Book "Forbidden the Stars" by Valmore Daniels

About the Book: At the end of the 21st century, a catastrophic accident in the asteroid belt has left two surveyors dead. There is no trace of their young son, Alex Manez, or of the asteroid itself. 

On the outer edge of the solar system, the first manned mission to Pluto, led by the youngest female astronaut in NASA history, has led to an historic discovery: there is a marker left there by an alien race for humankind to find. We are not alone! 

While studying the alien marker, it begins to react and, four hours later, the missing asteroid appears in a Plutonian orbit, along with young Alex Manez, who has developed some alarming side-effects from his exposure to the kinetic element they call Kinemet. 

From the depths of a criminal empire based on Luna, an expatriate seizes the opportunity to wrest control of outer space, and takes swift action. 

The secret to faster-than-light speed is up for grabs, and the race for interstellar space begins!

About the Author: Valmore Daniels has lived on the coasts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans, and dozens of points in between.
An insatiable thirst for new experiences has led him to work in several fields, including legal research, elderly care, oil and gas administration, web design, government service, human resources, and retail business management.
His enthusiasm for travel is only surpassed by his passion for telling tall tales.
Visit him at www.ValmoreDaniels.com
Also by Valmore Daniels:
- Fallen Angels -
Book 1 - Angel Fire
Book 2 - Angel's Breath
Book 3 - Earth Angel
Book 4 - Angel Tears (TBR)
Book 5 - Angel of Darkness (TBR)
- The Interstellar Age -
Book 1 - Forbidden The Stars
Book 2 - Music of the Spheres
Book 3 - Worlds Away

My Review: Very well written science-fiction book, will keep you entertained for hours. Plot is simple. In a futuristic world, a family is mining in an asteroid when an accident happens, killing both mother and father and leaving the young son (Alex Manez) missing, as well as the asteroid they were working on. In the meantime a mission to Pluto finds an artificial artifact made by aliens. Suddenly the artifact starts to react and just out of the blues the missing asteroid appears in the orbit of Pluto, with our young Alex on a survival capsule. The phenomena is studied and people start to realize that they might be facing the solution to travel at light speed and young Alex might be the key to understand the new element they were mining in the asteroids. But there were side effects on Alex, due to exposition to the new element, called now Kinemet. And during their return from Pluto, Alex is kidnapped by some space age pirates under the command of a lunar lunatic that wants to control the new technology. Very entertaining story, I recommend this book to all readers that love a well written science-fiction novel. Unfortunately the story does not close per se. It will continue in a second book. But very good start!
It took me almost ten hours to read the whole book.

I bought this book from amazon.com in its electronic version. Opinions expressed here are my own.

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