Alex HernandezCritiques

Sorry, I couldn't make it past the first 50 pages of the book, so can't give an opinion on the whole story.

In a world full of genetically modified humans and space ships, fifty eight year old Oya is going to live forever. Or, maybe not. Earth is almost abandoned, and our solar system is just the tip of the iceberg in this new world. Mars is inhabited by Raptors, more commonly referred to as Harpies; people that have altered themselves to have wings and talons.

Check out my full review here!

https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com/2019/02/11/tooth-and-talon-by-alex-...

DNF at 17%.

I found the characters engaging but some of the plotting caused confusion from the prologue to where it related in the larger story. I can see where the initial impetus for genetic manipulation came from but the premise of bio-hackers doing homebrew genetic changes to themselves and other life forms is just reckless. The writer can of course have everything work out relatively well; however, in the real world, such heedless experimentation would probably result in dangerous mutations. That is my bias on the subject. The social issues were handled well though. A decent read.

Tooth and Talon by Alex Hernandez eventually worked out. I didn't care for the prologue and I don't believe it added to the story telling. The beginning was very slow, and difficult to get into. About the middle of the book things began to make sense and the whole of it started to come together. Biologically, I'm not sure the science is viable, but if you ignore that, the book is an interesting read.

Average scifi.

Old style humans come across planet inhabited by bird-like, genetically modified humans. Conflict arises due to distrust on both sides (the inclusion and history thereof one of the better things about the story).

Some nice touches, some tropes and some dubious things (like how to two humans with wings large enough to fly fit inside a regular sized shower? ;) )

Believable science, interesting characters, conflicts created and resolved: make this a good first book for me from this author. The prologue was oft-putting but worked when read within the context of the story. The structure also required some patience but the story was worth it.½

Tooth and Talon, written by Alex Hernandez, was a surprisingly good sci-fi fantasy read. Though the cover art threw me off a bit (I thought it was a graphic novel) and the beginning of the novel was somewhat slow, the story was well written. About a quarter of the way through, you understand more of this world and begin to follow the chapters as they alternate points of view and time. Overall, excellent storytelling and characters with a unique and interesting perspective on space travel and the evolution of humanity. This is the first book of read of Hernandez' and I'm glad that I did. I would recommend this novel for those who are lovers of the sci-fi genre and I look forward to reading more of this author's work.

An okay read, though I struggled with it at points. Basically, it's got a LOT going on, and it takes a while for all the parts to come together. There are a bunch of moments when I found myself wishing that the author had chosen to focus on *one* aspect of the story rather than cramming it all in (flying people... flying *dinosaur* people... nanobots... immortality due to nanobots... biohacking... machine intelligences... colonization of a strange planet with a uniquely peculiar life zone... race wars... romance that combined wing fic and blood bonding...) Plus the editing is a bit sloppy; I noted a number of typos along the way. It was okay.

I think the author's got some interesting perspectives, and I loved that the heroine's personal background was based in something other than European-American or pan-Asian culture, so I'm hoping that they'll keep writing. It's just not quite there yet.

After taking my time reading it, I find that I really enjoyed and look forward to a continuation of the series. The world building is interesting and engaging, with lots of potential to expand and continue. Without giving away the plot, the main premise involves a group of colonists arriving at a world and find that an earlier group has already settled there. There are a couple of innovative twists here that add complexity to the situation, but I feel make the book worth the read.

With 23 chapters to go, I started to read this new adventure from a new author. Written by fellow Miamian, Alex Hernandez, “Tooth and Talon” exceeded my expectations. I read this well-written book late into the early morning hours, self-assured that a respite from my need to know what happens next would come at the end of the next chapter. It never came!

The main character is a woman, unusual for a book written by a male author. We usually portray our own gender as heroes. I'd say the same for female authors in my experience. Hernandez did the unexpected with “Tooth and Talon” and pulled it off by not imbuing male traits and desires on Oya, his purely female character.

