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Friday, April 15, 2016

Reaching Angelica by Peter Riva (Review and Giveaway)



Part Star Trek and part The Matrix in its pan-dimension concepts, the reader is once again immersed in Simon Banks's life.

Book Details:

Book Title: Reaching Angelica: Book #2 in the Tag Series by Peter Riva
Category: Adult fiction, 368 pages
Genre: Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk
Publisher: Yucca Publishing / Skyhorse Publications
Release date: February 2, 2016
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

In a massive spaceship destined for Alpha Centauri B, with a genesis crew including Zip the telepathic dog, his old friendly nemesis Cramer, and a computer being named Ra (now inhabiting a human form and calling herself Aten), Simon Bank emerges from a hundred-year coma and is hailed as an awakened hero. Stuck with unwanted responsibility, he is forced to try to solve the entire enigma of the universe—a small undertaking—before the spaceship, his friends, and all life on Earth are swatted out of existence by super beings he has accidentally awakened.

Simon’s only hope is to plunge into other dimensions with his mind—into the secrets of the universe’s pan-dimensions—as only he knows how. The fate of all life hangs in the balance as he struggles to prove himself worthy of the Path and the absolute trust his friends place in him. Simon knows all too well that if he fails there is no hope—none at all—for anyone, and that includes his best friend, an artificial intelligence computer called Apollo, which he sadly left behind. Besides, Zip would not be pleased, either.

For fans of cyberpunk and classic science fiction, Reaching Angelica (Yucca Publishing; February 2, 2016; 978-1-63158-069-7) is the second book in Peter Riva’s Tag trilogy, the comic, thrilling, and continuing saga of Simon Bank—ex–master system computer wrangler and very unlikely galactic hero.

Praise for Reaching Angelica
“Thrilling moments keep the suspense high in space. . . . The way Riva describes the mysteries of the universe is intriguing. . . . This cyberpunk world has its own laws of stretching brains wide with its mind-bending concepts.” 
—Jake Vyper, Fantascize.com

My Review:
Reviewed by Laura Fabiani

Last year I read The Path, the first book in the Tag series and I enjoyed it. You can read my review here. Reaching Angelica is the second book and once again I was pulled into some mind-bending concepts. This time though, the story doesn't take place at all on Earth but rather in a massive spaceship. A spaceship that includes a genesis crew heading on a 100-year journey to reach Angelica, a planet where they can start over. 

Part Star Trek and part The Matrix in its pan-dimension concepts, the reader is once again immersed in Simon Banks's life. As in The Path, Simon is a brilliant man who narrates his story beginning with a summary of the events that ended in The Path and the preparation for his body's death and the re-awakening in a new body.  When he does reawaken, 100 years have passed and he soon discovers there are super beings out there who want to annihilate life on Earth.

Once again, a lot of the book included heavy tech jargon that mostly went over my head. Although I was still able to follow the story and appreciate the concepts the author was exploring, I did find that the story lagged in the middle and I was itching for more action. The whole philosophical introspection and questioning of why are we here, the purpose of life and God comes into play and is examined with the conclusion that, of course, there is no God. While I took all this with a grain of salt in The Path, I didn't care for it in this book.
However, as in The Path, the author intersperses these serious themes with a good dose of dry humour and self-deprecating narrative so that once again, I really liked Simon. He is truly a nice guy. I also liked Zip, the telepathic dog and the way the crew worked together, although some conflict among the crew would have enhanced the plot. The author’s imagination is, as I've stated before, overwhelmingly brilliant and I’m sure classic sci-fi fans would appreciate this story. Furthermore, it's a really clean read. No profanity, sex or violence.

The story ended on a positive note and the series could easily stop here or be continued. We'll just have to see where the author's imagination will take us next.

Disclosure: Thanks to the publisher for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

To read more reviews, please visit Peter Riva's page on iRead Book Tours.

Buy the book: 

  Amazon 


About the Author:




Peter Riva has worked for more than thirty years with the leaders in aerospace and space exploration. His daytime job for more than forty years has been as a literary agent. He resides in New York City.

Connect with the author: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook


And now for the Giveaway!


a Rafflecopter giveaway




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8 comments :

  1. Replies
    1. Yes, I like the cover too. And it suits the book's story too as did the cover for the first book The Path.

      Delete
  2. God does not exist? Really, that's what you thought? Darn, so sorry. Not what was intended. On Earth, currently, there over a thousand different forms of "god"... and every few hundred years, someone refines, changes, "feels" a new version of that same "god." Christianity sprang from Judaism - is Jehovah wrong? Is not Christ the Son of God? Yet many feel the Christian God is different from the Judaic God, no?
    What I tried to do was NOT limit the concept of "god" to current tenets and beliefs, but expand on that... following a path that something is out there but it is More fantastical, More potent, More expansive than we, currently, can imagine.
    Imagine if you asked a Christian 2,000 years ago if they understood what a neuron was... you'd be a blasphemer. Imagine if you asked a Jew 3,500 years ago how DNA worked... easier to make-up an example of taking a curved rib... Does that make teachings (all bible teachings) wrong? Nope, it makes them fit for purpose at the time. In the book what I was trying to do was expand on a long tradition of having the universe, life, God explained in a larger concept beyond that which we can currently fathom.
    "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." Proverbs 18:15

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    Replies
    1. My concept of God is not according to current tenets and beliefs. It's according to what He himself tells me through His Word The Bible. After studying it now for more than 25 years I can tell you that he IS more fantastical, more potent and more expansive than we can ever imagine, but imagine it I can. When I study science it only makes me appreciate what I already know about God, he is an Omnipotent Person, the only true God with unmatched Power, Justice, Love and Wisdom.

      I agree that we need to seek knowledge. Perfect knowledge from God that is truth supersedes all other knowledge, especially that of imperfect man.

      But having said all that, I can still enjoy a fictional tale told intelligently, such as yours.:-D

      Thanks for stopping by, Peter!

      Delete
  3. I am new to Cyberpunk - love the concept of it though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the cover and the excerpt sounds great just makes you want to read it.....

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  5. This looks like something my husband would enjoy!

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Thank you for commenting! I appreciate your feedback.

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