trike's review against another edition
3.0
This is a quick action piece, half heist story, half film noir, with all of the extraneous bits cut out so we can get down to the action. It's an action movie in book form, and if you go in with that mindset it's a lot of fun.
It's a bit similar to classic Westerns like High Noon, with the focus on a main guy and his less-than-perfect life colliding with serious criminal badasses, but if Gary Cooper were a ne'er-do-well who lacks motivation until he sees an opportunity to get rich via a small score, bringing him into contact with some truly shady characters.
All of this set against corporate indifference on a mining facility in the far reaches of space. Come to think of it, it's quite a bit like the movie Outlander, which took its inspiration from High Noon. I wouldn't be surprised if Shea watched that film a couple times and decided to put his own spin on it.
Overall it's fast and fun, and he occasionally throws in two-dollar words like "salubrious" just to let you know there's more than meets the eye. :p
It's a bit similar to classic Westerns like High Noon, with the focus on a main guy and his less-than-perfect life colliding with serious criminal badasses, but if Gary Cooper were a ne'er-do-well who lacks motivation until he sees an opportunity to get rich via a small score, bringing him into contact with some truly shady characters.
All of this set against corporate indifference on a mining facility in the far reaches of space. Come to think of it, it's quite a bit like the movie Outlander, which took its inspiration from High Noon. I wouldn't be surprised if Shea watched that film a couple times and decided to put his own spin on it.
Overall it's fast and fun, and he occasionally throws in two-dollar words like "salubrious" just to let you know there's more than meets the eye. :p
dancarey_404's review against another edition
3.0
A not-very-intricate caper novel. Thin on plot and character.
verkisto's review against another edition
3.0
Jimmy Vik works for an outer space mining company, drilling what needs drilling out of asteroids and such. His ex-girlfriend is his boss, which complicates things when he finds a vein of gold in his mining shaft, and comes up with the grand idea to smuggle it off the rock to live high on the hog. The problem is, smuggling something off the rock is a lot more complicated than it looks, and as every potential smuggler already knows, it never goes as planned.
Off Rock is a heist novel, and pretty much nothing else. Shea tells an engaging, ripping tale, but he sacrifices characterization and theme for his plot. Near the end of the book, he tries to give the story a point, but it feels clumsy and forced, and it's ultimately unnecessary, since the story doesn't require one. We're simply along for the ride, and aren't looking for anything deeper than "Will he pull this off?"
Jimmy's ex-girlfriend, Leela, is a bit troublesome, not because she's his boss, but because her character takes an about-face near the end of the story. There's a reason for it, but it doesn't feel true, and it feels like Shea forced it in there because he needed it, to give the story a (kind of) happy ending. The other secondary characters also serve their purpose, but feel inserted into the events, again because Shea needed it, not because the characters were significant enough on their own.
The beginning of the book has a lot of info-dumps through dialogue, making the characters sound unnatural. I work in IT, so I get that some conversations require passing along a lot of technical information, but somehow these didn't feel realistic. Beyond that, the dialogue focuses on the heist, and is less necessary to relay a lot of information to the reader (or I just stopped noticing it), but it was tough getting into the book at the start.
Regardless, Off Rock is a romp of a read. It doesn't try to be anything else than fun, and even if Shea gets a little bogged down in the snarkiness and irreverence of his characters, he still succeeds. I'm not sure if it's the kind of book that encourages me to read everything else he's read, but if you're looking for the science fiction equivalent of a beach read, Off Rock is it.
Off Rock is a heist novel, and pretty much nothing else. Shea tells an engaging, ripping tale, but he sacrifices characterization and theme for his plot. Near the end of the book, he tries to give the story a point, but it feels clumsy and forced, and it's ultimately unnecessary, since the story doesn't require one. We're simply along for the ride, and aren't looking for anything deeper than "Will he pull this off?"
Jimmy's ex-girlfriend, Leela, is a bit troublesome, not because she's his boss, but because her character takes an about-face near the end of the story. There's a reason for it, but it doesn't feel true, and it feels like Shea forced it in there because he needed it, to give the story a (kind of) happy ending. The other secondary characters also serve their purpose, but feel inserted into the events, again because Shea needed it, not because the characters were significant enough on their own.
The beginning of the book has a lot of info-dumps through dialogue, making the characters sound unnatural. I work in IT, so I get that some conversations require passing along a lot of technical information, but somehow these didn't feel realistic. Beyond that, the dialogue focuses on the heist, and is less necessary to relay a lot of information to the reader (or I just stopped noticing it), but it was tough getting into the book at the start.
Regardless, Off Rock is a romp of a read. It doesn't try to be anything else than fun, and even if Shea gets a little bogged down in the snarkiness and irreverence of his characters, he still succeeds. I'm not sure if it's the kind of book that encourages me to read everything else he's read, but if you're looking for the science fiction equivalent of a beach read, Off Rock is it.
tome15's review against another edition
2.0
Shea, Kieran. Off Rock. Kindle, 2017.
I picked up Off Rock because I remember liking the first novel in the Koko series. But this one needed a few more drafts at the very least. Our hero is a disgruntled minor somewhere in interstellar space. He wants to smuggle gold back to earth so he can retire. So far so good. But the characters are all clichés that one might find in a pulp western. Very little attention has been paid to world building. Why is gold more valuable than, say, rare earths? The style endeavors to be hip and punky, but the jokes don’t fit the characters. 2 stars.
kevinwkelsey's review
4.0
Posted at Heradas Review
I read this novel almost entirely from a hammock in my backyard, and I’d recommend taking that approach. It’s good and pulpy, a light summer Science Fiction read. A blue collar crime caper set during the closing days of a mobile mining station on an asteroid. Seedy characters, none particularly too bright, almost all involved in some sort of side action, fumbling their way through life with the limited choices left to them. Blackmail, vices, bribes, and lost causes are all welcome here.
