I was initially interested in reading this book, however my tastes have shifted and I do not think I will be able to get to it now. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital copy!

“Unknown Horizons” eBook was published in 2017 and was written by C. J. Birch. This is Birch’s first novel.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence, Mature Language and Mature Situations. The story is set in the future as humanity is about to launch its first colony ship to the stars. The primary character is Lieutenant Alison Ash.

Ash is newly assigned to the Persephone as the Executive Officer. While on their short journey to the colony ship Posterus, things begin to happen to Ash. The memory loss she experienced after the attack on Europa Science Station still bothers her and she is reluctant to let anyone know.

The Burrs (bio-technically enhanced throwbacks from the resource wars on Earth before humanity spread through the Solar System more than 100 years ago) want to stop the colony ship and are willing to do anything to prevent what they see as the abandonment of the human race. Complicating matters is the increasing attraction between Ash and the Peresephone’s Captain, Jordan Kellow. Ash is not well liked by the crew for many reasons, but she is driven by honor, duty and loyalty to those she loves.

I thought that this was a very interesting 4 hour read of this 240 page science fiction novel. I liked the character of Ash and the plot. Some may not like the LBGTQ romance aspect of the novel, but that was not an overwhelming thread in the overall story. The cover art is OK. I give this novel a 4.2 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I really did not like this.
The book is poorly written and the characters were more like children than adults.
The only good thing was it is fairly short.
Just not for me.

This book shook me. I really enjoyed the read and the LGBT protagonist as well as the developing relationship and the way PTSD was handled in the story. The setting was interesting, but the ending was severely shocking. There are a lot of times in literature where it seems like a protagonist is going to die, and I think they rarely actually end up dying, but in this case the protagonist died, nearly mid thought. That was distressing and took me a while to process. Overall good, fast paced story. Wish she would have lived.

Just not for me. I couldn't seem to connect or stay focused.on the story. I'm sure there are those who will, however it just wasn't for me.

Have you ever read a book that left you thinking wtf? Well this one did to me. There is no explanation to why what or where. You jump straight in. Now that can be a good thing admittedly getting straight to the story but I needed just a little more information.

Now, I liked what I read but I'm still feeling a little dazed. Let me see if I get this right. Earth is no longer populated due to it being unable to support human life. They now live amongst the stars. Ash the first officer was held hostage in the past and a module put in her body which made her forget her internment. But with the on board doctors help she starts to remember. The Burrs are some kind of human x cyborg beings who feel the mission that Ash is on is wrong and are using Ash to stop it. Am I confusing you? Good. Now the Captain Jordan has a twist at the end that I honestly did not see coming. As you can guess there is some kind of romance between Ash and Jordan.

Then, Birch decides not to finish the dam book. COME ON? Cliffhanger maybe, tormenting me definitely. Now I am praying to anyone who will listen... there had better be a sequel or I'm jumping out or my window. Don't worry I live in a bungalow drop is about 4 feet.

NOTE TO AUTHOR.... WE NEED A SEQUEL AND MAYBE A PREQUEL

I gave it 3.5 stars because what I read I liked. My other complaint was that it was way too short. You got to the juicy bit and it stops and everything go's white. Frustrated? you bet!
I would recommend it but please do not read it anywhere you could do yourself damage. You need to be safe and secure because the urge will hit you. Enjoy!

*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1996692234

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3TTUZQPIDNWES/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Nice plot and storyline, but ends on a cliffhanger. Hope there is a sequel. Have to say I didn't like Alison Ash, she was insubordinate and foolish. Can't believe she got as far as she did in her military career. Also court-martial offenses are nothing to sneeze at, and I would have thought the captain would have at least had second thoughts.
I received an ARC free from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.

It took me a little while to get around to reading this book and checking a couple of reviews beforehand gave me some nervous jitters about how much I would enjoy it. Those concerns quickly dissipated though as I quickly became immersed and really enjoyed the characters and the environment.

The attraction between Ash and Jordan is a little surprising and quickly reached an understandable passion. The feelings between the characters complimented rather than overshadowed the rest of the story, which in itself was engaging.

To be honest, everything about this book grabbed me ... even that ending.

