Customers say
Customers find this science fiction book engaging with an interesting premise and appreciate its hard science content, particularly the quantum physics sections. The writing is well-executed, and customers consider the author a great hard science fiction writer. While customers describe it as a page-turner and fun to read, they note it can be slow going, and one customer mentions it goes on too long about mundane routines.
Make It Yours – See Your Price On Amazon!
A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
Some secrets are meant to be kept.
No one has ever ventured deeper into space than the four astronauts of Shepherd-1. The aim of their mission: to witness the creation of the cosmos. Using the sun as a lens, they are to align a flock of probes in such a way that the moment of the Big Bang becomes visible.
For astronomer Christine, this is a dream come true. So she is bitterly disappointed when the first images are obscured by a kind of veil that prevents any insight. She works obsessively to find a solution, but when she finally succeeds in lifting the veil, she sees something that would have better been kept hidden…
Hard Science Fiction.
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: David E.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not a who-dun-it but a why-dun-it!
Review: The 4 astronauts are part if a mission in 2094 to use a series of probes to create a fractional lens that will allow them to look back in time. Ilan Chatterbe, is behind the mission and Christine and he plan on going back to the origin -the big bang – to see how the universe was created.Meanwhile in 2079, mission control are following the mission. However what happens on the mission in 2094 also appears to be happening in 2079!While the others Anton, Benjamin, and David are out checking the probes, Christine is analyzing the data. However, when they return, there appears to have been an explosion that killed Christine and damaged the ship and her capsule. It is suspected that Christine may have attempted to kill herself and destroy the ship -but why?At the same time, cause and effect appears to be running in the wrong direction every now and then – for example doors open before the button is pressed to tell them to…Also the structure of Christine’s capsule appears to breaking down.What is going on?This intriguing tale combines suspense, intrigue, double crosses, kidnaps and other peculiar happenings with an overzealous leader, and quantum entanglement of an unusual order…..All is revealed as the story slowly unfolds……A highly entertaining novel that is an enjoyable and thought provoking read.
Reviewer: Bill Reid
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting Physics; Writing Pretty Good
Review: Nice concept. He pulls the reader into the unknowns of the story slowly but with hints along the way. A little too much “formula” in the writing, commercial rather than literary, with very occasional typos, but engrossing. As a one-time physics major, I LIKE the engaging comments in the post-book material.
Reviewer: John Talisker
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good science not so good writing
Review: It is a bit much. The main idea about an observatory at the sun focal point is well known and described in various papers and I was sorry the author didn’t explore that more. The idea of the true nature of the crew was good and well thought out. The physics expressed by Newton was good, although needlessly repetitive. The DFD is an experimental concept that in no way can produce the levels of thrust stated thanks to the physics that define just how much inertial mass for propellant you would need. The missions Ops team, CapCom, MOM, et al, was very thin and does those who are in that role a disservice. They are not so dumb, and are in fact , very involved in the physics and details of a mission at a very a deep level. The idea of AlphaOmega was not interesting and even weird. It could have been deleted without changing the story in any important way. The date 2079 was way off…add 200 years; my mortgage will be paid off at about then. The so call quantum aspects…entanglement on steroids, let’s say – was over the top. Ok, fiction again, I get it. But it ultimately reads like one of those pop gee- wiz science books so prevalent these days. Prove it, even the smallest aspect of it, and I might believe it. Lastly, the writing needs work; perhaps a good editor that can straighten out the entanglement – no pun intended – of the dialogue and plot. I could barely finish the novel; by the end it had become predictable and boring.The author has written a wide range of sci-fi novels and I truly admire him for all that. He has a vision and dedication. But to make it work with the public at large, he needs to focus his vision. He should re-read Arthur C Clark. A contemporary writer he might want to read might be Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Reviewer: Patrick V. Flanigan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Disturbance
Review: This book has some really interesting ideas. It took a while to develop them in the story though. For a long while I just didn’t know what was going on. The afterwords explained a lot.
