Reviewed by Dan

This is a Series Review of The Interscission Project

 

AUTHOR: Arshad Ahsanuddin

PUBLISHER: Self-Published 

SERIES REVIEW: 

I met the author of this series while I was at Rainbow Con in Tampa recently. I was unfamiliar with his works, but after meeting him, I agreed to read and do reviews on the two books in the series. To be honest, the covers didn’t excite me the way some covers do. So I wasn’t sure I even wanted to start the two books. Boy was I wrong! I read them straight through starting last night and ending this evening. Sometimes insomnia is a good thing. I highly recommend the two books to anyone who enjoys a sci-fi story that doesn’t overburden with two much physics, etc. Great job Mr. Ahsanuddin!

A final note, as someone who wears eye glasses, I really would like to see the holographic eye glasses in book one invented soon! Think we can get Lenscrafters on that??? 🙂

SERIES RATING:

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TITLE: Zenith

LENGTH: 352 Pages

BLURB: 

What if you could change history?

What if someone else already had?

Grounded after a rescue attempt in Earth orbit goes bad, Commander Martin Atkins of the Confederation Navy is approached by the Interscission Project, a consortium of civilian corporations on the verge of perfecting the technology to travel to another star. Despite his misgivings, the chance to get back in the pilot’s seat is too much to pass up, and he convinces his best friend and crewmate, Charles Davenport, to leave the military temporarily and join him as part of the crew of the Zenith, humanity’s first starship.

Edward Harlen is a brilliant young engineer, and a key player in the construction of the Zenith to take advantage of the untested technology of foldspace drive. But Edward has his own agenda in joining the project, and a bitterly personal score to settle with his boss, Trevor Sutton, a vendetta of which Trevor is entirely ignorant. But when Edward’s sister Stella enters the picture and manages to secure a position on the project, all of Edward’s careful plotting is upset, and she might spell the downfall not only of his plans for revenge, but of the entire Zenith mission.

The spark of attraction between Edward and Martin is a complication that Edward can’t afford, but of which he can’t let go. For Edward knows the secret at the heart of the Interscission Project, the hidden potential of the technology that in the wrong hands could become the ultimate assassin’s weapon: the ability to rewrite history, not just once, but many times. As an unseen enemy moves to destroy them, and the body count multiplies in their wake, Martin and Edward must choose whether they will allow the possibility of love to challenge their destinies, or will they instead take up arms in a war to control the most ancient and terrible power in the universe.

REVIEW: 

This book was a total surprise to me. To be honest, the cover said sci-fi to me, but as any of you who follow my reviews knows, I never read a blurb before I read a book. Some have too many spoilers.

Well the surprise came in when I read the first chapter and was hooked! I had insomnia last night and spent the night working my way through this first installment of the series. The story takes place in the late 22^nd Century, and involves time travel, the first journey outside our solar system (to Alpha Centauri), murder, sabotage, some brilliant scientists, and a space pilot named Martin.

Martin Atkins is a Confederation Navy officer who was part of a crew that failed to rescue a commercial sub-orbital plane that hit space debris. They tried hard to hook on to the plane and pull it up into a higher orbit so it wouldn’t burn up and crash, but they were unsuccessful. He was the one who insisted they release the one grapple they had on the plane and let it go before it pulled their ship down as well. Now he and the rest of the crew from his ship are on administrative leave until the inquest into the events is finalized.

When a stranger approaches him at a funeral, the man offers Martin a job working on a super-secret space program and ship, run completely by a private corporation. (I pictured Virgin Galactic, but in the future and much bigger.) When Martin accepts the position, his adventure has only begun.

What is up with the brilliant Edward and Stella Harlen? What is up with the corporation that Martin has signed on with? Will they make it to Alpha Centauri, or will sabotage bring them to a finish far before they reach it? What about the sparks flying between Martin and Edward?

I really liked this story. It is what I would consider Light Sci-Fi, not overburdening the reader with a lot of hard science details. There was a slight oddity in my mind involving the speed quoted for the sub-orbital plane which crashes. I think the meters per second are probably supposed to be kilometers per second, but other than those speed numbers, I liked everything else in the story and look forward to starting book two immediately!

RATING:

BUY LINKS:  

Amazon  

ARe

 

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TITLE: Azimuth 

LENGTH: 314 Pages 

BLURB: 

Edward has one chance to save a man he forgot he ever loved.

All he has to do is destroy the world. 

The disastrous events of the Zenith mission behind them, Marty and Edward lead very different lives at either end of time. Martin has been tapped to lead an elite military operation designed to curtail and ultimately eliminate the threat of time travelers. But Henry Bradford has other ideas, and seeks to entice him into taking up the role of captain of the rechristened starship Azimuth.

Almost a quarter century in the future, Edward lives a life of wealth and influence as the adopted son of Starfire’s CEO, Trevor Sutton. But the mystery of his birth father’s murder still weighsheavily on his mind, eclipsed only by the baffling appearance of Martin’s dogtags around his neck. The distance he will go for answers will determine the ultimate course of human history, as he is pitted head to head once more against the destructive agenda of the time traveler he knows only as Gifford. 

REVIEW: 

The thing I dislike about series reviews is the propensity of authors to put spoilers in their blurb on subsequent books that reveal plot twists from book one.

I specifically avoided the fact that Edward was a time traveler, but since the blurb gives it away, I’ll start by saying at the end of book one Edward goes back to his own time, but because of changes he and his sister made in the present time of the books, their future was changed. And Edward doesn’t remember Martin. Now they are trapped a quarter century apart in time.

When Edward awakens one morning to find mysterious dog tags hanging around his neck with the name Martin Atkins on them, he is confused. When he questions his parents, they are shocked at the name and clam up immediately. Who is Martin and why is Edward so drawn to the dog tags? When Edward finds out the truth, and the history of his last timeline comes back to him, he must voyage back in time to save Martin from the mysterious other time traveler, known only as Gifford. I really enjoyed the section in the middle of this book that tells us the story of Gifford, who he is, and why he is attempting to sabotage things in Martin’s present day timeline.

Again, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the book. Mr. Ahsanuddin did a great job with continuing the saga of Martin and Edward, along with Martin’s twin brother and his partner as well. The story was believable, the characters were well described and I fell into the story. I’ll admit that after being up all night last night reading book one, I spent most of the day today in between naps 😉 finishing up book two! 

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:  

Amazon 

ARe