Escape Velocity by Jess Anastasi Also by this author: Damage Control
Published by Macmillan on February 2nd 2015
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, General
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781633751453
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Rebuilding his life. And rediscovering love...
Ilari, Brannon System, 2436
At first, Dr. Sacha Dalton is simply curious about the prisoner of war admitted to her med-lab...until she sees who it is. For Commander Kai Yang--the commander of the battleship Valiant Knox--has long been thought dead. Killed in action. But after almost a year and half, he's returned home. Returned to her.
Kai is recovering from his ordeal and under the watchful care of Sacha, his childhood friend and the widow of his best friend. Only now, their friendship has grown and deepened into something far deeper, and far more complicated. Yet as Kai's body recovers, his psyche remains broken. How could he ever be the man he was, and the man Sacha deserves? But an intergalactic war has a way of forcing a man to be the hero he was always meant to be...
War wages in the science fiction world that Jess Anastasi has built in Escape Velocity. The war happens to be a faith based one. The faith is not pseudo religion, but the author has co opted Christianity, as the faith that the bad guys are using to wage war. War in Anastasi books is no different in 2436, than war in the twenty-first century where people are killed or wounded because ideologies, or faith, or for land and resources.
The reader of Escape Velocity, is plunged directly into a POW camp, where Commander Kai Yang is being held by the enemy forces. The book is set in 2436 and the opposing forces are the United Earth Forces (UEF); which Kai Yang is apart of, and the CSS which stands for Christ’s Sunday Soldiers. As the reader I needed some background on the conflict, which the author did not provide. I had no clue why these forces were fighting one another. As I gleaned enough to understand that the CSS were anti technology zealots based upon Christianity. The problem I have with the story is not the idea of future Christians causing a galactic holy war, it is that the author does not reveal the background to the war. We are told that the CSS abhors technology, but how are they able to fight an advanced force without using the latest technology and weapons. The war is taking place not only on planets, but also in space; which would require spaceships. In fact the author does not explain the politics of either side in the conflict. I had more questions, than answers, and I felt as if I was playing catch up in a world that was not explained to me.
The story revolves around Commander Kai Yang former POW, and his return from being presumed dead. Either the world of that the United Earth Forces inhabits is very trusting or the author did not think about the Commander being a security threat. Returned POW or not the Yang is given free run of the ship. He had been held in an CSS Enlightenment camp for eighteen months, I personally would not have trusted him anywhere on my military base ship without an armed escort and major debriefing.
The relationship between Yang and his best friend turned lover Sacha is the highlight of the book, as both of them are dealing with PTSD and survivors guilt; and it is the major theme of the book. How Yang deals with his PTSD is more real than the rest of the book, and I wish the author would have concentrated more on Yang and his struggles than the plots involving CSS infiltrators. Yang and Sacha relationship and struggles to learn to live again made for a heartwarming and emotional draining story, because it isn’t all sunshine and roses coming back from war.
This book is only getting three stars from me because of the non existent backstory of the conflict that has resulted in a war. You can’t have a character having flashbacks of torture sessions involving crucifixes without giving me, the reader, the background to the conflict.
About Jess Anastasi
Jess has been making up stories ever since she can remember. Though her messy handwriting made it hard for anyone else to read them, she wasn’t deterred and now she gets to make up stories for a living. She loves loud music, a good book on a rainy day, and probably spends too much time watching too many TV shows. Jess lives in regional Victoria, Australia, with her very supportive husband, three daughters, one ball-obsessed border collie, and one cat who thinks he’s one of the kids.
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