Okay. This is going into my put aside for now pile. It is one of those books that I know once I'm in the right mood for it that I will love it. Unfortunately, my brain hasn't been in the right mood for this kind of science fiction through out the whole pandemic. I ended up buying the ebook for myself and I hope that when I go to pick it up again I will be able to get past the 20% mark in it. I really enjoyed what I did read of it but have never been in the right mood to finish it.

Quite a fun, fast, furious scifi adventure. Clever and creative and hints at complicated further plots. Keefe has a dab hand for subtlety and for pulling the rug out from her audience — she does so numerous times in Velocity Weapon.

Sanda steals the spotlight but there are several big moments for Biran’s storyline as well. The Jules subplot didn’t really connect to the others (or with me) but willing to see how that ties together.

The tech is fascinating - from Bero to the Rainiers there’s a lot of imagination at play.

In often reading Series, discovering a novel fascinating enough that I immediately want to read the sequel isn't often enough. VELOCITY WEAPON is a massive Science Fiction novel that inspires, no, obsesses, me to read its Sequel. The conclusion left me needing to know "What just occurred? What next? What could possibly happen now?" with the certainty that whatever is next will be thrilling, suspenseful, thought-provoking. This is "real" Science Fiction, not just of the future, but also in its exploration of Consciousness and Intelligence, both Artificial and Human. Not only was my intellect stretched and my imagination compelled, my heart was frequently jump-started by the unexpected scares and "OH! NO!" moments. If it's possible for a novel to possess jump Scares, VELOCITY WEAPON excels.


Author Megan O'Keefe gives a triumvirate of protagonists: a gunnery sergeant, Sanda, a very strong personality and kickin' woman, in Space; her somewhat younger brother, in training as a Keeper, on planet Ada-Prime; and on another planet "far away," a young female orphan who is part of an Oliver Twist-type gang of scavengers in the slums. These female characters are exceptionally strong individuals and characters, and I consider this Feminist SF, with some LGBT+ elements as well (in a character's identification rather than actively demonstrated).


Chapters alternate so that we are kept current with the three protagonists. The world-building is deep and rich and vibrant.

A really interesting start to a new sci-fi series.
Engaging characters, solid action. I particularly enjoyed Sanda's storyline. Looking forward to reading the second novel.
Definitely recommended to all fans of sci-fi, space opera.

Imagine waking up in an evacuation pod in the medical bay of an enemy space ship, alone on an AI ship and find that you have been in the pod for over 200 years and everyone you know was destroyed in an attack on your planet. That is what Megan E. O’Keefe has laid out for us in Velocity Weapon. This is one of the Best Sci Fi novels I have read in a while, it has everything I want in a space opera politics, advanced AI systems, and secrets around every corner.

This novel is told from two main POV’s Sergeant Sanda Greeve and Keeper Biran Greeve. Sanda is in charge of a space battleship, while her brother Biran is finishing keeper training. There is an ambush during a routine mission and she finds herself in an AI controlled ship 230 years after her ship was destroyed. Biran is realizing his dream of being a keeper, one of the members of the leadership with a chip implanted in his head that contains portions of the governments biggest secrets. I love the way this novel was written.

This book starts kind of slow with our heroine Sanda waking up on an enemy research ship that the sole inhabitant is the AI that calls itself Bero. The ship informs her that it has been 230 years since the attack on her ship, that took one of her legs, and also the attack in which her home world was destroyed. The other main character is Biran Greeve he is graduating from Keeper school to start into working for the government. He starts a mad search for his sister against the wishes of the government and ruffles many feathers in the process. There is not a lot more I can say without getting into too many spoilers, I loved the constant guessing at what was next. As the tale goes on it picks up speed and comes to a dramatic conclusion.

This is a wonderful read and I am eagerly waiting to see what comes next for Sanda, Biran, and Bero.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to read this ARC prior to the book's publication, but we did end up buying it for our library collection.

"Velocity Weapon" is an entertaining space opera about family, government conspiracies, A.I. ships, and an ongoing military campaign between nations that will keep readers’ interests from beginning to end. Megan E. O’Keefe demonstrates her abilities for writing engaging stories across the spectrum of speculative fiction. Sci-fi fans should consider adding it to theirs. This book is a reminder that space is a fascinating frontier!

