Author G. J. Ogden (https://www.ogdenmedia.net) published the novel “The Contingency” in 2019. Mr. Ogden has published eight science fiction novels and novellas. This is the first of four novels in the ‘Contingency War’ series.

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story is set in the far future. The primary characters are ship Captain Taylor Ray and the three other crewmembers of his deep space reconnaissance vessel.

The Hedalt had attacked Earth. Earth’s forces had responded and had driven off the Hedalt. Earth put an end to the threat with the destruction of the Hedalt homeworld.

Ray’s reconnaissance mission is part of an effort to find and destroy any remnants of the Hedalt. They didn’t expect to find anything but ‘ghosts’ – long-abandoned outposts and bases. They find far more than they were expecting.

I enjoyed the 5.5 hours I spent reading this 289-page science fiction novel. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a 3.8 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

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What if Aliens Attacked, Earth Beat them back… and then on the edges of space we find The Contingency?

When it comes to indie books the premise is key. And boy is the premise for The Contingency all kinds of intriguing. I’d line up all day for an alien invasion story… but what if that’s already come and been beaten back? Instead you’re on a mission to recon deep space for the alien remnants that escaped… I know, right?! I had to check it out.

Did The Contingency live up to this Fangirl’s excitement?
The first 30% of The Contingency was so tight I was immediately drawn in. We start at the end of a long haul deep space recon mission when we meet our 4-person crew. They’re clearly comfortable with each other, some more than others, and work well together. And I could feel the bond between them. We learn they were paired deliberately due to personality compatibility. This was a neat fact that characterized how deeply the author thought about his universe. And I was hooked!

I wanted to be on Captain Taylor Ray’s crew too.
To be honest I wasn’t in love with either Casey or Blake, two of our 4-person crew, who open the book. They seemed like two crew members who got along well due to sharing similar outlooks on life. No, I love me the serious, quietly commanding types. Men like Captain Taylor Ray.

I totally loved how connected he was to crew mate Satomi. To the point they could recognize the signs when one was stressed or knew they were pushing it. But being captain and crew they kept it friendly yet professional. You could feel their emotions simmering under the surface. It added much needed tension to this final outpost check. I wanted them to be able to go home and advance their relationship.

The Hedalt race is clever, cagey and cruel.
We tightly focus on our small crew as they follow a signal to a hidden outpost. I loved how in the moment the story was, they have a mission, steps to follow before they can return to earth. The immediacy of the search and the suddenness of their findings made for an explosive climax.

For a few beats I was confused what was happening and felt the need to read furiously to find out what Taylor Ray concludes. It’s a shocking twist! I was truly floored. Even if you don’t fall for the crew like I did and feel the clenching in your gut over events… you’ll still love the truth that’s revealed.

The Contingency sets up the start to a fantastic sci-fi war.
Captain Taylor Ray has a lot to figure out. And we get to explore a bit of his new mission with him. It gives us a glimpse into what he’s getting into and how creative this war is going to get. I have no doubt that the sequel is going to take us on another tight, intimate, tense, action packed new adventure.

But the end was anti-climatic.
We have this intimate beginning that builds to a flabbergasting twist. We get some answers too. But they lead to an overwhelming number of possible directions to go from here. It’s intriguing, I want to read the sequel. But the contrast was stark. Too stark. It doesn’t make for a satisfying end. That may just be the heavy lot a first book has to bear…

The Contingency is the first installment of what is sure to be a fabulous sci-fi war. We have some aliens who are incredibly clever and creative. And Captain Taylor Ray is going to go head to head with them! If you enjoy intimate, focused adventures with flabbergasting twists then you need this now.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This is a fairly straight forward space opera with the action on the spacecraft and the abandoned spaceport. While there is plenty of action fighting the Hedalt the transition halfway through was confusing. Who are the good guys? The bad?

As always a big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy to read and review.

While I thought the story was decent, I had a hard time connecting with it at the beginning. The story opens with a crew of four that is on a space mission that is nearing its end, it almost gave me vibes of the Amazon show The Expanse. The novel starts off with two of the four crew seemingly goofing off and not taking the regulations of the ship as seriously as they should. Normally that's fine, however I felt that this was a bit of a disconnect from a true sci-fi space mission. There is always a beat of regularity and uniformity throughout. But once it was explained hat the crew members were matched based on personality, the humor and lax attitude of the two crew members were were introduced to made a bit more sense. I felt that this was a specific piece of information that maybe should have been made known before the humor was introduced. I felt as of that would have been a better introduction to the story and the mission overall.

