing a good book; I can’t wait to read more of her books. The story line caught my attention at the very beginning and kept me interested throughout the entire book. I loved the characters. I received a free copy of this book via booksprout and I’m voluntarily leaving a review.

Becoming Human (The Exilon 5 Trilogy, Book1) By Eliza Green I'm not sure exactly who or where this was recommended so I'll have to just give an obscure thanks to whoever. This is an enjoyable read despite a few road bumps some caused by my own neglect where I'd have to back track. It was a slow starter for me and it took about twenty pages or more before I was invested into the story. Exilon 5 is a planet that was close to earth like located long before man was ready to attempt to make a journey out and to consider colonization. But it initially was not all that promising because its atmosphere was toxic to humans. In this future the future of humanity on Earth is threatened by abuse of Earth and its resources. And by the time humanity has created the ships to travel to Exilon they also have the technology to change the planet to make it habitable and it is their last best hope. The story starts after a number of years of terra-forming and colonization and one of the main characters Bill Taggart finds himself finally on the planet. Unfortunately its to investigate the presence of an indigent population. One that might be responsible for the disappearance and maybe even death of his wife. The story itself unfolds both on Exilon 5 and Earth through the eyes of several characters.Some of these characters are the Indigenes. There are questions about the Indigenes the reader will want to address, which I won't mention because it's a plot point and your will have to read to find out. There is more wrong on Earth than problems with the biosphere. The citizens seem to live in the Orwellian nightmare. And there was even a scene in here that reminded me of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Characters are afraid to talk to each other for fear of those who watch and the consequences. Exchanges made in secret keep the reader cringing waiting for the participants to be caught out and worrying that someone might be drawing someone else out with ill intent. Then there is the investigation into the Indigenes. There is something not right with all of that and it's becoming a two way street as the Indigenes begin to show greater intelligence and aptitude than everyone has been led to believe. It soon becomes a question of who is watching who and what they are up to. Plenty of mysteries to go around and a great start to a series of books with engaging characters and insidious villains. Lovers of SFF and even apocalyptic and dystopic tales should enjoy this book. As always a bit of caution that I did find a handful of errors with missing words and sentences that seemed incomplete and strange splitting of words like percent into per cent. So beware you who have issues with finding such things in the reading. They did not slow me down or dissuade me. There are some words with British English spelling and I almost think there is some colloquial terms in here. Not a problem just an observation. And a bit of playful use of Cliches. Some interesting, potentially brave choices made with a first novel in a series. I think they work well with the writing style. I'll be looking for the next book, because I want to know what happens. J.L. Dobias

Hard to review this book. I think my score would be more a 3.5, but I like to support indie authors, so an extra half. There's a LOT of exposition. Too much, I think. There are a million POV characters, to the point I lost track of who was who several times. There are so many story threads it's hard to follow, and the entire first 2/3 of the book feels like world building, backstory and in some places, filler. And yet... The story is great, many of the characters are very likeable and as the first book in a trilogy, I would expect the majority of the world building and background is done now, and the next two books will be more like the final third of this one. And that final third really shines. The writing crisped up, the dialogue too, the action and pacing sped up and yet evened out as well, and all the threads that were not entirely making sense to me earlier in the book, came together into a whole. Probably the best indie sci-fi I've ever read, I really enjoyed it, and I will be looking out for the rest of the series. (Disclosure: Picked it up as a freebie from the Amazon daily free books) (Disclosure 2: This is a copy of my GoodReads review)

MARK'S REVIEW This book demonstrates why I read Indie books and have enjoyed doing so immensely. Yes, some self-published books don't deserve to see the light of day, but this isn't one of those. Far from it. It was exciting and it had mystery. It sets up the next book while still giving you closure in this one--a difficult task for a book in a series. But it isn't perfect, though close. If Amazon had half stars, I'd give it 4 and a half, but since I round up, it's a 5. I didn't know if it was going to be a 4 or a 5 until the very end. I was leaning toward 5 when I noticed that there was only 10% of the story left. It was then that I realized that the ending was probably going to be abrupt and it was a little bit. How abrupt it was would determine if the rating went down to a 4 or up to a 5 (from a 4.5 of course). A 4 would have left me feeling cheated because I wouldn't have learned enough about the terrifying secret the author refers to in the synopsis. It's a 5 because I learned just about everything about the secret (though the author could always throw a curve ball in the second book). The last bit of knowledge comes in quickly during a conversation in the last 5% of the story. A little bit of an info dump, but I'm splitting hairs. The ending's fine. Ignore what I just said. Another problem some might have is with the number of view point characters. But it's hard not to with this kind of story. There's a large cast of characters, some of them on Earth, some on Exilon 5. At least it was written in 3rd person. I don't think I would have been able to read it in multiple 1st person. There were times that I was slightly confused and just had to keep reading, but for me that happens with any book with a large cast of characters. At that point I'm more concerned with how much I'm enjoying the story. If I am, I tend to ignore any confusion on my part. And when it was over, I immediately checked Amazon for book 2. Darn, I'll have to wait. I want to share something but to do so fully would be to spoil the ending (and I'm not going to do that), so this won't make sense unless you read the book and pick up on what I did. I'd barely started reading when I asked myself, "Is the author lazy?" It was a minor thing, so I kept reading. When I got about half way--maybe a little more--I realized it wasn't laziness but foreshadowing (I just didn't understand the minor detail at the time), which kind of explains why I wasn't surprised by the ending or even the set up of the ending. I saw it coming but not because I'm super sluethy or whatever. No, I saw the ending coming because I was being nit-picky and picked up on the foreshadowing before it became super obvious (which is the ending). That probably didn't make any sense. Just read the book. If you don't get it, I'll be happy to explain it to you. (This is an invitation to the author as well. If you'd like to know what I'm talking about, just ask.) Review Disclaimer: I picked up a free copy of this book during a Kindle Select Free Day promotion on Amazon. I was not asked to review the book directly by the author. The above thoughts are my own.

This book had an interesting story that got me engaged and wanting to know more. Unfortunately, some writers seem to be taking lessons from the TV industry where they tell you an incomplete story that leaves you with more questions than answers at the end of the book/episode. I much prefer stories like the classic Dune or Foundation series (or even the more recent Wool or Red Rising series) where each book resolves the main issues in that particular story, and leaves you wanting to know more about what happens next in the grander scheme of things. I understand that writers want to make money and be paid for their creative effort, but is it too much to ask for them to complete a story in one book, then tell me another great related story in their next one?

Great , thought provoking book. Could not put it down!

love dystopa story. a page-turner

I was pleasantly surprised by the story as it unfolded, and the truth about the government is slowly revealed. I am hoping that the next book in the series builds well on this great first book.

Beginning story of unlikely future slow and confusing with boring relationships of players. Waste of reading time had to end to erase from device

I really, really enjoyed this book. I've been reading Sci-fi for over 30 years and without doubt I'd put this in my top 10 immediately. The character building and scene setting are exquisite, developing slowly, piece by piece and by the end I couldn't put it down. I feel this is the mark of an intelligent writer; one who can start to tell a story and even without much happening, you're hooked and you didn't even know it. I've read dozens of self-published authors, sadly most of which are the equivalent of 'straight to DVD'; they're okay to pass the time but instantly forgotten. However, I think this author and this series will be something else entirely and I've just bought the next two books in the series and can't wait to get started. If you like intelligent, thought-proving sci-fi then buy it because you will love it and if you just generally prefer the 'Cowboys and Indians' in space with anthropomorphic aliens, then buy it anyway and try reading something grown up instead.