Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments

Good solid read. Little wordy and meandering at points, but storyline, characters are above average. Not worth $8, but it is worth $3 - which is the going price for this 6th novel in the Spinward Fringe series.

This was another very good book in the series. Someone mentioned this book was full of highs and lows like the empire strikes back. I think that comparison is appropriate, however, like the empire strikes back this book has more lows than highs. That is not necessarily bad, just how the story goes. Looking forward to broadcast 7.

Lots of interesting technical ideas, cyborgs, clever AIs. All of the characters whether human or digital or some combination are well developed, interesting and believable. I have really enjoyed this series and very much look forward to the next one hoping that it is out soon.

I have read several series books since the Spinward Fringe series, but nothing has 'grabbed' me enough to buy a sequel or more of a series. I can't wait for the next one! The characters feel like friends and the action keeps a fantastic pace. I almost knocked it down to 4 stars, because of typos/misspellings, etc., but I got so much joy out of these well written books that they must receive 5 stars. What a great value!

Good cast of characters. Good story line, and good imagination on technilogical developments in the future. I highly recommend this book for science fiction fans. I will buy any other science fiction book this author chooses to write.

Another awesome installment to the Spinward Fringe Universe! Although the ending of this one is a bit of a cliffhanger, it sets up the next broadcast beautifully. Can't wait for the next one - I think we'll finally see a Sol system ship in action!

The first four books in the series seemed to move along at a good pace, we had progress and pitfalls, and overall I was happy with the outcome. The last few books seemed to have completely halted the plot and began to move backwards. I was so excited after Jacob took over the titan and recruited his refugee crew. I felt there was going to be an epic privateer rampage against Galactic Republic. Then they got their butt's handed to them in a series of engagements, they have not put any of the new technology from freehold to use, and continue to have all their assets get destroyed in a series of bad engagements.

Also I'd like to point out that the Captain of the ship, IS NEVER ON HIS SHIP. There is no reason why he needs to go out on these escapades, when he has thousands of crew who are trained to do exactly what he requires. It is complete rediculousness. Yet the entire time he is worshipped like some brilliantly talented captain, when the only decisions he has made is to abandon his crew and go on some self indulgent mission. I am going to end saying I have rarely been this excited about a series after the first few books only to be let down with tons of filler and no action. I feel like this series has turned into some kind of science fiction soap opera.

I was hooked with the first book. My disappointment with book 5 prompted me to wait a long time before I purchased book 6. Book 6 was OK but I am waiting for book 7 so I can get to the end. I recommend only reading the first book and stopping. The first book was the best. I'd rate this 3 1/2 but the stars won't let me choose a 1/2.

If you are reading this you most likely have read most of the books before so its enough to say that this is a good Sci-fi serie with good character plot. Storyline in the series is a bit thin at times and lots of loose threads, but still keeps you reading.

The Realy good news is that this book is in my oppinnion the best in the serie so far.
Halfway into the book i realy had trouble putting the book down. (Having it available on phone, ipad and pc doesnt make it easier..)
Plot and writing style reminded me abouth how David Weber write his combat engagements in his books. (Hard to get any better praise from me..)

I've waded through the whole series before commenting.

First the good:
Lalonde has some interesting ideas, creates characters one can care about, and in many ways spins a good yarn. As with much classic sci-fi, we must suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the yarn. I therefore didn't ding him very much for the inconsistencies others have noted.

Now the bad:
Even with Broadcast 6, Lalonde's writing remains a major distraction. He often uses words that don't mean what he thinks they mean. Many of his sentences are run-ons or fragments. Too many are almost (or are completely) unintelligible. He doesn't seem to know the differences between "were" and "was," "they're" and "their," "its" and "it's," "whose" and "who's" or "affect" and "effect." He consistently drops clunkers like "her and Laura," "her and her mother," and (unforgivably, since I don't think there's ever a place for) "her and I." It's just sloppy writing, and makes it hard to appreciate the story line. His poor punctuation makes it worse.

While the books are inexpensive, I'd suggest that Lalonde hire a good editor even if it adds to the retail price. Unless that happens, I doubt I'll be reading any more of his work.

I've been reading this series from the beginning, I have finally reached a frustration level enough to force me to review this on the store. The series has some serious problems. First, let's start with the ships. As you read about the ships, you will start to realize that the writer has no sense of size. The main ship's size is constantly given figures about inside dimensions that do not fit with the announced size of the ship. You would have to be able to fold space to fit everything in that he talks about during the books that the carrier has in it, let alone the number of people.

