Tarizon: The Liberator by William Manchee
This book follows the life of Pete, Stan's son who now lives in another solar system. People are brought to the area to repopulate the planet.
Some are brought to Earth and then after some time they are transferred back to the planet.
Boot camp and quite the introduction to population control are thrust at him from when he first gets there. He also meets the boy who had died in the crash and they talk for just a second.
Like the idea of joining the military and going through training...There's a lot of abbreviations that you soon become familiar with.
Like how the events take place and the story moves forward as they discover other things about their telepathic abilities as they also try to find their other friends and hope to rescue them.
The goal is to prepare for the civil war which is coming to the planet as some are slaves and they don't like it. There are a lot of politics also that come into play.
Like how ti ends, a bit sad but it will continue in another book so all is not lost.
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion. ( )

The Liberator is not my favorite book of Manchee’s but, it is a worthy read. The Second Chair and Dessert Storm were my favorite to date. This book, I feel is more for the YA era and filled with that which they would grab hold of and wish for a movie to be made of. This is the first book of a trilogy and the story does indeed need to continue.
The world in this reading is a bit different from the world we live in. It offers a lot in what it contains. There are aliens, Peter who is one you will feel in awe of, struggles, encounters and a lot of action. Each page you turn continues your interest. The new alien world is full of surprises and the introduction brings Peter much to think about. The struggle within himself to follow what is just and put it into action allows you to feel as if you a part of it all. ( )

Tarizon: The Liberator is a fast-paced adventure that involves abductions, aliens, mutants, political turmoil, civil war, assassinations, and much more. The plot is developed well, though through most of the book, I kept wondering how this earthling, Peter, a high school student on Earth, abducted abruptly from his home to another planet, did everything that he managed to do. But then again, I suppose that's why he is the long-awaited Liberator, and though we might all doubt his abilities, he will over and over again prove us wrong. In general, the storyline as well as the characters were too much about the military and politics without the necessary philosophical depth.

The young adult aspect of the book was interesting, though for some it may be problematic. Peter "mates" with a young woman on Tarizon. She is, as a result, pregnant. So Peter, on Earth, is a teenage dad, on Tarizon this is OK, so publishers will not be peeved. Except many of the other value systems that apply to Peter on Earth seem to be intact. In fact, I suspected some sort of Christian-theme here. There are frequent references to God of Earth and Sandee, the Tarizon equivalent of Jesus. There is a conversation towards the end about how God and Sandee might be the same, as the suspected alien/human settlers of both Tarizon and Earth are the same. Peter claims this would explain "many things" in our history on Earth. Really? At this point, I expected Peter to break into Jesus-talk, but he didn't, so maybe I was wrong about the weird religious-theme vibe I was getting?

The language of the book certainly does need more editing. The conversations do not need to be grammatically correct, of course, but the narration does (at least for me.)

( )

Peter Turner has been abducted to Tarizon and declared the Liberator. It's a lot to take in for a 17 year old in a short period of time, especially if civil war really does break out as foretold.

Once I got past the how, why (as Peter also has to do), and who (same family of characters from the attorney mysteries which threw me at first), he was abducted, and just let myself into the story, this reality and environment really took hold.

Vivid and lush descriptions allow this new world to take shape in the imagination.

The narrative flows well and is fairly action packed with some underlying mysteries.

Diverse and realistic characters fill the pages with their actions and authentic dialogue. Even while told primarily through Peter's point of view, it is possible to watch as multiple characters grow and learn about each other and their environment/reality.

Not all issues are resolved at the end of this book, but that is to be expected as this is part of a saga.

Overall, a thrilling read! ( )

If I had not read the synopsis of this novel the front cover would have put me off reading it. I think it’s those spaceships which remind me of a 70s sci-fi influence and took me back to television shows such as ‘Buck Rogers in the 21st Century’, ‘Space: 1999’ and the original version of ‘Battlestar Galactica’. It gave me the impression that I would be reading an outdated novel with very a corny plot. The first chapter of this young adult novel, predominantly aimed at males, done nothing to alleviate my fears.
Ah yes, the first chapter...it sets the foundations for the story of the liberator who is prophesized to restore the planet of Tarizon to a time of peace and liberty. The liberator (no-one knows who he will be…not even the liberator himself) is thought to be arriving on a shuttle from earth and as there’s no way of knowing who he is the loyalists decide to protect one person from that shuttle as they don’t have the resources to protect everyone. The purists want the liberator dead so that the prophecy of him restoring peace and liberty cannot come true and so attack the shuttle’s occupants, who have been abducted from earth, as soon as they disembark. Of course, the loyalists protect the one person who just happens to be the liberator.
What bothered me most about that first chapter was that the whole idea of protecting just one occupant when the prophecy, which is fully believed by the inhabitants of Tarizon, doesn’t specify who he will be is very flimsy. Sure, not protecting females because the liberator will be male would be more logical but just picking one male and hoping for the best had me groaning in despair as it made the plot of who the liberator was very predictable. After all, they weren’t going to save the wrong person and have the book abruptly end.
This is where going above and beyond the call of duty paid dividends. I actually won the third installment of the Tarizon trilogy but the publisher sent me the two previous installments also and if it had not been for that fact, and I had been reading this copy from a library or browsing it in a store, I would probably have given up on this book after the first chapter. As they had been so gracious though I decided to persevere and I’m glad I did as the novel got a whole lot better.
I grew to like the main character of Peter fairly quickly. He’s your typical seventeen year old guy, complete with a healthy interest in sex (he ends up fornicating with a woman much older and I couldn’t help but think she would have been considered a predator on earth and charged with statutory rape but on Tarizon seventeen year old males rejoice!) and his decision making and mindset throughout the book do represent that of a seventeen year old. He is, of course, the liberator and the story takes him on a journey full of action, adventure and danger which plays out well and kept me entertained throughout. The one thing that did spoil the story for me was the occasional extra pieces of information that weren’t really pertinent to the story. For instance, there is a part of the story where Peter is flying back in his space craft which has been damaged in a battle. Instead of just landing the story takes us on a couple of page diversion where he mentions the damage to the control tower, has to fly by them to make sure he is safe to land and then eventually lands. It was extra information that wasn’t really needed in what is already a fairly hefty novel for the young adult genre (334 pages) and it just slowed the story down for no reason whatsoever.
The ending was pretty much what I expected and was left open for the second book in the trilogy. Of course, it was left open in a way that has me wanting to read the second novel in order to find out what happens next and in the hope that certain evil characters get their comeuppance. ( )