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trinforeman's review against another edition
4.0
This book is a thrill ride from start to finish. Really enjoyed it. I'm always looking for books that give me a Mass Effect vibe and this one definitely does. I will likely continue with this series.
For my full thoughts, check out my upcoming videos where I will talk about all of the SPSFC semifinalists.
For my full thoughts, check out my upcoming videos where I will talk about all of the SPSFC semifinalists.
peterpeter's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Oh I really liked this! Those Left Behind was the perfect book to scratch my space opera itch. Think almost the Stargate franchise meets The Expanse. It does. A lot of world building and opens a lot of questions, but keeps it all nice and tidy with the characters holding the story together.
Based on what I’ve heard about the struggles to get this published, I have no clue how a publisher didn’t want to buy this story. But I’m so happy N. C. Scrimgeour persisted and managed to self-publish! I seriously cannot wait to read the sequels!
Based on what I’ve heard about the struggles to get this published, I have no clue how a publisher didn’t want to buy this story. But I’m so happy N. C. Scrimgeour persisted and managed to self-publish! I seriously cannot wait to read the sequels!
szeththeassassin's review against another edition
Please read my review at the following link:
https://escapistbookcompany.com/2023/01/09/spsfc-review-those-left-behind-the-waystations-trilogy-1-by-n-c-scrimgeour/
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!
https://escapistbookcompany.com/2023/01/09/spsfc-review-those-left-behind-the-waystations-trilogy-1-by-n-c-scrimgeour/
Thank you for taking the time to read my review. As always, happy reading and Stay Great!!
bory's review against another edition
4.0
4,5 stars.
I love this book. I love the characters, from Alvera and Chase to Rivus. If I were forced to choose, I would say that Alvera and Ridley are tied for the number one spot, though Riley's apparent budding relationship with Halressan and her vast neerdiness might just endear her to me more than Alvera's determination and ruthlessness does, but not by much.
Are there problems? Sure. Kojan can and does come off as overly naive at times, and the surrounding cast around Niole, notably Serric, can be a tad grading. The Idran-Var's philosophy doesn't make much sense. But the mystery at the core of the story is intriguing and, honestly, I can't wait to see what is coming next.
My largest gripe with Those Left Behind is that in ends up on several cliffhangers. I get that this is the first book in a trilogy, but I'm a big believer in the idea that each installment in a series needs to be able to stands on its own, and Those Left Behind suffers from too much set up and not enough payoff.
I love this book. I love the characters, from Alvera and Chase to Rivus. If I were forced to choose, I would say that Alvera and Ridley are tied for the number one spot, though Riley's apparent budding relationship with Halressan and her vast neerdiness might just endear her to me more than Alvera's determination and ruthlessness does, but not by much.
Are there problems? Sure. Kojan can and does come off as overly naive at times, and the surrounding cast around Niole, notably Serric, can be a tad grading. The Idran-Var's philosophy doesn't make much sense. But the mystery at the core of the story is intriguing and, honestly, I can't wait to see what is coming next.
My largest gripe with Those Left Behind is that in ends up on several cliffhangers. I get that this is the first book in a trilogy, but I'm a big believer in the idea that each installment in a series needs to be able to stands on its own, and Those Left Behind suffers from too much set up and not enough payoff.
hootinglance's review
3.0
Abridged version: Those Left Behind by N.C. Scrimgeour is a classic-feeling science fiction story that is simultaneously too long and too short. The book is split amongst five POV characters, each of which goes on a completely different and distinct journeys reminiscent of classic science fantasy series such as Star Wars or Firefly. It's clear that the author is a big fan of these properties and others, but unfortunately this resulted in a lack of focus, and none of the characters get enough time to properly complete their stories, even after 300 pages. Furthermore, the author has not make this an easy read: a plethora of sci-fi names and terms without reminding hints as to what they mean, make this into a frustrating read. They also made the baffling decision to not depict several pivotal scenes, having them occur off-screen or between chapters, only for a character to literally tell not show them to the reader later. This was a frustrating read, and if I wasn’t intending to review it, I would not have finished it.
Full Thoughts (spoilers)
Those Left Behind feels like a classic science fiction story, like a movie from the 90’s of 00’s that you somehow never watched before, or a reboot of some classic science fiction series. Several characters leave an overpopulated cyberpunk world via a stargate and find themselves on the space station from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The crew finds out that there’s a whole Star Wars style galaxy out there, but before Firefly-style adventures can begin, a mutiny scatters the team into their own distinct stories. They all wander around for another 250 pages, and then the book ends. One goes and hangs out at Jabba the Hutt’s palace, one goes to hang out in a swamp with a lizard, one gets captured and sent to a human world. There’s also a side story with a jedi who escaped order 66, who gets recruited to join up with a sith warrior. Again, there are five POV characters, each of which tells a very different story in roughly five chapters each. This results in a book that is way too long, but also too short for any of the characters to tell a complete story. It also makes it hard to remember what’s happening for each of the characters, since its been 50 pages since their last chapter, and since then they’ve hopped over to a different planet.
