Bane of Kings Reviews  The Legend of Adam Caine, a self-published novel by John Charles Scott, a first time author.

“A fantastic romp through time and space. Part Doctor Who, Part Star Wars and Part Rambo.” ~The Founding Fields

 

Okay, first of all, I’m going to apologise for not putting up any reviews since the 29 October. That was because I was reading this, The Legend of Adam Caine, which stands at 700 odd pages long, and is probably one of the biggest fiction books that I’ve ever read. If you’re looking for a comparison with it on the size, it stands at the same level as the currently in print versions of novels The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham and Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey.

 But size doesn’t stop the novel from being full of action, and a fast-paced read that will have you flicking through the pages determined to find out what happens to Adam Caine.

This novel takes a normal, average situation and adds some sci-fi perspective to it. In this case, it is summer 2006. 42 people are snatched from the London Underground in a blink of an eye. They’ve got no clue who’s taken them, and why they’re taken. The 42 people kidnapped include retired veterans, a writer, a paedophile, police constables, and a woman and her child. Then, without explanation, they’re thrust from one encounter to the next throughout time and space, where we briefly visit a wide range of settings such as the Falklands War, and Earth’s future.

And this is barely the beginning. Caine becomes the only man with the hope of getting everybody out of there alive, but once they do, they find themselves catapulted into the 41^st Century, and nothing will ever be the same. Packed full of more villains, sci-fi devices and battles than you could possibly think would be in one TV series, let alone on book, The Legend of Adam Caine becomes a novel that you will enjoy if you’re a fan of Space Opera fiction (Leviathan Wakes, for example), or TV shows like Star Trek, and even movies like Star Wars.

 With a self-published novel, there will most likely be a few errors though. Punctuation mistakes are found through the pages of this novel and the size of the font changes at least twice. Several references are also included, from His Last Command by Dan Abnett to the Rugby World Cup Final of 2006. You also have to pay close attention to what you’re reading as well, as you will find yourself lost if you come back to it after a long absence period, as the amount of ship names like the Kara Mazarov (a particular favourite) are about as frequent as the countless battles that Adam Caine finds himself thrust into.

If you don’t mind reading Self-published fiction and paying the hefty £17.81 price that you can get it for on Amazon, then The Legend of Adam Caine will be a book for you, particularly if you enjoy science fiction. I believe that this is an impressive debut from John Charles Scott, even if there are a couple of things that I feel out of place. For example, both love interests of a certain man (I won’t mention the name of due to spoilers) have been cheated on at some point in their lives. It’s not much of a biggie, but it just kinds of bugs me for some reason. I mean, in the century-spanning novel, couldn’t they have not have had different issues?

The plot isn’t simple as well, and it leaves no prisoners. If you enjoy any form of science fiction you should like this, particularly space opera fans as this covers sci-fi in all its forms. This is by no means an easy read, but the reward that you get out of this will be worth it. Non Sci-Fi fans may struggle getting into it, but then it’s not really aimed at non-Sci-Fi fans in the first place.

I look forward to reading more from the tales of Adam Caine. This was an exhilarating read indeed.

Rating: 3.5/5

 

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