Book Review: Alcent Sagas

Title: AlCent Sagas
Author: James Crawford
Genre: Sci-fi; Hard Sci-fi
Book Length: Novel; 221 pages (print)
Book Version Read: eBook
Year Published: December 11, 2023

Date Started: March 1, 2024
Date finished: March 3, 2024

This is a hard sci-fi story about a man named James Van Wert whose job is to have a crew on his ship ready for war. There are situations on his ship that are in the way of him accomplishing his goals. Something is always going wrong. He’s responsible for passengers as well as his crew but he’s knowledgeable and easy going so things get done timely. Once the passengers are unloaded his job then was to prepare the ship for war.

This story was a fun read. I don’t often read hard sci-fi stories mainly because I’m not much into the technical reality of space and mechanical terms. However, this story had a good plot and the main character, James, appeared easy going, which made the story a pleasant experience. The overall feel of the story was slightly on the fast-paced side. My only issue is that I wanted to get to know the characters more. They were thrown in pretty much all at once with introductions, but other than that, there wasn’t much depth to them. I would have enjoyed these characters more if I knew their purpose and if the goal James wanted to achieve was also their goal, or if they were simply doing the job for some other reasons. Same for the passengers. There was a little bit of story behind them, but not too much. If you’re looking for a sci-fi story that focuses mainly on the technical stuff of a ship, this would be it.

This was enjoyable read overall. The attention to detail in the hard science area was well-done. It felt like they were on a real ship with all its problems.

Who should read this book: This book is for those who enjoy hard sci-fi stories or those who like your stories with lots of technical descriptions.