Starfighter Down: Relics of the Ancients, Book 1

Clear sharp character development and storyline. Interesting concepts of protagonists and their interests. Book 1 is well written and leads into the greater story.

A truly fast paced novel, well crafted plot and intriguing characters. The plot twists grabbed me right away and I couldn’t put the book down.

One of the strengths that I have really enjoyed with Herron's previous work is that he is not shy about his inspirations. What he does as a writer, is take many of the elements of pop culture and combine them in a familiar way to tell a new story. He tells very specific stories that are meant to be fun and light-hearted reading that is great to dive into over the weekend.In Starfighter Down, he's once again taken his ingredients, this time some Battlestar Galactica here, a dash of Star Wars there, and maybe a splash of Wing Commander or Starship Troopers-- he places it all on simmer, and lets these flavors really get to know each other in this Space Epic. There's also a garnish of body horror, that adds a bit of intensity to the second half, that's new to his work as well.To be clear, as a space opera, this is not so sprawling that you're going to need an appendix to keep track of a dozen different factions or warring houses, but there is quite a bit going on and a lot of book to cover the multiple threads. This book is also definitely mostly upbeat and hopeful, and expectations are pretty set that this is an installment of a larger story.I was surprised how much I was invested in Hedgebot, a great robot sidekick that is able to emote extremely well. A sneak attack to how much you get attached to the little bugger even though you see the setup a mile away. This book also really adds to the pace, around the second half into the third act that I had to dive through the rest and finish. I'm ready for book 2!

Firstly, I did enjoy reading this book.If you're looking for lots of action against bug-eyed aliens bent on taking over the galaxy, this may be right down your alley.The writing's not bad. There's a lot of action. The (main) characters aren't cardboard.The physics don't work (e.g. lidar instantly telling positions of enemy ships light minutes or hours away). The author hasn't fully developed the workings of this universe (e.g. is the blaster a laser or not). The 'psychic evil bug monsters' are a cliché trope, and a lot of the bug tech descriptions are worth more as horror SFX than anything real. And so on.TL;DR this is very much Space Opera, not real Science Fiction.Which is OK, if that's what you want, but me, I can't give this more than 3*s.

This is a great book with likeable and believable characters. I really liked the way M.G. Herron utilized technology for both good guys and bad guys. The story was not overly complicated but contained elements of depth as he crafted a great story.

Starfighter Down, the first in the Relics of the Ancients series, is well-written, very well-edited, and easy to read. The action is fast-paced, and the story does not require you to suspend disbelief.The story was fresh, the characters believable, and the dialog was realistic.There were only Three minor flaws in Starfighter Down. First, I don't like books set 5,000 years in the future that use technology close to what we have now. We have advanced so far in the last two hundred years, I cannot imagine what it will look like in a thousand years, let alone 5,000 years. I call it a minor flaw because it is my quirk. Second, they must promote them young in the future. In the U.S. Army, due to its size, a newly promoted Captain is nearly 30 years old. In most militaries, a person is much older when promoted to Captain. These characters were written as if they were in their early 20s. Again, a minor flaw that didn't detract from my enjoyment. Finally, I feel this book was written as a young adult novel, but not marketed as such. The writing seemed to be for a younger audience, similar to Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and other popular young adult series. Again, I am an older reader, and this appearing as a young adult tome did not affect my enjoyment.

It took me a long time to finish this. It’s pretty clear that this whole book is the set up for a long and complicated story. Without the rest of the volumes to hand, it reads like an introduction to the personalities and back stories of important characters. The war of invasion seems almost incidental. The mention of an elder race of beings and their technology is slipped in within human drama. Only at the very end do we see that as the root cause of the conflict. Clearly exciting times are about to come…if the author can continue to keep this web of personalities and objectives in the air and moving.

Starfighter Down by M.G. Herron is excellent Sci-Fi, action-packed, and spell-binding reading. Basically, it’s a human vs. alien plot involving the evacuation of a colony of humans from a planet-size moon, but it’s also a search and rescue mission for a downed Star Fighter pilot, his actions and efforts to survive, and his interactions with a religious group of colonists who choose not to evacuate. Characters are well-developed and the narrative is so detailed as to become “visual” to the reader. It has a “happy ending” and creates a desire to read the next book in the series. I think you’ll enjoy it as I did.

Entertaining light read.

Some fun action scenes but still too adolescent, and way too many groans from Star Wars and Star Trek rip-offs.

There are certain standards for these types of books;1. Space fleets that use "starfighters" all have a Top Gun type pilots that are outside the norms of fleet naval discipline, have local rivalries and always save the day. The first thing a reader must do is identify who "maverick" is and how will he flunk then rise again.2. Aliens come in 3 main types; a. completely mysterious life forms that cannot communicate with humans and are ruthless. b. Basically humanoid, warlike and nasty, manage to speak English to utter their threats and can be normally placed in a group called "like Klingons". c. Drones killer vessels that swarm space and can be organic, insect-like or robotic.This book is about Maverick against insect drones. He is stupidly piloting the titular 'Starfighter Down' and once down he runs around quite a bit. That established, the rest is pretty predictable.There are a few interesting distractions along the way (Mavericks cutey cuddly robotic assistant is not one of them - unless you are under 12), but on the whole the end is not in doubt.For a story with many plot holes, shallow characters (they are cliches so, I suppose, no real need to develop them much) and very little excitement, it has to be said that there were very typos. Credit due.Having roundly condemned it, I was surprised by myself that I bought book 2, There is a little curiosity to the tale that has potential for development and I was in two minds to follow it up. But it needs to shine in the first 20 pages or I'll dump it.

The story wasn't exactly gripping. The author paid lip service to a female character, who was mostly in an injured state & barely mentioned throughout the book. I won't be reading the others.