Book Review: StarScout Rising by Gary Darby

There is no question about it. Star Scout Rising: First Trail by Gary Darby is hard core science fiction. This book is exactly what it claims to be.

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You'll get a good feel for the book by reading the blurb on the back cover:

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"The thundering acid tsunami raced towards Del as he tried in vain to pilot his damaged scouter out of its path. Tremors ran through the ship as it lost altitude and speed. Del had only one option, to dive the craft deep into the lake of acid ahead of the wave. Del glanced at his controls and wondered, 'would the bulkheads hold when the scouter slammed into the lake surface? Did the little ship have enough juice to power through the thick goo?'

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Del didn't know. He only knew he had but one chance to save his ship and his comrades. With one final look back at the speeding swell, Del tipped the nose of the scouter over in a downward arc toward the orange liquid and the dark depths below."

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This book is filled with creative details of space exploration and political intrigue as well as heroic rescues and tests of loyalty to friends and comrades. It has villains to despise and heroes to admire. I congratulate Mr. Darby on publishing this first volume of the planned Star Scout Trilogy. It is a monumental feat to complete a first novel and I wish him great success.

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Having said that, I do have reservations about the book. I consider myself a sci-fi fan but maybe not hard core enough to fully enjoy this book. While I appreciate the intricacies of the plot and character development, as well as the clean reading it provides, I found parts of the action to be over the top and some of the elements to be a bit familiar. This very well could be more a reflection on the reader than the work. I would recommend this book to the die hard sci-fi enthusiast. To the casual sci-fi reader like me, expect to dive in to the deep end of hard core sci-fi entertainment.

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You can purchase StarScout Rising here.

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Best of luck Gary.

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Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from the author.