A review by tyrshand
The Aleph Extraction by Dan Moren

3.0

I wonder if I'd have enjoyed this one better if I had read the first novel. The story stands pretty well on its own, but it consistently had me wondering how the rest of the universe worked. The spy hijinks are fun, though the team members are a bit vague in appearance and personality. The world building is slight, as is setting -- to me, the difference is that use of setting could have given the novel a sci-fi feel apart from the world building. I felt like the first half of the book could have taken place anywhere. Yes, they say they are going to a city sized spaceship... But they just end up there. And they meet a contact in a coffee shop. They go to a casino. They hang out in a hotel. What technology is mentioned could have been in a James Bond film. They may as well have been in Monte Carlo. The latter half does ramp up the sci-fi usage, though, even then, without the world building there's no way to anticipate how the technology will actually work in the caper.