โIโm not letting him get away,โ Elya insisted. But he heard the undertone of her criticism. You're not being a team player, she seemed to be saying. Your actions are selfish. And even if you do catch this drone, the rest of the squad will resent the way you flew. But it was too late now. A tenacious stubbornness wouldnโt let Elya give up the chase.
โItโs two-on-one. Weโve got it outnumbered.โ
Presently, the drone veered away from the Mammoth fleet and accelerated toward Robichar. Seeing his opportunity, Elya opened his thrusters to full burn. Osprey tailed him, the two of them flying neck and neck like they had back at the academy. The next few minutes passed in tense silence. When they were a hundred klicks out from the fleet, the Kryl drone flipped around and shot backward at them without losing its momentum. It was even able to maneuver in reverse to avoid their shots when they returned fire, dipping and dodging. Impressive. That was the kind of flying Elya got criticized for. Osprey would have called it pretty but ineffective flying.
Kryl didnโt think like people. They were controlled by a remote Overmind that gave them abilities that human pilots could never hope to match. It was one of the reasons starfighters werenโt piloted remotely; starfighters needed every edge they could get.
Elya stayed close, keeping up the steady stream of attack and refusing to back down. Hedgebot scurried back and forth along the window over his head, keeping him on track with the Krylโs erratic flight pattern. At some point, the starfighterโs internal AI determined that the G-forces were too much for Elyaโs body to handle on its own, and a pinch at the back of his neck, followed by a relaxing of his muscles, told him heโd been injected with the dose of targeted chemicals that would sharpen his senses and make the G-forces easier to handle.
Hopped up on the cocktail of stimulants and stabilizers, Elya managed to close the distance between himself and the drone to within half a kilometer. At this point, the Kryl drone flipped back around and arced up overhead in a loopโthe same maneuver that Osprey had cautioned him against earlier that day.
As it came around, Elya cut his thrust, repositioning himself and waiting for his weapons system to lock onto the drone. As he expected, the craft came down in front of him, and when it did he mashed on his trigger, only to watch his blaster bolts soar right through the craft.
โImpossible,โ Elya whispered.
โNevers, pull up! Pull up!โ
The drone braked and though Hedgebot flashed a bright red warning, Elya was too slow and too close to do anything except brace himself. To his complete and utter astonishment, the Kryl drone phased through his ship. His starfighter should have cut that drone in half, killing them both; instead, it passed through him, unharmed.
For a frozen moment, Elyaโs Sabre occupied the same physical space as the Kryl drone. The craft was twice as large as his Sabreโฆ and though he had expected it to be unmanned, it wasnโt. A vicious and deformed-looking Kryl with a midnight-black carapace and six arms terminating in skeletal claws, veered past him clacking its mandibles.
Above the mandibles, Elya met a pair of eyes set deep into a face that seemed far too human. He blinked and it was gone, the pilot once again hidden behind the hull of the Kryl drone.
โNevers!โ Osprey shouted, forgetting to use his call sign in her concern for him. โNevers, are you okay?โ
His starfighter beeped a warning as the droneโs weapons system locked onto him from behind.
โOh no.โ A cold spark of fear shivered through him, and his skin burst out in tingling gooseflesh. Elyaโs body rocked violently as the droneโs weapons landed a direct hit on the rear left wing of his Sabre, taking out one of his two main engines. Warning systems blared, his control panel lit up, the filaments along Hedgebotโs back flashed red. Another targeted salvo from the Kryl took out two of his maneuvering thrusters. Elyaโs Sabre went into an uncontrollable tailspin, pulled in by the gravity of the moon.
The blinking white of an explosion behind him told him that Osprey had landed a hit on the drone and damaged it. Elya didnโt think it had been taken out of commission completely, though, as it veered away from them.
Captain Osprey wavered between pursuing the damaged drone and sticking with him, but eventually she stuck with him.
โNevers!โ Osprey called. โHang on! Iโm coming after you.โ
Elya did his best. He fought to regain control of the starfighter, but it had been lost to him. Caught in the gravitational pull of Robichar, Elya spiraled down toward the colony moon. As his starfighter spun, the movement overwhelmed even the cocktail of stimulants in his system, and he lost consciousness.