Technology of the ships. He talks about how advanced the ship is. Yet, he constantly throws it into battles where he leads you to believe it can stand up to anything because of how advanced it is. Yet, all the sudden the enemy always has something strong enough to damage it, drastically, and he treats it as if they have had that tech for years and now the ship can't stand up to it; when he says how powerful it is and that nothing can damage it. He talks about the ship being huge and people are amazed at the size of it. Then he has it going up against other human crewed ships that make it seem insignifcant in size and technology. After they go into battle, the ship gets massively damaged. Then he says it can only be repaired in a dry dock. Next, they are repairing it, in space, and in hours. He talks about the technology is from a closed off earth to others and it is so advanced, atleast a 100 years from anything they have. Well, they train a whole crew in about a month on the whole ship, and then, not only can they repair any beyond major damage (hint, whole command deck destroyed and gone) they make massive improvements to it.

People. As he is writing, I have to go back paragraphs and whole pages just to figure out things like, who is this that is talking now? Where did that person just come from? As a character is talking, the paragraphs lead you to believe that the person he was just talking to is now talking. Nope. Then you have to backup and try to figure the flow out again. During major parts of the story, all the sudden the character will turn something over to someone, or start talking to someone, when you were led to believe that only those 2 or just him was in the area. I spend a lot of time going "where the heck? what the heck?" Then the writer loves to destroy people, put them in statis, and say "there is no hope of recovery, there's not enough left". then an hour or so later, here they come! Fresh out of medical! then other characters, whack, ow, oh look, I broke a nail, now I'm dead, no hope; must have been a red shirt. And if I have to listen to anymore self whining from the characters. Writer: I build my person strong in will, a tough leader, able to motive people, win battles - oh, they also cry like babies now and lay around in the fetal position.

Why do I read the books. They are cheap on the kindle. I guess I am getting what I paid for.

Having read the entire series, I'm impressed with this author's skill at creating exciting, action-packed plot twists and turns. His real strength lies in that ability, and it's virtually impossible to put down the series once begun. We truly want to know what happens to the valiant Captain Valance and his crew, which is the most sought-after response from readers a writer can receive.

He does a credible enough job with character development as well, although some of the interaction between those characters is at times a tiny bit awkward and stilted. However, other scenes flow naturally and with an honesty that adds dimension and depth.

I would also prefer a bit less in the high-tech descriptive department. It's interesting to know details about the ship; its propulsion systems, armament, life support provisions, etc. - but each vessel, no matter how fascinating, "smart" or impressive, is a relatively minor character in the final analysis - and a little condensation in those areas would, I believe, make for a smoother read.

Overall, Lalonde has created a compelling vision of future possibilities and tells his tale well. If a reader can be kept interested and turning the page, the writer can turn off his PC each night knowing his/her work will continue to draw interest.

That said, this writer also badly needs a talented and ruthless editor. In this series there are numerous, glaring errors such as "tow" for "toe", "he poured over" rather than "pored over," and "their" where it should be "there." Misused syntax is jolting and distracting for many of us, and as long as good dictionaries exist there's simply no excuse for it.

Lalonde's grasp of language is good, the concepts are outstanding - and I'm sure, given his storytelling strengths, that he will have continued success. But it would be nice to see more polish in the final versions.

A engrossing read with perhaps the most ferocious action in the series yet. Things just go from bad to worse for Jake Valence and his Triton crew from trying to repair their heavily damaged ship after an engagement in space to only find themselves being engaged in space once again but this time, seriously outnumbered by several Carathan destroyers and command battle ships. Desperate measures call for desperate times and Oz has no choice than to use a tactic known as the ghost ship to stand any chance of repelling the enemy boarders. What follows is full of page turning action, clever tactics, hope, despair and courage. While the skeleton crew hold off the attackers, Jake, Ayan and many other personnel and refugees escape to a near by port to start new base of command but things are far from an easy ride. Overall, a terrific read, plenty of action and the ending, shall I say, leaves Jake Valence, his friends and crews future hanging in the balance.

Best new Author of Fantasy, SciFi and horror I have read in over a decade. His Spinward Fringe Series is a fantastic Science Fiction series and i have read it three or four times a year since the first book came out. Brightwell was an exciting and engaging Fantasy read and the only downside is he cannot write quicker! Dark Arts is a thrilling Horror novel and i need more of this world!

