Book 1), A Galaxy Unknown: (A Galaxy Unknown

I have found another author I enjoy. The author creates great charactors I can identify with. The book is set in the future, but the challenges facing the charactors are similar to the challenges that face people in any time period. I recommend the book to any Science Fiction fan.

Kind of power tripping sci-fi. The mc never fails, and when she does she fails upward. So long as you go in understanding that's the kind of story you are reading, 5 stars. Well written, good characters, nice plot. The entire series is good.

This book is an excellent go at a Hornblower type saga set in a future era. With excellent character development, the story is fast paced and a pleasure to read. Also, Mr. DePrima has come up with a brand new type of FTL drive, and a truly unique new type of pistol. That, more than anything else has my admiration. I believe that you will enjoy this book.

The foreword claims this is space opera, but don't expect much beyond soap opera. Florid, shallow, and full of malapropism. This stuff is a long long way from Heinlein or Niven. I am definitely surprised that the series sells so well.

Way too lightweight for my taste.

I had been getting tired of my Kindle just sitting there. So, every few evenings I found myself paging through the Science Fiction section looking for something that looked interesting. I'm glad to say that this book filled that void I'd been wanting to fill.

The story starts off with a bang, followed by a "how she got there", finally ending up at an adventure that's going to change the main character's life forever.

I greatly enjoy Jenetta Carver as a heroine at this point in the series. While it feels like everything falls into place for her too often, I'd say there's still considerable balance with the consequences she will eventually have to face. Near the end of the book she is given a great gift, however I myself would call it a horrible curse that she may or may not realize yet. Yes it has it's perks, but at what cost?

In the end, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series to date. I'm going to have to start pacing myself so I actually can savor the text as opposed to blowing through it. It's just so hard though! I want to see what happens next!

I enjoy the expositions, and I would greatly enjoy seeing this as the future humanity could go towards the stars with. Well... Everything except the big crime syndicate.

Well, these are great sci fy books. Wish there were more. I am reading so many different ones I can't keep up with them all, but these are one of my favorites. All the books in this series are great, I can't write revies for them all so this one should do it for them all. Great stories, just keep them coming.

It certainly tries to be and definitely has potential. The author describes his definition of a "space opera" in the introduction and delivers what he promises. A good opening to the series that will keep you turning pages. I enjoyed it quite a lot and promptly ordered the sequel.

When Life throws situations at you, you adapt or go down.
This story throws every twist into the situation and shows what anyone has in them to overcome the odds. This story keeps you on the edge wondering what is around the next turn.

Just finished the first in the series. If the second book continues in the same way I'll be buying the entire series. I'm no big expert on writing, but I know what I like, and DePrima's A Galaxy Unknown is one I certainly liked.

I live for anything with starships, starship battles and the people who command them. So this book is just what I look for in a military SF book. It was a quick, very interesting and hit all my military jargen buttons in the right spots. If this type of book is what you like then you will enjoy this story, its a lot of fun. I will definitely pick up the other books of this series.

The book grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go. I've read many sci-fi books and this one kept me interested from beginning to end. I'm glad I started this series after several books have already been written so I don't have to wait to see what is going to happen next for miss carved. I don't think I'll be disappointed and you won't either

Just finished this book. As with all Space Opera, there seems to be these fortutious plot jumps where the character is moved through the normal hurdles of life for the sake of the story. Those occur here but DePrima seems to take care to craft a plausible reason for the movement of the character through the hand-crafted universe of the author. The text is generally above average in the originality and detail. Often with self-published texts, the writing is straight forward. DePrima is also straight-forward but not so much that the reader feels that they are running to keep up with the machinations of the author. All around, a very good text which I look forward to reading more of in the following sequels.

An easy entertaining read with satisfying supporting characters, a well crafted story universe and a very strong and identifiable main character all wrapped up in an enjoyable and not too far flung story.

The book is engaging, and the plot moves along nicely once it gets going. However, the writing is overly florid to the point of distraction. A scene intended as titillating is just uncomfortable, and goes on for way too long. The book is enjoyable, and I bought the sequel, but I'm not sure how much further I'll go in the series.

This had be sitting on my suggested list for long enough to make me act on it. I took the chance and am well pleased. While there are some holes and the plot rather light, if you want a fun read - I'd say go for it.

I purchased the second immediately after finishing the tale.

Move back, Jack Weber! Step aside, Elizabeth Moon!
I never thought I could possibly read anything better than the above 2 authors' Space Operas!
But I was so wrong! Thomas DePrima is way out in front. I can't wait to finish this review so that I can pile into the rest of the books in this "A Galaxy Unknown" series. I could find nothing wrong with the subject, contents, or style of writing! I was appalled to find so many reviewers thinking she was not only externally an ice queen, but in her own mind. She was scared to death more than once! Highest Accolades to Mr. DePrima!!!!!