Unknown Horizons follows lieutenant Alison Ash as she boards the Persephone, a ship slated to join a generation ship on the 100 year journey to a new planet. Ash, as she prefers to be called, quickly find herself attracted to the young Captain Jordan who may return the attraction Ash feels. However, Ash’s past and her lost memories catch up with her and jeopardize the entire mission.

The characters and story were engaging and well-written. I couldn’t put the book down, but there were several peeves that this book raised for me.

Firstly, the book is written in first person present tense, which was jarring. Once reading for awhile, it no longer bothered me, but coming back to the book after a time away still resulted in being jarred. And while first person present tense is often hard to maintain, I think that C. J. Birch did it successfully and it did add some urgency to the plot that past tense may not have been able to express.

Secondly, rather than trying to catch your interest by starting at the beginning of the plot, Unknown Horizons‘s first scene is pulled directly from the climax in a flashforward. As the scene reaches it’s climax, it cuts away and starts into the plot proper, four weeks earlier. This is one of my least favourite tools, and while I have seen it many times in television, this is the first time that I have seen it in a literary context.

Thirdly, and finally, there is the fact that the book never truly reached it’s climax as the main character passes out at the climactic moment and the book ends.

This book had a huge climatic let down. I understand wanting to leave a cliff hanger, but this went way beyond that. You cannot take the pivotal moment, the moment that the entire book has been leading up to, the moment that actually started the entire book and just end it with the main character passing out. This scene started the entire book, so you would think that the story would continue past that point, but it in this case it did not.

I would still recommend Unknown Horizons as it was a quick and engaging read. But, if there will be a sequel I would wait for that to come out first.

The story is very confusing and not very coherent or realistic, the protagonist is all over the place and very hard to connect to.
It was kind of a mess plot wise and also very weak from a character development point of view. The action is hard to follow and rushed on many occasions. Not recommended.

Thank you to both Bold Strokes Books and Net Galley the opportunity to read this author's work for free in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to start this review with a personal pet peeve that I have about certain books. I won't buy a book unless it is at least 200 pages, even at 200 that is 100-300 pages less that most mainstream novels. Yes I do realize that those books are a good $10.00 more per book and that is why for lesbian fiction my number of pages is at least 200. Books are not cheap and I find it insulting and just wrong to ask the reading public to spend their hard earned money to purchase a book that is not a novel but a novella at best or an incomplete novel at worst. Before I say my next pet peeve because it applies to this book, I just want to say that I love the Bold Strokes Books Company, prior to your inception there were so few publishing companies putting out lesbian fiction and still there are only a handful that put out really well written and edited novels. In my opinion only Bella Books and Brisk Press( because there are only two authors, Susan X Meagher and Georgia Beers, from that company who are wonderful authors) that equal the quality of Bold Strokes Books. I own probably 500 or so lesbian novels and probably 70%-80% of them are from Bold Strokes Books. That being said it bothers me that the page totals are incorrect from my point of view. Only BSB starts the page numbers at the cover so that it is counting the title page and the copyright page and the acknowledgment page so that when you get to the first page of the novel you're already at page 10 or so on. Now when a book is 270 pages long I can just ignore it. Unknown Horizons is only 158 pages but the meat of the book starts at page 10 so we're down to 148 pages, but wait, it stops at page 153 with the remaining 5 pages allocated to About the Author and Books Available from BSB so now we're down to just 143 pages and that is just not worthy of being called a novel in my opinion.


My feelings about this book are very mixed. While it is clear that CJ Birch has a talent for writing something was just lacking that I haven't been able to put my finger on. I liked the premise and I never found myself struggling to get through the book or wanting to skip pages but I wasn't pulled into the story like I expect to when reading a book. I'm not apposed to author's that write in 1st person narratives, but I do think it is harder for the reader to get “into” the story when it comes from only one point of view. I liked both Ash and Jordan but I don't feel like I got to know them well enough to care about them. I felt like a lot of the book Ash is by herself either struggling to sleep or working so much alone that she was doing the work for three people or running and there just isn't much interaction between Ash and anyone else. Jordan and she have more time together than anyone else but even then I don't feel they grew close enough for Ash to say she loves Jordan. The only thing we know about the Burr people is they were soldiers who lived and fought on earth, have enhanced strength, live longer than most humans and are seen as the enemy of the people who lived in space. They are two dimensional characters that we never know how they became that way. Another thing that bothered me is why the crew of the Persephone disliked Ash. She never really has any interaction with anyone but Jordan and Hartley and then later the doctor. The ending ends abruptly which leads me to believe that there is a sequel coming. While writing this review I think what is lacking is more---more character development, more interaction between characters, more about what happened to Earth and the Burr people, more personality shown of the two main characters. If there is a sequel in the works, I would ask the author to address these points and more. As this book stands it just seems incomplete. I think it takes a really skilled and seasoned author to grab you in a 1st person narrative and while I do think that CJ Birch has talent I just think this format leaves the reader with too narrow a vision of the story. I would give this author another try. Since this is the author's debut novel and I didn't think it was horrible just incomplete.

