Review of Dark Matter Empire (Book 1)

[Chiguzom Isiguzo]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Dark Matter Empire (Book 1)" by Alex Zadeh.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Dark Matter Empire (Book 1) by Alex Zadeh is a science-fiction novel mostly told through the eyes of its main character, Ryan Stathis. Ryan is a 30-year-old aeronautic engineer specializing in computer science. Ryan is abducted by a spaceship outside his office building which takes him through a wormhole in space into the farthest areas of the Galaxy where an autocratic alien empire rules. Ryan is soon captured by the empire but escapes with the help of his new alien friends, Flare and Bubo, who are rebels. The objectives of Ryan and his new friends coincide; Ryan plans to retake his ship from the empire so he can use the key, which has synchronized with his ship, to open the wormhole, get back to his wife on earth and close the wormhole forever, while his friends are on a revenge mission to assassinate a top officer in the empire. In the process of achieving their aim, they traverse the planet, Yenovia and encounter many interesting characters along the way. Meanwhile, the empire, led by Emperor Moldak and General Chocub, will stop at nothing to find Ryan, who they believe is with the key to open the wormhole and conquer the unknown parts of the galaxy, but an insidious rebellion brews within its ranks.

The story is an intriguing mystery that captured my attention. Why did the spaceship abduct Ryan? How did the masters of the temple in Yenovia know of Ryan’s surname more than a thousand years before Ryan came into their planet? Is benign Ryan a threat to the universe? Will Ryan ever get back to earth and be with his wife? All these questions kept my eyes glued to the book.

Alex Zadeh did an excellent job describing the aliens and their environment making me feel like I was abducted with Ryan and taken to a distant part of the galaxy. I could easily imagine the structure of the spaceships and the nature of the alien species, especially the monkey-like aliens and the lizard-like aliens. Zadeh appears to have played with the theory of evolution in creating these alien species in his book. It also seemed to me like Zadeh has a background in flying planes and computer programming with the way he captured some scenes in this book.

However, I feel like enough attention was not given to character development in the book. For instance, very little is said about the kind of person Ryan was before he was abducted other than his occupation and the fact that he is married. I didn’t also feel the human-emotional connection between Ryan and the wife of his youth. Ryan seemed to be more interested in protecting Earth and being a hero than coming back to his wife. Having said all these, it is comforting to know that there will be a sequel where I might get the chance to understand the background of some of my favorite characters better.

This book is an action-packed, fast-paced adventure with no dull moment. I recommend it to fans of science-fiction and action-adventure novels.

However, some scenes in the book are very graphic and violent, so discretion is advised. I found just one grammar error but not enough to take a star from the book. It appears to have been professionally edited. I give it a perfect four out of four stars. I look forward to reading the sequel.

******
Dark Matter Empire (Book 1)
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Towfiq Juma]

Being the first book in a series, it was easy to read and ends in a satisfactory manner. It's plot was really intriguing. There is vivid descriptions of the events and the functioning of various ships and machines. Nice review