One of the strengths that I have really enjoyed with Herron's previous work is that he is not shy about his inspirations. What he does as a writer, is take many of the elements of pop culture and combine them in a familiar way to tell a new story. He tells very specific stories that are meant to be fun and light-hearted reading that is great to dive into over the weekend.In Starfighter Down, he's once again taken his ingredients, this time some Battlestar Galactica here, a dash of Star Wars there, and maybe a splash of Wing Commander or Starship Troopers-- he places it all on simmer, and lets these flavors really get to know each other in this Space Epic. There's also a garnish of body horror, that adds a bit of intensity to the second half, that's new to his work as well.To be clear, as a space opera, this is not so sprawling that you're going to need an appendix to keep track of a dozen different factions or warring houses, but there is quite a bit going on and a lot of book to cover the multiple threads. This book is also definitely mostly upbeat and hopeful, and expectations are pretty set that this is an installment of a larger story.I was surprised how much I was invested in Hedgebot, a great robot sidekick that is able to emote extremely well. A sneak attack to how much you get attached to the little bugger even though you see the setup a mile away. This book also really adds to the pace, around the second half into the third act that I had to dive through the rest and finish. I'm ready for book 2!
The story was riveting, great combination of sky jocks and science fiction. The characters were diverse and well depicted. I look forward to reading more.
A very satisfying read that had me turning pages quickly. Enjoyed the characters. Action sequences that were not bogged down by too much detail. Enjoy!
Starfighter Down by M.G. Herron is excellent Sci-Fi, action-packed, and spell-binding reading. Basically, itโs a human vs. alien plot involving the evacuation of a colony of humans from a planet-size moon, but itโs also a search and rescue mission for a downed Star Fighter pilot, his actions and efforts to survive, and his interactions with a religious group of colonists who choose not to evacuate. Characters are well-developed and the narrative is so detailed as to become โvisualโ to the reader. It has a โhappy endingโ and creates a desire to read the next book in the series. I think youโll enjoy it as I did.
Starfighter Down, the first in the Relics of the Ancients series, is well-written, very well-edited, and easy to read. The action is fast-paced, and the story does not require you to suspend disbelief.The story was fresh, the characters believable, and the dialog was realistic.There were only Three minor flaws in Starfighter Down. First, I don't like books set 5,000 years in the future that use technology close to what we have now. We have advanced so far in the last two hundred years, I cannot imagine what it will look like in a thousand years, let alone 5,000 years. I call it a minor flaw because it is my quirk. Second, they must promote them young in the future. In the U.S. Army, due to its size, a newly promoted Captain is nearly 30 years old. In most militaries, a person is much older when promoted to Captain. These characters were written as if they were in their early 20s. Again, a minor flaw that didn't detract from my enjoyment. Finally, I feel this book was written as a young adult novel, but not marketed as such. The writing seemed to be for a younger audience, similar to Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and other popular young adult series. Again, I am an older reader, and this appearing as a young adult tome did not affect my enjoyment.
There is so much more to Starfighter Down than than battles in space. Though thereโs plenty of that! Thereโs mystery, grief, lost love, the partnership of a cohesive team and the bravery on planet and off. And thereโs a time for growing up that essential step. A fantastic read!
Great read, took me a few chapters to understand the characters and relationship to each other and the fight. The Kryl seemed unbeatable with tech and numbers. I like the way their venerabilities were slowly revealed but not yet with an easy solution.
Great character building as I like flawed characters who overcome their weaknesses to characters that always have the answer. Good work there.! Great book 1 ending leaving me wanting more.
You gotta love a story that has multiple layers going on at the same time.Add an unforeseen extra layer at the end which is really just the beginning and youโve got a winner!
An enjoyable read with lots of action and twists and turns. The aliens have as much technology as the humans and in some ways, it is superior, especially since it is biologic. It is not clear until near the end of the book why the aliens have invaded again and what they were after.Overall, there is good character development and a good plot that keeps the reader engrossed and wanting to see what happens next.
It took me a long time to finish this. Itโs pretty clear that this whole book is the set up for a long and complicated story. Without the rest of the volumes to hand, it reads like an introduction to the personalities and back stories of important characters. The war of invasion seems almost incidental. The mention of an elder race of beings and their technology is slipped in within human drama. Only at the very end do we see that as the root cause of the conflict. Clearly exciting times are about to comeโฆif the author can continue to keep this web of personalities and objectives in the air and moving.
I love space opera, and this book starts out in that setting. Great character building, great world-building, great writing. However, I got turned off when the plot turned to focusing on aliens that are basically gross insects with lots of goo and gore -- and spent many chapters there, with only brief looks at the happenings among the crew of the spaceship up above. And, I'm not a fan of a space opera spending much time hiding out in a ground war and a ground prison, and all that. That said, I'll repeat -- it is well written, and at least 3 well-developed main characters (complete with foibles and weaknesses and courage and savvy, etc). Just a warning to those like me who don't care much for insectoids and goo and gore, and ground war (time far away from flying), in their space opera.And, THAT said, as I read the reviews of book 2, it sounds like there's more of the space opera kind of material there, and even more character and world development. So, maaaaybe I'll buy the next one, we'll see.
