Daisy wakes up from cryo-sleep early to help her ship's crew fight an unexpected hazard from external impact. With all she has to deal with, not being to remember her past properly gets put on the shelf until one of the crew gets sucked out an airlock while tracking an oxygen leak-- and ends up inside Daisy's head!

It turns out that there is more going on than she understands, and this run to Darkside lunar base for repairs is not at all routine. What's more, she has simply got to get over her prejudice against the cyborgs on board before she dooms what's left of the human race.

This tale is a great way to examine the nature of what it means to be human, when humans are not the species in charge of the universe and have to use every trick in the book to persist in any way at all. Also, it's often really funny.

I really wanted to like this book. It has a strong female lid. Had echoes of Aliens and a little bit of Pitch Black two of my favorite’s movies. The only reason I finished it is because It was given by Net Galley for an honest review otherwise, I would not have bothered. Id od not think this is being advertised as YA but the main heroine felt very young. She kept on making stupid mistake after stupid mistake and no she did not become endearing in any way. Also, she had a prejudice from the get go about mechanical replacement parts on humans. They never explained why, just natural hate on her part for something different? In Aliens Sigourney Weaver as Ripely was cautions against the AI/Cyborg because in the first movie it went nuts (or programmed to go a little nuts) so we could understand why. Here they did not even bother. There are some good points. The writing and editing are good. There is a mystery and you might want to read to get to it. This is not a stand-alone book although there is a closure of sorts at the end.

Even as a kid growing up in the 80's with all the "firsts" of space exploration, I never dreamed about being an astronaut. Oh, sure, I'm a TNG Star Trek fan but beyond that, I can't say there's anything about space or science fiction that I really geek about. (And I'm not so sure that I'm not just a Patrick Stewart fan, because, c'mon, it's Patrick Stewart.) Ya'll are probably tired of hearing me say "I'm not that big of a sci-fi fan", yet I still keep reading it, don't I? Well, here are some reasons I couldn't say no to Daisy's Run.

First and foremost, Daisy is a strong, yet flawed, female protagonist and boy, is she snarky, which I love. You get this sense of her somehow being the underdog from the start and I always like to root for the underdog. Occasionally her internal dialogue and prejudices against AI and her more mechanically enhanced shipmates got a bit dreary, but overall, she was a lot of fun. The rest of the characters are equally delightful, even the ones that are a bit more stoic and aloof. While there wasn't necessarily a lot of time spent on character growth, I enjoyed the characters' interactions. The exception to that was the inelegantly phrased "romance" scenes. Egad, those were painfully awkward. Ahem. Moving on...

There's an impressive amount of world-building, which sounds strange since they are on a spacecraft for the vast majority of the book. I didn't feel like I got bogged down with any of the atmospheric constructs, which I tend to find quite boring in a lot of sci-fi. There's a big distinction between being shown something and being told what something looks like. A good author excels at being descriptive without becoming tedious, and Scott Baron has this concept firmly in his grasp. I also was intrigued by cybernetic parts that many of the characters are sporting. Even with all the advanced (theoretical) technology, I never felt that it was killing brain cells just trying to understand it. Indeed, some of the technology probably isn't very far off!

There's a lot of intrigue surrounding Daisy and her shipmates and a slow build of drama in the first half. While not a lot really happens other than Daisy's paranoia, you just know that there is a big twist coming. From there, it's a rocketship of a ride to the end.

I read the last page only a few hours after beginning, which is always a tell of a good book, and I was sad to see it go, which is the sign of an exceptional book. Maybe I'm fooling myself that I'm not a huge fan of science fiction. Or maybe kick-ass sci-fi like Daisy's Run is steadily
converting me.

4.5/5

This just did not catch me at all. By one forth of the way though I almost quit. The book did not seem to be going anywhere. I did not see world building or any plot. Just a lot of things that you do on a day to day basis. There was some action after that but still no plot. Where were they from? Where were they going? And why were they going? All eventually were answered and then the book just ended just as it seemed to get interesting.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Daisy, is constructed as a stereotypical snarky technologically-apt guru, who wakes up to find, the ship she is on, needs repairs. But, this eventuates to be the least of her worries. (Repeat after me, they’re not always watching, and they’re not out to get you……. Convincing, yeah?)

