Sci-Fi & Scary

Ocean of Storms is a well-paced sci-fi action novel that puts America against China in another space race. The main idea that drives the story is certainly interesting. While it has been done before, I liked the way the authors chose to spin it out this time.

Ocean of Storms gets enough points for sheer entertainment value to negate some of the unbelievability issues. This is very much one of those books that you’d expect to see as a Syfy movie. Maybe even a little two part mini-series. If you think too hard about it, it’ll crash and burn, but if you sit back and enjoy the ride, you’ll have a blast.

One of the things that I just could not believe is that Americans couldn’t easily recreate the technology we used to get to the moon. As famous as those endeavors were, and as much as we’ve built off of them since then, this is almost impossible to believe. It is a major hiccup in the story. The second hiccup is where the EMP basically only slaps at technology instead of giving it a swift thump. My understanding is that while EMPs aren’t quite as dangerous as what’s typically displayed, neither are they something that provides only a minor inconvenience. There are other issues, but these were the two that really bothered me.

Luke Daniels is the biggest part of why I still hold this book in affection. He did a great job narrating the various characters and definitely brought them to life. They might not have been the most well-rounded individuals but they were still fun to listen to. (Actually, they’re rather one dimensional, but I still liked them!) I initially had rated this book higher than what I eventually settled on. I did it because he made me enjoy the story so much that I didn’t ever actually think about it. After I’d disengaged my happy story geek-out though, the issues with Ocean of Storms kept rising to the surface.

With some tweaks to the story, Ocean of Storms could easily go from being a fun read to being a good one.