Reviewer: Victor
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Enjoyable read if you overlook the finer details
Review: This is a fast enjoyable read but leaves you wondering afterwards about some of the details that do not seem to add up. To be a true classic these would need to be fixed. Spoiler alert: you will not learn the truth about the universe because it’s too frightening for humans to handle and must be kept secret. That was disappointing. Whether or not God exists does not seem like legitimate scientific inquiry, but maybe that’s just me. Another spoiler alert: towards the end we learn that the crew are all androids. Okay that’s kinda cool, but why? Why did they use androids? Why did they make them think they were human, including making them breath, eat and poop? Why did they make the people at ground control also think the crew were humans. If they lack enough mass to power their engines back to earth, how are they going to get to the next star system like they plan at the end? Why didnt they attempt to capture mass from the two passing asteroids? There are a few more anomalies as well, but still a fun read.
Reviewer: Diane D.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great hard science fiction author!
Review: He’s the real deal, a scientist telling the story. I love it. Characters were really well developed. Storytelling was top – notch. I’ve found a new fav author… an autobuy for his books. So excited he has a big backlist to read, too! 😊👍♥️♥️♥️
Reviewer: Anastassios R.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Uneven pace and certain gaps in logic
Review: Overall, I enjoyed it, but it could have been so much better. It took almost half of the book before the reader was aware of exactly what was happening. The pacing there is slow. Later, the pacing picks up and many story threads clear up, but this should have happened earlier in telling this story. Some logical gaps are not well explained in the book. The organization that launched the spaceship seems to have been fully unchecked although it was under governmental overseeing. Only a single person in Control manages to point out some issues (and one has to wait for almost 2-thirds of the book before these are answered). I thought that a shorter novel with faster pacing would have a better choice here.
Reviewer: Gavin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not too HARD SCIENCE
Review: It was solid science, but not too difficult to follow. I did have to read a few things twice but was able to grasp it because it was so well written. I wish the book had answered “the question”…if only for a perfect ending. Still..pretty good ending and lots of after-info when finished reading. Interesting premise..I won’t give it away.
Reviewer: StephenMB
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I’ve waited some time after reading many books by Brandon Q Morris. I hated Portal and left that series. But I persevered and finished the Tachyon series and now the Disturbance series. So I can’t give it less than 5 *.I find the characterisation odd but there are reasons for that. Strange decisions are made but without that there’s no plot. And the plot is good, the science is good and the ending works.
Reviewer: monte8888
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Brandon Q Morris is always the consummate author, filing his novels with complex questions and complex characters trying to answer them. great value.
Reviewer: G
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Leichter Lesestoff für Zwischendurch und nicht wirklich das angepriesene “hard scifi”. Das liegt hauptsächlich daran, dass der Author eine Idee in dieses Buch pressen wollte, die eigentlich gar nichts zur eigentlichen Erzählung beiträgt. Vermutlich sollte das Problem von Langzeitweltraumreisen und deren Auswirkung auf Organismen dadurch behandelt werden. Der gewählte Ansatz wird dabei jedoch direkt, also durch den Author, zu einem Problem aus Sicht der Charaktere deklariert ohne wirklich die Substanz (und da gäbe es tatsächlich inhaltliches Potential) zu behandeln. Die “Auflösungen” werden dadurch zum Klischee und hinterlassen einen mit wenig Neuem nach dem Ende des Buchs. Und ds ist schade, da der titelgebende und auch als Idee ansprechende “Protagonist” vollkommen in den Hintergrund gedrängt wird.
Reviewer: Maia
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: For those like me, who enjoy hard science fiction, this author always delivers. I loved his space exploration/First contact Solar system series and Ice moon series in particular. This new serie is a good one as well as is the recent Lost Moon.Most SF are basically earth regular themes like battles, wars and the evil Alien monsters, soap opera in Space vs on Earth…Hard SF is very hard to find as the author needs extensive knowledge of science which is definitely the case for M. Morris.I find that his newer books include more AI and in a very realistic non sensationalistic way. I love the way it makes me think about what is consciousness and how it expands beyond humans.
Reviewer: Janeway
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Extremely boring, very weak plot, no character devopment, no reason whatsoever to read this book but the fact that I had paid for it. I wanted at least to know how it ended but it was not worth it. Hard science fiction should not mean throwing in a lot of science bubble and nothing else
Price effective as of Apr 21, 2025 19:20:51 UTC
As an Amazon Associate Dealors may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