First-time author CJ Birch has crafted a fascinating world in Unknown Horizons, full of secrets, intrigue, and thrills. In this world, Earth is a distant memory for some, and just a dream for others. Lieutenant Alison Ash, who as a child dreamed of living on Earth, has been assigned Executive Officer aboard the first generational ship of the Union Fleet. Years in the making, the Posterus will lead some of the human race to a new, inhabitable planet, but it’s going to take 100 years. For Ash, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. She wants to leave her family's legacy (and her recent memory loss) behind. She finds herself immediately drawn to the beautiful and guarded Captain Jordan Kellow, but fraternization between ranks is forbidden. That doesn’t stop Ash’s heart from beating a little faster every time Jordan is around. When her memories start to return, however, she finds that the Posterus (and all 45,000 on its inhabitants) might be in serious danger, and she may be the cause.

I was pretty much hooked on this story from the get-go. I’m a sucker for Sci-Fi and powerful lady characters in said genre. Be forewarned, however, as I was not, that this is the first in a series. Without giving away too much, this journey of the characters is quite satisfying, but it has definitely been set up for a series. I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed with the ending, but it left me eager for the next book.
Birch builds the romantic tension between Ash and Jordan without sacrificing the plot or suspense of the overarching story. Both characters certainly have enough reasons outside the potential doom of the ship to keep their emotions in check, but that doesn’t stop their inevitable attraction. Ash’s tendency to run herself ragged, make enemies of the crew, and constantly sacrifice her well-being for others is the source of much frustration for the Captain, a compassionate leader who wants to share the burdens to protect her ship and its crew, especially Ash.

Ash and Jordan find formidable enemy in the Burrs, mechanically altered humans who fought in the final battles for the domination of the desolate planet Earth. Most are over 100 years old, and their leader has a plan for Ash and the the Posterus. The scars between these broken humans and the Union Fleet runs deep, deeper than Ash can imagine, and the surprising plot points come at just the right times that kept me reading past my bedtime. The book keeps and excellent pace, and moves quickly. I finished it in about a day and a half, and I’m already ready for book two. So, CJ Birch, I say this lovingly, get on it!

This is a science fiction story. It is written in the first person which some people find difficult to read.

The storyline of this book could have been a good one, but somewhere it got confusing with all the events taking place. Most science fiction stories grab me from the very beginning. This story, however, did not. The writing was a little choppy. I just could not achieve a good flow while reading this book.

The two main characters in the book are Lieutenant Ash and Captain Kellow. I found it hard to grasp Ash’s character because one moment she was shy and withdrawn and the next she was aggressive. The Captain’s character was not much better. This book was short. Perhaps if it were longer, the characters would have been developed better.

I did NOT like the ending at all. Supposedly, this is the beginning of a series entitled “New Horizons”. The ending seemed to be just cut off, leaving the reader with a questionable cliffhanger. It certainly left me feeling agitated. Hopefully, there will be a sequel written to help provide closure on some aspects of this storyline.

I rate this book 2-1/2 stars out of 5.

I was given this ARC from NetGalley and Bold Stroke Books in return for a fair and honest review.

Gnah! What the hell was that? I don’t like to start with the ending but in this case I can’t help it. Unknown Horizons was so damn good. Space, asteroids, genetically and technically enhanced soldiers, a generation ship and an uninhabitable earth. A really interesting space adventure with an enigmatic worldbuilding and then THIS F *** ING ENDING??? - There, I'm so stunned I have to use multiple punctuation marks - so serious a situation!