It’s not often that you see a female lead, in a Sci-Fi series, at least, not one that’s simply used as a plot device, or for love-triangle purposes. It’s fun, and yet frustrating, yet the intricacies, and the inclusions of technical jargon helped to set the scene, as a technologically based novel, rather than simply a novel, with technology.

It’s only limitation, is the over-use of the inter-personal relationships developed by characters – I’m not, not a fan of romance, but it’s an overused trope that I try my best to avoid.

All-in-all, I loved the futuristic-centric setting, and the technological aspects, contributing to a strong-female lead.

Having previously read other works by Scott Baron, I was excited to pick this one up. This one feels a bit distinct from the ones I've read in the past, as it has a lot more sci-fi elements to it. The main plot focuses on Daisy, who has just been awoken from a cryogenic sleep on a spacecraft headed to earth.

I think the highlight of this book is definitely the amount of attention and imagination that went into world-building. There's a very futuristic spin on all of the technology present in this book, but it was generally described well enough that I never really felt lost. I was fascinated by the descriptions of cyborgs and fully integrated cybernetic limbs and I think the concept of a world where not all "people" are necessarily human is kind of fascinating.

That being said, there were a couple of aspects of this book that I didn't enjoy as much:
1. The excessive sex scenes. Don't get me wrong, an occasional sex scene would have been fine -- but in this book, they felt a bit forced and awkward. More than once I found myself skimming ahead to skip over these scenes.
2. The exceeeeeessively long build-up to the explanation of what has transpired to humankind. I think Daisy spends about half the book actively running away from the other characters who are trying to explain the state of things, and then once the explanation occurs, it's a very hefty info dump at the end. The problem that goes hand-in-hand with this is that, by the time you reach the end, the explanation is not surprising. In fact, I was probably no more than a quarter of the way through the book before I guessed at some of the major details, and by the time Daisy lands on earth, it was fairly clear... but it was still frustrating having to wait until the end to get some greater context.

Overall, the plot pulled together some compelling ideas for a storyline, and I found the setting really intriguing. Though I do think some tweaks would improve the overall novel, I enjoyed this one.

I received a copy of this title from Netgalley for review.

I went in thinking this was YA Sci-Fi, but it is clearly New Adult or General Market considering the language and sex. The storyline was intriguing, but it felt at times that the protagonist was more male than female in actions and motivations and was written from the XX POV as a marketing tool rather than staying true to the character.

This book is incredibly confusing to review because every single chapter in the first 50 per cent was a struggle to get through. I seriously considered DNF’ing after the first sex scene because it made me cringe so, so hard.

And it’s not just that it was badly written either. I mean, it was terribly written but in addition, every single thing Daisy does, ends in badly written, cringeworthy sex.

However, after you get past the first half of the book (it’s a struggle) the plot develops, and gets really interesting. The scientific explanations are thorough and easy to understand without making the dialogue boring, and the concept in general is pretty cool. I just wish the book had been this was from inception.

Overall though, what I couldn’t shake off was this deep-rooted prejudice that seemed to run through the book, and though it can be written off as the main characters inherent prejudice/racism/stereotyping(?) it felt like more than that, and it was uncomfortable.

I doubt I’d continue with this series.

This is the first in a series. I am not sure that I will be seeking out the rest of the series to find out what happens next.

I wasn't especially surprised to find out, at the end of this book, that the author works in Hollywood (as an on-set doctor). A lot of it only makes sense if you apply Hollywood logic; consists of Hollywood cliches; or makes mistakes that Hollywood makes.

For example, people in real life don't sit bolt upright after they wake from a nightmare. It's a Hollywood cliche, to convey an internal experience in a visual medium.

The far side of the moon is constantly referred to as the "dark side"; anyone who knows any actual astrophysics knows that both sides of the moon get light, in a cycle that produces the phases of the moon. There's even the old myth of human brains using only a fraction of their processing and storage capacity, which a doctor should know is not true.

Things sometimes work in a way that those things simply wouldn't work, because plot and/or cliche. This includes a device that somehow gets more energy out of a system than was put in, covered over by some technobabble. Lights dim when the AI does a complex calculation.

No popular culture is referred to that originates after the book is written, which is a very common fault of this kind of book.