This relates to other aliens searching for relics to control others. Just like the "D's" want to do everywhere. But there are others that fight to stop them. Hahaha, I think that is the planed outcome to always happen.
This is a great book with likeable and believable characters. I really liked the way M.G. Herron utilized technology for both good guys and bad guys. The story was not overly complicated but contained elements of depth as he crafted a great story.
I really enjoyed this story and characters. There was a lot of action, some adventure, some people who turned out bad, surprise surprise, but then again that is what people tend to do. I recommend this book and am glad it is the start of a series. Hopefully the rest of the series will be as fun to read.
Firstly, I did enjoy reading this book.If you're looking for lots of action against bug-eyed aliens bent on taking over the galaxy, this may be right down your alley.The writing's not bad. There's a lot of action. The (main) characters aren't cardboard.The physics don't work (e.g. lidar instantly telling positions of enemy ships light minutes or hours away). The author hasn't fully developed the workings of this universe (e.g. is the blaster a laser or not). The 'psychic evil bug monsters' are a clichรฉ trope, and a lot of the bug tech descriptions are worth more as horror SFX than anything real. And so on.TL;DR this is very much Space Opera, not real Science Fiction.Which is OK, if that's what you want, but me, I can't give this more than 3*s.
This was an interesting, but slow read. I sometimes got boggled down with the switches between plots. I think it would have been better if there werenโt so many plots. The ending is an excellent set up for the rest of the series.
There are certain standards for these types of books;1. Space fleets that use "starfighters" all have a Top Gun type pilots that are outside the norms of fleet naval discipline, have local rivalries and always save the day. The first thing a reader must do is identify who "maverick" is and how will he flunk then rise again.2. Aliens come in 3 main types; a. completely mysterious life forms that cannot communicate with humans and are ruthless. b. Basically humanoid, warlike and nasty, manage to speak English to utter their threats and can be normally placed in a group called "like Klingons". c. Drones killer vessels that swarm space and can be organic, insect-like or robotic.This book is about Maverick against insect drones. He is stupidly piloting the titular 'Starfighter Down' and once down he runs around quite a bit. That established, the rest is pretty predictable.There are a few interesting distractions along the way (Mavericks cutey cuddly robotic assistant is not one of them - unless you are under 12), but on the whole the end is not in doubt.For a story with many plot holes, shallow characters (they are cliches so, I suppose, no real need to develop them much) and very little excitement, it has to be said that there were very typos. Credit due.Having roundly condemned it, I was surprised by myself that I bought book 2, There is a little curiosity to the tale that has potential for development and I was in two minds to follow it up. But it needs to shine in the first 20 pages or I'll dump it.
The storyline was more gruesome than anticipated from reading the preview. As is typical with most stories which include insectoid beings, these were portrayed as vicious cruel beings. If youโre not ready for that level of animosity then you might prefer a different book. The storyline does not end with this book, merely pauses providing the reader with the option to continue or not.
A most excellent beginning and i can't hardly wait for the next. But i have to, until next year.M.G. did it again. A brilliant writer, Great characters with the little bot, Hedgebot. Great. Won't say more, you have to get the book to find out.
Iโve been on a robot kick recently and in a search for more I came across a link to Spare Parts, which was a short story, and from there to Starfighter Down. There is a good robot character but much more. Unlike some novels with surprising twists that drive the plot, the twists in Starfighter are more natural developments that add to the story. They also lead to possible plots for future books in the series without an overwhelming cliffhanger, which is good since we have to wait awhile for the next installment.
This is the typical common hero archetypal where our hero comes from his dream role to sudden overwhelming responsibility as he has to save us all.Working well within the expected scifi fight against an alien invasion this keeps a nice fresh perspective and without any spoilers there's enough variety in this to keep us interested from the beginning.Would check out book 2 when available.I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy and have decided to leave my thoughts.
This is a fantastic book! Proper sci-fi, great action sequences, and believable characters.I found this to be an easy story to get into, as the world building was cleverly done and did not detract from the story. Once into the book, it was totally captivating, and very hard to put down!There were great twists, hair-raising flying performances, and characters that I, as a reader, really cared about.Best of all, the return of Hedgebot, previously seen in โSpare Partsโ by this author, and my hero.I cannot wait for the next book in this series!
If you like shoot โem up sci fi with aliens who have a taste for human blood sugar youโve come to the right book!Our hero goes from ace fighter pilot to refugee rescuer to all action hero at a breath raking pace, while chucking in some ancient technology which the bad guys are using to dominate the Universe.Highly recommended