Shea writes in a straightforward, no-nonsense style that reads fast and easy. Think a pulpy crime mag from the 40s, but make that 2740, and transplant that magazine onto a virtual rack residing on an illicit local intranet, accessed from portable “CPUs”. There are no lessons learned, no moral philosophies tying everything together. No overall takeaway. Sometimes a gold heist is just a gold heist. I think it works very well here.
The worldbuilding is sparse, but it has a vague feel of existing just on the outside edges of Cyberpunk. There are mega-corporations that demand complete loyalty, drones that watch your every move, and offenses against mega-corporations carry the harshest punishments: medical experimentation, and if you survive, maybe life in prison afterward. It’s a rough life for an asteroid miner, but if a highly illegal once-in-ten-lifetimes capital one corporate offense comes up, you say fuck the odds, grab hold and see how far it might take you. Maybe it’ll be just the right ticket to get out of that life, but you still have to get your loot off rock to have it do you any good. That’s where things might get difficult. Who do you trust? How much should you trust them? Give ‘em just enough rope for them to hang themselves if they fuck you over? Fuck them over first just in case? All pertinent questions if you’re a low life with limited options trying to better your situation.
This is some great sci-fi escapism, read it on a lazy Sunday, or take a copy on vacation, grab a chair by the pool, or chill in a hammock with a highly alcoholic cold drink. Turn off your head and enjoy. It was just what I needed to read between some heavier non-fiction that I’ve been slowly working on over the last month or so. I plan on picking up copies of the [b:Koko|18490895|Koko Takes a Holiday (EBK, #1)|Kieran Shea|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1384714035s/18490895.jpg|25738840] books by the same author this summer as well. I’m hoping it’s more of this, but in a more detailed cyberpunk setting. I’ve heard good things.
I read this novel almost entirely from a hammock in my backyard, and I’d recommend taking that approach. It’s good and pulpy, a light summer Science Fiction read. A blue collar crime caper set during the closing days of a mobile mining station on an asteroid. Seedy characters, none particularly too bright, almost all involved in some sort of side action, fumbling their way through life with the limited choices left to them. Blackmail, vices, bribes, and lost causes are all welcome here.
Shea writes in a straightforward, no-nonsense style that reads fast and easy. Think a pulpy crime mag from the 40s, but make that 2740, and transplant that magazine onto a virtual rack residing on an illicit local intranet, accessed from portable “CPUs”. There are no lessons learned, no moral philosophies tying everything together. No overall takeaway. Sometimes a gold heist is just a gold heist. I think it works very well here.
The worldbuilding is sparse, but it has a vague feel of existing just on the outside edges of Cyberpunk. There are mega-corporations that demand complete loyalty, drones that watch your every move, and offenses against mega-corporations carry the harshest punishments: medical experimentation, and if you survive, maybe life in prison afterward. It’s a rough life for an asteroid miner, but if a highly illegal once-in-ten-lifetimes capital one corporate offense comes up, you say fuck the odds, grab hold and see how far it might take you. Maybe it’ll be just the right ticket to get out of that life, but you still have to get your loot off rock to have it do you any good. That’s where things might get difficult. Who do you trust? How much should you trust them? Give ‘em just enough rope for them to hang themselves if they fuck you over? Fuck them over first just in case? All pertinent questions if you’re a low life with limited options trying to better your situation.
This is some great sci-fi escapism, read it on a lazy Sunday, or take a copy on vacation, grab a chair by the pool, or chill in a hammock with a highly alcoholic cold drink. Turn off your head and enjoy. It was just what I needed to read between some heavier non-fiction that I’ve been slowly working on over the last month or so. I plan on picking up copies of the [b:Koko|18490895|Koko Takes a Holiday (EBK, #1)|Kieran Shea|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1384714035s/18490895.jpg|25738840] books by the same author this summer as well. I’m hoping it’s more of this, but in a more detailed cyberpunk setting. I’ve heard good things.
bookwormmichelle's review
4.0
Well. This was not perfect. Minuses: kind of an obnoxious writing style, which bothered me most at the beginning and at the end. The sentences describing inner thoughts of characters were pretty awkward. Not so great character development--the main character makes a very sudden unexplained change that bothered me. So. No 5 star here.
Pluses: Wow. VERY fun and fast-paced story in the middle that made me completely forget about the writing awkwardness for a large part of the book.
Verdict: Fun, fast sci-fi fluff, makes for a nice hot summer's day read.
Pluses: Wow. VERY fun and fast-paced story in the middle that made me completely forget about the writing awkwardness for a large part of the book.
Verdict: Fun, fast sci-fi fluff, makes for a nice hot summer's day read.
jmoses's review
3.0
A quick, fun, heist/smuggling romp, in space. It's got all the things you'd expect, and a few you wouldn't.
jillheather's review
2.0
I wouldn't think you could ruin a space heist book that badly, but there you go. One extra star for the concept.
jameseckman's review
3.0
A caper that goes off the rails, lots of action and villains. A fast, fun, light read.
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