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The Northern Star: The Beginning Kindle Edition

by Mike Gullickson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 132 ratings
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"The entire series is a science fiction masterpiece." - New Podler Review of Books.

2058. As the struggle for dwindling resources plunges the world into chaos, and "Mindlink" technology opens cyberspace to the masses, injured soldier John Raimey is transformed into a powerful bionic warrior (known as a Tank Major) to retrieve the King Sleeper: a computer hacker so devastating on-line, he can decimate government infrastructure, subliminally persuade the masses, and even kill.

"Top 5 Indie-Published Books You Haven't Read, But Should." - Examiner
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  1. Book 1 of 3
    The Northern Star
  2. Print length
    280 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    January 7, 2014
  6. File size
    875 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A truly disturbing book that also somehow manages to be hard to put down, THE NORTHERN STAR: THE BEGINNING has a solid story with good characters, and so much suspense, both plot-suspense and moral suspense, that it reveals itself as something far more cerebral than any giant-fighting-robots story generally ever is." - IndieReader.com"I was treated to an old school, science-fiction romp . . . The characters are complex creations that grow and evolve throughout the story . . . " - The New Podler Review of Books"I was pulled in by the characters and their interaction. Mike creates a varied cast of people, and, just as in real life, sometimes it is hard to tell the villains from the heroes." - Alex McGilvery, Celtic Frog Reviews"It's not often that you find new SciFi writers who are able to crank out page turners on their first go. This is one of them." - FuriousFanBoys.com"Top 5 Indie Published Books You Haven't Read, But Should." - Examiner.com"The writing itself is splendid . . . darn close to perfect." -SammyTheBookworm.com

From the Back Cover

The oil is gone.That way of life, ended.An invention frees the mind.A cyber-world becomes salvation.A boy, a weapon.A soldier, a titan.While nations thrash into antiquity,And a CEO becomes Queen,A man, brilliant and cunning,Plots to rule it all.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009EA9008
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lightside/Darkside Entertainment LLC (January 7, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 7, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 875 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0615701574
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 132 ratings

About the author

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Mike Gullickson

Mike Gullickson

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Mike Gullickson's debut novel, the cyberpunk bestseller “The Northern Star: The Beginning,” was hailed by Examiner in 2013 as one of “The Top 5 Indie Published Books You Haven't Read But Should.” For its sequel, the Midwest Book Review stated “. . . it's military sci-fi and futuristic cyber-reality at its best.” And in reviewing the final novel, The New Podler Review of Books stated that “the whole series is a science fiction masterpiece.”

Mike has been interviewed as a bionics expert on Lieberman Live! (SiriusXM Howard 101) and featured on Netheads (a Kevin Smith smodcast).

The Northern Star trilogy is currently being shopped by Solipsist Film (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Metro 2033, Instinct) to be made into a major motion picture.

His new novel, "The Seethe," is out now.

Mike Gullickson lives in Manhattan Beach, California with his wife and two children.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
132 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ian J. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars An SF romp
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2013
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This is a classic style science fiction story about mind control and cyborgs. Thanks to the oil shortage, almost everybody has migrated to huge cities. Central to the story is Mindcorp, which issues headgear that allows everybody to link to a central core and receive various pleasures, or have various adventures depending on their desires, in the comfort of their own apartment. At the same time there is the Western Curse, a bunch of muslim terrorists determined to wreak havoc in the US, there are American soldiers trying to stop terrorism, there is a detachment of Chinese trying to take advantage of the troubles the US finds itself in, and finally, the wild card, a twelve-year-old boy called Justin, whose brain has the remarkable ability when linked to the MindCorp core, to take it over and reprogram it. A rogue US administrator has decided to take advantage of the boy, to gain effective world domination, and the Chinese are determined to stop him. What follows is a fast-moving action story that quickly evolves from these givens.

The book is well-written, fluent, and is very easy to read. There is little character development, in part because the plot evolves so fast there is little room for it. The descriptions are clear, and it is reasonably easy to picture the action, which, because of the "Tank Major" concept, tends to be oriented somewhat towards the comic-style nature or the output of a computer game. In short it is exciting but not exceptionally intellectually demanding. The actual technology is fictional, and probably would not be like that, but who cares! The plot is reasonably predictable, and it offers few surprises. It is very good for light holiday reading, and my rating is on that basis.
2 people found this helpful
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Sam McDam
4.0 out of 5 stars pretty good
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2013
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Pretty good read. Good idea. Got better as it went on. Some good twists and turns. Definitely worth the price.
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T.J.
3.0 out of 5 stars It's good... depending on what you like
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2015
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Usually, unless I like a book, I do not review it. In fact, it has to be very, very bad, for me to give a negative review.

This is not the case here. If you are a fan of Matrix and Robocop, you will enjoy and probably like this book. In fact, you will probably like it a lot.

I am afraid, I did not. There are some spoilers ahead, so, please, if you plan to read it and do not like spoilers, quit now and come back after you've read the book.

So then, first, I understand that Venezuela may have been on the news for all the wrong reasons. And I understand how the author may have thought it a good idea to "go with it". But, please, do a little research. Using Hugo as the "patriots" (Please!) Leader's name is either offensive to a large group of Venezuelans or appropriate, for a small minority, which, by the way, would not read this book. Having Carlos, be the trusted but drunk minion, is another very poor choice.