The style Megan E. O’Keefe uses in "Velocity Weapon" consists of the jargon of science fiction, the colloquialism of the armed forces, and the terminology for the world of space she cultivated for this series. The idea that two-star systems have been at war with each other for hundreds, or thousands, of years, with Earth as the potential beacon for the establishments for these star systems is an interesting factor to consider for the sort of story the author is presenting to her readers.

“Velocity Weapon” eBook was published in 2019 and was written by Megan E. O’Keefe (http://meganokeefe.com). This is Ms. O’Keefe’s fifth novel and the first in her “The Protectorate” series.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of violence and Mature Language. The story is set in a far future. The primary characters are the siblings Sanda and Biran Greeve.

Sanda commands a gunship and is attacked while on patrol in space. She wakes up 230 years later the only human aboard a sentient enemy spacecraft.  Biran has been identified as special and has been in training to be a Keeper. He quickly rises through the ranks of the Keepers.

Sanda learns that her home of Ada Prime and their enemies the Icarions have destroyed one another and she is alone. The AI ship seems to be her friend, but she is suspicious. That suspicion is increased when they find another survivor in the wreckage.

Biran uses his political position to keep the war from escalating beyond control. He also is using every avenue possible to look for his missing sister. He soon finds that the government he has always wanted to be a part of is not what he expected.

I enjoyed the 14.5+ hours I spent reading this 545-page science fiction novel. I liked the plot and thought it was a little different. I do think that the story ended a little abruptly. Certainly, the saga of Biran and Sanda is far from over. I am not a fan of the selected cover art. I don’t see how that relates much to the story (is it supposed to be the sentient ship Bero?). I give this novel 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 am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

Velocity Weapon is the first book in The Protectorate series by Megan E. O’Keefe. This was my first experience reading O’Keefe’s work and but space operas are not my type of reading. It. isn’t an easy book for me to finish reading. It’s not because I found the book to be poorly written or lacking in any plot or character development, it's just not my style.

You feel it coming long before you hear it; the jolt in your bones and the fear in your heart as I come running up with a book in my arms screaming, “THERE’S AN AI IN THIS ONE, GUYS.”

If you don’t react that way (and run away like everyone else does), then I have good news for you! There’s an AI in this one, guys! One we can talk about and apply my favorite literary theory to!

So let’s talk VELOCITY WEAPON by Megan E. O’Keefe.


Sanda Greeve wakes up on an enemy ship, alone save for the ship AI The Light of Berossus – or Bero, as he likes to be called – and finds that it’s been 230 year since her own ship was destroyed – along with her planet Ada Prime and the enemy planet Icarion.

230 years in the past, her brother Biran is being inducted into the highest rank of Ada Prime, and being trusted with the knowledge of how to construct inter-galactic gates – which Icarion is desperate to get their hands on.

We’ve got multiple points of view, we’ve got some of that sweet, sweet brother/sister relationship that we’re all dying to get, we’ve got surprises and shocks that’ll kick your teeth in – and I don’t want to talk about any of it!

I want to talk about Bero!

“But Roni,” you plead. “There’s so much more to this book than the ship AI. You’ve just listed so much stuff-“

Yeah, and? Look, we all know what I’m about here. I’m here for that sweet artificial intelligence, babey!

And BOY HOWDY does this book deliver! Like, my favorite parts were easily seeing how Sanda and Bero interacted in the beginning – how hesitant she was to talk with him, the weird microaggressions that she throw his way (because we’re dealing with a universe where that can happen!) Like, I’m this close to writing another crazy essay just on Bero alone and how we can learn so much from this story that we can then apply to AI theory in the future. (Yes, I aim to live in a future where artificial intelligence is a thing and can be written about in an academic manner, so sue me.)

The rest of the story is good too. Even the bits and pieces we got from Jules, our third real-time POV character who didn’t really influence a lot of plot things that we could see – with this being the first book in a series, we don’t know what sort of craziness she’s setting up for us right now.

But like, I’m so super crazy into Bero. He’s my favorite.

We’re ending this here before I get weirder. But if you like the crazy AI hijinks from Ancillary Justice but wonder what an outsider would’ve thought of such a large AI in a planet-killing ship, this is def the book for you.
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Don't forget to check out the podcast episode CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SPACESHIP, out now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Podbean!