About halfway through I also started to notice that nobody seemed to have any backstory, and the ship was coming from a vague place for vague reasons, without apparently having any cargo or other raison d'etre. That eventually turned out to be kind of a feature, but... well, let me talk about the most annoying thing.

The most annoying thing is a protagonist who seems to go out of her way to cut off anyone who's about to explain what's going on. After she's done this a couple of times, it becomes painfully obvious that the author is doing it to maintain the tension. When she is finally cornered and has to listen to the explanation, at the 90% mark in the book, it turns out that the reason she wasn't told the secret in the first place is... weak.

"Weak" is a good description of a number of plot points, in fact. At one point, people have to travel physically across the solar system to take a message because their electronic systems have been compromised and they might transmit a virus if they used radio. So why not blink a laser on and off in Morse code?

"One millionth of one percent of the population" have a particular feature - which, if you work it out, means 10 people in a billion, so probably fewer than 100 people in all. That seems too few for what it is.

An electronic tablet has wires inside that can be physically rewired with no tools for a different purpose. Have you ever seen inside one of those? No wires.

Most of the book is in tight third person, following the protagonist; and then we get a few random paragraphs in someone else's POV, before returning to our regularly scheduled viewpoint.

Meanwhile, it's become evident that the genre I thought I was getting is not the actual genre (because secret), and the actual genre is one I strongly dislike.

The protagonist is ridiculously over-powered, possessing every conceivable skill that could help her; there is (eventually, at that 90% mark) an explanation for this, but even then it's clear that she's done things she ought not to be able to do, for vague reasons.

She's also prejudiced, against machines and people who have machine parts (which nearly all her shipmates do). Making your viewpoint character irrationally prejudiced is not a good way to endear her to the reader, even if you feel you have to do so to drive the plot.

A lot of convenient plot points are not foreshadowed until immediately before they become relevant, which (added to everything else) makes me suspect that the book wasn't plotted in advance, but discovery-written, with the author not knowing for a long time what was going on either. Now, discovery-written books can be just as good as plotted books, but only if you put the work in afterwards to do your foreshadowing and make everything make sense, as if you'd plotted it from the start. It shouldn't be possible to tell the difference. (Of course, now that I've said that, the author will probably tell me that I'm wrong and he did plot it through from the start. It doesn't read that way, though.)

There are some pluses. The action keeps moving (apart from some repetitive infodumping near the beginning). The author contrives - and it is a bit contrived - to give the protagonist another woman to talk to, even though she's physically on her own for most of the book. But on the whole, the weaknesses outweighed the strengths for me. The plot is a thin skin over an obtrusive skeleton, and is forced along by one unlikely thing after another, hitting a bunch of stupid cliches on the way through.

I received a copy via Netgalley for review.

Daisy's Run is the first in a five-part science fiction series focused on artificial intelligence, cyborgs, spaceships, and what it means to be human. 

After an accident in space, the crew of a massive spaceship, the Vali, is woken from their cryo-sleep in order to repair the ship. One of these characters is Daisy, one of the two technicians/engineers on the ship. She and Sarah work together to try to repair a ship that seems to be constantly malfunctioning, until one day a tragic event occurs and Sarah is jettisoned into space. 

Daisy is wary of the artificial intelligence all around her, including the cybernetic implants that almost all of the crew have. The ship is full of other futuristic technology, such as neuro-stims, which allow the crew to learn new information as they sleep by plugging a cord into the back of their heads. 

As time goes on, Daisy starts to realize that the ship and everyone on it may not be what they seem, and she goes on a mission to uncover the truth. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. As readers of this blog probably already know, science fiction is my favorite genre, and I'm always searching for new books and series to get into. 

From the very first page, I found myself getting very strong Star Trek vibes, which is exciting since Star Trek is the most important thing in the world (yes, I am a Trekkie). A cyborg/android that appears human; Gustavo, a character that has artificial eyes that allow him to see in multiple spectrums; a responsive, personable ship's computer; food replicators - all things that make me think of Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

Scott Baron does a great job with setting and landscape. While following the characters on the ship, I could easily picture everything in my head. When the story moves down to Los Angeles, I really enjoyed the imagery of an empty city. 

I did not like Daisy's character, although I do think Scott Baron did a fine job of writing her. I simply did not enjoy her personality: I found her to be irrational, rash, and prejudiced. Her main reason for not liking cyborgs and being judgemental of her cybernetically-enhanced crewmates appears to be that they creep her out, which gave me absolutely no sympathy for her. She also has a tendency to be patronizing, which is most apparent when she's speaking to Alfred Chu. 

