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Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (Amaranthe 1) by [G. S. Jennsen]

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G. S. Jennsen

Starshine: Aurora Rising Book One (Amaranthe 1) Kindle Edition

by G. S. Jennsen (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

1,382 ratings

Book 1 of 19: Amaranthe

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SPACE IS VAST AND UNTAMED, AND IT HOLDS MANY SECRETS.
Now two individuals from opposite ends of settled space are on a collision course with the darkest of those secrets, even as the world threatens to explode around them.
The year is 2322. Humanity has expanded into the stars, inhabiting over 100 worlds across a third of the galaxy. Though thriving as never before, they have discovered neither alien life nor the key to utopia. Earth struggles to retain authority over far-flung planets and free-wheeling corporations while an uneasy armistice with a breakaway federation hangs by a thread as the former rebels rise in wealth and power.

Alexis Solovy is Earth Alliance royalty, her father a fallen war hero and her mother an influential military leader. But she seeks only the freedom of space and has made a fortune by reading the patterns in the chaos to discover the hidden wonders of the stars.

Nothing about her latest objective suggests the secret it conceals will turn her life— not to mention the entire galaxy—upside down. But a chance encounter with a mysterious spy leads to a discovery which will thrust Alex into the middle of a galactic power struggle and a sinister conspiracy, whether she likes it or not.

Print length

517 pages
Language

English
Publication date

March 23, 2014
File size

3935 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE AMARANTHE NOVELS:

When faced with its greatest challenge, will humanity rise to triumph or fall to ruin?

Aurora Rising is an epic tale of galaxy-spanning adventure, of the thrill of discovery and the unquenchable desire to reach ever farther into the unknown. It's a tale of humanity at its best and worst, of love and loss, of fear and heroism. It's the story of a woman who sought the stars and found more than anyone imagined possible.
***

"Start a conversation about best world-building in sci-fi, "hidden gems," or addictive and re-readable storylines, and you'll hear about G.S. Jennsen's magnificent Amaranthe series. Jennsen has a gift for connecting readers to her characters; you can't help but to be fully invested in their struggle to triumph over the seemingly impossible challenges they face. The stories are gritty, the heroes determined, the readers... hooked. How can you not be? This is a truly EPIC series. If you haven't picked it up yet, you really must."

-- Discover Sci-fi
***

"Starshine...smoothly weaves together multiple story lines with intrigue, murder, adventure and even a bit of romance."

-- The Best Sci Fi Books, naming Starshine 14th among the 23 best sci-fi books by female authors in the last 50+ years
***

"G.S. Jensen magically weaves a wondrous tapestry that pulls us in and spurs us across a galaxy of her own making. As slaves to her whims we are taken along for a ride of intrigue, murder, adventure and a bit of romance. All woven so completely that she sucks you in head over heels, leaving her readers salivating for more."

-- Reviews of the Written Word
***

"[A] brilliant trilogy "Aurora Rising" by G. S. Jennsen. You are thrown into action and suspense from the start and the plot of the story unravels at a satisfying pace, all the time giving the feeling of deeper and even more nefarious revelations to come. [I]t's the characters who really make or unmake a book, and here Jennsen really shines...The Aurora Rising trilogy is a must read."

-- Book O' Loco
***

"This book might be the perfect set-in-space science fiction book. That's [a] bold statement with things like Hitchhiker's Guide roaming about, but I feel that strongly about it. Jennsen is one of those magical authors who make you forget you're reading."

-- Novel Commentary

From the Author

Sign up for G. S. Jennsen's newsletter and get VERTIGO (Aurora Rising Book Two) for FREE: gsjennsen.com/subscribe
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This ebook is provided free of DRM restrictions.

Visit gsjennsen.com to explore concept art and other media and get the inside scoop on the universe of AMARANTHE.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00J709RIK
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hypernova Publishing; 1st edition (March 23, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 23, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3935 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 517 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #8,589 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #31 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #35 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #43 in Space Fleet Science Fiction eBooks

Customer Reviews:
1,382 ratings

About the author

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G. S. Jennsen

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G. S. JENNSEN lives in Montana with her husband and two dogs. She has become an internationally bestselling author since her first novel, Starshine, was published in 2014. She has chosen to continue writing under an independent publishing model to ensure the integrity of her stories and her ability to execute on the vision she has for their telling.

