Rune S. Nielsen

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Review: Icebreaker: Book One of the Interloper Trilogy by Steven William Hannah

(Contains minor spoilers.)

Title: Icebreaker
Author: Steven William Hannah
Genre:
Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure
Pages: 281
Independently published: 2021

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Icebreaker is an easy book to read, the pages just fly by. And as dystopian/post-apocalyptic books are not what I'm into this is high praise indeed.

The story is coherent throughout, and the characters, setting, and worldbuilding make as much sense as I'd hoped. OK…it is a fictional and fantastic sci-fi story that mixes weird science with shamanistic elements, so while it does not make actual sense (or at least not entirely,) the author deftly manages, to make things sufficiently believable in the universe that he creates to make the read enjoyable, intense, and interesting throughout.

Each of the questions raised is dealt with properly, and even I, someone who's gotten just a bit tired of books that revolve around science versus religion/spirituality, especially the ones that are so sure of the answer that they moralize, here I found myself enjoying the journey and the questions raised.

Conclusion
All in all, I don't have anything bad to say about Icebreaker. It's a superb book, and while it's self-published, I found it to be much better than a lot of books published by the trad publishing houses.

The only stuff I would have changed had I been the editor of this book is minor stuff like the author seems to have something about hands. Near the end of the book., stuff just keeps happening that involves hands. All of it is interesting for sure...but why does it have to be a hand every time? Maybe there is some hidden meaning I'm missing?
I did notice three errors that the proofreader missed, but I do the same when I read books published by trad publishing, and here the mistakes were tiny.

I liked the main character, Bear, well enough, and even more the crew of the Icebreaker. I'd recommend this book to anybody who likes sci-fi whether they like dystopian books or not.