Todd Yunker's Shackleton's Burden was published in December 2014.
Information about Todd Yunker:
Todd Yunker is Oregonian and lives in Salem, Oregon. Todd is an award-winning author of the epic science fiction The Lost Wonder Series, book one Shackleton's Folly. Growing up, Sci-Fi permeated Todd's youth and adolescence. He was an avid reader. He devoured all the books he could find in the library. Todd relished classic Sci-Fi feature films and Japanese monster movies. He indulged his fancy and watched swashbuckler movies of the '30s and '40s influenced his vision of adventure. The raw cynical attitudes and sexual motivations of Film noir influenced his grasp of story over fluff. Todd's study of storytelling brought him to Joseph Cambell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Christopher Vogler's The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. This profound understanding of storytelling has advanced the quality of his work. He would like to know the why don’t we have our flying cars?
Click here to visit the author's official website.
Information about Shackleton's Burden:
SHACKLETON'S BURDEN is a science fiction novelette that starts the stalking of the adventurous Alec Shackleton through the Eleven Wonders of the Universe with a ragtag team, his side-kick Dancer, a cocky android. Their quest: to find technology left behind by the fallen Empire of the First Ones in the far reaches of the galaxy.
Alec Shackleton spent his youth bouncing from one planetary system to another with his father on expeditions. Alec had likened it to searching for the real Charon, the actual ferryman at the river Styx. He couldn't keep his father’s dream anymore, so he left and broke out on his own to make a life for himself.
Alec wanted so much more than chasing across the galaxy after a myth, a legendary story. It was just too bad that the rest of the galaxy caught up to him, propelling him into the greatest adventure ever told. Alec is the guy who the steps up because there isn’t anyone else who can.
A REVIEW OF TODD YUNKER'S SHACKLETON'S BURDEN
Todd Yunker's Shackleton's Burden is a novelette that's part of The Lost Wonder science fiction series. In this novelette Todd Yunker introduces two characters - Alec and Dancer - to his readers. They both will be featured in Shackleton's Folly, which is the first part of The Lost Wonder series.
Here's information about the story:
Dancer is an android who finds Alec and tells him of his father's death. Alec has had problems with his father, because his father lived for his quest to find a mythical lost tribe of humans. Because Alec wanted to live his own life and didn't want to waste his life by following his father, he hadn't seen father for a while and news of his death come as a surprise for him...
It's easy to like and enjoy this science fiction story, because it's a story about the friendship between human and android and accepting one's duty. It's an easy-to-read young-adultish space adventure story that is suitable for both young adults and adults alike. Because most new science fiction stories tend to be written mostly for adults and have plenty of adult contents in them, this story feels reshingly different. It's a surprisingly good story in the vein of old-fashioned space adventure novels and stories.
The author has created an interesting premise for his series, because it was interesting to read about what has happened to humans. In this short story humanity is on the verge of extinction and has become a dying race.
Reading about Alec and his feelings towards his father was intriguing, because they didn't agree on certain things. Although it was intriguing to read about their difficult relationship, it would've been nice if the author had explored it in a more profound way.
I'm torn between giving three or four stars to this novelette. Because I liked this novelette and enjoyed reading about the happenings, but would've liked to see more depth and character development, I decided to give it 3.5 stars - 4 stars for the story and 3 stars for the character development.
In my honest opinion this story is good and it has lots of potential, but it needs a bit more depth and meat around its bones. Despite its few flaws this story can be recommended to readers who enjoy reading space adventure stories, because it's good and harmless fun. If you enjoy reading this story, please take a look at Shackleton's Folly.
Good sci-fi entertainment!