I don’t even know where I should start to sort my thoughts about Unknown Horizons. The book has split me so much that I just don’t know how to judge it. I read this to short book in one go and could not put it down. The setting was grabbed me from the first sentence and I liked the often criticized 1st person narrator. While it limits the story to Ashs point of view it also intensifies her personality.
There were minor plotholes here and there. But that is whining at a high level. Up to the last two sentences of the book I would have given it four stars, but then the book stopped. IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL. Or maybe not in the middle. Maybe the end was meant to be just as frustrating and as unfinished as it is. Unfortunately it spoiled the whole book for me and reduced my rating to 3 stars. The ending was just so frustrating and a massive cliffhanger.

Still, I loved this book and I very much hope there will be a sequel soon. Ash is an interesting character with her amnesia. You get a very good picture of her and her suddenly occurring blackouts, in which she seems to behave strangely while remembering none of it. She even finds herself in an arrest cell without knowing how she ended up there. Since Ash understandably worries and fears her blackouts I was caught up in excitement wondering what it is all about. Ash was well-drafted, only her professional competency seemed off. For someone in her position she behaved a bit too reckless. Worldbuilding on the other hand has a lot in store and makes just so much fun. Up to the few last sentences anyway.

Can I recommend the book now? I don’t know. The story is really good but the ending reads like an unfinished story and totally crushed me. It’s like a manuscript which lost half of its pages. I really want to know more about Ash, Jordan, the generation ship and even the enemy cyborgs. There is still so much more potential in this scenario and it would have deserved a real ending - one that does not leave the reader completely frustrated.

"I don't know what it is, but there's something comforting about cruising through space wrapped in the certainty that you're sometimes only inches from the utter stillness of space"

* * *
3 / 5

Unknown Horizon absolutely nails some good sci-fi staples: an officer aboard a starship, a mission to help save humanity, a sort-of savage mech race, some religious aspects, and a nice romance. Lieutenant Alison "Ali" Ash has memory loss, a fact she conceal from Captain Jordan Kellow when she boards her vessel Persephone, en route to the Posterus, the first multigenerational ship setting sail for new habitable planets. As Ash alienates almost all of the crew, stranger things keep happening to her.

First off, this is a lesbian sci-fi romance. It's actually the second one I've read recently (In Ageless Sleep was the other) and both have suffered from the same problem: the romance isn't developed enough! In Unknown Horizons the chemistry between Ali and her Captain Jordan feels very real, but because this is a mere slim volume of a book, clocking in at about 240 pages, and not an epic sci-fi escapade, the romance is always competing for page time with the big plot that's going on. What we get is sweet and lovely and there's a rather explicit sex scene, but it really could have done with a bit more focus.

"Part of me has been lost forever. I am one of the monsters who haunt our night time."

Then there's Ali herself. She's a bit standoffish, alienates the crew, is apparently a hard taskworker, and argues with her dad a lot. A few months beforehand, Ali was stationed on a station when the Burr attacked. The Burr are a type of semi-automated soldier, humans with mechanical parts, built for wars when people still lived on Earth. They have all sorts of weird ideas about human purity, but most worryingly, Ali can't actually remember much about the attack. Ali goes through some good character development.

I did really quite like the plot and Birch is good at doling out information when it becomes important and relevant. I was surprised, however, that the plot is so small and self-contained, as it were. The Persephone barely reaches the Posterus, to begin the "most important journey humankind has ever undertaken". When I picked up Unknown Horizons that's what I expected it to be about: exploration, science, journeys. But it kinda ... isn't. Whilst I still really enjoyed the plot, it was not what I expected.

"I'm seeing the captain, not Jordan. And it's not just that she's about to give me a direct order, it's everything about her."

Jordan is a much more interesting character with a delicious backstory that comes into play. She does seem like a bit of a weak Captain, however; she's got a first officer whose mattress has been sliced open by a crew member in a non-friendly manner, and there's all sorts of mutiny going on, but she never really does much about it. We also never really get to see Ali at her day to day job, which is a shame.

Unknown Horizons is quite a short but enjoyable sci-fi & romance novel. I particularly enjoyed the whole memory loss aspect and the beginning development of Ali and Jordan's relationship.

At some points it felt like big parts of the plot were missing and that some of the connective tissue in the romance parts were somewhere else (in something else) that I wasn't reading too.

Ash is the first officer on the Persephone, a ship that's taking her and its crew to the first ever generational ship, the Posterus. Jordan is the CEO of that same ship.

