Into the Black Hole

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In the near future, humans have colonized Mars, joined pirates in space, and divided Earth into two vastly different nations: The United Empires and Liansa. When a mission to Mars goes awry, Ailee Chambers—a Sergeant in Earth's Interstellar Force—is left for dead in a spaceship with no life support, and an alien contraption wrapped around her neck.

She is rescued, but there's no cause for celebration, because her saviors are pirates, disgusting monsters who kill Martians and Earthers for sport. Yet, when the Captain of the pirates' ship, Felix Oringo, enlists her help to unravel the plans of Boss—the leader of all pirates—Ailee begins sympathizing with her snarky captor. Boss claims he will liberate Liansans from their dictatorship, but Ailee remains unconvinced. After all, what do men in power want? More power.

However, in her quest to unveil the leader's plans, the irresistible Boss falls for her, complicating her relationship with Felix, her loyalty to the United Empires, and matters of the heart. For the first time in history, Mars and Earth combine forces to eliminate Boss and retrieve Ailee—why is she so important?—and it's a toss up as to who makes it out alive.

Updates every Saturday!

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2022
Author: EricaABlair

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.3/ 5.0
Followers: 16
Views: 14,742

Reviews

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Community Reviews(7)

Rhea BringRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story had me at space ship. I typically roll with fantasy, but I'm a sucker for good sci-fi. And this one delivers.
It's fun, easy to read and has a hint (or more!) of humor threaded throughout, making the heavier topics and action easier to digest. Now then, on to main points.
~ Style. Easy to read. Most sentences flowed well, with very few that pulled me from the story.
~ Grammar. No typos, and my brain finds those things like a hound on a bone. There were a few misplaced marks or little things that didn't take from the story at all.
~ Story. Begins with a bang, following the MC and her friends through space to retrieve a mysterious artifact. Action is on target, banter is witty and had me smiling multiple times, and the descriptions helped ease me into the world without bogging the story down.
~ Characters. This tale is very character-driven, and I adore that. The author has a good handle on her characters and they feel real—their motivations, backgrounds, secrets, and actions all unique and charming so far. Well fleshed out. I care for the MC and want to see her succeed.
All in all, a well-written tale I recommend giving a trying if you enjoy a good space-faring story. Enjoy!
OroseiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: Seriously great stuff, and lots of fun. As you can guess from the title/cover/tags this is a sci-fi story and it’s set in space. In a world where spatial technology is advanced enough to allow colonization of other planets, three main factions exist. The Martians, The Earthers and the Pirates (Cosmics), we follow Ailee a 17-year-old super genius who becomes despite herself the cause of a three-way intergalactic war.
Style: First person told through the perspective of MC, in present tense. Erica’s prose is amazing and the text flows smoothly. It’s generally easy to picture what characters are doing, and where they are. She also makes full use of the outer-space setting and explores things that would be difficult to explore in regular contexts or describe how space makes this or that an issue. The dialogues are by far one of the best parts of the story for me. The first few dialogues feel -- at time -- a bit contrived (in the sense that they give exposition); but after Ailee sets foot on Mars every dialogue flows naturally and a great deal of characterization is done through them. The only thing is that some dialogue tags felt redundant but besides that love it.
Grammar: Nothing major, and nothing that impedes reading.
Story: The story starts a bit slow, but when things do start it becomes really interesting. I don’t want to say too much. Go read it.
Characters: All the characters are great. My favorite is Felix, because… just read the damn story. But all the characters are well developed and feel human – which is the best thing you could want from characters. They also all feel distinct even though there’s a good amount of them.
The only thing is currently all the important male characters seem to have a thing for Ailee (all but one… maybe… idk yet). But Romance being a tag, this is not much of an issue.
Conclusion: Read it. It’s fun. Looking forward to see where this goes.
VMJaskierniaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Overall: You don't see Scifi as often on Royal Road as you do fantasy, but I'm glad this story is science fiction. It's quite hard scifi too- coming across as realistic and something that's feasible to see happening in the future tech wise. I love the overall feel of the crew and how everything is run. It has deep good worldbuilding.
Style: This story is in first person, told from the point of view of Ailee Chambers. A lot of the story is also told through dialogue. Characters have a distinct voice and the banter and back-and-forth are natural.
Grammar: Really great grammar. I'm very pleased to see no errors, even on really technical stuff that some other authors get wrong.
Story: We're in the future, Ailee is on a spaceship with friends and family (her dad is her commanding officer). She gets sent on a mission she probably shouldn't be on, and shit happens. I like that we started a bit 'early' in the narrative- most other stories would begin after the point of separation, but we get a few chapters to flesh out our characters and help us settle into the world. I get 'The Martian' mixed with 'Firefly' vibes. A character abadoned and thought dead, and then a ragtag group of space-pirates.