While she has been a lawyer, a software engineer and an editor, she’s found the life of a full-time author preferable by several orders of magnitude.

When she isn’t writing, she’s gaming or working out or getting lost in the mountains that loom large outside the windows in her home. Or she’s dealing with a flooded basement, or standing in a line at Walmart reading the tabloid headlines and wondering who all of those people are. Or sitting on her back porch with a glass of wine, looking up at the stars, trying to figure out what could be up there.

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Website: gsjennsen.com.

Newsletter: gsjennsen.com/subscribe

Twitter: @GSJennsen

Facebook: facebook.com/gsjennsen.author

Customer reviews

5 star		56%
4 star		27%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

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Marnina

Horny teenagers in space

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Oh for the love of god. I had to put this down after the umpteenth description of these two panting over each other, gasping in excitement, admiring each others' perfect toned bodies. Fine, fine, she's got legs that go on for days, and he's buff, but not too buff. Ugh. There is a plot going on in the background that might come to the fore once these two have sex, but I wasn't willing to put up with them lusting over each other for 100s of pages before that finally happens and the story can actually take centre stage. I really don't like it when writers pretend they haven't embedded a Harlequin into their stories and I've seen this writer downplaying just how intrusive the lovie dovey bits are here. Don't get me wrong, I like relational stuff. There are bits in Jemesin's Broken Earth trilogy that were charming, and Bujold's love story in Shards of Honour was also lovely to follow. But this, this is crap.

186 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Smart women save the day!

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

Fly to the stars and beyond with a sassy female explorer. Create a criminal empire with a ruthless, driven woman with no scruples at all. Marvel at the mastery of women who command armies, women who program and design systems, women who build and design spaceships, women who stretch the boundaries. Meet men who are exciting, dedicated and evolving. Get to know these people and you will get the flavor of a future is very appealing and a bit sad at the same time.

This is a fast-moving story with characters that leap off the page and enough plot twists and surprises to keep you guessing. Humanity has moved outward from Earth essentially unchanged from the squabbling, self-centered naked apes we are today. Individual egos still put whole populations in peril. Bureaucracy still expands to crush innovation, responsiveness, and action. Fear still makes people act against their own best interests and reveal their worst faces.

Into the regular drama of people trying to live their lives, drop an ancient alien threat. There are aliens and they've been watching humanity; now they fear our expansion into areas they claim. Who are they? What are their capabilities? What can the scattered humans do?

10 people found this helpful

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lucyblue

outstanding epic tale

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2018

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the elusive 5 stars... what a delight to read fantasy so well written, so epic in scope, with strong women and decent men as well as believable evil ones, or severely misguided & not so bright people acting as people do in greed or fear or lust for power. I am impressed almost beyond words, and somehow the 2nd book is even better than this first one! This first one started a wee bit slow due to the huge cast of characters but within 2 or 3 chapters of a deliciously long novel, it consumed my mind even when not reading, and a couple of nights were lost to the reading of the first two books in this series. If you like epic fantasy, you will love this - what a tale.

6 people found this helpful

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John J. Mercieca

So far I've finished the 3rd book in the series and one of the mini-interlude novellas and they all are excellent, well written

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

Having gone through quite a few self-published kindle series I was expecting another run of the mill sci-fi story that in the end would bore me because it was more of the same. The Aurora series by G.S. Jennsen however breaks new mold and gave me a pleasant surprise. So far I've finished the 3rd book in the series and one of the mini-interlude novellas and they all are excellent, well written, devoid of the usual spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that other self-published books sometimes contain. The universe depicted is rich in detail, characters are well fleshed out and the romance between the main protagonists that sometimes segues into sex scenes are enjoyable, I guess because they are written by a female author. I can't wait to read the rest of the series and hope that the 9th book is published soon so I can line it up on my Kindle!