Both the women have secrets and feel a pull towards each other as well.

When a bunch of enhanced humans called Burrs get involved in the story the novel gets very thriller-y.

Unfortunately, while I liked a lot of the start and the middle of the novel. The ending totally and utterly confused me. Is there a sequel? Is is it supposed to just be open-ended? I just couldn't tell and that did bum me out a little.

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

This book falls in the awkward gray area between novel and novella, and whereas some books can make that work, I'd have vastly preferred a few more thousand words to bring this firmly in the novel category.

The seed for a good story was there, but it was limited in its growth by the short amount of words. There was little worldbuilding, which is pretty crucial for the space opera genre, and none of the storylines were really pursued to their full potential. The romance, for example, was not all that developed at all. (And Ash runs away from her after their kiss like I did from my crush one time when i was twelve. I mean, it wasn't after a kiss because I didn't have that much charisma when I was twelve (or currently... haha... ha) but my point still stands, Grown-ups don't run away when things go awry.)

In Ageless Sleep is a really good example of a space opera that manages to fit a compelling and well-built world and narrative in the short framework of a novella (and it's also f-f), but Unknown Horizons didn't quite manage it, I'm afraid.

I will fittingly end this review with a comment on the ending: whereas I'm not against cliffhangers as a general concept, I am against them when there are no other real threads tied up and the whole plot is just left suspended in midair. Cliffhangers only work when all other plot lines are resolved and there is one (maybe two) specific threads that are left, so to speak, hanging over a cliff. But when there is little-to-no resolution, I'm afraid it just does not work, and that is what happened here.

Ash is the new first officer of a generation ship about to set off into space, for a century long trip to a new home that she herself will never see. She has memory gaps from a previous event. Concealing those gaps makes life difficult at first and then quickly leads to the main storyline.

I am not quite sure what to make of this book. Told in first person, present tense. That took some getting used to. The writing is a little uneven and could have done with more editing. Some details are glanced over and not explained enough, others are explained too much. Some plot holes. And what's up with the tofu obsession? Would that be such a big deal, needing to get mentioned every single time, considering the setting?

One moment Ash is this insecure girl, in the next chapter she is assertive and a wanna-be kick-as heroine. The captain is not much more convincing. I really can't see those two as the commanding officers tasked with bringing 45 thousand people to a new home. Especially Ash doesn't come across as mature enough for her position.

My favourite characters were the engineer (Hello, Scotty!) and the doctor, but their roles were largely in the sidelines.

The plot idea was good and not what I expected. I am not sold on the writing though. I would have liked a stronger sci-fi element and less sappy romance.

And the ending - WTF? Massive cliffhanger and no sequel in sight. Now that sucks. I wasn't planning on getting a potential sequel, but now I will have no choice. Smart move, Ms Birch! Hurry the heck up!

The book blurb could probably do with a hint, that there will be a sequel, so people can consider the possibility of getting left dangling at the end of the book.

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

Um...perhaps I am missing something, but where is the remainder of the novel? While the first two-thirds of the work are fast paced, populated by standard characters who do not leap off of the page, the end was exceedingly abrupt and left me desirous of more to the volume. It's length was a definite detraction and then the protagonist was a total dud, with too few brain cells considering the broader situation in which she and her companions found themselves. I love the sci-fi genre but could have left this one.

First thing I want to add is that this book is the first in a series. I didn't see that mentioned anywhere but realized it about half way through. It ends on a big cliffhanger so I wanted people to know what they are getting into. Because it's the first in a series, most of the book is the set-up to the next. That's probably one of the reasons I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, mainly because I think the next book is going to be 5 stars. That's where the real story will take off.

I believe this was the authors first book and I was highly impressed. Her writing skills are top notch and I'm really excited for other books down the line.

She had a really neat and unique take on this new world that I haven't seen yet in any SciFi books I've read. The mission is basically to take 45,000 people and find a new planet for them to live. Not in their lifetime, but their children's children children...They are basically seen as the first pioneers which was really cool.

Loved the main character Ash. I wanted a little more from Jordan, but I think she'll really come to life in the next book. She only had so much to do in this one.

I also agreed with Jordan that Ash seemed to have a death wish. I'm looking forward to her being more of a fighter later on.

Recommendation: Buy!