The following are reviews for my novels from around the web:

Robin

Until his death, Dr. Khan Taft was the foremost pioneer in prosthetics. He crafted artificial limbs that looked and worked as well as the original. His death throws the medical industry into disarray. Dr. Morris Cole, an opportunist and womanizer, approaches Taft's heir immediately after the funeral, hoping to charm her into selling Taft's lab equipment at a bargain rate. Robin Taft refuses, and mysteriously disappears, taking Taft's equipment with her.

Finding the easy to success blocked, Morris Cole laboriously attempts to recreate Taft's inventions. Despite a growing reputation, Morris is frustrated at his lack of success. By chance, he discovers Robin, now living as a sculptor under an alias. If Morris can lay hands on Dr. Taft's research, Morris can become the pre-eminent figure in prosthetic research. Fired by greed and determination, he pursues Robin, only to discover that she has a few secrets of her own.

"Robin" is a novella with a good premise and a main character with a cat-like personality. The author brings a spark to Morris Cole's character, despite his greedy and self-centered behavior. The first third of the book is told from Morris' viewpoint, and moves along quite well. The story bogs down in the middle third when Robin tells the long story of her life, although the pace recovers thereafter. "Robin" is an interesting book for a couple of hours reading.

Jeanette Cottrell, Reviewer eBook Reviews Weekly

Steve Jordan has decided to take the road less travelled in publishing his books online. Taking the whole process in house, making books available electronically and distributing the files from his website has allowed the price of books to be set at a reasonable $2.50. He has even taken the common sense decision to make his books DRM free - a measure of trust in his customers that larger companies are unable to make.

Robin is the second book to come from the Steve Jordan Books setup. It is set in the near future, around 2015. The story is played out in the world of high tech prosthetics, following the death of its leading light, engineer extraordinaire Kahn Taft.

We are taken on a ride with Kahn’s friend and would be successor Morris Cole, who seeks out first Kahn’s missing mannufacturing equipment and then his missing ward, Robin. At times the story jumps from Morriss’s narration to Robin’s (and back again) and along the way I got the distinct impression that one of Steve Jordan’s literary heroes was Isaac Asimov: the story certainly bears some comparison with part of the master’s work.

All in all I found Robin to be an enjoyable and compelling read. Definitely one for science fiction fans, but good fayre - especially when you consider the reasonable tariff for the journey. Steve Jordan and Steve Jordan Books deserve to succeed, lets hope that more independent writers follow his lead.

8/10. A must for Sci-fi fans.

Clark, iBme Network

Berserker (The Kestral Voyages)

The Raians, an alien race known as Spiders, have concocted a virus to control humankind. Those humans who are infected either act as carriers or go berserk, destroying anyone in their path. Commander Carolyn Kestral battles a berserker, and apparently becomes a carrier. Previously a space Ranger on the fast track to advancement, Carolyn is forced into retirement.

As captain of her own freighter, she attempts to start a new life. Her past haunts her. It's hard to find a good crew, let alone profitable cargo runs, when her every move is suspect. When she gets her first cargo, she's determined to see it through. Unfortunately, the cargo draws the attention of the Raians. But is it the cargo they want, or Carolyn Kestral herself? Is she, in fact, a walking time bomb?

Mr. Jordan has a good sense of action, and a great interest in the minutiae of running a space ship. The ship cook, for instance, is entirely engrossed in growing food on shipboard, and has little interest in intrigue. The pace is uneven. It starts well, and then suffers long stretches where nothing much happens to move the plot forward. Tension rises when the crew suspects their captain's motives and stability. Once the ship's underway, the pace picks up again. I liked the back-and-forth scenes reflecting the Raians' view of the situation. Berserker is an interesting novella, offering a peek at the problems of operating a starship. It's a worthwhile read.

Jeanette Cottrell, Reviewer eBook Reviews Weekly

Factory Orbit

Ted Canter is out of work, and his marriage is on the rocks. When a mysterious job opening opens up offering three times his previous salary, he's understandably skeptical. But Westcott E's offer is on the level. They need Ted and dozens of others to construct the world's first commercial orbiting factory. When Westcott's ambitious manufacturing plan hits the media, Ted's life becomes a circus. Relations with his wife plummet to a new low.

On the other hand, his new job offers exciting opportunities, and Ted soon learns that he is capable of far more than he thought. His self-confidence rising with every step, Ted goes through extensive training in living and working in space. Space, he discovers, truly is a dangerous frontier.

Like Mr. Jordan's other books, Factory Orbit excels in the careful, methodical detail of the story it describes. Except for its speedy training timeline, Westcott's training program sounds rigorous and realistic. Readers who prefer an action-packed plot-driven story would find this book dissatisfying. It is, however, a great book for the reader who loves sketching starships, and developing schematics for the futuristic equipment seen on the Sci Fi Channel.

Factory Orbit is the chronicle of an "average joe" given the opportunity to work and live in space. Space station life opens a few cans of worms such as being adrift in a damaged spacesuit, or suffering damage to the station's hull, or even being the victim of corporate sabotage. It's a good book for those of us who dream of this sort of thing. Those wanting aliens or space battles need to look elsewhere.

