To Fall Among Vultures (Union Earth Privateers Book 2) by Scott Warren. Parvus Press. 232 pages.
First, the good news. This promises to be an exciting new series, and I really like the premise. Earth finally develops the technology to travel into the stars, only to find they are already occupied and we are horribly outclassed by many superior races, especially by what are considered the Big Three. In order to catch up technologically before we get squashed flat like a bug, we develop a fleet of Privateers, whose goal is to scavenge among the battles between the other races and collect whatever superior technology we can develop for our own use. The first book was fascinating, especially since it was developed around a hard-edged female Privateer captain named Victoria Marin.
In addition, book 2 is setting the stage for a much larger story, one that encompasses many other characters, other planets, other races, and a lot of political intrigue. Promising.
Now the bad news. Book 2, To Fall Among Vultures jumps into its larger story at the loss of one of the most appealing parts of the first book, that being the character of Victoria Marin. She’s still in Book 2, but because we so caught up with adding so much information about the other races and planets, et cetera, not to mention a massive space battle that seems to go on for most of the length of the book, we lose the personal touch. The book does include one additional character, an alien referred to as “Southside,” who is likeable and seems like he will play a larger role later on. But for the most part, there was so much going on, it was very easy to get lost, much like one of the small space craft in the massive space battle I referred to.
Finally, Fall Among Vultures fell (pun intended) into the trap that many ebooks, indie and traditionally published are falling into. It is sorely in need of an edit. I’ve been in contact with the publishers, who have promised a thorough proofread in days to come, so let’s see what happens.
All in all, it’s a promising start to what looks like it might be a pretty good series. But there are still a few kinks to work out.
I give it three stars out of five.
The Great Adventure 