Outer Domain by Terence Thomas
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and First Edition Design Publishing for providing me with an ARC of Outer Domain in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Gist
Outer Domain has been on my NetGalley reading list for a few years and at some point I started reading it, but had to stop because life kind of took over.
I’m not a fan of having to abandon a book mid-chapter, but sometimes it can’t be helped. So, once again I’m full of determination to keep up with my readings and reviews because they truly help me relax, and I am going to plunge head first into this new/old task.
The Details
As most enthusiasts of the Sci-fi genre, I appreciate a good space travel/adventure story. Give me spaceships, far-distant places in the unexplored galaxy, high-tech thingamabobs that create gravity out of thin air and computers that are so advanced they make our head spin.
Yup, I’m a bit of a nerd.
Anyway, I also appreciate good storytelling. The typical tropes of a story must be present for me to enjoy it. Heck, for me to be able to understand what is going on in the story.
This is where this review gets complicated. You see, Outer Domain felt more like a first draft for lack of a better word.
Outer Domain, the edition that sat before me, had good potential, if it had been taken back to the editing table. This is not a bad thing. As I have said before, editing is every writer’s friend, make use of it.
The story started so abruptly that I had no idea where we were or what was actually going on. It would have been beneficial, if the first chapter had been separated into and focused primarily on establishing the characters. Instead we had some characters, some mission or not, a whole lot of tech talk and some sort of new problem. Huh? I was thoroughly confused.
The narration jumped from time and place and character. That which could have been fleshed out to make this story more vivid was rushed through just in order to get to the next point.
On top of that, I wasn’t even sure who the main character and narrator was.
The dialogue was either completely missing or was used exclusively to explain large amounts of technology related information. It was also awkward and lacked an organic flow.
The Verdict
Overall, Outer Domain needed some work. I don’t want to sound patronising or come across as if I am lecturing the author of this story; however, if I have one piece of advice to give, it would be to slow down.
Anybody reading Outer Domain could tell that the author was very enthusiastic about the story. Sometimes that enthusiasm reflects in a rather rushed and unfinished story that leaves the reader more puzzled than entertained.
Sadly, this didn’t scratch my Sci-Fi itch.
