![The Star Agency (The Star Agency Chronicles Book 1) by [Weber, R.E.]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5107g-CjpNL.jpg?resize=425%2C638&ssl=1)
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BLURB:
Winner of the IBD “Indie Book of the Day” award for May 19th 2014.
So many of us dream of another life – a life of excitement and danger.
What if, in the darkest depths of despair, you suddenly had a chance to live that life?
Would you have the courage to chase that dream, even if you had to leave your friends, family and everything you knew behind?
Would you take that chance?
Theopolis James Logan is about to get that chance.
The Universe is about to come knocking on his door.
The Star Agency is book 1 of The Star Agency Chronicles, an Interstellar secret agent adventure aimed at readers aged 9 and above.
MY REVIEW:
Another book from my dusty 2015 TBR pile. Can an ebook get dusty? This tale was supposedly written for pre-teens, but I found parts that were too technical for a pre-teens attention span. Heck, they bored me to death too. If you like hard sci-fi, this would be up your alley.
When I started reading the story, it reminded me too much of my first efforts. Which is not a good thing. I’m actually surprised it won an award written this way. I can tell it’s never been through an editor or proofreader’s hands as the writing is weak and repetitive. I almost gave up on it several times, but it had a good story line, so I pushed on. Since this book has been on in my TBR pile for so long, I did go and look at the sample on Amazon, hoping a cleaner edition had been published. Nope. Nada.
This is a long story that starts on Earth where Theo’s trying to deal with the recent death of his grandfather, the person he’s lived with most of his young life. Weber does have a unique take on how Theo ends up being invited to join an alien agency out in space. The technology Weber envisions is our possible future. But, Weber goes into too much detail about the technology. Like I said before, if you like hard sci-fi, you would love this stuff. Unfortunately, most of it could’ve been edited out as it did not advance the plot, but bogged down the flow of the story.
The different species Theo finds on Polisium Prime are also unique and different. His instructors are Orientator and First Mentor, two opposite personalities. Theo also meets up with several other children that were invited from Earth to become emissaries for their planet. Even though they were from different countries, they all talked like Theo, which only made them an extension of himself. There is a somewhat love interest between Theo and Ruby, but when a new girl is introduced at the end, all eyes are on her. Kinda a typical teen romance we see everywhere. The girl the boy should be with isn’t the one he wants, until the end, which we won’t know unless we buy the next book.
Once Theo goes on his first secret mission, the action really ramps up. Well, as much as it can with weak writing. There is a prologue in the book that is actually where the action starts, and I wonder if the story shouldn’t have started there to begin with. That’s what a good editor is for. Anyway, Theo has many choices to make and there are a lot of unanswered questions. Sadly, I won’t be going forward with the series.
If you love a romp through space to meet some interesting alien life-forms, and you don’t mind needless prose, you might find this story entertaining. I give it 3 space ships.
