Very easy to read style, grabbing story. ( )

This was a fun set of 5 books by Michael Bunker. I really like how he developed this science fiction story around the Amish! How can you go wrong when you have Amish, space and time travel all rolled together. ( )

Young Amishman Jedidiah Troyer is now a traveler. He's signed up for an emigration program that is colonizing the planet of New Pennsylvania. He just wants to start a farm and homestead on affordable land in a new Amish community. Space pioneering isn't as easy as it sounds when you're "plain." Jedidiah and his new friend Dawn arrive on New Pennsylvania in the middle of a rebel uprising, and TRACE, the resistance group that is rising up against TRANSPORT, has taken on the mission of getting Jed from the City to the Amish Zone. Being a stranger in the old world doesn't even compare to being a stranger in a new world... a world that is at war and where nothing is what it seems.

Jedidiah Troyer is an eighteen year old who lives in the Amish Country of Pennsylvania on Earth. Promised cheap land and the prospect of starting a life on his own, he travels to New Pennsylvania, far outside our galaxy, in search of new opportunities, much like the settlers of old. Leaving behind everything and everyone he knows, he will hibernate for nine years until he reaches his new home planet. From there, he will then travel to the Amish Zone to begin his new life.

If only it could be that easy.

However, once he lands and comes out of hibernation, his life is put in immediate danger! Helped by mysterious allies, he learns that there is something sinister going on here as he is drawn into a conflict between opposing forces and is in way over his head in more ways than one.

For reasons unknown to Jed, and to the reader, the resistance is putting everything on the line to help him reach The Amish Zone. On the run from the Transport Authority, he realizes several things on the road to reaching The Amish Zone that forces him to question everything he thought he knew about this journey he has embarked on.

As the story progresses, we begin to understand why Jed is viewed as important to both the Transport Authority and to TRACE, the resistance. We discover along with Jed how the fight for freedom is being fought on multiple fronts, both literal and figurative, as well as the role he will play in the entire conflict, whether he wants to or not.

This story drew me into its mysteries very quickly & deeply, fleshing out this world with interesting sci-fi concepts and intriguing technology. The Amish Zone & its culture play a significant part of the larger stage this entire story plays out on, making for a unique tale contrasting technology with the simpler lifestyle of the Amish. This culture gives Jed a rich heritage and personality that makes him no ordinary protagonist and an intriguing character as well. With his non-violent Amish beliefs, he stands as an island of idealistic calm amidst a turbulent conflict, illustrating how he truly is a stranger in a strange land.

This story has plenty of rich ingredients in it, as it's full of suspense, features innovative uses of technology, fascinating surprises and unpredictable twists & turns. The mystery of where and when Jed is adds another layer to the mystery, as concepts of time and space also factor into the conflict. All of this and more are deftly incorporated into an engaging and engrossing story of a not-so-simple farmer who adapts to his circumstances while remaining true to himself.

By the end, many battles have been fought, we get answers to most of our questions, but also leaves room for the next tale in this tantalizing saga. This is the first part of a three part epic chronicle in the making, leaving room for the second in a planned three part trilogy, to be titled “Oklahoma”. I'm eager to see how the author expands upon the ideas that he established here in the next adventure!

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About the Author

Michael Bunker is a USA Today Bestselling author, off-gridder, husband, and father of four children. He lives with his family in a "plain" community in Central Texas, where he reads and writes books...and occasionally tilts at windmills. In November of 2015, Variety Magazine announced that Michael had sold a film/tv option for his bestselling novel Pennsylvania to Jorgensen Pictures. JP is currently developing Pennsylvania for production into a feature film or Television series. Michael is writing the first draft of the screenplay.

Michael's latest (and best rated) novel is Brother, Frankenstein which was released in late April of 2015.

Michael has been called the "father" of the Amish/Scifi genre but that isn't all that he writes. He is the author of several popular and acclaimed works of dystopian sci-fi, including the Amazon top 20 bestselling Amish Sci-fi thriller the Pennsylvania Omnibus, the groundbreaking dystopian vision Hugh Howey called "a brilliant tale of extra-planetary colonization." He also has written the epic post-apocalyptic WICK series, The Silo Archipelago (set in Hugh Howey's World of WOOL,) as well as many nonfiction works, including the non-fiction Amazon overall top 30 bestseller Surviving Off Off-Grid. Michael was commissioned by Amazon.com through their Kindle Worlds and Kindle Serials programs to write the first ever commissioned novel set in the World of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. That book is entitled Osage Two Diamonds, and it debuted on Dec. 17, 2013.

