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From: Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: "BEMs: Bug Eyed Monsters: Book Four, the New Frontiers Series" by
 Jack L. Knapp
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2024 23:35:19 -0600
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"BEMs: Bug Eyed Monsters: Book Four, the New Frontiers Series" by Jack 
L. Knapp
    https://www.amazon.com/BEMs-Eyed-Monsters-Book-Frontiers/dp/1083070010/

Book number four of a eight book science fiction space opera series.  I 
reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade 
paperback self published by the author in 2019.  I have all eight books 
in the series and am rereading them now with the number seven and eight 
books that I just bought from Big River.

Wow, great story with lots of character development and action.  An 
older engineer buys a bunch of Nikola Tesla's journals in an old chest 
and spots a design for an "electric turbine" that was never built.  He 
builds a working version of the electric impeller (a device that 
converts electricity into motion) after many restarts and has an 
anti-gravity device.  The rest of the story concerns project funding and 
building various containers for the electric impeller and various 
peoples trying to steal the design.

This book is specifically about the aliens nicknamed the Flickers 
introducing themselves to the humans.  The Flickers have much more 
advanced technology than the humans including FTL and totally automated 
space ships.  But the Flickers are not the only aliens out there.

The writing of the story is a little bit rough, a little more editing 
would have been good.  But for me, the story is always the most 
important thing.  This is my second read so that makes it a five star 
book for me.

BTW, this is not the first time that a story has been written similar to 
this.  Several stories have "magical" engines for space drives.  A very 
similar book is John Varley's most excellent "Red Thunder" which uses 
the squeezer drive.
     https://www.amazon.com/Red-Thunder-Lightning-Novel/dp/0441011624/

The reason why I like these stories so much is that it is not just the 
new drive device, it is also the design and work to build the container 
around the new device.

My rating:  5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating:  4.4 out of 5 stars (187 reviews)

Lynn