Title:

Velocity Weapon

Author:

Megan O'Keefe

Category:

Science Fiction / Fantasy

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

August 18, 2024
don't read e-books, I like holding a physical book in my hands. This means that as I am turning the pages, I can sense how close I am to the conclusion. As I neared the end of Velocity Weapon, I had the sinking feeling that absolutely nothing was going to be resolved. Indeed, O'Keefe unleashes a bunch of plot developments at the end of her novel that leave even more questions unanswered. Velocity Weapon is the first book in a trilogy, book one apparently is just the first third of one long story. I looked up the length of the other two books in the trilogy: Chaos Vector - 546 pages, and Catalyst Gate - 608 pages. Good grief, after reading the 500 pages of Velocity Weapon, I still have another 1150 pages to go? My heart isn't in it. The story is not compelling enough for me to make that big of a time investment.

Part of the reason for the length of this book is that it follows three different story arcs: the main plotline following the heroine Sergeant Sanda Greeve, the story of her brother, Biran, which takes place 200 years before Sanda's tale (Sanda has been in suspended animation for 200 years), and third story about a thief named Jules in a different star system in a different time. This third story is seemingly independent of the other two threads; I found it annoying to get sidetracked to Jule's story when it kept interrupting whatever was going on with Sanda and Biran.

Sanda was the pilot of a gunship in the Cronus system, fighting for the planet Ada Prime against the other populated planet in the Cronus star-system, the evil Icarions. But her ship was destroyed. Sanda wakes up in a deserted medical bay. She discovers she is on an empty Icarion ship, the AI class The Light of Berossus, (Bero, for short). Bero informs Sanda that she has been in hibernation in her rescue pod for 200 years, he just found and revived her. Unfortunately, Sanda is the last living person in the Cronus solar system. It seems that the Icarions had built a planet-busting Velocity Weapon - a weapon so powerful that it could hurl a mass at a planet and smash it to smithereens. But the Icarions miscalculated - after destroying Ada Prime, the Weapon fired a second time and the planet Icarion was also demolished. Now there is no one left alive in the solar system except Sanda and Bero. Even though Bero was created by the Icarions, it is clear that he resents how he was treated by them, and it seems that he and Sanda can be allies. Sanda explores the ship and makes some disturbing discoveries. Is Bero telling the truth about what happened? What were the Icarions doing in that gruesome on-board research lab?

The second thread follows Sanda's younger brother, Biran. His story takes place 200 years in the past - he saw Sanda's battle fleet go out to engage the Icarions, and get destroyed. Is there any slim chance she survived? (The reader, of course, knows that she is asleep in her escape pod all this time.) Biran has just been promoted to Keeper, a high level leader in the Ada government. A Keeper chip has been implanted in the back of his neck; Biran possesses some of their most prized information, including details about building a Casimir Gate, which allows faster than light jumps between solar systems. The Icarions want that knowledge, but the secret to the gates is closely guarded. Biran tries to organize search parties to look for battle survivors. In his new Keeper role, Biran now sits on high council meetings, and learns secrets and political intrigue.

Finally, there are a few chapters about Jules that are interspersed with the two main story arcs. These chapters have lots of violence and escapes and puzzling mysteries. But because there is no apparent connection between these chapters and the main plot, I found them to be more distracting than exciting. Of course, at the very end of the book it is revealed that there is a connection between all of these story arcs.

I liked Velocity Weapon better at the beginning than at the end. O'Keefe has quite a few plot surprises in the story. I believe this is a first novel, and for a first novel it does a good job of world building, character development and plotting. But considering the length of the novel, I am not inclined to go seeking out the second installment.