In late April of 2015, Michael released his novel Brother, Frankenstein to fantastic reviews.

Michael has been featured on NPR, HuffPost Live, and Ozy.com and was recently interviewed in a Medium.com article that will give you more background and insight into his life and works... http://bit.ly/17YbE63.

On November 21st, 2014 Tales From Pennsylvania, a fanfic short story anthology featuring 10 top speculative fiction authors writing fanfic short stories in the world of Michael Bunker's Pennsylvania, was released in paperback and e-book format. More than twenty authors have been (or will be) writing fanfic in the world of MB's Pennsylvania.

Readers who subscribe to Michael's newsletter get free copies of his books, usually before they're published: http://michaelbunker.com/newsletter

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( )

Other people have had trouble describing this book without spoilers. Here's my own lame attempt: "Total Recall" meets "The Matrix" with an Amish protagonist. That should give you the gist of it.

I've met the author, and he told me that he reads a lot of Russian dystopian literature. He also told me that he doesn't do happy and neatly tied up endings. Based on that his lifestyle in a Plain community, I assumed that his take on sci-fi would be dark and possibly dreary, with maundering insights about a pastoral lifestyle. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a fast-paced, action-packed, intense science fiction novel. His writing style is much more Daniel Suarez than Dostoevsky. This was a thoroughly enjoyable story that kept me hooked and turning pages. The mystery pulled me along. A few ideas and characters really stood out. (If you've read it, I'm sure you remember Go Eagles! Super awesome in the audiobook edition.)

My quibbles are all spoilers. Here goes: 1. Global metropolises rely on Amish farms for their food supply. Um, whatever happened to industrialized farming? How can hand-harvested foods feed 500,000,000 people? Major believability stumbling block for me, there.

2. Although much of this novel is in Jed's POV, the narrative sometimes jumps from a close POV to explaining things that Jed can't possibly know. For instance, early on, Jed watches Pook wire something with male/female connectors. As a young Amish man with an 8th grade education, how does he know so much about how tech works, and how is he so aware of worldwide socioeconomic issues? This was never explained or acknowledged.

3. Although the mystery of "how is this possible?" pulled me along, the narrative kept sidestepping it, focusing on things I was less interested in. Jed asked the right questions. I became annoyed when Dawn refused to explain all the paradoxes. Why? Because she's following orders. That didn't sit right with me. I was super annoyed when Amos refused to explain, apparently to protect Jed's delicate mental state. That's very paternalistic for a big-younger brother, no matter how old he is. And I was super, super annoyed that Jed simply accepted all this overprotection from his nearest and dearest. He willingly answered every question that Dawn or Amos asked, but his openness was never reciprocated.

4. The insights into Amish culture were interesting, but I got the sense that there was a lot of whitewashing going on. The religious beliefs were more or less skipped over. The rationale behind rejecting technology was skipped over. Jed never felt guilty about using the internet or other technology, and his friend Matthias never guilt-tripped him over it. Amish were uniformly portrayed as nice, happy, skillful, intelligent, resourceful, and loving. Not a single one of them had flaws. I kept wondering how the women of the community felt about not getting a vote--not being elders. If they had any complaints, they never voiced them in this book.

Overall, I really thought this was a fun book, with more than enough intelligent mystery to keep me up late! ( )

This has been called Amish scifi, with good reason, as it contains plenty of background via its main protagonists about how the Amish (known as Plain People) live and think, combined with a look at a future on Earth that has been devastated by great wars “caused by the collapse of national banks.”

Jedediah (“Jed”) Troyer is 18, and about to emigrate to the Plain colony in “New Pennsylvania” to live. He has been told that he will be in suspended animation for nine years during the journey to this new planet outside the galaxy, during which time he will not age.

When he arrives, however, nothing is as he expected, and he finds he is a central player in a power struggle about which he has no understanding (and apparently not much curiosity either).

Discussion: There are lots of acronyms, lots of scientific-seeming “explanations” that are inconsistent, lots of info-dumping about the Amish way, and a bizarre case of InstaLove. The characters are wooden, and the writing is not very sophisticated.

Evaluation: I read this because Hugh Howey endorsed it as “a brilliant tale of extra-planetary colonization.” Really? Hugh, I applaud your generous support of fellow self-publishing authors.

Note: This is just the beginning of a series. It could, however, be read as a standalone, which will certainly be the case for me, since I have no desire to read any more of this author. ( )