It's 2061 and the world isn't what it used to be since the Solar Storms. Leaders of the world have agreed that there is only one option, and that's to try to inhabit Mars. Dr. Sophie Winston has dreamed of the day that she would do something like this. She is willing to do anything to realise that dream and has agreed to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain. She has been told that this will pave the way to that dream. But things start to go wrong and the team have to open the doors early. What they find outside is something they never dreamed! Life is about to get a lot harder.

Having loved two series that this author wrote, I was both eager and hesitant to dive into this series, eager because his writing is amazing and hesitant because there were some pretty bad reviews about this series. But I needn't have worried, this book was amazing!! I read some of the negative reviews and a lot of them were complaining that the science was sketchy, well I didn't think so. I enjoyed all the sciency bits and thought they were done well. I'm not a scientist and really don't care if something wasn't 100% right, the plot of this felt right to me and that's all that matters in the long run ;)

Anyway, plot wise this was incredibly fast paced and exciting. The action starts right away and it's breakneck speed from there. When the gang leave the biosphere, they come out to a world that's changed forever. I loved how the author portrayed the aliens and found myself quite frightened by them, especially with what they were doing! He has created a unique spin on the classic invading alien story and I raced through this to see how it'd end.

One thing I've seen with this author, is his amazing ability to write great and memorable characters. This one is no different!! Sophie is one strong, fierce main character and I was rooting for her the whole way through. She is smart, confident, headstrong, and relatable. Each of the characters are well written and developed and I pretty much liked them all!!

In all, this surpassed my expectations. I wasn't sure what to expect from it, but what I got was an exciting, edge of your seat read. It drew me in and I devoured it and I'm so looking forward to the next one!! It's movie worthy good! If you're on the fence about reading this, don't be. Give it a go... you might be pleasantly surprised! It's fiction, it's there to be enjoyed :)

Nicholas Sansbury Smith takes the reader on the journey of an Alien invasion where no place is safe:

2061: Earth is dying. Cataclysmic solar storms has eaten away at the atmosphere and has caused leaders from around the world to finally acknowledge that the fate of the human race lies on the colonization of Mars. Dr. Sophie Winston is hired by New Tech Corporation to test a biosphere deep within the heart of Cheyenne Mountain; a mission she believes will help prepare the company for the three-year flight to the red planet as well as ensure spots for her team members on those ships. There job is to stay in the biosphere and not leave no matter what, however, days in to the assignment things begin to go extremely wrong and they are unable to contact the outside world. The mission abandoned, the blast doors are opened and the enter in to a barren world that appears to be void of life and water. But not all life is gone, and the team is about to find out that they hold a very precious resources that the invaders need.

I discovered Sansbury Smith earlier this year with Hell Divers and when I found out he had other series, I knew I had to check them out. Orbs is so different from Hell Divers it is shocking, there are very few common threads (really the main on is the survival of the human race) between the two books that they could have been written by different authors. I mean this completely as a compliment as it shows the creativity that Sansbury Smith has in that brain of his.

From start to finish I was drawn in to this book and the concept that he presented. While an Alien race invading our planet is not knew by any stretch Sansbury Smith's take on it was extremely unique to me. The Alien's need for our water and we're not just talking bodies of water, we're talking every last drop they can squeeze from every living thing on Earth. Enter some of the creepiest and scary Aliens that I have ever been introduced to and lets just say that how living creatures die seems far from a quick and pleasant experience.

I found the characters were not quite as well developed as I would have liked them to be, but I think that it is due to the fact we start off with many and are slowly weeding them out (Yes that is right Sansbury Smith is not afraid to kill off a character or two or more). I think in the next books we will get to know some of the characters better rather than some of the stereotype ones that we got in this book. As I said everyone does not make it to the end here, so there is hope for less point of views next time around and to really get to know some of the characters.

This book will make you appreciate the next time you go for a swim in any body of water or even take a shower or bath. Our most precious resources is our water, we cannot be the only lifeforms out there that relies on it, so maybe Sansbury Smith is a little bit of a prophet. I'm Really looking forward to the next book.

Enjoy!!!

Wow. Just....wow. I'm blown away. I was worried there was going to be too much down time once they entered the bio-dome but things just stayed heart-pounding, fast paced, and absolutely kept me so swept up I was shocked to find the sun had gone down when I finally came up for air!

Review of ORBS (ORBS #1)
by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

I found the work of Nicholas Sansbury Smith through reading TRACKERS and TRACKERS 2: THE HUNTED and was so enrapt that I committed to reading all his titles. ORBS is the first of a series which deftly combines apocalypse and science fiction (though I think everything here could potentially occur). One of the apocalypse scenarios that doesn't receive sufficient conjecture and analysis is danger from the Sun: solar flares; solar storms; Coronal Mass Ejections (CME). For decades scientists have mostly insisted that the Earth's atmosphere is sufficiently dense to block dangerous rays; but with a century plus of ozone depletion, that may no longer be the case. In ORBS, a solar storm in 2055 erupts in a massive CME, which irradiates much of Earth, causing serious population decline and collapse of the infrastructure.

In 2061, remaining scientists are tasked to operate a Biosphere, constructed by NTC, the private corporation contracted by the U.S. Federal Government for security and technology issues. Once in the Biosphere, the five scientists quickly discover that their mission to prepare for a voyage to Mars, in order to preserve the human species, is much more urgent than already assumed.

Author Nicholas Sansbury Smith has a true gift for narrative of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and science fiction. He vivifies the narrative landscape, and drawing on his own extensive research and decade in disaster management, he brings forth settings which are realistic, despite the fact that no human has ever actually experienced these events—yet.

ORBS is a story I could not put aside, and cannot forget. It impels me to think critically about the present—and the potential future, not only for me, but for my progeny.

I wasn't a big fan of this book. It felt very forced and cheesy to read; when the female protagonist dropped her gun... I think I rolled my eyes. I was really excited to read it because I love sci fy books and anything to do with aliens.