Zero: Mech. Chronicles

Although written in a simple manner with little in the way of worldbuilding or charcter development, this is a really enjoyable fast paced bit of escapism. And because the protagonist Jack / Zero is shown to have a conscience and genuinely tries to do the right thing (often bumbling and getting it wrong), this story has both humour and heart and is so much better than the usual gun porn of most military sci fi. First in a series.

Barely 3 stars (I've had my coffee so I'll round up). I didn't particularly dislike this book but I can't say I liked it very much either. First of all, the e-copy is severely damaged and none of the usual 'free flowing text' works at all (my copy even has two copies of the same book in it). If the book hadn't been free, I'd be very irritated (you get what you pay for, huh?). More importantly, the writing is abrupt and the descriptives in key sections non-existent. Moon has an interesting story to tell - which in many ways is reminiscent (read: a poor man's version) of John Scalzi's amazing 'Old Man's War' series - but seems in a rush to get it finished. I mean, we're on one planet for only a few pages? It seems like that entire scenario could have been handled in much more depth. The characters - or better said the mech characters - are developed fairly well but the rest of the Universe and its local inhabitants are not given nearly enough examination. If we're looking at intergalatic war and eventually deciding who is in the right and who is in the wrong, we need a little more than the occasional grumpy being of higher (?) intelligence. And someone correct me if I'm wrong but how did we get from 800!!! years travel to a situation where humans have been working with the 'bad guys' for only 40 years??? The whole loss of continuation sat with me from the beginning to the end and I'm not sure I want to keep reading this series to see if that mystery gets solved. In terms of continuing, I have another Moon book on file - "Apex" - and if its any good, I may consider looking at Book 2.0 in our mech series. But for now, with such an unsatisfying cliff-hanger ending, I'm not going to prioritize it very much.

Pretty short and an easy read. Very original, but the writing style can be choppy. The Play download had the book twice, 600+ pages but literally word for word the entire story twice. Obviously a technical glitch.