Velocity Weapon is the best kind of space opera, filled with riveting action, the highest of stakes, and endless mysteries just waiting to be uncovered. O’Keefe has taken time scale to a new level, sending us back and forth through centuries as we try to piece together what became of a major civilization in deep space. Amidst the intense action and mystery of it all lies tragedy and the strength of familial bonds across the ages. I was enthralled by the storytelling and am excited to see where this series takes us next.

Now on to a few of my favorite things. Quick warning – there are a couple of spoilers ahead, so stop if you don’t want anything revealed!

WONDERFUL CHARACTER WORK

The multi-faceted characters are the real highlight of the book, revealing intricate work on the author’s part to create believable characters we want to follow. While there are technically four narrative paths, the most intriguing lie with Sanda and her brother, Biran. From Sanda, we see the fear and loneliness of unknown space and separation from all she’s ever known. From Biran, we see the pressure of an entire society on one man’s shoulders and the determination to get to overcome the war waiting on the horizon. Together, they form authentic narratives that highlight each other well.

THE MOST HUMAN AI

I’ve seen many an AI in my reviewer travels, but this one really takes the cake. Bero is an extremely human artificial intelligence with more feeling and emotion than I’ve seen in recent memory. O’Keefe moves beyond the oft-highlighted humor of a sentient AI voice to delve into the loneliness a ship must feel when stranded in deep space without a companion of any kind. We see real feelings expressed throughout and a caring relationship that grows between Bero and Sanda. This unique perspective drives home how desolate space can be and highlights the importance of human contact, no matter your make or model.

CONSTANT ACTION

There’s always something epic happening in each chapter. Whether it’s a heist gone wrong, damage to a spaceship, startling discoveries, or ominous histories, there’s nary a dull moment to be found. In my opinion, the action in a space opera should be akin to an Indiana Jones movie and Velocity Weapon fit that bill at breakneck speed. It’s exciting to read and foretells a future for the series that never quits trucking.

4.5 stars! I loved this book.

Action-packed, funny, tragic, inventive sci fi "Space Opera" that takes elements from the toolbox of the genre but really puts them together in a new way.

There are several main characters, all great, but Sergeant Sanda Greeve is my foul-mouthed favorite. The plot kept me guessing. The different threads of place and time were deftly woven, though my only quibble with this book is that the scenes taking place on other planets (some in the book's "now" and some on Earth in the distant past) didn't seem as well integrated as they could have been, considering how otherwise tight the plotting was. I suspect this will be resolved in the next installment, however.

I enjoyed Megan O'Keefe's previous series, and found that it improved as it went on. She is really hitting her stride as a writer. The characters and their interactions reminded me a little at times of Robert Jackson Bennett, which is a big compliment.

Sci-Fi novels can be very hit and miss for me. Some can very dense and thick of themes like science, space, and technology terminology that it becomes very overwhelming to learn it all for the narrative. Others can take half the novel to really get the story going that you probably have given up the book before you reach there.

Heres comes a surprise!

Velocity Weapon is a wonderfully engaging space opera - light on the hard sciences, heavy on characters, growth and conflict. The setting felt realistic and the world-building intricate and nuanced. I could picture the world quite well—the future could easily happen that way. The science was realistic; experiences of G-forces and weightlessness I hadn’t considered before, for example, were brought into bearing with good effectiveness.

The book was its strongest in the first two thirds when it was a fun drama with a good sense of humor and clear obstacles for the heroes to overcome. Sanda, Tomas, Biran and Bero are all likable. All in all, a fantastic start to a new scifi series.

I was the wrong audience for this book because I am not usually a fan of space opera, and I abandoned this book at the 35% mark, soon after Sanda made one too many references to Tomas’s dimples. Up to that point, I had been given very little description of what this world looked like or felt like, and the political structure was very unclear. All of this might improve later in the book, but I wasn’t interested enough to keep going. I did skip to the end and discovered that the book ends with a cliffhanger, so you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time with this saga. It just wasn’t for me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I found this hard to get into, but once I did I really enjoyed it. I would recommend to anyone interested in space opera and Ann Leckie's "Ancillary" series.

