Book Review on Amazon: Genesis Earth by Joe Vasicek

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Amazon Review - Four out of Five Stars

The first thing I'd like to point out is I'm not an avid reader of the sci-fi genre. I love the genre in different forms of media, specifically movies and video games, but when it comes to READING sci-fi it usually isn't my first choice. So when I gave Genesis Earth a go I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing and interesting it was, even from the first page. Vasicek has created a world that readers will find both technologically sound and incredibly interesting. 

The second point is how extremely well editing the novel is in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and general layout. Having read a handful of indie published Kindle books, a rather unfortunate stigma of the market is that most books have frequent grammar, spelling, and formatting issue. It is clear Vasicek spent a good deal of time perfecting this novel before putting it out on Kindle, which is a boon in and of itself. 

The basic concept of the book is that our main hero Michael has lived his whole life in a space station, in the shadow of his super-scientist father. When mankind opens an artificial wormhole and finds what appears to be an inhabitable planet on the other side, Michael accepts the task of going through with the only other crewmember, Terra, to discover the planet and basically see what's up. 

The initial chemistry (or lack thereof; they bicker frequently) between Michael and Terra is extremely amusing, especially with Michael basically looking for symptoms of mental illness in the girl. That was probably the funnest part of the book, watching Michael and Terra play off each other as their completely different personalities clashed frequently. 

Once they arrive on the other side of the wormhole, things go from "interesting" to "weird" to "wait what?" There are several rather startling reveals throughout the book that kept me reading just to see what Vasicek would throw at me next. 

I only have two complaints with Genesis Earth. First, the eventual chemistry (read: romance) between Terra and Michael seems phoned in. While I can understand they are the only two people alone on this starship and there was pretty much no way at all the book would NOT hook them up, the situations that lead to their eventual romantic interest don't seem to merit the sudden rush of fondness they feel for each other. 

My second complaint was that the viewpoint character, while extremely technologically competent (which I am thankful for; I know nothing about sci-fi) came off as dry in several parts. I can understand it being his personality, but frankly his dead-panning of certain climactic scenes sort of took the wind out of the book's sails. I think it would be AWESOME to read this book from Terra's viewpoint, as she is both unstable and incredibly interesting. 

Overall, if you are an avid indie reader, you really should pick this book up. It's a rather bright beacon of quality amongst a dark expanse of mediocrity. Even if you don't like sci-fi it should certainly be worth investigating, as the story is riveting and characters captivating. 

Also, I kept humming "The Final Countdown" by Europe every time their spaceships were flying around. Is that weird? Whatever.


Director's Cut!

Here are some random thoughts about the book that I didn't put in the review because they were stupid ideas.

- I kept waiting for one of the characters to turn into this crazy, psycho murderer that stalked the starship like on Sunshine. Then I realized there were only two characters so that made no sense.

- I also kept waiting for a Planet of the Apes moment where they land on the planet and are like, "THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!" Thankfully, that didn't happen either.

- I wasn't lying about the Final Countdown thing. Here, now YOU can listen to it.



- I've always been curious about faster then light travel, but no sci-fi games or movies really take into account the fact that if you travel that fast EVERYBODY ELSE GETS REALLY OLD. I liked how this book mentions that frequently.

- When you find out exactly where/when they are after going through the wormhole...it's pretty dang epic. Just saying, I didn't see that twist coming.

- I'm in Space. SPPPAAACCEE!!!

(stop at 3:30 unless you want to spoil Portal 2's ending)