Character: Ailee's dad is one of those 'work before family' guys, in a gruff commanding way. Though I'm sure he cares for his daughter. He is the one to send her off on a mission that she probably isn't qualified for. The crew is fleshed out, even though Ailee is going to be with another group, we can feel her loss and what she left behind because we were given the time to get to know them before the incident.
WetJazzRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story is exactly what it says on the tin. Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Romance are prevalent throughout the entirety of the story. Thus far, this is my favorite story that I have read on Royal Road for a few reasons.
(1) The dialogue is fun. Much of this story is slower-paced, and so the action often (but not always) takes a backseat to the dialogue. Given this, interesting dialogue is important, and this story delivers. I love the way the characters banter.
(2) The author uses great use of the setting. It's obvious that the author is very passionate about space because this story would not be the same if it were told in any other setting.
(3) When there is action, the action is exciting. Although it is obvious that the protagonist is never in any real danger, the action is still written in such a way that it brings gravity to the situation.
In terms of its grammar, this story is fine. There aren't any notable grammar mistakes that take away from the flow of the story.
In terms of the plot, the story does start off slowly in the beginning. There is a bit of exposition in the beginning that makes it harder to focus through the first couple of chapters, and it's not always clear why the story goes where it does, but this problem is almost completely nonexistent in later chapters.
In terms of its characters, this story does great. Ailee is an interesting and fleshed-out character, as are many of the (many) other characters that were introduced. Some parts of the story were a little overwhelming with the number of characters that were introduced in quick succession, but this doesn't really detract from the flow of the story either.
The prose can be inconsistent at times. Some of the descriptions are a bit clunky (but still brief enough that they don't impede the flow of the story), and some of the descriptions are absolutely wonderful:
"Forty-five pounds of curves and muscle."
This line was hilarious. I don't know if it was supposed to be hilarious, but it was.
Maverick26Royal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Grammar -
I did not see any grammar mistakes in this story.
Style -
The style of this story is slow-paced and filled with dialogue. The narration is in first-person, and the main character's expressive thoughts can make some scenes more entertaining than others while kind of bogging down some scenes.
Story -
The story is fairly interesting in how it is like a military operation mixed together with a heist. The setting of the story also appears to have a lot of intricacies to it that seem like they will be explored in a lot of detail as the story progresses. There are really clear stakes in this story as well. There are a lot of technological details in it that are entertaining to see. There are some intriguing mysteries in the story, and the story does well when it comes to foreshadowing these mysteries.
Characters -
The characters in this story have a wide variety of personalities. The characters are occasionally really humorous, and some characters have unexpected traits to them that make them more interesting as well. However, some character interactions seem like they are missing aspects to them.
Overall -
The premise and setting of this story were really interesting. Along with that, this story was an intriguing and detailed read.
TealiciousTeaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Sci-Fi, Romance, and adventure abound in this dramatic tale. There is also a nice mix of drama to keep the momentum of the story pushing forwards.
Style wise this can be quite a dialogue-heavy story at times but it is written to be entertaining. It advances romance and drama or elaborates the sci-details.
The story is entertaining and keeps the reader gripped with every fresh twist and cliffhanger. I view it as more of a sci-fi drama and romance. I don't see the action or even as a military story. There are some light military settings and brief moments of action that seem closer to a pirates tale than a modern military movie. For me, while it mayhap ain't realistic it works as a fun setting and creates interesting character relationships.
The grammar is good. I didn't look too closely, but the meaning of most sentences and paragraph is clear.
Character - There is a lot of character drama going on. I didn't reach the romance with the Boss at the time of review but there was already romantic tension before with two other characters. Our mc is both dense as a doorknob and clued in about who she likes.
Final thoughts
It is a character-driven story along with those plot pushes that keep the story fast pace mostly. There is enough descriptive detail in the middle of chapters that will either work for some readers or be too much for others. It is a style choice and mostly works. Overall it is entertaining.
FooBarTrixieBellRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Firstly, I liked it. I must have, I binge read it from start to end. But... Why are all these men obsessed with her? Honestly, every male character in the book seems to be in love with her, even ones with almost zero screen time. Also, is there likely to be a sequel? If so you should make that obvious. There are so many unresolved plot points that it needs a sequel and if there is no intention to have one people will be left a little frustrated.
Also, it would have been nice to have at least some of those characters you spent so much time fleshing out continue on into a sequel. Not Mr rapeymcrapeface but I liked most of the others. The closure of that chapter of her life was rather brutal and permanent!