I thoroughly enjoyed Pelquin's Comet, an entertaining space opera, with memorable characters who each have murky pasts and uncertain futures. Ian Whates leaves the reader with enough curiosity about unfinished story lines to pick up the sequel, but the novel is also pleasing as a standalone read.... ( )

The cover blurb suggests what the reader will find inside, and it's completely true. This novel is a full-blown, Golden Age space opera. Characters and setting owe a lot to 'Firefly', but the characters are interesting and not quite what you would expect.

I had a bit of a problem with the scene-setting. The universe in 'Pelquin's Comet' feels like that of a fairly ordinary 20th/21st century mainstream thriller, but with faster-than-light spaceships bolted on. Banks, cars, taxis, city streets - all felt to me like a street that I could step into in a few minutes because I was getting nothing that was exceptionally futuristic or science fictional. But the characters held my interest, mainly because there was something different about each of them, even if I couldn't put my finger on it.

And then a great big (to me) plot surprise was sprung on me that made me laugh out loud. The entire tone and pace of the novel changed for me from then on.

Some of the character back-story accounts needed to be split up a bit better; I'm fairly certain we had one character's back-story covered in two big flashback chunks in successive chapters; there were also other episodes where my inner editor said "Wouldn't that have fitted better two pages earlier?"; and that did highlight something to me. 'Pelquin's Comet' is published by the author's own publishing house, and indeed the first few pages made me worry that this was going to be subject to the worst excesses of vanity publishing. But although it settled down to be something quite readable, signs of the one man bandedness of the book kept intruding - mainly some poor proofreading (one character changes name and back again in the space of half a page), a distinct lack of editing (though mainstream publishers are far from perfect in that respect nowadays) and some distinct typographical issues (kerning after question marks was something I kept noticing a problem with).

A little more care in the production process would pay dividends, even if Mr.Whates had to bribe beta readers with one free book for every five proofread. Be that as it may, I started off cautious as to what I was getting myself into, and I came away very happy. Great literature it's not, but as fun reading for pure entertainment, this is well worth while. ( )

The first of the Dark Angels series adventure that draws in your attention into the back story of Leesa and Pelquin. The book is very well written and fun to read. I recommend this book and to read the sequel The Ion Raider and hopefully the next book will be out soon. ( )

A very enjoyable science fiction novel. The characters and plot were well developed and a nicely rounded universe, this book kept me reading and I'm looking forward to the next in the series. Items and technology see well described without being too technical, and the characters are just beginning to reveal themselves.

*i received a copy this book in exchange for an honest review. I don't know what happened to my original review as it was much more comprehensive than this. ( )

Wow, what a fun ride I had with Pelquin’s Comet by Ian Whates. I don’t read too many ‘space operas’ but this one reminded me a lot of the old TV program Star Trek. Man going out into the frontiers of space seeking treasure and finding adventure. The story follows the crew of an independent space ship as they hunt down an alien treasure cache.

There is a great assortment of characters and we are treated to the interesting back-story on a few of them. They are accompanied on their quest by a representative of the bank, Drake and he brings along his pet “Mudball”. Of course there is more to Drake than he lets anyone know and, of course, there is much more to Mudball. They are being shadowed by a representative of a mining corporation that would like to snatch the treasure for themselves. This, along with assorted aliens and the Guardian of the treasure all add to the action.

Pelquin’s Comet was a page-turner that was exhilarating and fast. Although the story is complete in this issue, there are threads left to be unravelled so it’s no surprise that this is the first in a series. The second has yet to be released, but you can be sure that when it does I will be right there to get my copy. ( )