Ensign Jenetta Carver is probably the reincarnation of Hornblower. Tight plot, well written space opera. Doesn't fall into the trap of having female action heroes doing things they are physically incapable of. The main characters have enough depth that you care about their feelings. They aren't just there to carry out the next bit of action. Editing is better than usually found in ebooks. I was jolted by an unneeded but minor plot flaw near the end that a really good editor should have caught. But by then I was so locked into the story that I finished it 2 hours before I had to go to work in the morning.

An excellent opening to the story. A light romp for those who want a feel good story of someone misunderstood and left to their own devices.

In a fairly original opening plot line the main character overcomes personal scholastic disappointment and depressing loneliness to save the day. A la Honor Harrington without the depth, DePrima creates a believable and colourful world, if slightly overly altruistic (the white hats are white, the black hats are black, not many shades of grey).

Being well written, this is an easy read while on vacation or having a sick day. I enjoyed it very much.

I debated about giving this book 4 stars instead, because I normally set pretty high standards for good space-opera fare. But the truth is, the main character of the book, the incredibly lucky/unlucky Ensign Jennifer Carver, pulled me in and held me riveted until I reached the last page. For serious SciFi buffs, this is lighthearted military science fiction, but an enjoyable read, if somewhat unbelievable. The story seems to breathe into the mind of Jenetta, and exhales action scenes, never holding its breath for too long. I found myself, after reading 80% of the book, unable to put it down, and stayed up late to finish. So, I'm adding a bonus nod and rounding it up to 5 stars.

If you are looking for feel-good space opera from a dedicated and talented author, you have just found a gold mine! The writing just gets better and better across the novels, and while it is sad that big name publishers have passed over indie authors so much, their folly is our gain. I bought the first volume on an the store recommendation late one evening and didn't get to bed until I finished it at 4 am. The next day I bought the second book, with repeat results. After that, my wife and I started over and read through the first 7 books mostly aloud to each other. These are geat reading, great listening, and great fun. Thank, TJD! Please keep them coming!

Excellent book! This book exemplifies what it is that makes a leader. Space is an incredible adventure to fantasize about and this book gives you all the scientific reasoning as to why it can achieve Light Speed and space stations. I find that it is a very reasonable look at the future. Highly recommend!

A young female navel officer struggles against seemingly insurmountable difficulties and finally triumphs. Shades of Honor Harrington? Perhaps a bit. Even closer might be Kylara Vatta. (I suspect the success of Weber with HH and Moon with KV had a lot to do with DePrima's choice of a female protagonist.) Unfortunately, Jenetta Carver isn't as clearly realized as Honor or Kylara; in fact I find her rather lacking in depth. That said, I did enjoy the story (I'm a sucker for this stuff), and I'll give DePrima another chance.

If you are looking for another Kylara Vatta, this ain't it. It is a rather shallow clone. The heroine, Jennetta Carver, has some similarities to Vatta. Both are young women with military training, but little or no experience. Both heroines rise above their circumstances to exhibit their strategic, tactical, and leadership abilities. Both win their wars. That is about all the two have in common.
The biggest difference is the feminism of the two. While Vatta is the product of a woman veteran, Carver is not. It shows. Carver in the first book, is captured, tortured, brainwashed and subjected to medical experimentation in th form of DNA change. After escaping, she is almost totally unaffected by what is actually a form of rape. Aside from a tendency toward masochism, in it's purist form, she has no response at all. She goes about her business the way a man wishes a raped/molested girl should. There is no rage, no fear, no self searching/loathing. While she does manage to kill one of the guards and break the nose of the leader, there is no passion. It doesn't work that way. On the other hand, a minor incident at the beginning of her academy experience left her crippled with indecision to the point where she was considered unfit for command? This just doesn't wash.
In fact, lack of passion is rampant in this series. There are so many officers with more experience, from the first officer of the tug of her first command to the newly recaptured battleship, and every ship she was assigned, only one man seemed to care about being passed over. The villains say they are angry with the heroine, but, except for putting out a contract on her, they do not truly SHOW anger, they just tell us about it, just as the author tells, but never really shows us any emotion. Vatta show us.
Finally, the author seems as much involved in displaying lexicographic erudition as he is in storytelling. He explains that he feels In the foreword that he thinks his readers have poor vocabularies, and that it is up to him to educate them. As one who has been acing the Readers Digest " It Pays to Increase Your Word Power" since the age of nine, this annoys me. As a science fiction reader since about the same age, I know that the average reader of this group is well ahead of the curve in this area. When a writer has one hand on the keyboard and the other on the thesaurus, it only detracts from the rhythm and flow of the action.
Finally, there is little originality in the plot concepts. We have a basic, rather generic, product here. There is none of the coming of age quality of Robert Heinlein's "Starship Trooper." There is none of Elizabeth Moon or Mercedes Lackey's vivid characters, or Anne McCaffrey's originality of situation. There is no extrapolation of the effect of technology on society which is the backbone of true science fiction. There is only a recycling of the Serrano and the Vatta series.
Having said that, I did buy the rest of the series as a sort of "It fits the mood I'm in" thing. The writing is not bad, the grammar is good, and, sometimes, I really am in the mood for something I don't have to invest much effort into analyzing. I would suggest, however that the author read some of the authors I have mentioned, learn to demonstrate the emotions of characters in scenes of motion, and remember that the story is more important than the vocabulary lesson.

