Reviewed By Arya Fomonyuy for Readers' Favorite - 5-Stars
Light Speed by F. Rob Dorsey is a great treat for fans of sci-fi tales involving space travel and artificial intelligence; a tightly knit and sophisticated story with compelling characters. The plot revolves around the spacecraft USS Resolute and her first voyage into interstellar space, a spacecraft with a speed faster than light. The captain of the ship develops a powerful connection with Alice, the sentient and Generation V Artificial Intelligence and the first officer of the crew. The reader will follow their story as they overcome great challenges, but then the scientists create a human replica of Alice, giving her a body that allows her and the captain to consummate their love. This is an interesting story that features great and challenging encounters with unfriendly aliens that prey on the crew, and a lot more.
F. Rob Dorsey is a great storyteller and he has the ability to create powerful images in the minds of readers. It is interesting how the author explores the limitless possibilities of the human mind. The setting is well-defined from the very start of the novel and in a way that the reader's curiosity is aroused immediately: "In the last quarter of the twenty-first century mankind reached new heights of space exploration. There were five self-sustaining colonies on the moon engaged in commercial mining and three fully autonomous colonies on Mars with over ten thousand hearty colonists in residence." The author's imagination comes out powerfully in this narrative and readers will love its creations, including the developed AI minds that slowly replace computers. Light Speed is a fast read with many intense moments to keep the reader intrigued. The author's gift for descriptive prose is unique and readers can actually feel like they are part of the incredible journey.
Reviewed By Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite - 5-Stars
A wonderful meld of sci-fi and an unusual element of romance, Light Speed by F. Rob Dorsey takes readers into space travel with the spaceship USS Resolute that travels faster than light. The story is set in 2095, against a backdrop of advanced technology, and at a time when human beings have advanced in artificial intelligence. We encounter the captain of the ship, Rick Corbett, in a strange connection with Alice, a Generation V Artificial intelligence creation, the computer that "was the crew and controlled everything from the environmentals to the navigation to the temperature of the coffee." The bond between the captain and Alice grows stronger as they navigate through space, encountering all sorts of challenging situations, from pirate aliens to monsters ready to cause havoc on the ship. Things change when a leading NASA scientist creates a human replica of Alice, which allows the couple to move from a platonic relationship to something real.
Light Speed is sci-fi at its best, but what readers will enjoy the most is the originality of the concept and the dynamism that is felt amongst the crew. The characters are real and relatable -- even the artificial Alice who eventually finds a body. This is a novel that explores what the human mind is capable of accomplishing, a plot that is deftly written. F. Rob Dorsey has succeeded in weaving a story with an intricate plot, offering different levels of entertainment to readers. What had me engrossed was the relationship between the captain and Alice, the strong elements of the setting, and the compelling characters. It takes a lot of skill to write fiction that reads so realistically and that feels like a movie, and Dorsey has that gift.