Then we get into the geography problems. The revels (not patriots, revels, things have their name) go into the mountains near the oil fields. PLEASE, in Venezuela the bulk of the oil reserves are in the plains AWAY from the mountains and the few refineries are on the coast. Furthermore, there are no pipelines worth blowing up because most oil is moved and will be moved in the future by river traffic not pipelines. These are just a few of the most glaring mistakes.

Now, on to the science. Aside from borrowing freely from Matrix and Robocop, "people may not be able to control a giant robot because we can pick up an egg without breaking it and can bench 350 pounds, but when you are in a machine you may not be able to control yourself". Really? I guess the author either does not drive or is capable of running at 60 mph, and that's why he can control his car. Furthermore, crane operators that move multi tonnes containers are exceptional in that they can gage how to control "vastly powerfully equipment" with nudges and not squish people and property in the process. Sorry if I sound petty, but is bad science description and ignores reality.

There are many more examples of bad science and very poor science descriptions. From going in indicating the boy hero is marginally autistic and the coming around and saying that his brain just "works differently" and is not autistic, to the Tank Mayor technology and consequences. There are a lot of inconsistencies in the descriptions of the weapons and the use of those and then there are very "brilliant" people making many, many, many stupid mistakes. Most, in science and tech.

Usually I look forward to reading other installments in series such as this one, but in this case in particular I have absolutely no interest in the sequels.

The one or two characters that may have been moderately interesting, died idiotic deaths. And the ones that survived really hold no interest to me. Sorry, but it's true.

So, again, if you have not read it and like Matrix and Robocop, you'll like this book. If you don't, you may want to skip it altogether.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewer R2D2
5.0 out of 5 stars **Highly Recommended**
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2014
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Imagine a future where oil is nearly depleted, how would the world react?
When governments weaken, who picks up the slack?
As America falls, who will be there to save her?

Gullickson’s The Northern Star is a fascinating joyride into the near future where virtual reality has replaced reality, and humans are forced to find contentment in a land of ones and zeros.

A fun mixture of dark dystopia, cyberpunk (a favorite genre of mine), and science fiction: Gullickson delivers a complex story filled with the devices readers crave in an action/adventure series.

The characters are complex and well developed, which I appreciated because it has secured my reading of book two, Civil War. To avoid merely summarizing the story, I will highlight my favorite character. I enjoyed the young genius, Justin. Although Justin’s story was a minor part of a larger story, his gift is what really captured my imagination. A blending of the Matrix’s Neo with Orson Scott Card’s Ender, his power to write code and manipulate the MindLink system is the kind of anomaly that I enjoy in scifi stories. A boy to be both pitied and feared. I hope to see Justin’s story farther developed and him become the main protagonist in a future book.

Plus, there are giant mech-like robots called Major Tanks. Smaller than Pacific Rim’s giant robots, they reminded me of a cross between those and MechWarriors. These super soldiers will no doubt change the future of warfare in Civil Wars as a weak alliance between China and the US only undoubtedly becomes weaker.

Highly recommended!

5/5 stars
*Note: Author provided a free copy to be reviewed by SFBook.com Review originally written for SFbook.com
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Top reviews from other countries

Barrie Moxon
5.0 out of 5 stars WoW
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2014
Verified Purchase
Wow this book I could mot put down, a powerful bionic warrior (known as a Tank Major).
fantastic novel plenty of action, a must for sci-fi readers,.
One of the best I have read in the last few years, now onto the second book.
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Techno Hippy
4.0 out of 5 stars Some fun ideas
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2014
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This is a fun read, set in the relatively near future the mindlink technology has opened cyberspace (as in realist environments) to the world. The developer has a complete monopoly on the technology and it proves to be a boon with the world having to change with the dwindling oil reserves finally having an effect on the economy. However there is a flaw in the technology, a weakness that can exploited to wield power on a scale never before seen.

As well as the cyberspace angle we also have the development of a super soldier technology that promises to revolutionise warfare. This is all set against a world where serious measures have been taken to secure the last oil reserves.

I enjoyed reading this story, it's an interesting tale that has some nice twists and turns along the way. The use of the new technology is quite novel (more so the cyberspace flaws, but the supersoldier aspect is also solid), more than this there's a bit of a moral maze going on. I liked the fact that things aren't quite so clear cut as they seem when the story opens, quite often the human side of these type of stories is forgotten, but it is well explored here.

The author's writing is crisp and flows well, there's a good pace to the story and it kept me interested all the way through. Nothing in life is perfect however and there's a couple of minor issues. The first is the world the story is set in, it's an interesting world, but I would really have liked to see it developed further. It does provide an effective backdrop, but its richness could have been brought more into the story. The other issue is the characters, as with the background they're fine and do their job, but more could have been done for the reader to get to know them better.

They're minor quibbles though and it is an entertaining read that provides some interesting concepts to think about.
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Hal Rollason
3.0 out of 5 stars robots in space
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 9, 2013
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It's a bit warhammer, avatar, marines in space kinda thing. I read it all and quite enjoyed the writing style, but look forward to this writer getting into a meatier plot, but then harry Harrison wrote stuff like this and I loved his novels.
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Gollam
5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic novel plenty of action futuristic and keeps the reader ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2014
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fantastic novel plenty of action futuristic and keeps the reader begging for more.

well done to author a great novel
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