The main problem I had with Daisy is that her unwillingness to listen to her crewmates was so incredibly frustrating. There were times throughout the book where I wished I could reach into the story, grab her by the shoulders, and shake her until she agreed to listen to what they had to say. 

When Daisy reaches Los Angeles, she encounters a completely new type of threat, which I won't mention due to spoilers, but ultimately I believe it is a threat that would cause most people to re-evaluate their objectives, but not Daisy. She seems to be so focused on her original, somewhat irritating, goals, that she seems to just ignore the new threat entirely. 

My not liking Daisy actually led to my enjoying the book more. It is very difficult for a writer to write a compelling character, and even more difficult to write a compelling, unlikeable character into a novel, and still have the novel itself be enjoyable. It was refreshing to read a book where I wasn't rooting for the main character, but couldn't wait to see what happened next. 

The main reason I could not give this book five stars is due to two main points: The novel never addresses whether Sarah's death was an accident or not. It's a major plot hole that I'm surprised was never addressed. Also, I was really disappointed in the ending of the book. I read a lot of book series, and the best ones offer novels that can stand on their own even if you don't read the whole series. Each book is a complete story. I cannot say that about Daisy's Run: the book ends more like a television show, in the middle of an incident. There's no closure at the end of this book, and while I will probably read the next four books at some point, I did not enjoy the story ending in the middle of a cliffhanger.

Another quick note is that all five of these books are being released on the same day. I'm not sure why that is being done, and I personally do not believe it is a good choice. One of the exciting things about book series is the anticipation between book releases. Think of a book series you read as they were being released. For me, that's Harry Potter. When I finished each book, I was so anxious to get my hands on the next one. I spent so much time between book releases dreaming of what could happen next, and it was well worth the wait when I could finally go to the bookstore to get the next one. I feel like releasing an entire series at the same time robs the readers of that excitement. 

I struggled to choose a rating for this novel. I kept wavering between 3-4.5 stars. I'm still not really sure, but I'm settling on 4 out of 5 stars. The main issue I had with this book was the way it ended, but the rest of it I really enjoyed. Scott Baron is a talented writer, and I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Daisy's Run is probably my first ever science fiction read of its sort: the cyborgs, the AI, the space travel, and the threat of aliens. It opens with the characters being rudely woken up from a state of 'cryo sleep' over six months early, and trying to keep their ship in order as it makes its way to the Earth. The book is fast-paced, and the reader largely experiences the world of the book through Daisy's eyes.

I liked Daisy as the protagonist for the most part: she's clever, driven, sly, and determined, but her bigotry against AI and cyborgs really ticked me off as the book progressed. I think Scott Baron did a good job at keeping both Daisy and the readers in the dark about what was really going on - a lot of things are kept from us until the very end, when all the revelations flood in. The entire time, as Daisy goes rogue on her own shipmates after the loss of her best friend Sarah, I was stuck in this state of ambiguity and uncertainty over what the crew and cyborgs' agenda was. This ambiguity was what really made me enjoy Daisy's Run. I couldn't quite tell who to side with: the crew who believed Daisy was endangering their mission and herself from her overdose of implanted knowledge and skillsets, or Daisy who believed the crew were plotting, as she called it, a 'Cyborg Revolution'. It's only towards the end that everything becomes clear.

With this sudden turn of events towards the end that fixes the ambiguities and pins them down into black and white certainties, came what was practically an information dump, even as we were cued for it from Daisy's brief time on Earth. I think the revelations could have come in doses instead of all at once, even if that's how Daisy learns of it too, because at this point, it felt as if the history of the world prior to the narrative was being squeezed into the last few chapters.

Apart from the information dump, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm curious to see what else is in store for our hard-headed and spirited protagonist in the sequel! (I hope she gets over her revulsion towards cyborgs and AI.)

Daisy's Run by Scott Baron is an amazing story with compelling characters, plot and amazing spectacular writing.

I would first like to thank NetGalley and the author for my eARC, I received my e-copy for free in exchange for an honest review - and honestly I loved this book!

