Very early for a Review but this is a GEM! And not a Gem in the Rough in any way! Combines multiple Real world fears of A.I. And Dungeon cores in a Break neck Sifi ! 

Read More

It reads smoothly, but it has depth and hints at potentially so much more.
This story strikes a sort of balance between suspense and progress, detail and introspection, then emotion and levity which just kept me turning pages until there were no more.

As of now, the world feels much larger than the information presently available, and is intriguing right from the first few chapters. The AI artwork included also enhances the experience and provides appealing visualization for the main cast of characters. Overall, it scratches an itch for exactly this type of Shipcore subgenre I didn't know how badly I was wanting.

Suffice it to say, I read it all in one go and was left eagerly awaiting more.
That's nearly as successful and enjoyable as it gets for me.
Give it a read and see what more will come.

Read More

As of arc 2, chapter 26. I can say this is a beautifully written story. The characters are fleshed out, there is lore behind the settings and interactions between people that show emotion. The story is an awesome, featuring lasers, death, cool space sh*t and ships that will blow you away, plus cool maps and pictures. Grammatically it is near perfect (nothing is perfect), there are no holes in the plot... so far, and the author knows hoe to captivate an audience. All in all. 5 out of 5. No s*xual content yet...I hope the author keeps that to a minimum cause it can often overshadow the plot. Minimal language and minimal gore.

Read More

I had to write a review now just because of one thing we recently got: The homage to the Culture series (ship names for the corporate faction). It's great to see other Iain M. Banks fans out there!

As a review: I am greatly enjoying this series because it's an interesting combination of mystery, intrigue, decent spaceship mechanics (The Expanse being a clear motivator), and most importantly the ethical growth of a hybrid AI.

Plus who couldn't love a cute whimsical haiku-quoting side character.

Very curious to see where we go next - will it be adventure, exploration or empire building?

Read More

A space adventure that really takes you on an adventure.

The characters are interesting and the secrets in the setting are slowly revealed so you don't get overloaded.

Read More

This is a very enjoyable story.  The characters are believable both human and AI and I have fallen in love with all three of the main crew.  The crews interactions are probably my favorite parts of this story.  The combination of emotion and serious events intertwined with comedic overtones keep me reading and loving this story.

Read More

Dropped the novel after A2. A3 is basically unimportant if you want to continue reading then wait for A4.

Read More

Very well thought out story. While there's a few points of issue, overall I'd pick Shipcore as one of the best on the site.

The premise is quite similar to Waking up as a Spaceship, the story is much closer to a space opera. Maybe an Expanse meets Star Wars. Politics brew constantly in the background, and battles are gritty. Shields and armour are mostly just for micrometeorites and point defense systems, not antimatter missiles and railgun slugs. Makes things quite tense when you realize anything and fail at any point, and you don't know if they can just deal with it, or need to sacrifice something to fix it.

If there's a failing, I think the two greatest are first, that the perspectives being divided into three in Arc 3 really bog down the pacing, and I really hope that either one of the subcores become irrelevant plot-wise, or the two perspectives merge somehow.

The second is the propensity for the author to have something happen, then explain the reasons for it afterwards. Something work fine that way, but if what needs to be explained is character motivation, I think it makes the story harder to read if you can't understand that character while they are making the decision they are, rather than try to explain it away from a reader's now biased interpretation. I believe things in early Arc 3 would have flowed much better if the reader had a better chance to understand why Thracker acted the way he did, rather than not attempt to explain until later, and have the reader think he was attempting a kidnapping for personal gain, and make his reasoning sound more like an excuse afterwards.

A much more minor, but constantly irritating issue, is the high rate of names starting with the letter A. If there was a naming scheme (like all of Alex's subcores started with an A, that would be fine), but as there doesn't seem to be one, having many important characters with the same starting letter makes them more difficult to differentiate.

Otherwise, an incredible and thrilling series. Extremely well thought out and planned with a diverse but interesting cast and riveting plot.

Keep up the good work space cow... er... core!

Read More

Disclaimer: I'm as far from a professional or experienced reviewer as anyone can possibly be probably.

World Building: Amazeballs Characters: Pretty da*n great. Plot: Slow start into almost excessive seat gripping action honestly before dialing it back down gradually for a bit only to spike once again, sometimes with enough whiplash to snap your neck probably it feels like following along.

Honestly if anything that'd be my biggest gripe if anything and why I won't give it a full 5 stars lol. Between the plot points/events, chapter release pacing and how good a job the author does on making you want to like and root for these characters I've honestly had to take breaks, reading it in bursts to pick up something more relaxed and/or wholesome, maybe slice of life, or popcorn litrpg like just to unwind the empathetic anxiety felt. Weird thing to complain about probably but yeah, enough of a reoccurring pattern that despite being a lurker majority of the time I felt the desire/need to write a review about it lol. I would not recommend this novel to anyone with issues of separation anxiety, prone to feeling overwhelmed easily, and health related stress problems, etc lol. It's far from traumatizing or anything deserving of a content warning, but I can practically feel the stress hormones building up in me at times reading this empathizing with the protagonist. Really wanted to strangle the author at multiple points wanting the protag to catch a break; at this point a prolonged one, yet there's no off ramp on this story's roller coaster of flaming train wreck pit stops it seems like, at most just a 2 liter of water for relief on your way out of them lol. Best I can describe without spoiling (I hope.)

Read More

I like this story.  It has some good points and some bad points but is overall quite compelling. 

Lets start with the parts I had trouble with:  First, the beginning arc.  It was a bit of a slog to get through.  After several chapters of the ship about to break apart each chapter became more of the same.  I was a big confused by some of the mechanics as well.  Being at a la grange point means it is a point where gravity from the celestial bodies nets zero.  One would think anything with enough velocity would just break free of the point and eventually get affected by gravity normally.  I know it was kinda explained but I never really understood it.

Some of the characters could be developed a bit further.  Abby for example has a really rough transition.  She shows up and in now time at all they are taking place in a battle for survival.  It would have been nice if there was some more day to day life on the new station to familiarize readers with the characters there. 

Another thing that bugs me is that there are a lot of model numbers, code names, abbreviations and other alphabet soup stuff.  I'm not sure what the point of this is other than making it harder to read.

The expanse-style tech is cool.  Some others have mentioned the lack of starship shields which really makes this stand out in my opinion.  Space battles are abrupt and devastating. This story handles that well. 

The nanite powers and technology introduced is compelling too. Even if some of the characters are a bit weak the worldbuilding is top notch. &Nbsp;

Read More