Science-Fiction / Fantasy
Date Published: 06/29/23
On launch day of NASA's long-awaited expedition to explore Jupiter's moon
Europa, neuropsychiatrist Amanda wakes up from a coma after months battling
acute meningitis. Along with two patients, they discover they are part of a
growing puzzle involving an underground geopolitical corporation called The
Firm, which plans to sabotage the mission, taking advantage of a new
technology to hijack the ship and set a course to a habitable planet located
seventeen light-years away from Earth.
Review:
4 stars!
Sweeping plot with multiple successive storylines in one
big book.
Intergalactica is a science fiction novel by
Brazilian author F.P. Trotta, recently translated into English, and is the
first book in a series. The lengthy story covers a lot of ground, from Earth to
the far reaches of space and back, as Dr. Amanda Collins and her companions
match wits with an evil genius, her own father!
Amanda Collins is a neurosurgeon and therapist who awakens
from a coma after contracting meningitis. Her two best friends, who are also
her therapy patients, Ripley and Stryker,
are at her bedside. Amanda is released from the hospital, and the trio is
joined by a new acquaintance, Lina, at a coffee shop, where uniformed officers
confront the group to arrest Amanda for treason. A shoot-out ensues, officers
are killed, and the heroes escape to Amanda's secret Chicago hideaway,
appropriately named "The Lair." Here, Amanda's backstory is revealed,
including her heartbreak that the officers are actually minions of her
estranged father, renowned scientist Oswald Rose Collins. Amanda is certain
that her father plans to use an upcoming space launch to Europa to acquire the
means to destroy Earth after he and his trusted followers escape to a distant
Earth-like planet. After preparing her friends to help foil her father's plan,
the story is off and running at speed, and things never slow down.
Besides Amanda, a core group of characters are joined in
their adventures by representatives of the alien cultures they encounter. While
the story's focus is definitely on the action, I found the characters lacked
dimension, and they did a lot of screaming and shouting of dialogue. I did not
connect much with any of them.
The plot is imaginative, and the action is non-stop, with an
evil genius that just won't die. However, a massive twist in the story turns
the entire story on its head. Unfortunately, a rough translation and poor
punctuation made this book a tough reading experience, requiring frequent
pauses to determine what the author was trying to say. Still, the story comes
through as a great adventure.
The descriptions of the wide range of settings the
characters encounter are vivid and creative, running the gamut of familiar
scenes of tropical beaches and deserts to strange alien landscapes to Chicago
and rural Iceland. Spacecrafts tended toward fantastical interiors without
lingering on technical details.
INTERGALACTICA is for sci-fi/fantasy readers who enjoy big
books with sweeping plots and multiple successive storylines and have the
patience to tease the tale from the translation.
About the Author:
A love for space operas with controversial and adult themes along with a
hint of lovecraftian horror are F. P. Trotta's specialty - born in Rio de
Janeiro in the early 90s, Intergalactica was originally published in Brazil
in 2016. The Intergalactica book series went on to move tens of thousands of
physical copies in Portuguese and is currently the only ongoing space opera
franchise published in Brazil.
Contact Links
Twitter
Instagram
Facebook
Purchase Link
Amazon
No comments:
Post a Comment