Review Summaries

• Readers respond to the way the work approaches its subject and to the prose that supports the story. It is also read as a work that asks for patience with quiet development and weighty themes.

Reviews

• Stellar spy story

  Took me about a chapter to get the flow of the writing and from there I was hooked. Fast paced spy thriller, compelling characters, and shows the beginnings of a deep universe to explore!

• A light, fun, easy to read adventure that is also thoroughly well written and respectful of the reader

  Summary: The Caldedonian Gambit is easy and light enough to read at any time instead of having to wait for a time you're mentally prepared, but lumping the novel with similarly tonally light fare would belie the immense respect Dan Moren has imbued his first novel with: respect for his characters, respect for his universe, respect for the novel as a stand-alone story, and through these respect for his readers. The thoughtful effort is appreciated and has me hoping for a sequel. Detailed non-spoiler review: Broadly, this isn't a book that feels as if it's trying to change your worldview immensely (which is a thing I much appreciate and love in my fiction but am not always in the mood for). Sometimes you want to be able to really relax with a book without feeling as if you're also lowering your standards for writing, world cohesion, or depth of characters. Not every interaction, adventure, or phase of our real lives contains a tectonic shift in how we see the world–but ideally we're always actually paying attention to the world, aware of nuance, and challenged at least lightly. That's the balance Dan strikes with The Caledonian Gambit. His world is easily accessible, whether or not you're a big consumer of science fiction, but uses a different cultural basis for the place we're introduced to than I'm used to (while making it believable!). The book introduces a few concepts important to the world-building for what will hopefully turn into a successful series of novels in a way that makes this distinctly far future while retaining a degree of credibility as a realistically possible future that both less thoughtful and more dramatically alienating science fiction tend to lose. The characters all behave in ways that make sense in any given situation for their particular backgrounds and established traits. Often to drive some significant point home (the struggles of PTSD, drug abuse, racism, sexism, any other issue some people experience and many don't) writers of novels across the entire quality spectrum often fall into the trap of centering an entire novel or major character around a single defining characteristic, turning them into caricatures instead of people. Dan doesn't tip into that all-too-common well, though. The characters feel like real people, well grounded, with various histories and experiences that are pointed out without bludgeoning you over the head. As mentioned in my summary, all this speaks volumes about the respect Dan gives to fiction, to fiction consumers, and to the writing process and his desires for his own writing. Aside: I went through The Caledonian Gambit simultaneously via audiobook and paperback, switching between the two when necessary. I'd recommend either based on your preference, but have some thoughts on the experience. Reading paper is certainly faster and preferable much of the time for me, though certainly less convenient. While the audiobook performance during normal narration isn't among the strongest I've heard, and some of Dan's appropriate and enjoyable usage of italics/emphasis to offset internal monologue versus narration is less effective in audio form, one major benefit to switching back and forth was how helpful the audio was for understanding pronunciation on brief non-English / heavily-accented portions of the story. About 3/4 of my "read" was via audio form due to my circumstances (listening during commutes) and I found that the visual reading portions were much more enjoyable than they would have otherwise been as a direct result–I could read parts I would hesitate on comfortably and feel I was getting the experience I was meant to have.

• Well-paced and fun

  If science-fiction-and-spies is your cup of tea, you should try this - it’s well-paced, smooth, and quite fun, with a keen sense of timing (both comic and serious).

• Great Sci-Fi!

  A great novel for anyone who likes hard-ish sci-fi. Enough of the fun tech to keep it interesting and futuristic, but not so much to bog down the story. The characters are well fleshed out, with understandable and relatable motives. And there are a few twists along the way to keep you on your toes. Once I hit the last third, I could barely put it down!

• Great sci-fi, characters about whom you'll care

  I found this to be a really enjoyable read, which introduced a compelling set of characters, about whom I came to care. This, to me, is the sign of good writing, and also makes me hope that there'll be more books in the series, with the same set of characters. Bottom line, if you like decent sci-fi, and good character and plot development, then this is the book for you.

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