Liberty Station by Terry Mixon

Hey Space Cadets, here is the next installment in my series of book reviews. This is a book that I initially bought just to support an author whose other books I loved. It was written by Terry Mixon as a post-apocalyptic space opera world set in the not-too-distant future. To be honest, I forgot that it was in my library until Amazon recommended it to me. In digging into it, I realized that I already owned it! So, I downloaded it and gave it a listen. I wasn’t sorry, that’s for sure!

Before we go any further, let me show my bias. I loved Terry Mixon’s Empire of Bones Series and his Last Hunter Series that he co-wrote with JN Chaney. I was already a fan of his work when I started this novel. I went in expecting to like this series. It’s written like many of his books, in a 3^rd person POV with multiple main characters. If you don’t love that, this novel isn’t the book for you. However, this is my jam, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Okay, about this series. There are currently four books written in this setting. I’m already invested and hoping for more! I’ve heard rumors that Terry might continue telling epic adventures in this universe when his writing schedule clears up. I have high hopes, since I want more from this awesome author. I’ve met Terry in person and he’s as nice there as he is online. He truly engages with his audience and values them. He’s thankful that they let him get paid to share these romps through the voids of space.

Now, more about the author, Terry Mixon. He’s a former US Army crew chief, where he worked on keeping the whirly birds in the air. He was a non-commissioned officer in the 101^st Airborne Division. I too was a sergeant in that division, so points to him! In case you didn’t know, leg lives matter. After he left the Army, he spent some time working for NASA. He played Solitaire working alongside the flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

His job was to support the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and other human spaceflight projects for almost two decades. I have it on good authority that he worked for the department that helps take the moon landing. He was the ‘flat earth’ ambassador to the Chief Administrator of the space program. Over the years he’s shared proof that we faked the entirety of NASA’s supposed space race, but apparently, we’re no longer able to show evidence against the insane global earth cabal. Come on people, censorship is bad, am I right?

Now that I’ve triggered half of the world, I’ll leave it to you to decide what lies you’ll accept and which you’ll ignore. What I will say is that Terry’s knowledge of space travel that he learned from working with NASA showed how believable the future space program in this future world was. I totally bought into the idea that he’d consulted subject matter experts on the topic. He faked it better than I’ve seen in quite a while.

The basic premise of this series centers around the main characters’ quest to take humanity to the stars. In the pursuit of that, they find proof that aliens existed in Earth’s history. Now it’s a race to exploit this find by two mega corporations. Their desire is to get the show on the road before governments can get in and ruin it. This book is technically in the post-apocalyptic genre, set in the near future. I found that it was too close to reality and these authors need to stop feeding fate such ideas! This premise could easily happen next year, and the political dynamics would be true. Well… except for some of the tech in these books not being there yet. Now let’s talk about this book!

The Story

It all started with a dream. With the desire to unshackle humanity from the bonds of Mother Earth. That’s what motivated Clayton Rogers to build Liberty Station under the guise that it was a space hotel. But they had other plans for the former Internation Space Station. They threw an engine on it and turned it into a vessel capable of traveling the solar system.

Then Jessica Cook took a jaunt deep into the Guatemalan jungle to visit a friend. When she got there, they found something buried beneath a forgotten Mayan pyramid. Under that structure, an earth-shattering secret sits waiting to be found. But that revolutionary finding will shatter the misconception that humans occupy the solar system alone. Nope, there are aliens!

Now it’s a race to the finish line. Who will ultimately gain control of this treasure trove of research potential? Will it be BenCorp? Humanity Unlimited? Or some nation state actor. With that as the backdrop, Harry Rogers and Jessica Cook are engaged in a life-and-death struggle for the future of mankind. They’re forced to protect this secret from the most despicable foes imaginable... the governments of the world. Together, they must race across the globe to complete Liberty Station, the first true interplanetary ship. There is no room for error, failure means death for them and subjugation for everyone else.

Now that we’ve talked about the book’s basic concept, let us dive into the writing! Gotta give it to this author; his novel was chock-full of quality visualization. You can definitely imagine yourself in this future dystopian world that he created! He described things across the sensory spectrum; sights, sounds, smells and even how bleak the world felt. While I could vaguely visualize all of the characters, I’d love it if Terry described the characters’ physical traits in more detail. He kept it light on the details, with just enough specifics to allow you to visualize it for yourself.

Now onto the prose! So, in this novel we see proof that Terry has an expansive vocabulary. Not in a snooty way, but there were words I had to look up and some I hadn’t heard since college. And when he did, it never felt gratuitous or like he was naval gazing. When paired with Veronica Giguere’s lovely voice, the story became poetry in motion. I mean it, I had fun listening to the words and sometimes had to rewind to listen to plot points that I missed.

