like all truly great science fiction, readers can see our own world and daily decisions to live reflected here in a wildly inventive future that isn't so much dystopian as simply the end point of a line of speculative thinking--superb world and solid characters

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.

W. Michael Gear is launching a new SF series with Outpost. Set on Donovan's World, the most distant human colony and owned by one of the Corporations that run Earth, Things are not going well. Most animals and plants are deadly to humans, but the mineral wealth that is available is amazing. However, the death rate is high, really high! When the Turalon comes calling, there are only about 400 people still alive. The new corporate boss find out that five ships have gone missing on their way to or from Donovan's World. And when one of the missing ships is found in-system, no one is found alive, and horror haunts the ship. An interesting start to the series. We will have to see how the storyline plays out in subsequent volumes.

Thoughts and Plot

I wanted to love this book, and at the beginning, I did. Nothing like reading about a team of law enforcers hunting down an intelligent creature that broke into a home to eat a baby to get you interested. Unfortunately, this was not the entire book. It turned into this odd political drama in space thing…which was interesting, but not my usual scifi bread and butter.

Donovan, is a faraway planet with a breathable atmosphere, water, interesting wild life, a whole range of colors and a decent (by human standards) climate. The government official in charge of the place is dead and has been for a few years. The regular ships from Earth have not been showing up. The newly arrived ship the Turalon is the first ship they have seen in something like 6 years. Roughly 3 ships (if I remember correctly) had actually disappeared trying to reach Donavan, and another disappeared trying to get home after arriving.

Engage political agendas. Talina Perez has to explain things she did in order for the colony to survive. Kalico is out to rule the planet all in the name of money and power. Dan is just out to get his hands on some of the action that is going down because he's a bit crazy, and Max is the enforcer for the corporation. And just to make sure it doesn’t become a complete political showdown on paper, add the possibility of mass murder in the name of order and a ghost ship that is one of the missing ships, filled with corpses. Much better…in my opinion,

In Conclusion

This is a jammed pack book and it’s pretty long to have all this stuff going on in it, BUT the author makes it work. I actually liked it, for the most part. I thought I was just getting an scifi action with a touch of politics in it…way more politics then I thought, but it still worked for me. It was delightfully dark.

The nitty-gritty:  A thrilling space adventure with danger around every corner—both alien and human. Outpost is a must read for all science fiction fans.

I had no expectations going into Outpost, since I have yet to read any fellow blogger reviews of this book, and so I was delighted at how much fun this was! Take the gritty lawlessness of the wild west, add in a splash of Avatar, a pinch of Alien, and top it off with a healthy dose of Star Trek and you have a fantastic start to a new series by veteran author W. Michael Gear. Gear’s story has all the necessary elements that I look for in my reading these days: a great mix of engaging characters, plenty of action, seriously cool world-building, and super high stakes.

Thirty years ago, a group of settlers arrived on the planet Donovan to start a new life. Attracted to its rich stores of gold and other precious stones and minerals, the plan was to start mining operations and send the booty back to Solar System. What the settlers didn’t expect was to land on a planet full of dangerous native flora and fauna, and what started as a large group has since dwindled to only a few hundred people. It’s been six years since the last supply ship entered orbit, and the residents of Port Authority are sorely hurting for medical supplies, replacement equipment and more.

So when the Turalon appears in the skies, everyone is thrilled. There’s just one small problem: what started out as a Corporation-run city on the new planet has since disintegrated into a society where those who haven’t been killed off by Donovan’s many creatures or died from accidents or illness have created their own laws, far removed from the Corporation’s strict protocols. With the arrival of Board Supervisor Kalico Aguila and her team of Corporation enforcers, Talina Perez, Yvette Dushane and Shig Mosadek know that the Corporation will want to impose their rule over the citizens of Port Authority, and they vow not to let that happen.

But a clash of wills is inevitable as the two groups form an uneasy alliance on the planet’s surface, and an unexpected arrival of a long-lost ship changes everyone’s future plans.

This is a hard plot to summarize, because there is a lot going on, and the cast of characters is pretty big. However, I’m not complaining when I say there is a lot going on, because I enjoyed every second of the story! I’m just going to dive in and tell you what I loved about Outpost. First of all, the characters are fantastic. One of the main characters is Talina Perez, a hardened fighter who has more or less taken over the leadership role in Port Authority. Together with Trish, Yvette and Shig, the four keep things running smoothly without having to utilize the dictatorship-like Corporation rules on the people of Donovan. The story opens with a bang, as Talina and Trish are trying to hunt down a quetzal (more about him later!) who just stole and ate someone’s baby from the compound. Talina is a superb fighter, and she’s learned to survive on Donovan by necessity, but even she has troubles with quetzals, as you’ll find out when you read this book.

Talina is thrown together with the head of security from the Turalon named Max “Cap” Taggart, and yes, they do become romantically involved. But I enjoyed their relationship and I felt like it developed organically. When we meet Cap, he firmly believes in the way the Corporation runs, but little by little, as he gets to know Talina and discovers how dangerous Donovan is, he realizes that there are better ways to live than blindly following orders.

