About the Book
Title: Secret Frontier
Author: Tom Dyne
Thumbnail: attached
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 329 pages
Publication Date: Nov 5, 2019
Price: ebook (2.99) / trade paperback (14.95)
ISBN:
978-1-7333047-1-9 (ebook)
978-1-7333047-0-2 (paperback)
Synopsis
A Secret Base. A Hidden Agenda.
Darin Armacite is dead. That’s the story on Earth. In reality, he’s been shipped to a top secret Lunar Colony and offered a new life.
But everything carries a price, and soon Darin finds himself caught in a power struggle between those who destroyed his family and a simulacrum hellbent on revenge. He could refuse to play along, but up here, either you contribute or you die.
So Darin suits up as an enhanced soldier in the LDF. When his squad is ordered to destroy an extraterrestrial nest, he finds out the ruling elite are lying through their teeth. They’re hiding something—something much more insidious.
Should he keep his mouth shut and follow orders? Or can he find the courage to stand up for the truth?
Purchase Links
Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Apple Books
Review
Full disclosure: I was a “book nanny” to this one, meaning I was on the editorial team. It was a privilege to work on the story and an absolute joy to partner with the author.
I found this story to be refreshingly different from many other space exploration/life on other planets fiction. For one thing, it’s not humanity disguised as some other species. It’s literally humans, and it’s honest about space expansion as an outgrowth of the destruction we’ve done to our home planet. It’s not an entirely dystopian view of the future, more a realistic vision.
As always, it’s the characters (for me) that make a story worth reading. Darin is, frankly, kind of a jerk. But he’s a lovable one, and it’s not hard to want him to find his joy even in the strange circumstances leading to his life in the Lunar Colony. As it should be, he shows immense growth. By the end of the story, he becomes the hero he was meant to be.
I can’t say enough good things about the unique cast of characters. Darin’s a bit of an unreliable narrator, but through his eyes (as with our own, if we’re honest) we see the good in the people around him—even if he has to be dragged kicking and screaming into admitting he genuinely cares for them. His reasons for being jaded are understandable, and I loved watching him finally acknowledge he’d found his people.
The story is fast-paced and full of action. The lunar tech is fascinating, and I found it highly creative. I’m torn between wanting the awesome gadgets from the Lunar Colony and knowing I would not ever want to have to live in the conditions requiring them. It’s a well-developed world, and I like that the author is able to give enough detail for immersion without wasting precious words explaining every aspect of how it functions.
If you’re looking for some outside the box science fiction with a unique twist (which I definitely won’t spoil!), then this is the one for you.
For an uncommon setting, unforgettable characters, and unquestionable hope for the future, I give this 10 fountain pens.
About the Author
Tom Dyne has been a joke writer, web software developer, cancer gene sequencer, psychological researcher, and grant administrator for a DV nonprofit. What he’ll never tell anyone is that he’s a fan of tabletop games, Gentoo, and mechanical keyboards.
You can find him at https://tomdyne.com