In fact it's extremely hard to keep track of anything in the book. Props to the author for going all-out on their world-building, but there is a plethora of character names, species names, places, proper nouns and slang terms, all of which are explained once and never again. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of whats a dachryn or a rivus or a siloean or a idran-var. What's a headtail? How are you meant to pronounce 'sletes' It’s incredibly frustrating to be half way through a 300 page book, and unable to remember if Alvera is the one who has the AI, or the AI itself, or the prince, or the racist. Orjara is introduced as the big bad, but by the time she becomes important several chapters later, I’ve forgotten who Orjara is. There are no explanatory sentences designed to quickly remind the reader who they are. For Orjara in particular this is annoying because she’s the mother of one of the characters, and it would be so easy to utilise this for a quick reminder to the reader ("his mother had escaped!") but her son is pissy at her so only refers to her by her first name. As another example, one of the characters has an AI that lives in their mechanical implants. The AI can jump from character to character (which makes it useless as a character identifier), and can talk to them inside their heads. There is no stylistic difference between the thoughts of the POV character and the voice of the AI when they’re talking this way. No quotation marks, nothing. Why? Why make it harder for the reader to understand the text?
Consider the following passage, wherein the AI talks with one of the other characters.
Keep it in your head, idiot. You never know who might be monitoring the feeds. I know I’m not meant to jump into your cybernetics without asking, but given the circumstances I figured you’d forgive me.
Never thought I’d be glad to hear your voice. But how are you here?
Unlike you, I’m not a complete fool.
There are several ways this could be edited so that its easier for the reader to understand who is speaking, This is a long book, that constantly switches POV and utilises a plethora of made up terms and names the audience is expected to understand - you need to give them all the help you can to prevent it from getting frustrating.
I commented earlier that the book is both too long and too short. This is never more blatant than with the character Ripley, who is the first POV character (and in my opinion should have been the only POV character.) is a poor-turned-rich translator who we’re told is special because not only were they able to rise above their station, but also because they rely on only minimal technological implants. Unfortunately for the character, as soon as the crew go through the stargate, they all get equipped with babel fish universal translators and suddenly the girl hired as a translator is completely made redundant and the character is wasted.
Anyway, Ripley is left on the ship, while several other characters meet with the Federation. During the meeting, we’re first told that Oraja is behaving weirdly, and then that she’s successfully committed mutiny and taken over the ship, killing dozens of people along the way. Oraja calls the Federation and claims that she was actually the commander all along, to which the Federation shrug and say ‘seems legit’, forcing the main crew to scatter and go on the run. Putting aside that this is a very flimsy plot (did the ship not have cameras? Or records of her incarceration? Why did they bring Oraja along at all? Was no one suspicious of the dead bodies? Why were they so quick to turn on the folks who were piloting the ship when they first met them? Do they not have trials or investigations in this galaxy?), it's noted that Ripley was able to survive the mutiny and slink away. So my question is: why was there not a chapter, in Ripley’s POV, when we could have experienced the mutiny? Why was it done off screen? It would have been extremely exciting and compelling, we would have been able to meet Oraja and see why she was such a scary bad guy, and we would have been able to see her goons being good at their job. This all would have made the reader much more invested, as we’d have seen how effective and scary the bad guys were. Instead you told us about it. You had the inciting incident happen off-screen.
And this isn't the only time they do this! In one of Ripley’s later chapters, she’s in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. Jabba is about to buy some rare artifact, when Ripley uses her skill as a translator to realise the artifact is a fake, despite the auto translators thinking it was legit. In response Jabba kills the guy selling them the artifact, and promotes Ripley. This is a scene in which Ripley uses her unique skills and abilities to increase her standing in the organization and progress the plot, and in doing so realizes just how dangerous a situation she’s gotten herself into. AND THIS HAPPENS OFF SCREEN! WE’RE TOLD ABOUT THIS IN PAST TENSE! WHY? If this was a television show, I’d have thought Ripley’s actor had pissed the writers off so they were writing her out of the show.