If you have read and liked The Honor Harrington series fra David Weber, this is more of the same good stuff.
The tempo is a bit higher in theese books, it's almost impossible to stop reading :-D
The caracterisation is not quite as good webers and the technology is so far (i'm on book three in the series) is not especially well brought to life.
But i'm enjoying the read
Kim

I downloaded this book simply because I had nothing better to read and was looking for a for-fun sci-fi book to read. I was pleasantly surprised when this book turned out to be really quiet good! You can sympathize with the main character right away and the story line itself is well thought out. The science behind the scenes is fairly solid and the author does a decent job overall.

My only complaints would be the use of really awkward words. The author throws in huge adjectives and it detracts from the story a bit. Instead of reading the story you fumble around with individual words trying to figure out what they mean and you lose track of what's going on. There were parts were I just skipped entire paragraphs because they were so unwieldy.

Overall, however, I would recommend this book. The story is good and the characters are fairly believable. If you're looking for a good science fiction book to get into (and have a decent vocabulary) definitely get this one.

Good fun story to read, fast paced and filled with action, finished it in a day, I'm buying the next book. This story won't fit everyone's cup of tea due to some of the events but that's every book. Either you like it or don't.

After I finished reading this book I imidietly dowloaded the second book in this series. I was that hooked.

The storyline is great and Jenetta is a stong character. I even enjoyed both the military focus and the technological explanations. For me it added to the story and set a solid ground for understanding the universe that the book operates in.

I purchased this book after reading the reviews posted here, even though I was slightly skeptic over a review mentioning:
re - engineering, not ageing and supermodel to describe Jenetta.

But I am extremely happy that I chose to overlook what I first thougt could be ceasy, cheep and somewhat embarrasing to read.
Because that is as far from the reality one could come. The whole re - engineerng thing does happen, but it fits naturally in the story and even adds to the overall plot and character growth of our heroine. At least that is my opinion :-)

I perceive Jenetta as an intelligent, sympatetic, likeable and capable heroine and I cant wait to see what adventures that awaits her in book nr 3, 'The Clones of Mawcett'

Thomas DePrima has introduced a series herione, Janetta Carver, the equal of David Webber's Honor Harrington (On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington)On Basilisk Station) and Elizabeth Moon's Esmay Suiza (Once A Hero) & Kylara Vatta (Trading in Danger (Vatta's War)). Jenetta, Jen to her friends, is a self-concious genius, a Space Command junior officer who has been relegated to the science lab rather than the deck of a warship she would prefer. Her first assignment in space turns into a nightmare when her ship is about to be destroyed and she has only secounds to get to a escape pod. Her pod is damaged and she not only cannot call for rescue, her pod's retro-rocket is damaged and the ship's explosion hurtles the pod well beyound the area rescue searchers will be looking in. Almost 10 years later, Jen is in the stasis bed, her pod is discovered by a passing freighter and brought aboard. From there her adventures really get serious and she becomes the youngest officer in Space Command to ever captain a ship, let alone a battleship. She is a catalyst for action Space Command had not imagined and the Raiders' worst nightmare because of the DNA changes they made to her.

I really, really enjoyed this book. I found myself caring about the main character and what happened to her, so I kept turning that page until finally there were no more pages and the book was over. I was sad it was the last page, but I loved the ending.

The evolving character and events propel you forward like you are on your own little FTL ship, and I experienced a range of emotions through the whole experience. I'd say after finishing this book, I trust the author, Thomas DePrima, the way crew of the Hokyuu trusted Captain Carver.

I'll definitely be getting the next one in the series. Thank you for a great adventure, Mr. DePrima! You have a new fan :)

As an avid reader of military scifi novels, I found this book pretty good. While quite fanciful compared to many other science fiction literature and, it was a fun and delightful read, especially great that there is a strong female lead which often isn't the case in most science fiction literature. The main downside is that pretty much everyone that is "good" and has character development absolutely lives; no fatalities happen to any of the named "good guys." On the other side of the spectrum, the villains are quite clearly the bad guys and are made to be quite a bit intellectually and tactically inferior to the "good guys."

Overall I've thoroughly enjoyed the 4 books that are currently out, and soon to be 5.

Thoroughly enjoyed this story. Thomas has given us believable characters and situations, for a sci-fi novel. I've already finished book two and bought book three this morning! That's about as many books as I buy in 6 months.

Fantastic start to a, hopefully, long series of books! I am a huge fan of David Weber and John Ringo. Having said that, I can honestly say that this book was as much fun to read as any of theirs! If you enjoy SCIENCE Fiction, an enjoyable character and something that is not the same old same old, then you will enjoy this book. Have already finished book two in the series and in about two minutes will own books three and four as well! (If that is not a recommendation in and of itself, well...)