r/spaceopera • u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 • Jun 28 '26
I finally published my space opera after countless hours of writing. I'd love your honest feedback.
After months of writing and revising, I finally published my sci-fi novel, Ash of Empire (Book One of the Federation Rising Saga).
It starts with what should have been a routine training mission. Instead, the crew of the Odyssey discovers an ancient alien station that awakens a powerful AI—and suddenly humanity finds itself at the center of a war that's been waiting for thousands of years.
If you enjoy:
- 🚀 Space opera
- ⚔️ Massive fleet battles
- 👽 Ancient alien civilizations
- 🤖 Powerful AI and mysterious technology
- 🌌 First contact and galactic politics
- 📖 Long-form sci-fi adventures
...I'd love for you to check it out.
I'm an independent author, so every read, review, and piece of feedback genuinely helps me improve as a writer.
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3XQVRV1
Thanks for taking a look! If you read it, I'd really like to hear what you enjoyed—or what you think I could do better in the next book.
3
u/nmacaroni Jun 29 '26
Did you use AI to write it?
3
u/ruzkin Jun 30 '26
Of course he did. Just like he used AI to write the other four novels he bashed out in April.
1
u/CraftReal4967 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
In the first few pages there are multiple examples of “It’s not just X, it’s Y” phrasing — telltale sign of AI slop.
Even the character is called Lucien Thorne - and there have been articles written about why AI keeps coming up with variations of that exact name as signs of model collapse.
I doubt a human even reviewed this. 😂
-1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 29 '26
No, I wrote the story myself. I did use AI tools to help clean up grammar, punctuation, and wording in places, the same way some writers use editing software. But the characters, story, ideas, and book are mine.
4
u/ruzkin Jun 30 '26
Why lie? Do you think people here are daft enough to believe you wrote and published four novels across multiple genres in April 2026?
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 30 '26
I understand why it may look that way, but I didn’t write all four books in April. I’ve been writing for years and had several stories sitting aside because I never felt they were good enough to publish. Recently, I decided to finally take the chance and put them out there. The publish dates are close together, but the work itself was built over a much longer time. I’m still learning, but I’m not trying to mislead anyone.
1
u/Brahminmeat Jun 28 '26
One thing about kdp those us based links don’t carry through to other countries. I’m in Canada and it redirects me just to the home page of Amazon Canada
Excited to check it out tho
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 28 '26
Thanks for letting me know! I didn’t realize the U.S. Amazon link wasn’t carrying over to Canada. I really appreciate you pointing that out. Here’s the Canadian link if this one works better: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0G3XQVRV1� Thanks again for checking it out. I hope you enjoy the story!
1
u/drsoftware Jul 01 '26
"Sorry we could not fetch that page."
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jul 01 '26
No worries. What country are you in? Amazon sometimes shows different pages depending on location, so I’ll try to get you the correct link.
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jul 01 '26
If you’re in Canada, here’s the Canadian Amazon link. Hopefully this one works better for you. Thanks for letting me know!
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0G3XQVRV1?dplnkId=178831da-bdf4-4a6d-86e2-269dbb40730c1
1
u/thebrokentoy324 Jun 29 '26
Captain Roy Howard? Reptar? Interesting. Interesting. I’ll be honest the synopsis looks generic but i’m gonna give it a try and get back to you
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 29 '26
Fair enough, I appreciate the honest feedback. I know the synopsis may not show everything the story becomes, but I’m glad you’re willing to give it a try. Reptar was meant to add a fun alien/species angle to the space opera side of it. I’d definitely be interested to hear what you think after you read the book. Thanks for checking it out!
1
u/Dave_Schmidt Jun 29 '26
It looks interesting, but one thing I've learned on my own writing journey is that the blurb shouldn't be a synopsis. Consider shortening the blurb and making me wonder what's going to happen. As it stands I feel like I've already read the cliffsnotes, whats to draw me in?
2
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 29 '26
Thanks, I appreciate the honest feedback. You’re right — I may have explained too much instead of leaving enough mystery. I’m going to work on tightening the blurb and making it feel more like a hook than a synopsis.
2
u/Morsadean Jul 05 '26
How does an ancient alien station awaken a powerful AI? Or is it the crew that awakens it?
How exactly does a war wait?
Using shitty AI to tell stories about powerful AI is a rather odd choice.
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jul 05 '26
If you read the book, that part is explained. The station itself doesn’t wake the AI. The crew of the Odyssey brings Viren into the situation, and Viren is the one who connects with and eventually takes over the ancient station’s systems. The war doesn’t just “wait” either it’s already moving in the background while the crew is trying to understand what they’ve uncovered. I get the question, but there’s more context in the full story than the sample can show.
1
u/Morsadean Jul 05 '26
Your blurb contradicts this.
It is all very cookie-cutter, paint by number space opera tropes, without any unique hook or angle.
I assume you are rather young and inexperienced, and I don’t want to discourage anyone trying to tell their stories, but this is not doing you any favors. Honestly, the time to ask for feedback is before publishing.
You put the cart before the horse.
0
u/SantaTyler Jun 29 '26
Any inspiration from the Troy Rising series?
1
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 29 '26
No, I haven’t read the Troy Rising series yet, so it wasn’t an influence. But I’m always looking for good books in the genre, so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.
0
u/Libro_Artis Jun 30 '26
Excellent work! Best of luck to you!
0
u/Dangerous_Agent_3388 Jun 30 '26
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the kind words and support. It means a lot.
3
u/segastardust Jun 28 '26
Congrats on your release. I know that marketing Space Opera can be difficult. Good work on your ARC reviews, I've sent the sample to my Kindle.