This book is in need of a revision. A couple more chapters (ugh) from Ripley’s perspective to in those pivotal scenes. A few more descriptive sentences at the start of chapters to let the reader know who is the POV. In future, I’d like to see the author limit the number of POV characters, and try focusing on individuals for the whole story, be it a 50k novella or a 300 page book, rather than splitting up the novel up into five distinct stories. There’s a lot of creativity here, but there’s also a lot of frustration, and when you wear your influences so blatantly on your sleeve, I’m probably more inclined to ditch your book and go back to one of those influences, rather than persist through the frustration.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Full Thoughts (spoilers)
Those Left Behind feels like a classic science fiction story, like a movie from the 90’s of 00’s that you somehow never watched before, or a reboot of some classic science fiction series. Several characters leave an overpopulated cyberpunk world via a stargate and find themselves on the space station from Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The crew finds out that there’s a whole Star Wars style galaxy out there, but before Firefly-style adventures can begin, a mutiny scatters the team into their own distinct stories. They all wander around for another 250 pages, and then the book ends. One goes and hangs out at Jabba the Hutt’s palace, one goes to hang out in a swamp with a lizard, one gets captured and sent to a human world. There’s also a side story with a jedi who escaped order 66, who gets recruited to join up with a sith warrior. Again, there are five POV characters, each of which tells a very different story in roughly five chapters each. This results in a book that is way too long, but also too short for any of the characters to tell a complete story. It also makes it hard to remember what’s happening for each of the characters, since its been 50 pages since their last chapter, and since then they’ve hopped over to a different planet.
In fact it's extremely hard to keep track of anything in the book. Props to the author for going all-out on their world-building, but there is a plethora of character names, species names, places, proper nouns and slang terms, all of which are explained once and never again. I had a lot of trouble keeping track of whats a dachryn or a rivus or a siloean or a idran-var. What's a headtail? How are you meant to pronounce 'sletes' It’s incredibly frustrating to be half way through a 300 page book, and unable to remember if Alvera is the one who has the AI, or the AI itself, or the prince, or the racist. Orjara is introduced as the big bad, but by the time she becomes important several chapters later, I’ve forgotten who Orjara is. There are no explanatory sentences designed to quickly remind the reader who they are. For Orjara in particular this is annoying because she’s the mother of one of the characters, and it would be so easy to utilise this for a quick reminder to the reader ("his mother had escaped!") but her son is pissy at her so only refers to her by her first name. As another example, one of the characters has an AI that lives in their mechanical implants. The AI can jump from character to character (which makes it useless as a character identifier), and can talk to them inside their heads. There is no stylistic difference between the thoughts of the POV character and the voice of the AI when they’re talking this way. No quotation marks, nothing. Why? Why make it harder for the reader to understand the text?
Consider the following passage, wherein the AI talks with one of the other characters.
Keep it in your head, idiot. You never know who might be monitoring the feeds. I know I’m not meant to jump into your cybernetics without asking, but given the circumstances I figured you’d forgive me.
Never thought I’d be glad to hear your voice. But how are you here?
Unlike you, I’m not a complete fool.
There are several ways this could be edited so that its easier for the reader to understand who is speaking, This is a long book, that constantly switches POV and utilises a plethora of made up terms and names the audience is expected to understand - you need to give them all the help you can to prevent it from getting frustrating.
I commented earlier that the book is both too long and too short. This is never more blatant than with the character Ripley, who is the first POV character (and in my opinion should have been the only POV character.) is a poor-turned-rich translator who we’re told is special because not only were they able to rise above their station, but also because they rely on only minimal technological implants. Unfortunately for the character, as soon as the crew go through the stargate, they all get equipped with babel fish universal translators and suddenly the girl hired as a translator is completely made redundant and the character is wasted.
Anyway, Ripley is left on the ship, while several other characters meet with the Federation. During the meeting, we’re first told that Oraja is behaving weirdly, and then that she’s successfully committed mutiny and taken over the ship, killing dozens of people along the way. Oraja calls the Federation and claims that she was actually the commander all along, to which the Federation shrug and say ‘seems legit’, forcing the main crew to scatter and go on the run. Putting aside that this is a very flimsy plot (did the ship not have cameras? Or records of her incarceration? Why did they bring Oraja along at all? Was no one suspicious of the dead bodies? Why were they so quick to turn on the folks who were piloting the ship when they first met them? Do they not have trials or investigations in this galaxy?), it's noted that Ripley was able to survive the mutiny and slink away. So my question is: why was there not a chapter, in Ripley’s POV, when we could have experienced the mutiny? Why was it done off screen? It would have been extremely exciting and compelling, we would have been able to meet Oraja and see why she was such a scary bad guy, and we would have been able to see her goons being good at their job. This all would have made the reader much more invested, as we’d have seen how effective and scary the bad guys were. Instead you told us about it. You had the inciting incident happen off-screen.
