So that was the longest 6 hours and 41 minutes of my life. I think the author was going for a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe (the main character even named his group of ragtag aliens Omega Force because they will help those in need and if they get involved, it’s a last resort), but couldn’t get the story and characters even close to believable. Yes, it’s science fiction, but at least throw in some human traits, like fear, moral dilemmas, and not being perfect at everything.
There’s almost no character development for the main “hero” of the book (or any other characters for that matter). He’s one of those “fearless, expert at everything they do, knows everything, has perfect morals” heroes. This is what I mean, so an alien ship crash lands near the main character’s remote cabin in the woods. He charges inside and then the ship just starts moving again. The character’s reaction to finding out that not only aliens exist, but that he’s on an alien ship and talking to an alien… was no real reaction at all. No fear, no disbelief, but literally nothing, just a “what?”. He sets foot on Mars, his reaction is to literally zone out. He meets a real alien for the first time while on an alien planet, and it’s like he’s meeting someone from another country. Like, they look a little different, but no big deal. He even smart mouths, uses slang that only an American would understand and is sarcastic while talking to them, and they talk back to him the same way. Another reviewer put it perfectly, every character is from the same frat house.
Sometime in there he takes command of his new “team” and learns how to fly a spacecraft by downloading it in to his brain. The doctor says it’s too fast, he could die or have side effects if they download the info to him, but he goes for it without hesitation. And he wakes up and is good to go, barely a hangover. Of course the author makes him to be a novice at first (but he can still land it safely) until he’s taught how gravity works. Then a minute later he’s executing complex maneuvers in battle. He doesn’t even use the simulator because it’s just not dangerous enough, so lets charge right in to battle with no training. But of course he knows battle tactics and leads them in to battles. By the end of the book everyone is literally calling him Commander.
Again, just no character development or even story development. The main character is perfect in every way, no fear of anything, a great battle tactician who knows how aliens will react in battle, can fly an alien spacecraft with no practice, can shoot alien guns without missing, perfect moral compass (Captain America would be jealous, seriously…), everyone he meets automatically loves him and so forth. The characters all interact with each other (when they first meet) as if they’re long time friends who haven’t seen each other in a while, even the main character who, at the beginning of the book had no idea aliens even existed.