Nexus (Sontem Trilogy Book 1)

I’ll be honest: I’m not normally a fan of books written in the first person perspective. With few exceptions I find the style to be an excuse for lazy, sloppy writing. It’s a simplistic form and explains why so many young adult authors choose it. But I’m thankful that “Nexus” fits into that rare category of first person books I genuinely enjoyed. The writing has punch, flows nicely and is frequently witty. The dialogue is also clever and wonderfully well written.“Nexus” follows the story of humanity’s second ship built to journey into interstellar space to contact alien species and develop beneficial (hint: financial) relations. This ship doesn’t represent a government agency or humanity as a whole, however; it’s owned and operated solely by a company. This fact creates a considerable difference in policy and results in much tension. It’s interesting to explore the behaviors of those on board this vessel and how they interact with one another. They’ve essentially signed up for a lifelong voyage, which results in conflicts as you might imagine. How those viewpoints play out represents much of this novel and it’s intriguing to read. Likewise they begin to question whether or not to adhere to the company’s mandate. These issues, along with conflicting opinions, play out in a fascinating, believable way.I very much enjoyed the hard science component. This is no space opera with starships flinging across the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds. Technology feels realistic. The aliens are also unique. These aren’t the aliens seen all too often in science fiction, where they’re identical to humans except for skin colour or pointy ears. The few alien species we meet are unusual in a refreshing way, with adaptations and sensibilities that match the oddities of their worlds. The Romaleons in particular are a fascinating species that evolved peculiar traits due to their home. Wilson’s chosen names for species and planets are also well considered and symbolic, taking into account mythology as well as flora and fauna on Earth.Captain Anderson Grant shouldn’t be likeable. He’s sometimes a jerk and almost always crude. But for some strange reason that I still can’t grasp, he’s actually a charming character. He’s certainly a real person, with flaws, doubts and insecurities. This serves to make him even more appealing as he grapples with problems large and small. He isn’t a stereotypical hero who can make everything right with a motivational speech. In fact, he often sticks his foot in his mouth and makes things worse. But he’s all the more likeable for it. What is strange is the fact that not once in the entire novel is his name written (other than a brief mention of Anderson and one Drew). The only reason I know his last name is from the book summary. I find it rather unrealistic that even the people he cares about most, and has a past with, never speak his name even in private.There are some flaws though. As another reviewer mentioned, it can be confusing to follow particular characters owing to Wilson’s choice to often avoid names and use division instead. It does come across a little awkward and takes some time to even understand who’s being referred to. Even after finishing the novel I have no idea what some character names were, because we almost only ever see MedDiv for instance, rather than learning the name of the medical division head.My biggest gripe has to do with the fact that it seems every single character is making crude sexual references and jokes. I understand many people are like that, but there are others who become uncomfortable with a sexual discussion. Yet those people don’t ever appear. It’d be more realistic to have a few who cringe and become flustered or embarrassed when the other characters make dirty jokes. Instead everyone’s happy to utter a crude remark, whether an officer, engineer, psychiatrist or human resources company representative. The amount of sexual references can also sometimes be over the top. I’m not a prude by any stretch, but when practically every conversation contains something it becomes excessive. It certainly reached the point of being tiring. This is especially a shame since most conversations are otherwise beautifully written. A random sex joke in the middle of an emotional or professional discussion detracts from the conversation’s merit. At one point while a team of high ranking personnel is examining a newly encountered alien species, the head scientist started discussing how much he wanted to have sex with one of the females. It was wildly inappropriate, but everyone went along with it.Those flaws are minor compared to the whole. If you’re looking for an epic space opera with grand battles and shooting lasers, this isn’t the book for you. This is a slower, more thought provoking story about journeying into the stars and questioning that role. It’s an interpersonal tale that raises questions about what it means to be human and to determine your morality when others have none.

I really like this author. I have read everything of his I can get my grubby hands on since discovering him on bookbub. He is a very talented story teller, and this book in no exception.This boom starts off the trilogy, and introduces you to the crew of the Nexus. If you read his short stories in the wildly popular Chronicle series books (AI, Alien, Z, Robot, Dragon, Alt History, ect) offered on Amazon, you might have ran across a few of the crew members in various precarious situations. Well this is the starting ship.It tells the tale of a captian and his ship, and just how far he would go to keep his people safe. It shows how loyalty can be a two sided knife. The captian's loyalty and commitment to his crew puts him at odds with his loyalties and commitment to his employer.It is dilemmas like this, along with outstanding character development, quirky dialog, and amazing world-building, that make this book and trilogy (so far) stand out.

This story was sometimes hard for me to follow. The characters were referred to by their division, rather than names. So who exactly and what type of person this was became confusing to me. After a time though, I could differentiate each one, just wish they would have had real names. Just sayin...The dialogue was another nerve rattling part. Many adult books have sexual innuendos and even explicit scenes, but this book was rife with sex talk, scenes and innuendos, which wasn't my cup of tea at all.The story itself was good and could have been done very well without all the added language. I actually think the baseline of the story could very well have been added to an episode of like a star trek series. Should the trilogy continue, I would like to see more of the story and less of the unneeded sexual explicit words.The author writes well, and will undoubtedly have great success with his writing career. I would love to read another of his books, especially without the constant sexual language, because just the story in this one book alone was worth the read. It took you and quite an adventure with clever and creative alien encounters and expeditions.I would only recommend this book to those who don't care about the added language and want to read a great sci-fi story. I would highly recommend reading Nic's books if you want to read a great story written by an accomplished author.

