Velocity Weapon

Velocity Weapon is quite a fun book. The world is built well, the two main characters are fun, even though the villains and supporting characters are a little one dimensional. The major plot twist midway through the book is really well done, I didn't expect that to happen at all - which is why it gets three stars and not two.

Unfortunately, the third storyline feels completely pointless, with some exposition chapters feeling like listening to a conversation between Dumb and Dumber about world politics. That, and the other two storylines beginning to dragg on a little, means the book is borderline boring in places. One then inevitably starts to pick at the contrivances in the story while the characters are running around in circles.

While I think the book is ultimately forgettable, it's a perfectly good, relaxing, mostly action packed sci-fi, and I will probably read the second one in the series.

I think this is a 4.5 rounded up. It wasn’t perfect, but it was really fun and engaging. This is what I’m looking for when I want to read a “light” SF, which is probably a weird description of this book. It’s “light” to me in that it is fast-paced, there are high stakes, and doesn’t get too science-y. But the tone is overall more serious, which I appreciate. Light reads usually lean too hard on humor for me, but this one doesn’t do that.

The pacing here really worked well for me. There were quiet moments and then moments of tension that happened over and over. It kept me turning those pages in a 600 page book.

There’s even a bit of a romance here, but it was handled well, so I wasn’t annoyed by it. There was a moment when one person could have had a cliche moment of feeling betrayed because they don’t realize they haven’t /actually/ been betrayed, but the story didn’t go that direction. The character is smart enough to realize there’s probably more going on. I appreciated that so much. I don’t like artificial romantic conflict.

The weaker parts of the story were:
1) Jules’ plot line. Maybe I’ll change my mind in book two, but I wish that her part had been removed from this book and been its own novella related to this book. It was too separate from everything else.
2) There are definitely some things in here that don’t make sense. Like why would a capable government/military make this decision? Or other things that felt too convenient. But, like I said, I approached this as a light read, so I was just enjoying the ride.

A brilliant, twisty sci-fi adventure! O'Keefe's mastery of setting, character and compelling plot are dazzling.

O'Keefe does a great job of world-building as the tension ramps up throughout the first half of the book, and then when it takes off, there's a huge twist and everything turns upside down. Even her minor her characters are compelling and believable. It's reminiscent of the Expanse, complete with sci-fi, politics, espionage and survival in the hazardous depths of space. There's action, a bit of romance, and all exceedingly well-paced, building to an exciting conclusion.

Between the covers is a 5-star story... but it's slightly weighed down by extra stuff that isn't part of that 5-star story. The book has four on-going narratives, two of which tie together brilliantly. Of the other two, one is world-building that helps flesh out the stakes towards the end, but one just appears to be setup for another book. Unfortunately, at the moment there's only one book, and when that second one comes out, it's entirely possible those stray elements will converge into a brilliant expanded arc, but they don't really add anything to this book's story. That said, even the stray part is really good, and still solidly engaging, so it's a minor quibble. If it were a separate short story, I'd still recommend you read it, because it's good -- it just feels slightly weird here amid the action of this book, but that's the only reason I'd give this 4 rather than 5 stars.

I'm all in for the Protectorate #2.