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MWSA Review
Author Scott D. Rodriguez has given us an imaginative science fiction thriller in his book 2121: Exodus, Lupus Stella Book 1. As the title indicates, the book takes place a century from now, when space travel has become routine, and mankind has discovered a way to draw its power needs from what is believed to be the emptiness of space, or as the author calls it, the "quantum vacuum." It is an era where resources are scarce, and warfare between Earth's most powerful seems inevitable. When war comes, it happens quickly and with an overwhelming number of nuclear missiles striking most of the world's key cities. With mankind's survival on Earth at jeopardy, Theo Knox, our protagonist, is chosen to lead ten thousand humans through a wormhole in space to a world that should be able to support human life. Upon arrival, they soon realize that this new world may not be that friendly.
Note: the author's decision not to use standard punctuation may make it difficult for some readers. Dialogue is not set apart by quotation marks, apostrophes often not used in contractions, and question marks are frequently omitted.
Review by Bob Doerr
Author's Synopsis
A veteran. A dead world. A ship full of strangers. And an arm that remembers things he never told it.
June 2121. Colonel Theo Daniel wants nothing but his Texas ranch, his coffee, and the silence the VA can't prescribe. Twenty-three years after a grenade on Mars took his arm and his best friend, the military has one more thing to ask of him.
When a resource war over the Moon's helium-3 deposits spirals into global nuclear exchange, Theo is thrust from retirement into the fight to save what's left of humanity. His sister dies sheltering children in an Austin school basement. His commanding officer stays behind so others can leave. A man he trusted turns out to be the reason the grid fell.
Now Theo commands the Odyssey — a colony ship carrying ten thousand souls through a wormhole to a planet fourteen light-years from the ashes of Earth. But Lupus Stella is not the empty paradise they were promised. The forest watches. The predators learn. An ancient civilization left a warning carved in stone — and the thing they warned about has already found the signal.
2121: EXODUS is military science fiction with literary bones. A story of sacrifice, found family, and the stubborn refusal to let the dark win — written by a veteran who knows what it costs.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Fiction—Horror/Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Pages/Word count: 292 / 76,581