Nexus is a huge spaceship sent from Earth to further explore the universe, and subdue aliens, Standard scifi then? Far from it. The narrator is the arrogant, bullying, sex-obsessed captain, who gets away with his behaviour because of his sense of humour and intelligence. His value as the captain becomes evident not so much when he is pistol-wielding his attacks on bear-like or other weird aliens but when he instigates a momentous decision cusp in the plot about three-quarters way through. The need for that change and its consequences lift the erstwhile misogynistic captain to a new level. Until that point we don’t even know his name even though he is the narrator.I am as interested in sex as the next deviant but to see it as innuendo or described three times a page for over 300 pages when I’m relaxing into a scifi novel. There, I’m sure that comment will sell copies!Besides the sex, the other main feature of the writing style is the captain’s wry sense of humour. I like it though his puns can be cringe-worthy. Better examples are:'I missed the bed by a foot, but the floor was surprisingly comfortable.' I imagine the constant use of abbreviations, admittedly often used in military institutions, is also meant humorously. I will let readers work these out (as the writer does) NavDiv, EngDiv, SecDiv, SecOff, BacFarm and SecDet. Easy, and sometimes fun to work out but it can lift the reader out of the fiction dream especially when placed close together as in “...PsychDiv would ask MedDiv to castrate me if I traumatized one of your SecOffs...”Nicolas Wilson also goes a little OTT with his quasi-scientific and engineering explanations. Don’t get me wrong, I know plenty of scifi readers who love knowing the nitty-gritty details but sometimes, as Santiago says to our captain, “It’s a little insulting getting a chemistry lesson in baby-talk, but ... is how your mind operates.” Haha, yes and we readers agree! That’s not meant to be negative. I’m having fun, and there are keen moments worth quoting too. Eg “I’ve often found that men who want power least, exercise it best.” And, “Telepathy’s a known unknown.” Both I might quote on Twitter. The latter quote is an example of the narrator’s penchant for echoing his own words but there’s plenty of names and incidents that nerdy readers will recognize as possible homage to classic Sci Fi. Eg Santiago from Mike Resnick’s best selling novel, Haley as the ship’s AI.I like the approach to first contact in this book. Drop a Commbox onto the planet and wait for the locals to learn English or for the box’s translator to successfully do its job, before landing with guns. Trouble is the latter always seemed to happen, bringing me to an issue I have with most scifi novels. The aliens are not alien enough. They have the same kind of hierarchical structure as on Earth down to Kings, nobles and captains. Yes, they are single-celled, or weird-looking but within minutes of contact they are speaking and acting like Americans even down to idioms and references to American TV shows and history. In Nexus we have an alien captain saying “They’re not going to nickel and dime us to death.” What? And they use pistols that our captain can just pick up and use with a trigger and “it’s safety is off”. Haha, groan.Overall, Nexus is full of ideas, sex, fights and intelligence that should appeal to most scifi readers.

I missed out on some of the American humour. How to describe it? In keeping with the books style...Insurrection, Wacky Races, "Invasion of the sex crazed telepathic alien"

Nexus tells the tale of a starship carrying hundreds of crew that heads into the galaxy to seek out new life and new civilisations – and make mining treaties for the benefit of the corporation who sent them out. Their captain is a sex-obsessed smart-arse and the rest of the crew aren't much better. I found myself irresistably imagining Carry on Star Trek for the first half of the novel (for the non-Brits reading this, the Carry On films were a series of innuendo-laden comedies – Nexus has much the same feel, with vast numbers of sexual references, fleeting nudity and efforts at humour, but no actual sex scenes). The novel has no underlying narrative thrust and feels like a clutch of episodes run together. Despite the Star Trek vibes, the majority of the events are shipboard, with only four somewhat sketchily described alien worlds visited – the core of the story is the interaction between the characters stuck on a ship for the long haul. The captain's view is that the majority of that interaction involves sex. He also (in best Captain Kirk mode) gets involved with a sexy alien telepath – the consideration of the rest of the ship's response to her is one of the most interesting themes of the novel. As the book continues, the ethical and philosophical questions of the future of the crew and of their obligations to their parent corporation take centre stage, leading to a finale that heads onwards in the hopes of a sequel. The writing is good and witty in places, and has a nice line in SF references. It loses a star for the lack of narrative drive, but the growing humanity of the characters as the ship travels on compensates for this to some extent. Not perfect by any means, and the obsession with sex can become a little wearing at times (even the aliens seem sex-obsessed in human ways), but still more original than most Star Trek lookalikes.

I really had no idea what to expect when I began reading this novel and I don't think anything could have prepared me for what I found.I have never read anything quite like this and so it is difficult to pigeon-hole it if that is why you are reading this review.Set in space aboard a human spacecraft, this story is amusing as well as full of sci-fi interest. The humour comes from the amount of sexual innuendo which permeates throughout the pages. This is very tongue in cheek as the characters are able to read the minds of their colleagues so no secret or desire is safe.The sci-fi element comes from the journey this spacecraft takes as they travel through the galaxy coming into contact with a variety of aliens, some friendly and some not so friendly.If you like a light-hearted read and have an interest in the space age then this book is recommended to you.