In this latest edition of the Spinward Fringe series, Randolph Lalonde picks up where he left off in "Fracture", Broadcast 5. We practically enter immediately into a hot and heavy fire fight and chase that at one point left me wondering how the crew of the Triton would get out of the fix they were in. The suspense and drama that unfolds during some scenes of this episode had me in complete frozen shock, and to my relief later on, it was worthwhile the whole read. I only wish the author had a super human ability to write ten times as much per episode in as much time because I read through these broadcasts in a matter of hours. The story and adventure continues still, and the suspense left at the end of this one is incredible. So many questions arise, and I look forward to Broadcast 7 where hopefully some of them will be answered. Another great addition to the series! I can also see this becoming a terrific mini series on television one day.

The first 3 were pretty good. I would suggest to wrap up the story in the 4th book and say "done", pretty good story. But now it is is book 6 and yawn too much blah blah and so I'm done. It's like being stuck at a party listening to someone that in instead of telling the story, you can tell he likes to hear himself talk.

Like many traditionally published work, this piece was nearly free of typos and major faults. Yes, there were a couple still hidden here and there, but nothing that interfered with the story (and I suspect they were made by the conversion to e-book process). The eye quickly skips over these minor blunders and keeps reading. The story in his latest broadcast is enthralling, pulling you through it page after page until you realize that its 3:30am and you're supposed to be heading to work in four hours. Once I finally managed to get myself to start reading his latest instalment, I chewed through it quickly.

There were parts where I was excited, saddened, angered, and unfortunately, disappointed. The story is a good emotional roller coaster ride telling us the story about people as they deal with life in a universe at turmoil. Those characters are trying to survive, find their way, and help people as they beat back whatever oppression may be stepping up to try to take over.

In this story about characters, Randolph gives us a number of interesting twists and turns. People are not necessarily who they appear to be, and many are capable of things that thus-far, we may have thought impossible for them to do. Unlike some traditionally published authors, Randolph was able to make these impossible choices, make sense for the character. He was able to put in enough of a situational change that it would provoke a character change. Basically, he did what many authors strive to do: he made a sensible story arc that involved growth and change.

Admittedly, there was a part or two where I stopped and had to think to myself, "but would a person actually do that? Would this person actually do that?" After thinking it over, for almost all situations, I came down to a solid yes. The only pair that I had some difficulty accepting were near the end of the novel, and I'm not about to reveal the ending to potential readers. If you've been reading the series to this point (or are about to start reading the series), when you get to the spots that I've felt hiccups, you'll probably feel them too. Knowing Lalonde, he'll probably reveal some hidden under-plot that has been lightly hinted at in the next novel in the series that will make these uneasy moments make sense.

This is also probably the first time I came across one of Lalonde's novels where an aspect of the technology was a little more difficult to swallow. Well, maybe this one is more like a biology aspect, but whatever. Without revealing this story, I'm going to have to use a different, unrelated series that has something similar-ish happen. In Stargate, the ga'ould are a parasitic organism that takes over a host, but the host can fight back and effect some change. Lalonde seems to be channelling that host issue in a part of this novel, and it's a pretty important part of this novel. But it doesn't really make sense given the circumstances around it. Initiating a "ghost in the machine" aspect within the "ghost in the machine" aspect is a very difficult pill to swallow. But again, I have faith that he'll get it sorted for us by the end of the next novel.

Fragments is the second book in a "self-contained" trilogy. The final instalment of the trilogy promises to wrap up the main, overarching plot of broadcasts 5-7, but leave just enough of an opening to allow for further books in the series, provided there is still a demand. If Randolph keeps improving his writing, I'm sure that demand will be there.

If you're looking for a casual read offering natural breaks so you can put the book down this series is NOT for you. There are typos so be aware but the story is fun and there is never a dull moment. I feel sorry for the crew as they never catch a break.

On to 7!

I highly recommend this series. The characters are people you want to know. The worlds are enticingly real, the plots and subplots make sense. The writing style is easy to read. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The title is so apt, the book incredibly entertaining, and the series totally captivating. As I read each book. I am amazed at how much the world that the author has created seems so real, as if it actually will exist someday. And the characters, well, when anything really bad happens to them, I actually get very angry or terribly sad. They are very real! This is an author who cares about his writing and about his readers. (If only he could write a little faster....my appetite for more is both unsatiable and unfortunately, unrealistic.) Anyway, if you haven't read any of the Spinward Fringe series yet, start from the beginning with Broadcast 0 Origins, its free! You will be hooked very quickly and will thoroughly enjoy the journey to 'Fragments'. I certainly have, and cannot wait for broadcast 7. This is a must read, not just for any science fiction fan, but for anyone who likes a good story with lots of action and suspense, that is full of interesting characters you can love and hate, and has humor and love stories intertwined throughout. What more could you ask for!