Earth Warden: A Sci Fi Adventure, book 1 of The Ancient Guardians series by Tony James Slater should be excellent. The plot has everything one could want in a science fiction story: suspense, intrigue, a fascinating universe and back story. Unfortunately the writing is flat, making the novel more of a chore than a delight to read.
The characters also should capture our interest and liking. Young Tristan lives alone in Bristol, supporting himself by small time thieving after his father disappears. He is more-or-less kidnapped by Kreon, a mysterious Warden, and taken off into interstellar space to become Kreon’s apprentice. Along the way we have lots of battles and characters that show up and then fade away, and hints of overwhelming danger to Earth.
Tristan simply does not act the way any normal older teen would when confronted with a galactic civilization – comprised of humans biologically identical to us Earth folks – and off hand comments about Wardens and danger and existential threats and eons of unknown history. He never once asks how come everyone he meets is a human? Why is Earth protected? Why do the Wardens exist and what are they warding? Never. Not one peep of intelligent questioning.
The story and the characters never came to life. I forced myself to slog through on the vague chance that the book would improve, or that the author would show flashes of skill that might make subsequent novels worth reading. No. In fact the only reason I’m giving this 2 stars and not 1 is that I did in fact finish reading.
2 Stars
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