I’ll mention a couple of other stand-out characters. One that ended up being one of my favorites, simply because she changed so much during the story, was Kalico, a ruthless woman who isn’t afraid to have people killed if they get out of line. She wants to be remembered for making her trip to Donovan a success, and she craves authority and respect from the members of her team. But when a lost ship called the Freelander suddenly appears, she starts to lose her nerve after some scary moments on the ship, and her personality changes drastically, to the point that I started to feel sorry for her.

And then there’s the “bad guy” of the story, a psychopath named Dan Wirth who is looking for a new life on Donovan after stealing someone else’s identity in order to escape the law. He’s one of the slimiest characters I’ve run across in some time, and he sees Donovan as an untapped opportunity to not only get rich, but to hold power over everyone else. I truly hated him, which means Gear did a fantastic job with his character!

And then of course, there’s the world-building. I loved the idea of a group of colonists trying to make a better life on a new planet, only to discover that the planet is trying to kill you. There are so many predators on Donovan, the best one being the quetzal, a rainbow-colored humanoid/lizard creature with rows of sharp teeth who feed on warm-blooded creatures, humans being one of their favorites. The colonists have figured out how to kill them, and they use their colorful hides to make boots and clothing (which is pretty funny because the people on the Turalon describe them as looking like circus folk!), but quetzal are still deadly, fast and cunning, and a real threat to the population. In addition to the quetzals are other dangerous creatures like gotcha vines, chokya, nightmares, sucking scrub, sidewinders and many more.

Another big part of the story involves the Freelander and the fact that the last seven ships that came to Donovan never made it back home, and no one knows what happened to them. Of course, this is freaking out everyone on the Turalon, because the chances of their ship disappearing too are fairly good. I won’t go into the reasons here, but suffice it to say that Gear brings some cool scientific explanations into the story and also creates some very creepy vibes when the crew board the Freelander to check out what’s going on.

Gear wisely forces all his characters make choices, but none of them are very good ones. They have to decide which is the lesser of two evils, and it’s a wonderful but terrible situation to put people in.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, there are so many surprises for readers to discover. The only negative I can think of is that the pacing near the end felt rushed, as if the author had too many things to resolve and very little time. (And a thing happens at the end!!!!) I have so many questions that weren’t answered, but luckily this is only the beginning. Gear has set the bar high for the rest of his series, and I can hardly wait for the next installment.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Taking place on a planet teaming with life, the colonists struggle to survive with minimal preparation, supplies and support while machinations abound, and treachery comes when and where you least expect it.

Gritty, shocking and completely unexpected. W. Michael Gear hits the nail on hits head with this riveting, dark, and brutally realistic view of what life would be on an unknown planet. 4.5 stars

My Rating: 4.5 stars
Written By: W. Michael Gear
Series: Donovan
Sequence in Series: Book 1
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: DAW
Publication Date: February 20, 2018
ISBN-10: 0756413370
ISBN-13: 978-0756413378
Genre: scifi

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Outpost-Donova...
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/outp...
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/si/book/outp...

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Outpost, by author W. Michael Gear, is the first installment in the author's Donovan trilogy. Welcome to Donovan, where humans landed 30 years ago. It is a planet where you can make your riches if you are lucky. It is also a planet filled with life that can ruin a person's life quickly and permanently. A good description for this book would be, Deadwood meets Avatar in a gritty, action packed adventure with colonists on the fringes of survival on a dangerous frontier planet where both fauna and creatures can kill without any warning. This story consists of several main characters:

Talina Perez is a security officer on Donovan (Port Authority) who is something of a living legend. She is also one of the Triumvirate who have the final say on Donovan. If you were looking for one main character who really stands out not only for her badassery, but because she understands the environment in which she is living, and hasn't lost her perspective that one wrong move could be her last, then look no further than Talina. There is also something very creepy happening to Talina which I won't spoil. I'm eager to see how this storyline plays itself out.

Trish Monagan, a first generation Donovanian, as well as Talina's ward after her parents died. Trish was actually born on Donovan which makes her a rarity among those living on Donovan and who agreed to a contract. Trish doesn't get all that much set away for her to shine, but the time she does has proves that she is no pushover. Trish takes charge at one point while Talina is off being stranded in the bush.

Captain Max Taggart is a Corporate Security expert with a military background who arrives on Donovan via the Turalon and finds himself questioning his very reason for being on the planet after nearly killing Talina and the Triumvirate. Taggart's world changes abruptly after he and Talina crash land and are forced to survive against all sorts of difficult odds. Odds that the weakest couldn't survive through. Taggart's choices lead to some curious avenues and some puzzling outcomes.

Dan Wirth is a real hard case who arrives on Donovan via the Turalon and immediately disrupts the status quo. If one were looking for a villain outside of the Quetzal, he would be it. Dan pretty much finds something that he is really good at and takes advantage of those who have suddenly found a glutton of wealth sitting in their pockets. With a man like Dan around, one needs to watch their backs and their front.