7 people found this helpful

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Fillmore Wood

An excellent, and new to me, military science fiction author

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2016

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Men and women generally do perceive and write differently. Military science fiction is a genre dominated by male authors and readers, and I usually have not found female authors’ perspectives to accord with my tastes. But G S Jennsen offers a clear exception to this rule. I found her perspective (one might call it romance military science fiction) to be a definitely fresh for me approach that was very much enjoyed. This different perspective was a surprising plus, not a negative, in terms of my enjoyment of the book. The science and action were still very good and constant while the emotional and character components were refreshingly different. I highly recommend this book to one and all, especially those who, like me, may have tended to avoid female authors owing to past unfavorable experiences. This book (and hopefully the rest of the series that I am about to read) stands out from all of the many other military sci fi novels I read these days.

I add that I found particularly helpful her listing at the front of the book all of the characters, organized into two different formats. There are perhaps too many characters in the book. But the listing enables a reader to keep track of them. I printed it out and keep it next to my Kindle. Also the map of the galaxy and the star systems visited was very useful. Too often authors omit such guides or place them at the end of a book where the reader doesn’t know they exist until after finishing the book (when too late to be of use).

48 people found this helpful

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Splasher

SOLID, STRONG characters w tightly-written, intriguing story-line - MUST READ !!

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

O M Gosh ! such a page-turner! This is one of the best sci-fi novels, and yes, the best military sci-fi novel I’ve yet to read !
There are so many characters, and most of them have their own branch of the novel. It is all so darned well interwoven ! Just as one gets immersed in the scene*action, the novel switches to a diff character... at first, this was a bit disorienting, then it became refreshing, as the story-line continually remains ‘fresh’ and alive !
It is all so tightly written, the grammar is GOOD, the dialogue easy to follow, and the action + story just keep on pulling one forward ! There’s adventure, intrigue, spies, action, romance, ‘science,’ violence, and colorful+strong characters.
This is a MUST READ !

2 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

A stove on a stripped down speedy spaceship??? What's up the microwave not working?????

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 26, 2021

Verified Purchase

I understand that an amount of work has gone into this but that does not necessarily make it better and without feedback there is no improvement.

Where to start, I do fully understand this is a work of fiction and as such is a work of fantasy and pure imagination. But when you are in what the author makes clear is a lean, mean, stripped down racing machine of a spaceship do you really have toast with peanut butter and jelly on?????

And then croissants??????

I managed to read 28% of this then mentally collapsed, unable to take anymore, I think it was when I read a “none earth” humanoid using the moronic term “my bad” it was time to give up, I think that was just after possibly the same character put the stove on to boil the vegetables.

No research, no putting your head into the time and place you are writing about just grab a keyboard and rattle away, then self publish and call it a book. Had I paid for this I would not have been so polite in my feedback.

Someone somewhere once wrote:- Everyone has a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay. And for me this is definitely one of those.

The review refuses to allow me to give zero stars.

5 people found this helpful

PAUL RAWLINSON

Not an easy read, needs devotion to get through it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

I read at least a hundred books annually and when a book hooks me in it will last two days max, hence having an unlimited subscription. This book took me the best part of three weeks to get through, it took a long time to understand the relationship between characters and even longer for the various factions to coalesce into plot. When it got to the point (some 80% through) where I thought something was going to actually happen, it seemed to fizzle out. My conclusion at the end is that this book was a scene setter for books to follow. That said I don't think I can be bothered to read the next one.......sorry..!!

12 people found this helpful

Danny

I remember....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

Why I didn't get the second in the series...

Downloaded this book ages ago and thought it was quite good and couldn't understand why I didn't get the second in the series. So, I downloaded it again. And at that particular point in the book, and we all have one, I went "ah-ha, now I remember".
So, without giving too much away...

Usual fare, quite well done. Humans fighting, good guys, bad guys, bad guys being good guys, good guys being bad guys, alien invasion etc. etc., beautiful heroine, handsome hero. Quite easy to read but blatantly which characters were going to get the jiggy on. As I say, usual fare.

However, it was all just a bit much as soon as they got it on. The flirtation was excessive to begin with and once the knickers hit the floor, It took over the book. Didn't quite go so far as to enter the realms of the 18+ books, but it did lead to a lot of swiping on the kindle. Eventually the swiping got to the stage I just deleted it and moved on.