Terry also did a good job with the pacing of this book. He balanced the explanation of this future world with the need to move a story along. This book didn’t have a single place where I couldn’t picture the scenery and the equipment, though I filled in a lot of the details myself. Together, his words and my imagination added to the world. It felt tangible and I enjoyed it. The author’s description of his universe was evocative, and enough to please your average readers. I always prefer more descriptions over less, but Terry did enough to get the job done.

In summary, I didn’t find any issues with the descriptions and was impressed by the literary skills of Terry. I wish he were more descriptive, but he gave you enough to form your own visual image. If you want a pulp era space opera that mated with the post-apocalyptic genre, then this is the book for you!

The Characters

This wasn’t a story where there was only one main character, instead there was an ensemble cast of disparate personalities. I was pleasantly surprised at how well each character was portrayed, given the large cast of main characters. Then throw in the numerous secondary peeps who flitter on and off screen, well hat tip to the author’s skill. Everyone had individual personalities, none of them felt like they were cardboard cut outs. Oh, and none of them were talking heads with no personalities. Given the familial relations of many of the main cast, any similarities can be explained away. To be clear, there were only a few of those likenesses. The ones there were minor and felt intentional. I guess I’m saying that I really loved these characters. The military characters reminded me of my past life as a grunt and the nerdy academic, well she was every female I met in grad school studying history for fun.

Harry Rogers: He is the son of Clayton Rogers and Kathleen Bennett and the brother of Nathan Bennett. He’s a former super-secret squirrel, an ex-Green Beret who works for his security company, Liberty SOG. During this novel, he serves as an American Army veteran version of James Bond. He’s there to protect Jessica and the Liberty Station project. He’s the voice of the worldly man, the foil to Jessica’s more innocent personality. More than that, he’s a fully fleshed out character outside of his counterbalancing the academic character. He’s shown to be an idealist, who dislikes his dad because of his cutthroat business practices. Except, his idealism is tempered by his willingness to spill blood to protect those he deems worthy. Despite his dislike of his dad, he took the job of protecting Jessica because she was worthy of his time and attention. He sticks around because he grows fond of her. Maybe, he also thinks that she’d be at risk with just his dad to rely on. During the course of this novel, he doesn’t really have a character arc, but he was already a fully realized character. In the next three novels I expect that we’ll see him grow into his role on the mission of Liberty Station and the new Humanity Unlimited Corporation.

Jessica Cook: She’s an employee of Rainforest LLC, working for their space company. She’s a space engineer and designed the Liberty Station conversion and revitalization. She served as the Chief Engineer and was written as an extremely competent woman in her chosen field. She isn’t a Mary Sue, she has things that she isn’t good at. But where she’s good, she’s very good. During the course of this novel, we watch her grow and improve. What does she get better at? She forces herself to handle high stress situations where life and death are on the line. She does so without panicking or whining, she just grits her teeth and drives on. We see this when we first meet her at the Guatemalan dig site, and again as she’s forced to learn how to use her weapons. She’s clearly afraid of guns, but when push comes to shove, she does what needs to be done. She strives to improve those skills, having Harry’s people train her to be better. I like that we see her becoming even more well-rounded, a true Renaissance man. Well, Renaissance Woman? She’s written in the way you want a female heroine to be portrayed; she’s competent, not a man with tits.

Clayton Rogers: He is the ex-husband of Kathleen Bennett and the father of Harry and Nathan. He owns and runs Rainforest LLC, an international company who seems to have their fingers in every pie. Part of his business used to be his ex-wife’s family business that he seized in a hostile takeover. During this novel, he mostly exists as the means to the end. Aside from his familial roles, he is there to allow Harry and Jessica do the things and fund the fun. He’s an idealist who invested heavily in his dream of a post-Terran humanity. We hear from him and Harry that he’s done bad things, but I’m unconvinced. I think he’s more of the grandfatherly Mister Rogers type by what we’ve seen so far. He still reads as a likeable fella, but only time will tell. Well, the next three novels, not time. But you’re picking up what I’m laying down, I’m sure.

Nathan Bennett: He is the son of Clayton Rogers and Kathleen Bennett and the brother of Harry Rogers. He’s a consummate asshole who is the mustache twirling bad guy in this book. He isn’t evil for the sake of it, instead he comes off as just a psychotic sociopath who gets off of his dark deeds. He engages in the struggle snuggle with females, kills wantonly and generally does dirty deeds for the fun of it. He kills when it causes more harm than good, which is why I read him as crazy. Sometimes a character has to kill, it’s understandable, even if done by the bad guy. It seems like his driving motivation is his hatred for his older brother and his father. It's unclear why he hates them, but given who his mom is, I wonder if parental alienation was at play? Regardless, he is an evil megalomaniacal idiot, and I can’t wait until he dies in a brutally glorious fashion.

Kathleen Bennett: She is the ex-wife of Clayton Rogers and the mother of Harry and Nathan. She owns and runs BenCorp, an international company who seems to have their fingers in every pie. She’s got a lot in common with her ex, but she’s a psychotic and evil version of him. She’s the bad guy in this series, the puppet master who doesn’t bother hiding it. Except, she works through proxy todies who do the dirty work so she can keep her hands clean. We don’t see as much of her in this book, since she works through her youngest son. I hope she plays a larger and more evil role in the next novel!

