Today, I’m happy to help celebrate the birthday of a book I’ve been looking forward to for literally years, ever since the author and I met at a a convention and found kindred souls in our shared delight over Stargate, NASA, writing, and speculative fiction. Rights of Use brings me back to my teenage years, when I had a crazy thing for UFOs and Area 51, but I’m glad I got to experience this novel with the added maturity of adulthood. I might not have appreciated the modern themes of consent and authoritarianism Eichorn slips in under the guise of creepy aliens and shadowy political maneuvering.
If you’ve ever had a thing for Stargate, NASA, or pretty much anything speculative fiction, this will be right up your alley, too.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In the 1960s, Project Blue Book assured America that no aliens visited its amber waves or shining seas.
Thirty years later, Project Black Book knows better and has the flying saucers to prove it, but they still can’t stop the body-possessing Kemtewet from scooping their pick of young women from Earth to host an alien queen.
Sarah Anderson yearned for an escape from her new life in Pennsylvania, but not for this: being kidnapped by aliens and faced with a choice between having a Kemtewet queen erase her brain or sharing her body with a Gertewet insurgent. Unless the Air Force can rescue her in time, it’s either death or a chance to make a difference in the galaxy, because with Sarah, the Gertewet have one last shot to end the Kemtewet Empire and free billions of humans subject to their body markets.
In a war over consent, only some things are black and white.
REVIEW
Disclaimer: I read this book during the editing process, and I consider the author a friend; however, I can’t wait to buy a hardcopy version of this novel of my very own.
I thoroughly enjoy science-fiction of all forms, but there’s something comforting about a delicious blend of epic space opera and an Earth oblivious beyond classic UFO sightings. I find it cliche to describe a book as a mix of one popular thing plus another popular thing, but Rights of Use is everything I love about the Stargate universe combined with everything I love about modern space opera such as Catherine Asaro’s Skolian Empire series and Rhonda Mason’s Empress Game series. Thoroughly detailed world-building where you are forced to learn about all of those details along with a delightfully diverse mix of sympathetic characters.
This was a book I could have easily devoured in one or two sittings (the second sitting necessary because this text is space opera length and a break might be needed for such paltry things as eating or sleeping). Once I own a hardcopy, I probably will revisit the book so that I can read for enjoyment rather than with an editorial eye. I envy those of you who will get that opportunity as your first reading.
I’m glad it states right on the cover that this is volume one of a series, because much of this book acts as setup. There’s a coherent plot arc, with character growth and intriguing relationships, but it’s still a first book by a debut author and I can see places where Eichorn will grow as a writer with future installments. I’ll be eagerly awaiting them.
Rating: 4.5 (out of 5) stars. Cross-posted to Amazon and Goodreads.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shannon Eichorn is a science fiction writer and aerospace engineer in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of the Alpha Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Writing Workshop for Young Writers in 2005, she also won a 2008 Nemet Scholarship for Excellence in Creative Writing. With her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, she has supported aerospace testing since 2011. She lives with her domesticated mad scientist and two cats and can be found cosplaying at conventions, singing in a praise band, extolling the cuteness of supersonic wind tunnels, or smuggling books into her home.
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