Plot/Idea: 9 out of 10

Originality: 8 out of 10

Prose: 8 out of 10

Character/Execution: 8 out of 10

Overall: 8.25 out of 10

Assessment:

Plot: Hurzeler turns a failed colonization mission into a gripping study of survival, leadership, and the thin line between order and chaos. Once Dauntless crashes onto a pair of hostile asteroids, survival becomes a fragile balancing act shaped by failing life-support systems, dwindling resources, competing visions of leadership, and a killer among the survivors....

I have been working hard on Book Two: Hell or High Water

Spoiler alert: at the end of Book One, Jeronimus orders Marty and his crew to the Terminator Zone to mine ice there, and sends Corporal Hayes and his Marines to P-47 (the other asteroid) for the same purpose. Book Two opens with Zevank and Peskanov piloting a shuttle with twelve male colonists in the back. They've been told they're on their way to P-47 to help the Marines, but all is not what it seems. Zevank orders the men into the...

I wanted to talk about one of the major themes of the book, and how it connects to the source material that is the true story of the Batavia shipwreck: which is more dangerous, nature, or the dark side of human nature?

The Batavia saga is about, among other things, survival against impossible odds on a desert island. In the aftermath of the shipwreck, the colonists and crew battled unrelenting heat and thirst amid the harsh conditions of the Houtman Albrohos island chain off the west coast of...