Jeanette Cottrell, Reviewer eBook Reviews Weekly

Midgard's Militia

Imagine a world of Superheroes. Or more accurately, imagine our world with a sprinkling of Superheroes, all combining to keep the world safe from their Superfoes. This is the starting point for the latest novel by Steve Jordan.

What happens next is catastrophic for the good-evil balance in this fictional world: responding to an unknown threat the Superheroes travel into space and are destroyed by this new threat.

The world is faced with two new problems, firstly the Superfoes run amok and, secondly, no one knows what the new threat is or how to deal with it.

The story progresses through the sub-plots of several groups of people whose stories weave and interweave to deal with the superfoes, discover the super-threat’s nature and deal with its many instances.

Midgard’s Militia is an easy read, its clear that its intention is to be a fun book, along the lines of the heyday DC/Marvel comic books. The story is much more Clark Kent than Superman and all the more enjoyable for it.

7/10. A fun story for boys.

Clark, iBme Network

Encephalopath

We've covered Steve Jordan Books before on MobileRead. He catches our attention with his philosophy of selling non-DRM'd novels at low price points. He also has a book available at his site for free, so you can determine whether or not you like his writing.

It turns out that he's also a very good writer. Others had told me that they liked his stuff, so I decided to give it a try. I started with the free book, The Onuissance Cells. The download is at the bottom of the page, in many formats. It's actually sort of a collection of stories, but it keeps your interest.

Now I'm in the midst of Encephalopath, which he makes available in many non-DRM'd formats for $2.50. It's a great book. My only complaint is that there is a bit more sexual R-rated themes than I would like, but it doesn't dominate the story, and actually probably helps it do well with popular book markets.

The story is about future kinds of communications. An extreme extension of the world wide web, where they have found a way to connect and integrate it directly into your brain. No more typing into computer terminals to access the internet. There are some really creative descriptions of the "link" and potential ramifications. You have intrigue, drama, romance, lots of scifi technology, and of course some corporate spys, government bad guys and more. Somehow it all comes together naturally in the story, so you don't feel like he is forcing the topics.

One of the topics he touches on (in both this one and in The Onuissance Cells) is the subject of skin color. I usually cringe when that is brought up in any book, because there are often such strong emotions pent up in the author, that poison tends to spew out of the pen or keyboard. In this case, Steve uses the futuristic setting to come up with a very interesting way to look at the issues in a very abstract manner. I won't spoil the idea, but if you read the book, be sure to look for it and think a little about the topic. He doesn't dwell on it, so it's really up to you to do the thinking. I found it very interesting.

So if you are looking for more content in addition to Baen's collections or the olders books from Gutenberg or ManyBooks, this is an excellent new author to give a try. For those who want to reward a publisher with a fresh and non-DRM'd approach to book selling, it's also a great way to support the cause. And if you like the book, be sure to send him a note to let him know how much you appreciate his strategy.

Bob Russell, MobileRead.com

Lambs Hide, Tigers Seek

steve,
is there a place where i can write a commentary on your book?

i just finished reading it, and i have to say, i'm really impressed.

at first, i found the language to be somewhat awkward, a few old expressions thrown in that totally contrast to the modern setting.

but once i met "uh-lane", i could hardly put the smartphone down.

i think, in retrospect, the first chapter does not do the book justice, because after chapter one, the story just flies!

great, great, GREAT book.
excellent story, really enjoyable characters, and the way you throw in things that us geeks enjoy, like gps, pdas, ebooks etc is really cool.
oh, and i actually cracked up a few times.

definately up to par with my previous literary enjoyment (james ellroy, david baldacci, vince flynn)

steve ... keep going. you're an excellent writer and i hope you will be able to make a name for yourself.
i suppose this means expanding to non-digital-publishing (a.k.a. paper books)

Daniel Mores, commentary on PocketPCThoughts.com

General Comments

This discussion forum on www.Mobileread.com begins with a review of this site, and others expand upon it with comments about a number of my books:

Bob Russell, Mobileread Editor

Steve just dropped us a note to tell us about his site with science fiction e-books. Plus as a bonus, he is offering his book, The Onuissance Cells to visitors for free.

The site seems to be done the way we would like to see it... no DRM and in multiple formats: PDB (readable by iSilo, Mobipocket and eReader, and others), iSilo, MobiPocket, MS Reader, Adobe Reader (PDF), Palm Doc (unformatted).

His featured book right now is Encephalopath, which is available for $2.50. The sort of price point we've all dreamed of for e-books. The book summary says, "Glen Jansen is seeking to improve his work and prospects when he purchases bleeding edge personal computer technology. But when the tech gives him unexpected access to strange parts of the net, and seemingly to other people's very thoughts, he finds himself on the run from the government, the mob, and a bunch of ersatz terrorist/patriots, all while trying to find out who's really controlling the country's networks!"

