Rating
Review
*** This review originally appeared on Out of this World Reviews. ***
Outpost by W. Michael Gear is the first novel in the Donovan Trilogy. The second book, Abandoned, is slated for release in November 2018. In the interest of full disclosure, I received a copy of Outpost from the publisher via NetGalley. I’m giving Outpost a solid four rockets because it’s a fun read with some unexpected developments, some interesting characters, and one heck of a problem/mystery that serves as a nice, overarching dilemma that really drives some of the character’s decision-making. You see, no ship has arrived at the planet of Donovan in some time. Not for lack of trying, it turns out, as the inhabitants of Donovan learn once Turalon arrives in orbit. The people of Donovan, who thought they’d been abandoned, come to realize that other ships have attempted to reach Donovan, but that each attempt has resulted in the disappearance of the ship in question.
This really isn’t a problem so much as an unsolved mystery to the inhabitants of Donovan, though. They came via an Earth ship of their own many years before with the intention of settling the habitable but wild planet. Extreme circumstances called for extreme survival tactics such that once they came to realize no additional supplies were coming, the Donovanians stepped up and began to provide for themselves. They established their own government, their own laws, and staked their own claims to the land. Their system is not the rigid form of government they left behind, but one that values self-sufficiency and independent thinking. This works great up until the point when Turalon, the first Earth ship to reach Donovan in years, arrives and makes contact. Their mission to bring new settlers and supplies to the planet becomes one of suppression and control as they attempt to establish order in a society they deem as lawless.
Now this may all seem somewhat stereotypical to the point of tossing the book out the window because who hasn’t read this sort of story before, right? But Gear takes this whole thing in an entirely new and almost opposite direction from what you might expect. I won’t go into details for fear of ruining the story for you, but suffice to say some characters change allegiance, others who seemed doomed have a change of fortune and really shine, and others who you might want to meet a horrible fate embrace the new world order that is Donovan and (unfortunately) come out on top. But the story is in no way finished with this first book. Abandoned, the next book in the series, comes out soon. I plan to pick it up either via NetGalley or on my own via Amazon.
Outpost earns a solid four rockets from me. I liked the characters, the story, the planet, and the direction the author is going with all of it. It’s a good science fiction series you should add to your reading list.
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