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The Silver Ships by Scott Jucha

#1

Steve

Steve

“The Silver Ships”


I am VERY excited to announce the discovery of a completely new and blessedly prolific science fiction author. This author’s name is pronounced Scott “Ū•HĂ” which is spelled Jucha. His website domain is his name, so: scottjucha.com.

First of all, Scott can write, and he has a pleasantly expansive working vocabulary, which is a joy to encounter. He writes stories containing well-formed characters who, at every turn, do what you hope they're going to do, then surprise you as they exceed your expectations. Many of his Amazon reviewers, in their review after they have finished the final book in “The Silver Ships” series, state that this is the best “space opera” series they’ve ever read. It would take a lot to compete with Ryk Brown’s “Frontiers Saga”... but there’s certainly room for a top two!

I downloaded book #1 a week ago, and since then I’ve read the first book. Then I needed to see what was about to happen next, so I read just enough of the second book to relieve the pressure. Then I went back and reread/skimmed the first third of the first book in order to relive its key parts, now knowing what the author had in mind. At one point my wife Lorrie asked where I was in my reading and I explained that I was re-reading book one. She just shook her head and said: “We are so different that way.” So I explained/asked: “Haven’t you ever seen a movie that was so good that you immediately watched it again, able to enjoy it even more, since you knew how everything fit together?” (That generated some more head shaking.)

Anyway, ten years ago, in 2012, Scott began writing. In April of last year he finished his 24-novel series, which he calls “The Silver Ships.” All of the first five novels in the series were three times awarded Amazon’s #1 Best Selling Sci-Fi book, and they also won the #2 spot twice across multiple science fiction categories of first contact, space flight, and alien invasion.

The story is set in the far future. It follows a number of Earth descended colonies which encounter a very non-human, quite powerful and quite hostile alien race. Ever since I caught up with Ryk Brown’s Frontiers Saga series, I’ve been casting about, looking for something next, while Ryk continues working on his next books. I’m absolutely certain that I found what I’ve been looking for. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I love what has happened so far.

The books are all on Amazon, available through their Kindle Unlimited program, and also on Audible, narrated by Grover Gardner. Look for “The Silver Ships” series.

Recommended without reservation to anyone who enjoys a good “space opera.”


#2

Lob

Lob

I am still "in arc" with Ryk but thanks for queuing me up, Steve :)


#3

Steve

Steve

I am still "in arc" with Ryk but thanks for queuing me up, Steve :)
Ryk might be better at deeply developing multiple characters. I feel as though I know Nathan, Jessica, Cameron, Vladimir, Josh, Telles, Abbey, etc. all so well. In the first book, Scott mostly focuses upon his main character, Alex Racine, a socially awkward math genius. But the Silver Ships reviewers who have read much more indicate that many other characters are also well developed. (y)


#4

rfrazier

rfrazier

Hi @Steve , all. Thanks for the recommendation. I bought the first book on Audible but haven't had a chance to listen to it. I also bought 6, 11, 12 just for kicks. The ones in between didn't say add to cart. They just said add to library. I figured they were free. So I just clicked on it. However, now that they're in the library, the only option I have is to listen from the website. It doesn't allow me to download them. Well, for me, that essentially prevents me from hearing them. I ONLY ever listen to audio books after downloading on my tablet ... with no internet connection in between downloads. So, I cannot listen to all those books. Does anybody know why it's doing that? I'm afraid I'll have to just return all of them if I cannot solve this problem. I also listen to books at higher than native speed. I'm not going to be streaming them. Any ideas? All help is appreciated.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron


#5

rfrazier

rfrazier

I just got off the phone to Audible and learned some rather convoluted things about their system. I thought I'd share it here in case it might help someone.

If you look up the Silver Ships series at this time, you'll see 12 of the 20 book offering and you to add them to your cart. This is an outright purchase and you own the book. They're currently on sale for about $ 4 which ends in 2 days. This is less than the cost of a monthly credit if you want to spend cash instead of credits. However, the other 8 books only say add to library, not cart. If you do that, you're not buying them, nor are you getting them for free. You're borrowing them. They call it the plus catalog. In that case, you can STREAM only from the website but not download. If you have the latest version of the tablet app, you can stream from there or download to there according to the rep. If you cancel your account, these borrowed books go away. I have an older app and these borrowed titles don't show up at all.

If you want to BUY the books in the plus catalog so you own them and can download them like normal, click on the book title in the search results list, then click more options, then it gives you an option to buy. This was very non obvious to me. The info might be useful to someone else.

May your bits be stable and your interfaces be fast. :cool: Ron