Kalico Aquila is a Corporate bigwig who arrives on Donovan via the Turalon and immediately realizes that things on Donovan have gone to hell. The previous leader is dead. The Triumvirate rules the planet with different ideologies. Nobody cares about contracts they once signed, and to top things off, there are 7 Corporate ships with 3500 people onboard that have gone missing on the way to Donovan. Kalico chooses a different path from the others. A path that puts her directly in the way of Dan Wirth. Should be interesting to see what happens next.

If you are curious about the cover, the scene actually does take place in the story. It is really, really creepy to say the least. It also leaves so many questions as to what happened that led the ship astray for 100 years or more. Will those who are still alive on Donovan ever return home, or will they be forever part of the Donovan landscape?

Outpost has a very complex story line filled with interesting characters living on a very dangerous world. The viewpoint moves around from character to character often letting the reader know facts that are not shared with other characters. I loved Talina Perez. She is a embodiment of what it takes to live on Donovan. She is strong knows how to survive on this very dangerous planet. Donovan itself is a important character in the story. It is Earth like but filled with some very dangerous native life. The fact that supply ships have not been arriving as expected has changed the people and the life style on the planet. Great world building, interesting backstory and a multifaceted plot line make this a story hard to put down. Many things are left up in the air but everything is in place for the next book in the series.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

It was delightfully dark, and really a pretty great portrayal of what a fight for power might look like on a new planet. I liked most of the things about the book, so we're going to go ahead with a likes/dislikes!

Things I Liked:

New planet!! Did I mention that I liked new, uncharted planets before? Of course I did. Spoiler: I still do. And the awesome part is that the people of the new planet had to actually fight to stay alive. It makes sense, really. Imagine if you're dumped onto a world you have no knowledge of? You don't know the climate, the creatures, what is safe or unsafe, etc. There's going to be a huge learning curve, especially coming from the relative comfort of Earth. I liked that a lot. I was a little confused by some of the creatures at first, but it did become much easier to figure out. And they were pretty damn cool, tbh.

The characters were so freaking badass. Some by nature, sure, but some because the only choice was to deal with it or die. The story is told from several points of view, but Talina is our main Donovanian. And while she is a super tough woman, she has plenty of flaws that can hinder her goals. I liked that toughness and strength of spirit didn't equal perfection, not with any of the characters. Some, like Shig, another Donovanian, were much more peace seeking. Shig was one of my faves, because he was very thoughtful- and his intelligence and wisdom was so necessary.
"Ultimately, government and hypocrisy become synonymous"

Not all the characters are awesome- in fact, some are downright horrible. But... that's life, right? I liked that there were some people who were just straight up real assholes. You know, the type for whom you assume there is no chance of redemption? Because we know these people, in all societies. Some of our societies elected this people. Which leads me to the next point....

The governing of this planet? Such a mess. A delightfully authentic mess. So much is relevant now, but honestly, it's always been relevant. People fighting for power, people who have no idea what they are getting themselves into throwing their hats into the ring, all in the name of control. Egos have more weight than knowledge and reason, and no one wants to give up their leadership. This is all too true on Earth, so it makes sense that it would be this way on a smaller scale on Donovan, too.

There's another verrrryyy creepy and dark part of the story that I have no intentions on spoiling, but it is morbidly fascinating and I want to know all the things. Also, it involves space. So if that is your kind of thing, I recommend.

The atmosphere of the whole book was on point. It was bleak and hard but then there were uplifting times- not many, but enough that it made life seem worth it. The planet was fascinating, yet cutthroat, and the author did a great job of painting it as such.

What I Didn't Like:

It felt long. This is my biggest qualm, really. Like I said, I knew that it wasn't the Goodreads-stated 336 pages, but it still took me longer than usual to finish. Not because I wasn't interested; I was. But some parts felt even slower, like the pacing was a bit off.

While I liked the characters, I would have liked to have felt a bit more connected to them, especially Talina. I think part of it was because she doesn't really let anyone in, but I would have felt more for her if I felt a bigger connection.

Will I Read the Sequel: Absolutely! I need to know what happens next, and the whole space-mystery thing, and everything.

Bottom Line: Dark and gritty, this book shows both the best and worst sides of humanity, all while being emotional and thought-provoking.

*Copy provided for review

**Quote taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change

Donovan is a remote world that thinks it's been abandoned by the Earth corporation that owns it. The corporation doesn't know why all the ships it sent to Donovan never returned but they want to find out and see if there's any more profit to be made. The citizens of Donovan assume they're free, their leaders and law enforcement agree, the corporate representative wants to make her name and her money, the corporate law is no longer sure it's worth it, and a murderer has just landed. Then, one of the missing ships arrives and things get really confusing. This book was fun, tense, and little creepy, just the way I like it. #Outpost #NetGalley