What if being a hero was encoded in your genes? And nobody told you?Casmir Dabrowski would laugh if someone asked him that. After all, he had to build a robot to protect himself from bullies when he was in school. Fortunately, life is a little better these days. He’s an accomplished robotics engineer, a respected professor, and he almost never gets picked on in the lunchroom. But he’s positive … the lunchroom. But he’s positive heroics are for other people.
Until robot assassins stride onto campus and try to kill him.
Forced to flee the work he loves and the only home he’s ever known, Casmir catches the first ship into space, where he hopes to buy time to figure out who wants him dead and why. If he can’t, he’ll never be able to return home.
But he soon finds himself entangled with bounty hunters, mercenaries, and pirates, including the most feared criminal in the Star Kingdom: Captain Tenebris Rache.
Rache could snap his spine with one cybernetically enhanced finger, but he may be the only person with the answer Casmir desperately needs:
What in his genes is worth killing for?
~
Twice nominated for the Goodreads Readers’ Choice awards, Lindsay Buroker has made a career of delighting fantasy and science fiction fans with fun, fast-paced adventures filled with characters you wish could come to your weekend barbecues.
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This book was my gateway in Lindsay Buroker’s work, and it was brilliant! Hilarious, flawed and likeable characters pitted on a quest they’d really rather not be on… good action, great pace and a light heart made this extremely enjoyable. Not your hard SF, not filled with indecipherable techno-speak – just good clean fun with a bunch of characters I felt like I might have known from school… Grab it for a giggle and some crazy sci-fi escapism 😉
Holy crap. This was great. I thoroughly enjoyed book one. (So much so, that I’m currently reading book three of the series, and will probably finish all eight.)
One of the key points to my enjoyment was the snark and banter. I love that kind of stuff. It was easy to read, engaging, easy to fall into. I like the world building, I like the tension building and releasing. The characters are also very likable. Shere enjoyment.
This series is fantastic. The characters are all so well written, I felt I was leaving friends when the seires finished. I laughed out loud, I cried at times, and my heart beat so fast in the action packed pages I wasn’t always sure I would survive, let alone the cast.
A must read.
Casmir Dabrowski, a robotics specialist, doesn’t understand why killer robots suddenly make him a target. He flees off planet in the nearest spaceship, dragging his unwilling roommate, scientist Kim Sato along with him. Also a scientist, she specializes in a field that will unexpectedly become important to their survival. The captain of the ship, Bonita, is fleeing from problems herself with a cargo that was much more deadly than she knew. Her ship needs fuel among other things, tempting her to turn Casmir in for the bounty on his head. But who exactly are his enemies? Is it the kingdom’s government, a fearsome pirate leader, or someone unknown? As Casmir seeks answers, he learns an unexpected truth about his background that only puts him in more danger. Book one in the Star Kingdom series, Shockwave is an exciting space opera adventure with sympathetic characters that will make you eager for the sequel.
Read the whole series. I about had a meltdown awaiting the last book which just came out. Lindsay has a fantastic imagination and populates her tales with the most interesting characters like Casmir and his crushers. Every series she writes, whether sci-fi, steampunk or fantasy is unique with totally different worlds and plots. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
Science Fiction is hit or miss with me – fortunately, Shockwave is a hit, at least enough of one that I will continue the series. I am curious. Who is Casmir? What makes him so special? What’s up with the Kingdom? And how did that thing with Rache come about?
These are the questions you are supposed to end this novel with, and Buroker sets it up well. While I normally don’t indulge in narratives with a male main character POV, not exactly by deliberate choice, more a choice in author’s – this one features Casmir as the front and center set of eyes. His way of thinking is rather self-deprecating, but somehow also wholesome and welcoming. It’s a odd combination, but for this strange scientist – it works. As for his companions? I am half in love with Kim already.
Perspective:
Third Person, Multiple POV (Limited)
Ending Type:
Cliffhanger
Rating:
PG-15
Romantic Dynamic:
Not prime in the story, though a M/F tension exists.
Character Age Range:
Adult
Pure Buroker Space Opera Fun, love it. Reading the next book right now. Might be the last in this series; if so- what a downer. But Buroker has written a lot of other stuff I haven’t read yet, but certainly will.
Not her best, but I have hopes that the rest of the series will live up to her other books.
A group of odd balls throw together trying to survive. A good space opera.
Casmir Dabrowski is on the run from killer robots and his roommate Kim has been carried along with him in all the chaos. It’s a good thing because Casmir needs a friend about now, as he tries to figure out who’s trying to kill him. He’s a mild mannered professor and robotics engineer, so he is at a loss as to who would want to harm him. He catches the first ship into space, which is captained by Bonita “Laser” Lopez, with genetically modified co-pilot Qin and the former human turned ship’s computer, Viggo. Before Casmir knows it, he’s got bounty hunters, mercenaries and pirates after him, including the feared Captain Tenebris Rache, as well as the almost unstoppable robots (which he designed) that continue to hunt him. I thoroughly enjoyed the start of the new Star Kingdom series, where, as usual, the author has thrown in plenty of humor, lots of action and wonderfully quirky characters. I’m looking forward to the next book, Ship of Ruin, which is waiting on my Kindle.
Can’t wait for the next one!
I enjoyed this tale, but I am disappointed that it ended with a cliffhanger. I HATE cliffhangers. While they came together at the end, the two different story lines seemed a bit choppy and difficult to keep straight for the first two-thirds of the book. The plot is (plots are) interesting and the characters are well fleshed out and realistic. I like the science fiction and am buying the next book in series because this IS Lindsay Buroker; it’s bound to get better!
Be it fantasy, steam punk, sci-fi or anything in between, Lindsay Buroker consistently pits out fantastic books. That’s no less true with Shockwave, first in her new Star Kingdom series. Casmir Dabrowski May not have been looking fir adventure or the need for heroics, but they found them nonetheless. If you live exciting adventure and books filled with bounty hunters, mercenaries, and pirates, (never mind Captain Tenebris Rache, the most feared criminal in the Star Kingdom) then this wonderfully written book is definitely for you. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises. The book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.