Good idea, nice writing but everything else i found rather lacking in this book and wish the author would have maybe taken a bit longer to work over or out so that it all was ... well more i guess? Since as it is it feels a bit boring and underwhelming which i personally think is not at all what anyone wants reading more or less a soap opera set in space!

This was a nice military space opera.
Certainly had a nice twist and was an easy read..with the pages flying past.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish Blackwelder 2164. I loved the concept and the setting, but the plot was disappointing and I didn’t care for any of the rushed relationships.

 

Blackwelder 2164 starts by introducing two gay/bi men as star crossed lovers, which is what I was really interested in, especially as it was set in space. The men are separated, and right after, one of the men falls for someone else. I wasn’t here for that, since he’d just left his best friend and secret lover behind. He moved on far too quickly.

 

I gave up on the book shortly after, because the focus was more on this new romance or crush than any sci-fi action.

I was interested in reading this first and foremost because a big part of this book was LGBTQA representation, in space. You can’t get much better than that. As I read the summary of this novel, I really expected a lot of emotion from Blackwelder’s story, through love and life-or-death situations, but at the same time expected a lot of world-building, because the setting is military bases, in space, with a side of enemy aliens warring against the humans. I sadly didn’t get much of either from the story, mostly due to how fast-paced the story turned out to be, and because there were just so many characters, I could hardly keep up, and I’ve tackled novels where there seem to be too many characters, like Game of Thrones. The world in Blackwelder isn’t very vivid, and I didn’t always know what characters looked like or what to expect from them because the blurring together made some of them appear flat. There was too much background to cover with the number of characters the novel included, characters who were important, and Blackwelder himself didn’t thrill me, although I did enjoy Juan-Miguel. Despite the mild disappointment, this book is still packed with action and fire-fights that I really enjoyed, and I am interested in seeing more of the alien species if another book is to come. If you enjoy a quick, sci-fi story with gay romance and action, this is definitely the novel for you.

Sadly, this is the first book in my life that I have ever DNF’d. This is a resolution I’m making this year as I have far too many books to get through to linger on ones which I’m really not enjoying. I did give this book 3 chapters, but I really just didn’t want to read it and the cheesiness was too much for me as the relationship was already annoying me. Not my style sadly, there isn’t much more to say about this badly portrayed relationship and poorly portrayed characters. I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley and NineStar in return for an unbiased review

Blackwelder 2164 was a fast-paced, intriguing read with a lot of diverse characters, aliens who attack for no reason (or so it seems), warships cruising through our solar system, inhabited planets and moons, a network of intrigues and in the middle of it all is a likeable male protagonist who loves the wrong person. The story concetrates rather on the conflict between humans and aliens than on romance though, which I normally prefer. In this case the romance part just felt a bit too distant since readers are not involved in the process of "finding each other". One day Spencer Blackwelder and the man of his dreams meet and some pages later they are already declared a couple. There is nothing wrong with it the couple just couldn't trigger my affection for them.

This book is a standalone as far as I understand, but there are enough questions left that a sequel might be possible. So maybe there will be more? If so I would definitely return to this universe.

I received this from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
My rating is really 3.5 for this book. I enjoyed the concept, but the telling was uneven. It was like the author put together a bunch of short stories without really transitioning from one story to the next. The ending also felt rushed. I would like to go back to that universe as long as it is a smoother story.

This is a Sci-Fi book with a little MM romance. It is set in space and has some great battle scenes in it. I don’t read a lot of Sci-Fi, but I really enjoyed this story. The pace was really good, so it kept me interested and the characters are well developed. The description of the alien environments was really interesting. Overall a great read.

In this book, war is brewing between the Elumerians and the Allied Earth Forces. While the Elumerians appear to be the aggressors, they are actually launching a retaliatory attack.
There is a lot that could be done with this plot, and the book succeeds in places. I found myself confused in the opening paragraph, however, and it took a while for me to put the pieces together.

An action packed adventure. There is romance in the book, and some sex scenes hinted at, but the primary focus of the plot is preparing for, and then engaging with Earth's alien enemies. I liked the all the action, and people actually do get hurt and die, instead of just wandering away with a flesh wound. There are gay, bi and straight characters, and they all feel fleshed out. The background given about the politics of Earth, and why most countries are now monarchies isn't given a lot of detail though, and the book does end on a cliffhanger of sorts regarding the war. A pretty good start, hopefully any additional entries in this world give more backstory.