Let's talk about Daisy's Run by Scott Baron. This sci-fi thriller will release on 11/15/18 and the good news is that it looks like the rest of the series will also release at that time. I know that I can't wait to find out what happens next!

As their spaceship is damaged and the crew is awoken early from stasis, we meet Daisy and company. Enter a world of technology and artificial intelligence, mystery, conspiracy, friendship and some bluntly described romance. Daisy and her shipmate Sarah are likeable characters and a big part of the hook was the development of our feelings towards the rest of the crew - for good or for worse.

The most interesting point to me is that the book bluntly asks the question: How do you feel about artificial intelligence? Daisy has to do a lot of self-reflection regarding her views on cyborgs, technology, and humanity in general. Baron adds a great but short passage about how Earth looked before current events, including how with overseas travel becoming cheaper and quicker, xenophobia was all but gone as cultures mixed and erased old misguided prejudices. Speaking of misguided assumptions - that plot twist!!!

The majority of the novel takes place as Daisy runs from potential captors on her ship and learns their secrets. The conclusion rushes in and smacks the reader in the face with a baseball bat. I feel like that is intentional though; we can palpably feel Daisy's shock and it sets up the next novel well. I didn't quite grasp the full extent of what happened though so I wish he had drawn it out a bit more at the end with more background.

The book is fairly well edited with a few passages that seem repetitive, such as when Sarah was described later on. There is plenty of tech-speak reminiscent of Star Trek, which I love but some may end up skimming over

Summary: 4/5 stars. I would recommend this fully to any Sci-Fi fans, and only caution for some coarse sexual language. Thank you again to NetGalley and Scott Baron!

Really good book that will keep you wondering all they way through. I wish i was able to red them all and now i have to wit for the release

DNF - I’m sorry....

I wanted to like it, but if just seemed to take too long to get going. I read an article about novel writing and it suggests starting in the middle of an event, and then providing background after you’ve grabbed the readers attention.
This takes too long with the hum drum stuff, I’m sure the good stuff came later but I didn’t stick around to find out.

Professional, polished, and aggressively kickass, this book is engaging science fiction. I will definitely explore more work by Scott Baron when I can. He brought many speculative ideas together in a seamless and creative way.

Futuristic with lots of action and mystery. Surprise ending. Some portions of the book depicting body parts are graphic. Romance involved. Leaves you wanting more.

This one really surprised me. You know how you find a book you’ve never heard of and it sounds interesting but you’re not sure what to expect? This is exactly this book for me.

Things I liked:
1. How descriptive the author was. Even while being in space, and in many different parts of the spaceship, I could clearly picture the setting the entire time. This was an exceptional thing given how many times the setting changed throughout this book

2. The main character was someone I could relate to. She has flaws but was not a bad person, although misguided at times. She was kind of a bigot, but I like it when characters have flaws (aka the potential to grow)

3. There is a love (sexy time?) story that jumps out and smacks you in the face, but it’s not ultimately the main storyline

4. The pacing is really good. A lot happens and the story doesn’t seem to drag or move slowly

5. The author left me wanting more. Damn it! Even despite some things I didn’t love, I’d still like to know what happens next.

Things I didn’t like:
1. The author was NOT subtle in foreshadowing.. if something was important, he made sure you knew it because he said it 3+ times. This was kind of annoying, especially for an active reader who thinks about the story as it’s happening

2. The story got a bit ridiculous/unbelievable towards the end. I know, I know, it’s sci-fi. These things happen. But still... it was a little toooooo much for me at the end

All in all, I liked the book, although I think the author’s writing could use some polishing. If you’re looking for an oddly enthralling sci-fi read, this book is exactly what you’re looking for.

I will admit this is my first adventure with this genre of book - and the reason I chose it - I am shallow and my daughters name is Daisy, but I am absolutely hooked. Forgive me if this is off base, and I am by no means big on sci-fi usually but it put me in mind of a cross between Lost in Space and Star Trek (the tv one with Captain Jane, admittedly the only one I've seen!). You can absolutely tell that Scott Baron works in the movie industry - this book has "big screen adaptation" written all over it - I could literally see it playing out in front of me page my page! Unexpected, and keeping you guessing right until the last page this book will keep you up well into the night. I can't wait for the second instalment. If you've never been drawn to this genre before get yourself out of your comfort zone and jump right in. I guarantee you will not be disappointed!