If you are one of those who like smouldering looks framed by luscious curls draping sown over eyes like sapphires and chiselled jaws, give it a go.

If you want aliens invasions and space opera, slide on by...

Perhaps in book two it gets better but I simply couldn't tolerate the simpering and the lingering touches anymore.

7 people found this helpful

FallenGrace

A bit of a slog to read - lacks focus.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

When I first started reading this I thought I was going to enjoy it quite a lot. The lead characters Alexis and Caleb are both interesting sorts. One an explorer and treasure hunter who loves nothing more than being free flying among the stars and the other a black ops spy who loves the adventure and thrill each mission gives him. Both are fairly likeable and well written and the scenario they get into not trusting each other but having to work together to escape a barren planet was fun to read if a little Twilight in the eye rolling romance department. ( I enjoy that kind of trashy stuff occasionally though so sue me :P )

The problem is that every time something interesting would happen the book jumps to another character doing something across the galaxy that's semmingly important and just not that interesting. This happens almost every other chapter and to so many characters that I lost track of a few of them as the chapters are also often short and in some cases seemingly meaningless. (One simply existed to show Alexis was out of contact on the net, something both obvious and previously mentioned in her own chapter so...why?) In fact 43% of the way through the book and another chapter popped up with yet another character somewhere and I just couldn't do it anymore. I'd been reading in chunks anyway fed up of the disjointed narrative constantly but that was the limit of my patience. Alexis and Caleb are really the interesting part of the novel and to constantly tear away from them for this uninteresting subplot just kills the pacing constantly for me. To make it worse the subplot lacks any subtlety to it at all, pretty much spelling who the enemies are etc to the reader which kills any suspense or mystery that could be developed in the background to boot.

All in all, it's not 100% bad but just completely lacks focus I feel. Maybe by the end these many threads come together for a great ending but I just couldn't make it that far. More time on the main characters and their predicament, less meaningless side characters and more subtlety to the emerging subplot could have made this a pretty good read. It's kind of frustrating as it has potential but seems to constantly throw roadblocks in the way.

+ Alexis and Caleb have potential as characters..

- Constantly chapter jumps all over the place.
- Too many small characters, most seemingly meaningless or uninteresting.
- Subplot is pretty uninteresting lacking any mystery.

5 people found this helpful

Peter Smith

An utterly compelling read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is the first book I've read by this author. Usually, I dip in and out of sci-fi novels, just reading the odd one by a particular author and not bothering to buy another book in a series. For the first time, I'm going to read the entire series and I've even joined the mailing list - another first for me.
In this novel, the author has managed to create a logical and believable world of the future, peopled by characters that seem real and compelling and very definitely three-dimensional. And she tells a hell of a good story that is also believable, not least the pointless bickering of Earth-bound bureaucrats seemingly too stupid to appreciate the huge threat lurking in the heavens above them. For anyone who's ever had any dealing with government officials, that will strike a very familiar chord. She knows the science and manages to convey details about faster-than-light travel and technology in a way that seems just to be reminding you of something that you already knew but had forgotten about. That's a difficult trick to pull off, but she manages it effortlessly, which means she took a lot of care over her writing.
One characteristic of self-published books, and even some commercially-published novels, is the number of typos, punctuation errors and the like that creep in, sometimes making the book virtually unreadable. This is a big book telling a big story and I was unable to find a single error, which is both astonishing and highly commendable. And I do know what I'm talking about - I'm a commercially published author of over thirty books and even when the manuscript has gone through all the professional editing stages it is still possible for errors to exist. As a self-published author, she must either have a brilliant copy-editor or check the manuscript ruthlessly herself: either way, it's an excellent result.
And she can certainly write. My only tiny negative comment is that I didn't like the explicit sex scenes. This is something that I've noticed before: almost every book I've read that contains such scenes has been written by a female author. Male authors tend to stop the description at the bedroom door and leave it there. Having said that, I do know why she did it, because it was important in establishing the relationship between the two main characters, and she does write the scenes with a particularly deft hand. But I still think she could have done without them.
Overall, an excellent first novel - in fact, it's very difficult to believe that it was a first novel because it is so well written - and highly recommended. I'm greatly looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

One person found this helpful

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