SPSFC4 Review: Cosmic Strife: Assault by Steve Gavin

Blurb:

The Ragner family name carries weight amongst the ranks of the United Global Navy. Colyn Ragner had been a hero of the war 15 years ago when he assisted in an attempt to defend the alien world of Casbaria from the evil Luyon threat. The humans were unsuccessful in fighting off the invaders and Casbaria was lost. The human fleet was able to escape back to Earth, at the heroic expense of Colyn’s life. Colyn’s children are now grown up and in positions to assist the human plight in an upcoming rematch.
Aalin, Nolan and Vance Ragner must combat much different, yet equally important battles. Can a senator, a newly promoted lieutenant and a rebellious pilot conquer their individual struggles to save the planet?

As the humans plan an attack to return to Casbaria and liberate it from the Luyons, the seemingly distant threat may be looming much closer than anyone realizes. Follow the events of this cosmic strife as the characters fight for human existence against a power hungry Luyon race headed by a ruthless and fear inducing leader. Who will strike first? The fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Review:

Well that was certainly a book that I read. Not the worst, not the best, but it did tick allllll the sci-fi boxes. Steve Gavin has indeed written a very sci-fi intense novel, but there is one rather small, or big, depending on how much of a reader you are, issue. That’ll be talked upon soonish. And I do indeed want to see where the series goes. 

If I had to sell this to anyone, I’d give them this blurb:

“Three kids traumatised by their dads death. One takes up the path of the father, one goes to leadership, and one goes to politics. Care to find out more?”,

before handing them this novel with a salesman grin. If they do indeed want to know more, step right up, my mind has all the details, even if it’s been… a bit since I’ve read it. 

To start this all off, we have the three characters. Aalin, Nolan and Vance. Vance takes after his dad and is just cruising about in a outer space fighter pilot, Nolan has gone to fleet school and is pointing ships to go places and what to blow up, and Aalin, their sister, is politicianing on earth and is somewhat successful except all the other politicians dislike her for her somewhat different view of things, as well as the fact that she can pull the “heroic father card”. Same goes for the other two in their respective areas of life.

With Vance, he’s the stubborn, determined, risk-taking flyboy. A maverick, if you will. His flight commanders are mostly annoyed that he takes high risk, high reward manoeuvres that put everyone in danger at times. Does he change his thinking? Aside from being a bit more caring towards his classmates, he still just vibes the same throughout the novel. 

On the other hand of the siblings, we have Nolan. He’s… more than a little cautious and is a bit disapproving of his brother’s antics. As for character growth, he ends up trusting Vance a bit more, and is a bit helpful with setting Vance up for the final scenes of the book. As for his relationship with Aalin, he’s supportive of her political career. Like previously mentioned, he changes, but not by much, a bit more than Vance though.

Then there’s Aalin. The Padme Amadala of the three. The politician other politicians don’t take seriously. She’s driven, just like Vance, and very stubborn. But also willing to help her siblings with almost no questions asked. In terms of character growth, she has the most, and I look forward to seeing where she goes in the next novel. Same goes for the others, but there was more there that could’ve been more done.

From there, there’s the three way plot that weaves into the greater whole. It works. Each of the characters sends the plot forward in their own way, with the villains chiming in like Darth Vader and Palpatine tend to do, giving us a general idea of what those guys are up to. Shenanigans are the name of the game, with each part of the book playing out like a scene before cutting to the next, using the other perspectives as the stop gap. Fun way of going about it.

After that, there’s the world building with the humans and another race fighting against the Luyons and their homeplanet, Casberia. Liked the space ships being somewhat realistic, as well as alien refugees. Earth politics being a monoculturalism, over the entirety of earth instead of regions was also a nice touch. The villains were also somewhat over the top, less complex and harder to sympathise with, which was refreshing. And out of all the novels I’ve read, barring one, this was the most sci-fi heavy.

Unfortunately… one thing made me nearly toss my digital reading device out the school window (as time of reading the book, I had too many classes off)... the finish, the polish of the book. It needed a bit more. To me, that detracts too much from the enjoyment of the book because it jarred me out of the flow. But, ultimately, that can also be a good thing, with it being a sign that someone human has written it, with all the flaws being human. I think this is something people need to experience for themselves, to make up their own mind about it. 

Now, if you want a multi-plot driven story with space warfare, shenanigans and family drama, “Cosmic Strife: Assault” by Steve Gavin is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. And if not, don’t fret, there’s other reviews here for other books, covering a huge variety of genres, which you can sample with this random review linked over here.

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!