Hawk, Hand of the machine by Van Allen Plexico
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hawk, hand of the machine
Hawk is a sci-fi novel set in the far distant future, and by far distant I mean many thousands of years in the future, and involves beings known as ‘Hands’ that are actually cloned and created warriors who are programmed with different abilities before they are popped fully grown from their birth pods. When Hawk is born, or re-born which is more the case, he is created without his full set of memories which were supposed to be implanted in him at ‘birth’, but were damaged because his birthing process was rushed.
Hawk was born into a war zone of sorts aboard a space station that was under attack by strange, insectoid beings, who are the primary enemy of the ‘Adversary’, as Hawk would later find out. Thus begins an epic space adventure featuring different heroes known as ‘Hands’.
The novel takes off quickly and maintains an even pace as Hawk, at first at least, is on an out of control roller coaster ride of sorts. He truly has no conception what is happening to him as his implanted memories are damaged and his sentient space ship is holding back information from him. Only when he meets another hand, ‘Falcon’, does he begin to understand what is going on in the universe around him. Eventually he and his fellow ‘Hands’, some real, some imposters, confront their deadly enemy in a final battle that still leaves many questions unanswered.
It’s been several years since I read any good sci-fi. This filled that niche. It was very good, very enjoyable. It held my attention, and I read through it in a few days. Van Plexico did a very nice job on this one, creating a galaxy that has fallen into a state of disrepair, as the enemies that drove it to the brink of destruction are now swarming at its gates once again.
All in all I have to give this story five stars. It was an excellent space adventure/mystery with a decent amount of action thrown in. Plus the cover is cool. Highly recommended, especially if you are a sci-fi fan.


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