3 out of 4 stars
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The Blue Barricade by Kesten E. Harris is the first installment in The Explorer series. This science fiction novel focuses on the adventures of Wander Locke, a young man who dreams of becoming an explorer. Exploration work would involve traveling through space in search of new worlds and people. However, Wander’s main motivation behind pursuing the profession is to find his younger sister. Wander became an orphan after his family was attacked by AIs, or Aggressive Intellectuals. He still holds hope that his sister is alive as her body was not found among the wreckage of his home. After being approached by the president, Wander sets off on a journey to recover an important shield generator from Mars. In exchange, the president promised to grant him status as an official explorer. With his best friend, Laura, and instructor, Manning, by his side, will Wander be able to successfully complete his mission?
The Blue Barricade was filled with action-packed and imaginative scenes. Harris was able to craft exciting fight scenes that kept you right at the forefront of the action. In addition, I enjoyed how Wander’s abilities were kept true to that of an unskilled teenager. In his fights with the knight, a mysterious figure intent on capturing him for the AI, Wander does not have the upper hand and must use his wits to get out of the situations. I also thought that the dynamic between Wander and Laura was believable and age-appropriate. I liked how they were able to joke around with each other, but still have serious moments. For example, the scene where Wander and Laura visited the graves of Wander’s family was touching and demonstrated the close bond between the pair. Additionally, Harris’ depiction of Mars was grounded in reality, but still had a touch of fantasy flair. I found the struggles of the Ruabrum, the native people of Mars, to be realistic. It seems typical that humans would have some sort of conflict with the native people of the planet.
In terms of faults, there was an issue regarding the mention of a minor character. Anderson Oak was the childhood bully of Wander. He was mentioned very briefly at the beginning of the book. However, Harris attempted to bring him up at a later point in an off-hand comment. As a result of this brevity, I never really understood the importance of his character and found myself having to flip back to the beginning of the novel to figure out who he was. This could have been rectified by providing a more substantive description of his character.
The Blue Barricade contained grammatical errors. While they weren’t severe enough to detract from my enjoyment of the novel, they indicated that the book still needs to undergo professional editing. The most frequent types of errors were comma misuse and missing words. One example included the use of ‘where’ instead of ‘were’.
I rate The Blue Barricade 3 out of 4 stars. I thought that the book was very imaginative and would serve as an excellent primer for young adult readers with an interest in the science fiction genre. However, the grammatical errors and minor character issues prevent me from giving it a higher rating. Readers who are not fans of novels that deal with space and aliens would probably not find this book appealing.
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The Blue Barricade
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I like that the author was able to fill the book with action-packed scenes and detailed fight scenes as I find that authors seem to have the most trouble in this area. Thank you for your review!