When I saw Velocity Weapon showcased in the regular Orbit newsletter of upcoming titles, something immediately drew me to it, and I requested it with a bare minimum of knowledge about the story, which is unusual for me since I like to have an idea about what to expect from any given book. What I found was a very immersive story peopled with characters that felt real and solid, and I breezed through it in a short time: since this is the first volume in a series, I hope that the next ones will come out soon, because there are so many questions I can’t wait to see answered.

This is not going to be an easy review to write because I must avoid any kind of spoiler: Velocity Weapon offers so many surprises, so many unexpected twists, that to even hint at any of them would be a huge disservice – my unconscious decision to approach it “sight unseen” proved to be the best choice, and I urge you to do the same to enjoy this remarkable novel as it deserves.

The background: the discovery in the 22nd Century of a technology – called Casimir Gate – able to bridge huge interstellar distances fostered widespread colonization. Many centuries later, the settlers of Ada Prime hold the key to the local Casimir gate, while their neighbors on Icarion must pay for the rights of transit through the gate, which has caused increasing political and military friction over time. As the novel opens, in one such skirmish Icarion forces took the Prime fleet by surprise, scoring a bloody victory: while bound to their system by the punishing gate tariffs, they reached substantial technological advances, one of them being the powerful weapon which destroyed the Primes’ convoy.

As the political and military pressures mount, the Keepers – Ada Prime’s ruling body – must decide how to respond, while Biran Greeve, newly minted Keeper, has to deal with the loss of his sister Sanda, who commanded one of the Prime ships lost in the battle near Dralee moon. Sanda is not dead, however: she wakes up in a medical emergency cocoon, one leg missing from the knee down as a consequence of the battle, and the ship she finds herself on is empty of any other form of life. That is, empty except for the AI controlling the vessel – an Icarion ship named The Light of Berossus: what she learns from Bero, as the AI controlling it prefers to be called, is devastating. Icarion deployed their ultimate weapon, the Fibon Protocol, and in so doing obliterated not only Ada Prime but their own world as well: Sanda might very well be the only human alive in this portion of space, and what’s even more shocking comes from the revelation that it all happened 230 years before her awakening and that her emergency pod was the only one with a living survivor that Bero found in the debris field.

The two main narrative threads of Velocity Weapon follow the two siblings as they deal with the harrowing circumstances they find themselves in, and are offset with two other perspectives, one of them Alexandra Halston, the 22nd Century creator of the Casimir gates, and the other Jules, a thief-scavenger who stumbles on a heist with unexpected consequences and deadly ramifications. I must confess that I struggled a little to understand Jules’ role in the overall story – her timeline is parallel to Biran’s but they are systems apart – but in the end the “big picture” started to take shape and I admired the way in which the author juggled all these elements into a cohesive and fascinating whole.

The story is indeed an absorbing one, offering unexpected discoveries and mind-boggling surprises (more than once I had to keep myself from reacting loudly to such surprises when I was reading in a public place, lest other people think I was out of my mind), but the real bone and muscle of this novel are the characters, especially Sanda. The usual mold for a strong female character in the genre requires a hardened individual who is either brusque or forceful, or a combination of both, but Sanda goes beyond these limitations (not to say tropes): she is tough and resilient, granted, but she also possesses a good deal of compassion and a sense of humor that blend into a no-nonsense, hands-on approach which immediately endeared her to me. For example, when she wakes up on Bero and acknowledges the missing leg she remembers losing during the battle, she wastes no time on hysterics but rather looks for the best means of assisted locomotion and later on works on fashioning herself a prosthesis.

Where Sanda truly shines is in her interactions with Bero and the way the two of them slowly build a relationship based on cautious trust which at times slides into semi-affectionate banter (the exchange about kitten pictures on the internet is beyond precious): after a while she understands the ship’s AI suffers from a form of post-traumatic syndrome, caused by way the scientists manning the ship hurt its sense of self and its developing personality. Sanda’s realization she is dealing with what is in essence a psychologically damaged teenager brings to the fore her true nature along with her vulnerabilities, showing her for the wonderfully rounded and authentic character she is.

