1 out of 4 stars
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The Final Frontier: The Ovion Archives by H. M. Irwing is the first part of a planned series. It is a science fiction novel that is set primarily in the awakened universe (a group of planets that have mastered space travel). The book focuses on the history of Johuan’s and a sect called Ovions from the planet Johua. Johuan’s are more technologically advanced than other beings and are considered the superior race that reigned over the awakened zones. The Ovions, dedicate their lives to protecting the universe from special interests and consider it their mission to help keep peace and order. Unfortunately, the Johaun counsel no longer wants to abide by the Ovions rules. While plans are being made to start a civil war, a discredited scientist named Bimas Chalwey has one final revelation to share with his fellow Johuan’s before enacting his own plans to stop a prophesized apocalypse from coming true. Bimas works with the Ovions and his many creations to fight what he considers the ultimate enemy- the destroyer. Will he get to Earth in time to stop the prophecy from being fulfilled?
The beginning of the novel is intriguing and well done; the deeper into the story the less focused it felt. One of the main issues with this novel is that it tries to tackle too much in this first installment, causing the story to lose its way on several occasions. Is this a book about first contact? A space opera? A blend of science fiction subgenres? The answer is unclear.
The novel is told in first person point of view. The main character, Sim Drewal Chalwey, is an impulsive, emotional, compassionate, and feisty alien. She is an orphan of unknown origins living on planet Johua; a place that takes pride in racial purity. Sim is constantly finding herself out of place and outmatched. Irwing tries to get around the limitations of first person storytelling by alternating the narrator, unfortunately it is unsuccessful. Sim’s character becomes lost in the process of explaining Ovion history and society. She starts out with unique thoughts and observations, but over time her character becomes unevenly split between the disengaged delivery of facts about Ovions and the interesting funny, quirky, and opinionated alien. It serves to only distance the reader from a character that has otherwise been entertaining and engaging. Most of the characters lack dimension and are similar to each other. When first contact is made the majority of the human race is boiled down to stereotypes.
Irwing’s writing style is repetitive, clunky, and inconsistent. There are whole sections that summarize events that happen in chapters before, sometimes using a different character, but add little to justify the repeated information. The story lose intensity and forward momentum through repetitive word choices, past tense language, and a heavy reliance on showing not telling. The formal and informal mash up of language is jarring and does not seem intentional. Variation in sentence structure would go a long way towards making this a less repetitive read.
The attempts at humor comes across as juvenile and crude. Valuable story space is used up overly explaining new terms and technology only to be used inconsistently. When technology is explained within the context of the story it is done seamlessly. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and serves to bloat the storyline with information overload. The majority of technology the author chooses to describe in detail is common knowledge for readers that enjoy science fiction (black holes, wormholes, space travel, etc.). It seemed like parts were added to the book after it was written and not checked to see if it made sense to the already established storyline. If the focus was shifted to the original ideas such as Emotional Management Technique or EM1 inhibiting a species ability to evolve, the novel would benefit exponentially.
I rate this novel 1 out of 4 stars. There was an interesting take on aging, environmental preservation, religion, personal space, isolation, and sexuality. However, the overall lack of continuity and consistency in editing, characterization, alien mythology, writing style, usage of jargon, and content makes this overly bloated novel a less than enticing read.
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The Final Frontier
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