This story is about colonizing a planet in another solar system that, without foreknowledge, was already occupied by a race of avian-human mutants. These mutants were former castoffs from the Sol system, slaughtered and dispelled based on the prejudices of that time period. But, prejudices don’t die; they live on in our progeny. Hernandez, the son of Cuban immigrants, writes a story that addresses the hatred and mistakes that prejudices of this sort lead to.

Despite my description touching on migration issues that are relevant today, this book is in no way political. The story being told is purely science fiction with faster than light travel, artificial intelligence, and human ability enhancing nanite technology. The pace is steady and keeps the reader engaged.

I’m glad that I picked this book up as its storytelling befits a more seasoned author.

Honestly I hard a hard time getting in to the book initially. The prologue hit a wrong nerve with me and instead of drawing me into the story, made me think the book was going to be a terrible read. So with some trepidation, I continued on with the read expecting a less than stellar story. However, the story slowly brought me into the fold and I soon found myself being drawn back to continue reading the book. That being said, there are some areas I had problems. with.

First a quick summary of the plot concept. There are two races of engineered humans that have had a past conflict. One side is of the conflict were the base humans and the other side was bio-engineered humans which merged human with Archaeopteryx genes and become flying human dinosaur hybrids. In the distance past the base human felt threatened by the hybrids and forced them to flee the solar system. A century later the base humans seeking to expand to new colonies and are now enhanced with nanites but the base humans are striving to come to grips with their past actions. A colony of base humans comes out of space travel near an new planet that is discovered to contain a colony of hybrids. The base humans determine that they do not really have enough fuel to continue exploring so they decide to make contact with the hybrids in hope that both sides can live peacefully on the planet.

I like how the author goes back and describes the history of how the hybrids developed, which is integral to the conclusion of the story, I have an issue with how fast the change is described to occur.. Even when it recognized the change of the original hybirds was mentioned to take a while, it still is described to be impossibly fast. Another hard spot I had was when the hybrids infect the humans with the mutation to change them into hybrids but in the process become infected by the nanites. The effect is debilitating on both sides, the nanites attack the hybrids internal systems because it sees the mutation as an illness that needs to be corrected, but the in the humans, the mutation is destroying the hybrids. My first thought and one that I felt was not adequately addressed was how can it be both ways, either the mutation is stronger than the nanites, or the other way around. Also the time for the mutation to occur seems to be days to weeks, which seems unrealistic.

Overall, I do believe the book was an entertaining read and would recommend it to others.

Why do I feel like I am not reading the same book as everyone else?

Unfortunately this book just did not do it for me. I am an avid science fiction reader and absolutely love reading about new worlds/civilizations, so I was super thrilled when this book was sent to me. After reading the epilogue, I was just left utterly confused about what just happened and truly not excited to read the rest of the book.

However, there were some positives…

-It had a great mix of science fiction elements: genetically modified dinosaurs, cyborgs, nanobots etc. etc.
-Characters were intriguing. I enjoyed the interactions and conflicts between the two main characters, Oya Valette and Inirigua.
-It was very descriptive…a little bit too descriptive for my liking -which leads me to the negatives of this book…

I just could not get into Hernandez’s writing style. His extremely detailed descriptions did not leave any room for the reader’s imagination. Some descriptions made absolutely no sense to me and could have been conveyed in a more straight forward manner that would have made the story easier to digest.

A quote from the book that really pinched a nerve:
“…-all the other ninety-nine colonists- were either dead or screaming, steeped in their own juices.”

Overall, I believe this book had so much potential with its twisted plot, and character development, however, the execution and descriptions really did not make it an enjoyable read.

Good believable science: nano technology, biotech, FTL, ancient civilization.
Good cultural conflict between different groups.
Just enough romance to make things interesting without detracting.
I'd love to tell more about the story, but don't want to spoil any detail. What comes to mind is how Kyle Reese volunteered to go back in time to visit Sarah Connor, and ended up fathering John Connor. ;) When you read the story, you'll nod and "get it" [or potentially think I've lost my mind by making this double intuitive leap].

I just am going to say I have been hungering for a good believable science fiction lately, and this really did it for me. I highly recommend it. Six stars.