The further I got into the book, the more I started to enjoy it, It did take me a while to fully get into it as it definitely is a book that you have to pay full attention to. It was hard for me to connect with all of the characters and even though I did start to enjoy the storyline more as the book progressed, I was bothered by my lack of connection with the characters. There is usually at least one I can connect with, but not so much with this one. A solid read for fans of the genre.

This is a good space opera with some good twists that help keep it fun. It's not perfect -- some typos and verbosity, but overall a good bet for opera fans.

I really appreciate the copy for review!!

The Contingency by G J Ogden, not a bad book. I found the characters hard to connect with and the reading turned into a bit of a slog, but could connect with the right audience. Thanks for giving me a chance with this book.

This is a science fiction novel I see in two very different lights. The Contingency that I started reading and the one I ended with were so very different from each other. It was a cohesive story line, but the reality of the story I was reacting too at the beginning was not the one I was reading in the end.

Thoughts:
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t begin the story connecting with any of the characters. When the story opens the four-person crew is near the end of a long deep space recon mission and, to me, had perhaps become a bit lax in protocol or work place decorum. It is this lack of work place etiquette that really, really bothered me. Or perhaps I’ve seen too many Star Trek shows with its many protocols and regulations and when I see something that differs it doesn’t feel natural. Knowing the description of the book and how it relates to a war that may not have ended, I had hopes that perhaps Casey, whom I liked least, would be killed off early. (Probably not a good sign when you’re actually wanting one of the characters to be killed). I think the biggest issue is that it starts immediately. If I had seen the characters performing in an office-appropriate manner who then later had an uncharacteristic lack of decorum moment, I would have felt differently. But it didn’t, we’re introduced to this aspect first and then later is when we see the business side of them.

One of the ongoing themes within the book is how the four-person crew are matched together personality wise. Long deep space missions require so incredibly much from an individual – you are alone, isolated, and away from those who can help you should something go wrong. Therefore, certain personalities are required and how they are matched together perfectly is something that is thought about and discussed at multiple points within the novel. This is also why I suspect the story begins the way it did – introducing two characters who appreciated each other’s humor and silliness and showing us, the reader, this very specific important piece of information.

During the team’s recon mission they pick up an unusual reading and go to check it out. This then leads to a discovery about the Hedalt empire that completely surprises them. As the team begins to look into what was causing the unusual reading, I began noticing how much the book and its direction had shifted and changed. Issues that I had at the beginning of the book regarding the work place weren’t even something to notice and consider as I got further into the story. The story had changed so incredibly much that my perception of characters and reasons behind things had altered too.

Even though the last half of the book went better for me than the first half, I’m still not sure I ever truly connected with any of the characters and that may be ok, especially now that I know the entire story. What I can say is that as I progressed further into the book my perception of each one of them drastically changed. I also appreciated how the issues I had at the beginning were reduced enough for me to enjoy the book more for it’s actual story and not my own personal hang-ups.

Rating: 4 stars

The plot:
Light space opera. Not a lot of world building, very little backstory.
Nice twist in the middle. It took the tale into a more unusual direction and offered something new. The next major plot development after that was a bit too much too soon. It all needed more depth, there wasn‘t enough meat to it.
The epilogue (wasn‘t called that, but felt like it) was nice. The story idea was not bad and had its moments.
I wish the first half of the book had been only half or a third as long. As it was, the plotting felt uneven.

The characters:
Barely developed characters. Interchangeable and immature. Casey reminded me of Jar Jar Binks and was really annoying. The Hedalt remained blanks. In that case it would have been nice to get at least a little information. If the humans didn’t know what the Hedalt look like, why not say so? Did I miss something in the beginning?

The writing:
Verbose, with overlong sentences. Everything explained truly well, including the obvious, which really takes the fun out of things. Repetitive. Juvenile humour. Overabundance of metaphors. Some grammatical blunders. The writing irritated me so much that I had a hard time immersing myself into the story.
With the plot twist in the middle of the book, the writing became tighter and more focussed for a while, but then wandered off again into over-explaining mode. It almost felt as if written by somebody else for a while. Alas, ...

Would I recommend this or get it for a friend? No.

I received this free e-copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review, thank you! Sorry, I just didn‘t like this much.