Slip Runner books 1 to 3.
By J.N. Chaney.
My rating ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ out of 5 stars.
Blurb from book one:
Cole Riker is a Slip Runner.
A contractor tasked with finding alien salvage in exchange for credits. For an ex-smuggler like Cole, there’s a catch: don’t break the terms of parole. That means doing things by the book.
Find salvage, turn it in, get paid.
But everything changes when a retrieval mission lands him in a previously unknown sector. There, he finds the material he’s been sent to recover, along with something more…
A brand new form of ancient alien life.
Such a thing could change the entire Alliance, the Galaxy, and everything between, but most of all, it could change Cole’s life for the better.
A shift in humanity’s future is at hand and Cole is the one holding the key. He just has to survive long enough to use it.
I have read a fair number of books from this author. Sometimes they are quite good, sometimes they are average and sometimes they are… not so good. So far this series falls in the middle category. It is a fairly decent and entertaining read.
As can be deduced from the blurb above (from the first book in the series) the story revolves around Cole, an ex smuggler on parole. His task of recovering alien salvage is of course just a mean to kick-start the adventure.
The story evolves rather quickly at the beginning and the discoveries and twists already in the first book puts the story right on track for the main adventure.
The main story is, in one sense, a rather classical one. Some guy are propelled into an adventure and he now has to rise to the challenge. Along the way said person picks up a number of friends, or maybe misfits would be a more apt term, forming a merry band of adventurers, renegades or whatever. This includes his former parole officer, a marine that is supposed to keep him on track and a strange alien. Oh, and we must not forget the obligatory, snarky, AI.
I like all of these characters. The marine is, well, a marine. The parole officer kicks ass. The alien is… alien and the snarky AI is quite hilarious.
Although already in book one we’re set for the main adventure, books two and three actually goes of a bit in a tangent after another surprise discovery. It is a good side story with plenty of action and team development and it is completed in book three. However I am kind of hoping that now, Cole & Co actually gets to continue their “real” quest in book four.
Overall the books have a nice mix of dialogue, action, discoveries, twists and other “glue” tying the story together. It is not exactly a WOW experience but it is a decent enough science fiction adventure and I have enjoyed reading these first books in the series.
PG's Ramblings 