At first I did not connect as easily with Biran, Sanda’s brother: on the surface he looked too naïve and somewhat easily influenced, but as the story progressed I started to see he is made of the same stuff as his sister, just in a less apparent way. As he kept going on the path he choose (apologies for the cryptic phrasing, but it’s necessary) I understood how ready he was to sacrifice anything, even the position he had worked so hard to achieve, to fulfill his goal, and I started to warm to him – unexpectedly but with growing certainty.

In the end what can you expect from Velocity Weapon? Certainly a good space opera novel combining action scenes and character growth, but most importantly a story exploring the meaning of life, consciousness and freedom; the intriguing observation of political maneuvering and of plots building over a span of many years; and above all a very entertaining tale that will keep you with your nose in the book for the whole duration. And looking for the next book with an eager eye…

O'Keefe has written a winner. I could not put the book down. Velocity Weapon was non stop action. I enjoyed all the twists and turns in the book.

New favorite: ACQUIRED. This book was a whirlwind of plot twists, adventure, interesting characters, politicking, and AWESOME. I loved the diversity (disabled MC, siblings raised by two dads, etc.), the sibling relationship, the sentient ship, the epic story scope, and all of the TWISTS! Yes, I’ve mentioned the twists twice, because they really made the book for me.

I love pretty much everything about Sanda. Her grief at finding herself aboard a sentient enemy ship, the sole survivor of a war, was palpable. I found myself considering how I’d feel in her position -- and being so glad I didn’t have to experience it in my own lifetime. I love her practical attitude, her compassion, and her anger. I love that she was smart and competent, as all of my favorite characters are. I love how much she missed her family. I love that she chose to keep going anyway and channel her grief toward something productive.

I enjoyed the other storylines as well, but more for the pieces of worldbuilding and background they brought to Velocity Weapon than for the subplots themselves. Sanda’s was my favorite storyline, but I enjoyed seeing the rest of the puzzle pieces snap into place.

The book ends with so much progress and yet so many questions, but in a good way. The way that makes me wish I had the second book in my hands RIGHT NOW. I’m ready to dive back into Sanda’s story!

Recommended for anyone interested in: diverse adult SFF, space operas, badass female MCs, books with physical disability rep, psychological thrillers, and epic stories!

Advanced copy provided by Orbit Books through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

(Links have been updated: Amazon, Instagram post, Goodreads, & Instagram Sci-Fi Recs Highlight - hype graphic)

It's best to consider this book based on the three perspective characters we follow: Sanda (arguably the main character), Biran (Sanda's brother and a secondary force in her storyline), and Jules (off on her own and completely separate from the rest of the story).

Sanda, despite being a military officer, is rather undisciplined and not particularly believable in that capacity. As a person and the hero of this story, she does very well: between her need for distraction, the pain (physical and emotional) that she experiences, and even the way she interacts with other people (until near the end, which really goes back to her supposed military background) are very authentic. The timeline is a little wonky because of the kind of work she has to do and there's a bit of a forced romance plot. The conspiracy is all a little convoluted and I'm left, at the end, not really understanding who was right - or even if it matters. The enemy nation (planet? empire?) didn't feel like a real threat and when we did meet them, it felt more like posturing than actual threats.

Biran is shot straight to stardom and power in a structure we never quite understand. The Keepers (essentially the government of the Prime intergalactic empire) are never fully explained: their reach, their power, the political red tape. Instead, we focus on Sanda and skip over most of that. Without this background information, Biran's story is irrelevant outside of Sanda and indeed draws the plot out well beyond the necessary.

And then we come to Jules. She's the one I personally was the most interested in. I guess I like the scrappy ones who take the fight into their own hands. But she has a history that we get hints of (and, like the Keeper structure, we don't ever get an explanation). She's living a conspiracy and a tragedy (not unlike Sanda) that continues to get more and more complicated. The real problem with Jules, however, is that, relative to Sanda and Biran, she gets almost no "screentime" and therefore we get no real answers. Perhaps she'll factor more into future books, but because we get no real payoff in connection with the larger story, she felt unnecessary (and, once again, the weird timeline in this book made this worse).

I think this book was too ambitious. There was simply too much to balance: a complex system of planets connected by proprietary technology, two storylines (across three characters) that are not given anything like equal weight, a massive conspiracy that we never really get to understand, and a whole lot of hints to a bigger conspiracy that never comes into focus.