New series, one of many that I have suddenly stumbled upon by John Walker. This one is kind of strange although the writing is just fine. The story is pretty simple. A young guy finds himself bonded to an alien starship that he really wants no part of. This young man, Ethan Cross, is surprisingly devoid of any ambition. He’s working as a machinist in a factory taking care of a huge hydraulic press. He’s good at what he does and has sometimes been called a “machine whisperer” by his co-worker and friend, Danny.
Ethan is comfortable with his life. After 29 years he’s found a comfortable routine that suits him. He likes his job, likes his apartment and likes his usual microwave burrito for most dinners. That all changes when he goes out back behind the warehouse he’s working in to check on a panel that’s apparently giving out a fault. Nothing unusual so he wonders back there only to find something he can’t quite see. It’s a shape in the dark and he really doesn’t know what it is, but it’s sitting right next to the dumpster so he figures someone must have discarded something pretty big.
By the time he can get up close he realizes it could be a shipping container but it has curves and angles that a shipping container just doesn’t have. Then he decides that it could be a movie prop or some kind of prank someone is trying to pull on him. His flashlight won’t reflect any light back to him when shined on the object. The more he looks at it, the stranger it seems. So, eventually he reaches out to touch it to make sure there’s actually something there.
That’s when Ethan Cross’s life begins to change. With one touch he realizes that the object before him is a starship. Three words flash in his mind: OWNER – BONDED – ACCEPTED. Those words just came to his mind and he knew a lot more than he knew before. This was indeed a starship and he had just become the new owner, bonded to it until his death as he was later to find out.
But, the starship’s approach to Earth hadn’t gone unnoticed. No the US government and the military had been aware of the unidentified object that had landed somewhere in the area around the manufacturing plant where it now sat. They wanted to find out what it was and, of course, take it in for study. Before Ethan had much of a chance to do anything, helicopters started flying overhead and he was standing right in the middle of their spotlights. About that same time, a bunch of black vehicles arrived and men in dark suits jumped out yelling for him to stay right where he was.
Of course Ethan had no idea what was going on, but the ship told him that he needed to get inside so they could get away from whatever these guys wanted to do. In fact, the ship was telling Ethan that it had to protect its new owner at all costs. Then a shot rang out but the bullet never reached Ethan or the ship. A force field of some kind stopped the bullet. The ship said that Ethan needed to board now so it could extract him away from this danger and protect those that might want to harm him. Besides, it seems as though he couldn’t move beyond this force field no matter how hard he tried. Once a door opened in the starship, Ethan reluctantly went aboard and thus began the rest of the story.
Ethan Cross has nothing keeping him on Earth. His parents are gone and he has no siblings. His only acquaintances are his co-workers, and a friend and co-worker, Danny\. Yet, this ship tells him he must leave all this behind because it could result in all of these people being killed. Not by the ship but by those that might want it and him. This is a lot to take in, in a very short time. But, to Ethan’s credit, he seems to reluctantly accept what’s going on. The ship takes him to an abandoned warehouse where it sets down and begins to explain to Ethan what has happened and why. What we’ll find out is that the ship is very unique in all the galaxy with only a few in existence. He tells Ethan that he wasn’t specifically chosen to bond with the ship, he just happened to be the first person to touch the ship. Now they are bonded and will remain so until the ship is destroyed or Ethan has died.
So, I know I would be kind of excited about this kind of situation. At 29 and with no attachments on Earth, I would certainly look forward to an adventure in outer space or wherever this spaceship has come from. Of course I’d have a million questions I’d be asking, but Ethan doesn’t seem to do that and he’s especially reluctant to leave Earth and his microwaved burrito! That’s kind of strange. I found the story very likable and after Ethan finally figures out that he has to leave Earth, the story starts moving right along. He really takes too long to make that decision and does endanger a lot of people.
I’m definitely going to follow this series with Book 2, “Eyes Open, Hands Empty”, now available on Amazon.
[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]
[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]