Neptune Crossing (Book 1)
John Bandicut is having a rough life. He lost his family in a tragic accident. He suffered a botched medical procedure that left him prone to psychotic episodes. If that isn’t enough, an alien on a suicide mission inhabited his brain and conscripted him into service. When the voice in his head tells him what he must do, he has a choice: play it safe and risk losing everything or take a leap of faith that will almost certainly cost him his life.
Neptune Crossing has moments of high tension and intense action metered by the hum-drum existence in an outer solar system mining operation. I enjoyed this story overall. The ending left me a bit hollow but in all fairness, this is book one in a six book series. The issue I had with the ending may well be resolved deeper into The Chaos Chronicles.
Strange Attractors (Book 2)
John Bandicut is on a grand adventure. After being pressed into service to save the Earth by the mysterious Translator in Neptune Crossing, he’s been hurdled out of the galaxy to an immense ship-world where he faces a threat as great as a killer asteroid but with an intelligence behind it. Along with the alien consciousness that lives in his head, Bandicut and his company of new friends risk it all to save the strange world where they’ve been stranded.
Carver has a knack for writing extended action scenes that make me feel like I’m on a runaway roller coaster ride. This book was no exception in that area. I thoroughly enjoyed Strange Attractors and I’m already reading book three, The Infinite Sea.
On a side note, I see a possible solution to the issue I had with the ending of Neptune Crossing. As I read the final pages of Strange Attractors, I had to pump my fist in the air and shout, “Yes!”
The Infinite Sea (Book 3)
John Bandicut is in over his head this time, deep under an alien sea. In book three of the Chaos Chronicles, he and his company of friends have been tasked with settling a dispute between people of the sea, and land dwellers while trying to figure out what mysterious force living at the bottom of the abyss is trying to kill them all.
The under-sea habitat and cramped submarines in this story kept me feeling the need to seek wide open spaces and fresh air.
Carver tossed in a few snippets from the life of a character from book one and I believe that the story is only going to get more interesting from here on out. I’m looking forward to starting book four.
(reviewed 2 years after purchase)