For more detail on his approach to book publishing, here is what he tells us. "Right Brane ePublishing was established by me as a venue offering a more sensible and practical method of selling electronic books and other electronic documents. Anyone familiar with the e-book market is aware that it is rife with uncooperative print publishers, overpriced products, incompatible e-book readers and formats, and convoluted digital rights management (copy protection) systems. These aspects serve to alienate many potential e-book purchasers, and as a result, the e-book market has remained a niche market growing at a snail's pace. I have researched the state of the e-book industry, including starting public dialogues with many e-book users, comparing e-books to other electronic products, electronic and print documents, and examining the realities of selling via the Internet. My conclusion, in a nutshell, was that there was a viable market for electronic books sold exclusively over the web, for a low cost, and with minimal copy protection measures applied to individual books. It is my belief that quality material can be offered in e-book format to a large following of buyers. A low price will encourage more sales, and the low overhead required to sell electronic files over the Internet will still allow for a reasonable profit per sale. There will be some inevitable sharing of the books, lowering the profit coming to me, but the low cost of the e-books should keep the sharing factor down to a comfortable level. As a result, I have decided to create Right Brane ePublishing as my publishing vehicle. I plan to offer my novels (as well as other free material) on this site, adding additional novels as they are finished, and monitoring the site's activity to gauge its success."

Sounds like very sensible (and familiar) thoughts! Now the remaining question is simply whether or not the books are any good. I suppose that a look at the excerpts or free book should make that pretty clear. But as most of us are lazy, why don't one of you give it a try and let us know what you think?! Encephalopath looks intriguing to me from the description, so it just might go on my tentative reading list.

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paulkbiba

Just for info, I downloaded the Onuissance Cells book in eReader/Palm Doc format and it works just fine in FBReader on the Nokia 770.

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Liviu_5

Hi, I have found out about Mr. Jordan's books on the Emerald City (www.emcit.com, one of the best sites alongside locus online - locusmag.com, and sfsignal - sfsignal.com, for news about sf&f, also has a monthly review issue which is very good) weblog about a month ago, and I checked out his books.

Since he kindly provided excerpts, I read some and got hooked on his books, so I purchased all in mslit form, converted them to html (no drm so it is legal as far as I know), loaded them on my 2 ereaders (Nokia 770, Ebookwise 1150) and read 6 of them as of now, and I am currently reading the new one and Worldfarm One which I avoided a bit due to its subject, though I like its style and the main character.

I strongly recommend his books, especially the near future ones, Evoguia (10/10), Orbital Factory (10/10), Robin (9/10 - the story is conventional sf and a bit short but great characters and execution), Encephalopath (reading currently), and Worldfarm One (especially if you do not mind it's geopolitical setup seems as good as the others).

I read Sol (9/10 - a bit unbalanced and flat characters but some great ideas and had a section - the Sol one - that reminded me a lot of one of my favourite authors the late Australian writer George Turner's Genetic Soldier -actually more of Mr. Jordan's work reminds me of George Turner though with updated technology and a far cheerier outlook overall - Mr. Turner's great books Brain Child, Drowning Towers, The Destiny Makers, Down There In Darkness, Genetic Soldier are pretty grim but really good)

I also read The Onuissance Cells (8/10 - unbalanced and really unfinished but with great moments) and The Berserker (7/10 - conventional sf, characters not fleshed out enough, though good enough to care to find out what happened) and I plan to read Midgards Militia too.

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Jorgen

I'll second the recommendation of Steve's books: great read and good value for money.

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Jaapjan

Ah yes, on recommendation here I just bought it (a few hours ago) and finished it just now. Quite the enjoyable read.

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Brad

I read the Onuissance Cells and enjoyed it. I think it worth the time of any science fiction reader to at least give this free ebook a try to see if you like Jordan's style. I intend to buy more titles.

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harvey

I've read most of Steve's novels and without fail enjoyed them all. There's also a free short story by Steve Jordan available exclusively via http://www.digireader.com - I think you need to register for the forums to get a copy.

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... As it happens that blurb turned me off that particular book originally. However I liked the excerpts from various books (Factory Orbit, Evoguia), so I bought several books from Mr. Jordan and though I tend to like mostly space opera, I really enjoyed his near future novels, Factory Orbit (10/10), Evoguia (10/10), Robin (9/10) and The Onuissance Cells (8/10). I purchased all the books since and I am planning to read Worldfarm next after finishing Unto the Breach. I quite like Mr. Jordan's style and I hope he keeps writing interesting and enjoyable sf.

Personally, I tend to like an author based on style rather than on ideology, so two of my "buy on publication" authors are John Ringo and Richard Morgan, and yes I love the Kildar series and I loved Market Forces also...

I did not find the 4 books by Mr. Jordan that I have read, particularly ideological, just very interesting explorations of possibilities based on current scientific understanding and carried out by common people, in an incremental way that to me reflects quite well how society moves.

Check out the excerpts rather than the blurb and enjoy,

Liviu Suciu, commentary on PocketPCThoughts.com