4 out of 4 stars
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Digger Day: The Legend of Jaden Crusoe is the first book in a series by Michael Lee Kirk. It's a science fiction adventure that takes place on a collective of planets far from Earth. This futuristic story introduces us to Jaden Crusoe, the Legend of Legends.
Jaden has dreamed about being a Legend his entire life. He fantasizes about going down into the hole of the Digger and coming back out with the lifesaving juice that makes the vaccine to cure the Chira disease that has ravished their worlds. Sure, it's dangerous. But, if you make it back out alive, you become famous. After being caught outside the colony boundaries having killed a prized Digger for maiming his friend Joanna, he's about to get his chance to find out if he has what it takes to become a Legend.
Meanwhile, the ruling party of Alpha Prime has decided they must have more Digger juice. Out of all twelve hunts per cycle on each world, there is usually only one victor. There is already a lottery in place to decide who gets the lifesaving vaccine as there isn't enough to go around. This results in the death of many innocent people. The results must be increased. But, why is the number of victors so low? Why can't something be synthesized in place of the Digger juice?
At the beginning of the book, there is a map of the worlds in The Collective. I thought this was a great introduction to the new world in which I was immersing myself. The planet names were very descriptive - Reptile Planet, Digger Planet, Island Planet. The author follows this up well with his world building; I found no fault with it. There were new planets to discover and new species to explore.
The characters were lively and engaging. There was, of course, a blend of good and evil here. They were, though, made more realistic by the fact that the good characters were not always complete saints. Jaden, in fact, commits a crime that lands him in the Digger hunts in the first place. The relationships between the characters were complicated as they are in real life. This creates a depth in the story that you don't otherwise have.
As far as the plot goes, there is an overarching story that Mr. Kirk is in the process of explaining to the reader. To discover this main story line, we must go back to the beginning and learn about Jaden and Alpha Prime. This leads to multiple plot lines, but the author was masterful at switching between them. I was never confused but always thirsty for more. As you might expect being the first book in the series, this is only the start of the big picture. Therefore at the end, I was left with more questions than answers. Frustrating to be sure, but not necessarily unforeseen. Thankfully, the second book in the series, Digger Down, is already out on Amazon.
There was also plenty of action to keep a reader interested. In fact, there was never a dull moment. It was a book that I thought about even after I was forced to stop reading. To me, this says something about the quality of the book as I looked forward to returning to the story.
Overall, Digger Day is a creative science fiction story packed with action and adventure. With few grammatical errors, I give this story a full 4 out of 4 stars. I highly recommend it to fans of science fiction that enjoy a good series and aren't afraid of a few unanswered questions. If you don't like new worlds, advanced technologies and cliffhanger endings, you probably won't enjoy this read.
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Digger Day
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