And this isn't the only time they do this! In one of Ripley’s later chapters, she’s in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. Jabba is about to buy some rare artifact, when Ripley uses her skill as a translator to realise the artifact is a fake, despite the auto translators thinking it was legit. In response Jabba kills the guy selling them the artifact, and promotes Ripley. This is a scene in which Ripley uses her unique skills and abilities to increase her standing in the organization and progress the plot, and in doing so realizes just how dangerous a situation she’s gotten herself into. AND THIS HAPPENS OFF SCREEN! WE’RE TOLD ABOUT THIS IN PAST TENSE! WHY? If this was a television show, I’d have thought Ripley’s actor had pissed the writers off so they were writing her out of the show.
This book is in need of a revision. A couple more chapters (ugh) from Ripley’s perspective to in those pivotal scenes. A few more descriptive sentences at the start of chapters to let the reader know who is the POV. In future, I’d like to see the author limit the number of POV characters, and try focusing on individuals for the whole story, be it a 50k novella or a 300 page book, rather than splitting up the novel up into five distinct stories. There’s a lot of creativity here, but there’s also a lot of frustration, and when you wear your influences so blatantly on your sleeve, I’m probably more inclined to ditch your book and go back to one of those influences, rather than persist through the frustration.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
franklywrites's review
5.0
This was a great read – one of the ones that get harder to put down the further you get. I love most of the characters, and I particularly loved the insight into the Iskaath, their culture and homeworld. There are some brilliant shades of grey in this, as well as absolute Evil with a capital E (but not the cringey moustache-twirling kind).
I was expecting events to move a little further in this book, but it was still very much an enjoyable read and I'm looking forwards to the next one. The only thing I was really left wondering about was.
Books with many PoVs sometimes leave you ambivalent about one of them, but I can honestly say I found everyone interesting. It felt like it hit the Goldilocks zone there.
I was expecting events to move a little further in this book, but it was still very much an enjoyable read and I'm looking forwards to the next one. The only thing I was really left wondering about was
Spoiler
why Chase couldn't have just sent the footage of a certain heinous act to the powers that beBooks with many PoVs sometimes leave you ambivalent about one of them, but I can honestly say I found everyone interesting. It felt like it hit the Goldilocks zone there.
kristy_gardner's review
5.0
Those Left Behind is fantastic. It was both sci-fi nerdy AND approachable - I was highly entertained through the entire thing, and a little sad when it ended. I actually had to put it in another room so I'd leave it alone and focus on work. I'm usually a little afraid of multiple POVs; I have trouble keeping the characters straight. But this story is well written and the voices are distinct. Scrimgeour has written something special here and I cannot WAIT for the next one in the series. If you're into thoughtful sci-fi and character-driven stories, this book should be on your list (and then in your hands - read it!)
thetarantulalounge's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Those Left Behind is the first book in N. C. Scrimgeour’s “Waystations trilogy.” The first two books are available in paperback and on Kindle Unlimited if that’s your jam.
I was scrolling through TikTok the other night, trying to ignore the impending doom of our planet and my own cold dead heart, when author N.C. Scrimgeour’s account popped up. “Do you like Mass Effect and The Mandalorian?” the video asked. Of course I do! I promptly added the Waystations trilogy to my To Read shelf, and girded my loins for some space opera. Once I got my hands on the book, I was not disappointed. In fact, I had a blast reading through book one!
Scrimgeour has a great grasp (and love for) the characters and scenarios that can make science fiction so much fun: the meeting of distant past and future, a la Alien or Mass Effect. The Expanse’s political intrigue and shifting alliances. Planet hopping and world exploring in the style of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect video game series. Huntin’ bounties like Mando. While you can feel the influence of lots of classic and contemporary sci-fi, the book didn’t feel derivative but rather conversant in and conversing with the genre.
Here’s the story – humanity lives on a planet called New Pallas. Which, of course, humanity basically destroys through poor planning and greed. (Whoops! Our bad!) To survive, humans zoom off into space. They find that they are NOT alone, and that they do not have a monopoly on ruining planets and existential crises.
Scrimgeour quickly but richly creates a galaxy teeming with alien cultures, each with their own planets, values, history, flaws, and strengths. Despite the scale, I found myself genuinely caring about the individual stories of at least four or five characters. It’s impressive that happened so quickly in the trilogy. I found myself staying up later and later because I wanted to see what they got up to next. Is there a better compliment than sleep deprivation? Yes – your money! Buy this book and support an up and coming author!
Scrimgeour quickly but richly creates a galaxy teeming with alien cultures, each with their own planets, values, history, flaws, and strengths. Despite the scale, I found myself genuinely caring about the individual stories of at least four or five characters. It’s impressive that happened so quickly in the trilogy. I found myself staying up later and later because I wanted to see what they got up to next. Is there a better compliment than sleep deprivation? Yes – your money! Buy this book and support an up and coming author!
rocabarraigh's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
chezzreads's review
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0