The World

Liberty Station is the first book in the Humanity Unlimited Series, and I absolutely loved it. The world was flushed out, and everything was explained in a way that made sense. The universe was consistent, with just enough of the mundane facets of life thrown in that it all felt grounded in this reality. It helps that this is basically Earth as we know it. Terry just pushed the timeline a few years into the future, where Europe has fallen to the Islamic terror menace. Scarily plausible, given the state of the world as we write this.

Anyway, everything in this world made sense and sucked you into the story. Some of the details seemed inconsequential, but those hooks just make me think that the larger mystery would continue to grow and expand. I hope the payoff is worth it, but Terry has skills so I am positive that it will. I really loved reading the scenes where they explored the newly discovered pyramid in the Guatemalan jungle. Made me dream anew, wanting to be the next Indiana Jones. Ok, it wasn’t the Temple of Doom, but the vibes were there. In those scenes, Terry spoon fed us those details in a way that didn’t feel like an info dump. There was never anything he described that I couldn’t envision, or that felt like it wasn’t “real.”

When describing the world, Terry was light on the details… but not so much that I was lost or experienced the floating head syndrome. I could always picture the scene in my head, watching it in the movie theater of my mind. Despite being a bubblegum summer mystery read, Terry has upped the bar of excellence, adding more sensory input to the mix; sights, sounds, smells, and feelings.

Overall, the world building was well done, and I was sold on the way it happened. It felt believable, and the characters fit within the universe Terry Mixon created. Like most of the stories I read, this one didn’t take itself too seriously, which allowed you to focus on the fun which is why I read in the first place. And nobody, and I mean nobody, does fun better than Terry ‘Moon Landing Faker’ Mixon.

Politics

This space thriller novel was all about politics, and it seemed to lampoon modernity. Or did it predict it? I haven’t decided yet, but the story is set in a world where America is a dying empire, the caliphates rule Europe and the world is in chaos with only India and China left as viable polities. I believe the word created by Terry Mixon was plausible, scarily so. It was well thought out and expertly executed. In this story we see the fallout of two larger-than-life personalities who hate each other after a bitter divorce. In their grudge match, their mega corps blunder around the globe in an unofficial war against each other. They leave dead bodies and destruction in their wake. This future could absolutely happen, which made the novel scarier while being more believable. I have mixed feelings on how Future America was portrayed., but I know that the author was a patriot who served in the US Army. I don’t think the slightly evil America was because he hated his country, he just made a compelling prognostication about what the future might look like.

Content Warning

This novel would be appropriate for anyone over the age of 16. This is most certainly not a children's book; the amount of violence and implied rape marks this one for mature audiences only. None of that happened on screen, but it was certainly implied that it was going to happen after the scene faded to black. There was also a fair amount of gun play, as the bad guys did bad things, and the good guys made them pay with their lives. It definitely felt like something that felt worth mentioning. I know that this can be a sensitive issue for some families. It wasn’t overly gory by my standards, but your mileage may vary.

Narration

I enjoyed this book exclusively in the audiobook format. I’m become a huge fan of audiobooks! No lie, I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of stories read to me by top notch narrators. I’ve listened to dozens of awesome men and women read to me, but my favorite female narrator is Veronica Giguere. She could make reading the phonebook interesting. Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty with this novel! The only drawback, some of the character transitions yanked me out as I scrambled to figure out who we’re following. This was written before everything went onto Audible, so it was written without the audiobook in mind. I checked and the ebook had visual cues that a transition was happening, so I don’t hold this against the audiobook.

Overall, the audiobook was well done, and the accents were consistent. The narrator did a fantastic job narrating this book. I don’t say that lightly, I already own every book by Terry Mixon that she’s produced. Veronica won’t bore you, or make you zone out because of her monotone or vocal fry. Did that make me sound smart? Because I have no clue about vocal fry, but I do know that Veronica puts together a fine narration. Her performance didn’t feel robotic like a machine was reading the novel to me. Listening to this book felt like a friend was sitting with me, reading an amazing story that she couldn’t put down. Only she made kind of cool voices, with believable accents that didn’t yank you out of the story.

Who is it for?

This book is for anyone who loves Stargate and Indiana Jones, with shades of Cain and Able thrown in for good measure. If you are a fan of political thrillers set in the near future, peppered with military action, this is for you. Throw in a budding alien menace, and you have a recipe for awesomeness!

Why buy it

This is the story of the every-man academic type who stumbles into something bigger than herself. But its okay, she teams up with an ex-special forces guy who keeps her safe as she battles her way around the globe and into space. The concept alone was worth the price of entry. If you love a thrill ride through a worst-case post-apocalyptic future, this is the novel for you!