A review by pjonsson
Destiny Lost by M.D. Cooper

5.0

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I did not really know anything about this book series nor about the universe, Aeon 14, that the book and series is apparently part of. When it popped up on my radar the blurb interested me and I also though that maybe it cannot be all bad since there seems to be quite a few book in this universe. Not that the latter is always a guarantee that the book(s) are any good though.

This is what I would describe as pretty hard core science fiction and space opera. I do not mean hard core as in everything being hard science never deviating from the realm of realism but rather that it is very science based. Implants, AI’s, nano-tech and more science “stuff” is abundant in this book.

A lot of the technology is of course designed to make things go boom. There is indeed quite a bit of action in the book. Not just blow things up action but everything from hand to hand combat (with a lot of technology thrown in) to throwing shit at each other in space. All of it is well done and quite believable. In the context of a science fiction story that is.

Sera and Tanis are the two main protagonists and they are both two lovely kick-ass women who’s characters contribute a lot to my enjoyment of this book.

The book is set in a post apocalyptic world of sorts. I say “of sorts” since it is not really the kind of post apocalyptic world where everything is a nuclear wasteland but it is clear that bad things has happened in the past and humanity is rebuilding. Well part of humanity at least.

This first book is doing a lot of work in setting up the universe, characters and major players. The world is quite well done and fairly detailed. The dialogue between the various characters are well done and works well to move the story forward.

This is definitely space opera as opposed to one persons story. Almost everyone has some past history and, as the story advances, it is clear that there are several mayor players that are about to clash some time in the near to medium term future.

I am looking forward to read more books in this series.