Review: Euphrates Vanished by Leon Stevens
Blurb:
“This is not a drill!”
A young man wakes up to the sound of his alarm and the announcement blaring. Looking around the room, he realizes he is a member of a starship crew. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t remember who he is or how he got there. With no time to think, he finds his way to the bridge, while being careful not to call attention to his predicament.
The first problem is piecing together the puzzle of his missing memories to reveal his knowledge, rank, and friendships. Another problem is being stranded on an alien planet during his first away mission.
Mysteries abound in this new science fiction adventure by Leon Stevens. Suitable for new adults and up.
Review:
Leon Stevens’ ‘Euphrates Vanished’ is a short engaging read that offers an opportunity to reset your emotional odometer while contemplating that next big chonky scifi or fantasy tome. Stevens has the knack for setting the reader up with a puzzle to be solved. Beware of blind alleys or making too many assumptions. I’ve found the reveal isn’t always what you expect when coming to the end of one of Leon’s works. I still haven’t forgiven him for how ‘The View From Here’ trilogy of novellas ended.
Barrowing from a Trek-like universe in both technology and mix of character types and races Stevens makes the tale his own while paying homage to Trek fandom. It was just the right amount of acknowledgement.
Stevens wastes no time getting the reader into the premise of the tale. From the opening lines the puzzle is introduced with our amnesia laden cadet called to battle stations. The problem being he doesn’t know who or where he is. He, and we, don’t learn his name for more than a dozen pages.
Piece by piece things seem to fall together as Cadet Tammon Lancaster survives the opening round of action followed by an away mission plagued with problems. The challenges mount up as the tale progresses. Just how are Tammon and his fellow crew mates going to solve and survive the state they are left in after their ship has vanished leaving them to their own devices?
Stevens was successful in keeping me guessing up to the end if the entire experience is a fever dream or something else. A bread crumb here leads to one conclusion while another bread crumb there takes things in another direction.
Stevens’ prose is highly readable with cadence and rhythm making for quick page turns with engaging characters. I did find that some passages felt more like “telling” than “showing” but overall, the entertainment value is there and my time with the crew of the Euphrates was well spent.
For a quick, wholesome and feel good read you can’t go wrong with ‘Euphrates Vanished’ or one of Leon’s other works.
