Review of Aventura - Enemies Within and Without
Posted: 20 Jan 2025, 09:07
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Aventura - Enemies Within and Without" by Jonathan N Mills (Ron X).]
As the title implies, Aventura: Enemies Within and Without is a two-part story.
In the first part, the old phrase “Here there be monsters” reasonably describes the Vultura of Jectinor, a race with a draconic appearance, a ‘hive’ type of social organization, and a queen planning to dominate the entire land of Aventura. Naturally, the human occupants of the other nations object to this plan. The Vulturas rely on terrorist attacks targeting power distribution and manufacturing centers. The human nations begin armoring their buildings and upgrading their armament in an escalating race to thwart the Vulturan assaults and plan a proactive mission to destroy a massively destructive weapon within Jectinor’s stronghold. It appears that all hope rests on the success of the human mission.
In the second part, a disgruntled military officer feels underappreciated, that he has been sidelined, and that he should be the overall commander of the human forces. He abandons his post and begins his own campaign of terror as punishment to the other nations and to validate his intelligence and power. His sanity remains in question. Once again, all human nations must unite to defeat this internal threat and return peace to Aventura.
Of course, there must be a love interest to balance the violence. Piers, the son of one region’s governor, and Alexis, a village chief’s daughter, fall in love and into bed remarkably quickly. They also form the basis of cooperation between autonomous regions, which is necessary for humans to survive the threats of mass destruction they face.
Cooperation seems a novel idea to many of the people in this novel. Isolationism is typical, whether because of limited transportation for goods or because of no perceived need for outside interaction. War is a catalyst for change, in fact, as in fiction. While the story is simplistic, it is still a good lesson for our world. Another good lesson: relying on self-directed robotics for national defense is dangerous when enemies can turn those tools against you.
The writing of Aventura is at a middle-school level. Conversations seem stilted by speech that is often too stiff for everyday use or even intimate circumstances where they occur; few contractions and over-explanation are frequent. Young adults appear to be the target audience were it not for some too-detailed sex scenes that would earn an ‘R’ rating for a film. There is plenty of violence but no profanity. This is a decent, if average, story and deserves a rating of three out of five stars.
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Aventura - Enemies Within and Without
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
As the title implies, Aventura: Enemies Within and Without is a two-part story.
In the first part, the old phrase “Here there be monsters” reasonably describes the Vultura of Jectinor, a race with a draconic appearance, a ‘hive’ type of social organization, and a queen planning to dominate the entire land of Aventura. Naturally, the human occupants of the other nations object to this plan. The Vulturas rely on terrorist attacks targeting power distribution and manufacturing centers. The human nations begin armoring their buildings and upgrading their armament in an escalating race to thwart the Vulturan assaults and plan a proactive mission to destroy a massively destructive weapon within Jectinor’s stronghold. It appears that all hope rests on the success of the human mission.
In the second part, a disgruntled military officer feels underappreciated, that he has been sidelined, and that he should be the overall commander of the human forces. He abandons his post and begins his own campaign of terror as punishment to the other nations and to validate his intelligence and power. His sanity remains in question. Once again, all human nations must unite to defeat this internal threat and return peace to Aventura.
Of course, there must be a love interest to balance the violence. Piers, the son of one region’s governor, and Alexis, a village chief’s daughter, fall in love and into bed remarkably quickly. They also form the basis of cooperation between autonomous regions, which is necessary for humans to survive the threats of mass destruction they face.
Cooperation seems a novel idea to many of the people in this novel. Isolationism is typical, whether because of limited transportation for goods or because of no perceived need for outside interaction. War is a catalyst for change, in fact, as in fiction. While the story is simplistic, it is still a good lesson for our world. Another good lesson: relying on self-directed robotics for national defense is dangerous when enemies can turn those tools against you.
The writing of Aventura is at a middle-school level. Conversations seem stilted by speech that is often too stiff for everyday use or even intimate circumstances where they occur; few contractions and over-explanation are frequent. Young adults appear to be the target audience were it not for some too-detailed sex scenes that would earn an ‘R’ rating for a film. There is plenty of violence but no profanity. This is a decent, if average, story and deserves a rating of three out of five stars.
******
Aventura - Enemies Within and Without
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon