 You are not going to believe the things that I need to tell you about this book, but it's all true stay with me Okay, Callisto Symphony. It's an eye-catching title and a nice cover. So Success is there, but where do I start to tell you about the rest of the book 30 second description? Okay This is about a boy named George who has grown up his entire life Alone on some sort of space station getting daily Lessons that have been pre-recorded by some people on video that are fed to him automatically All of which is preparing him for something called the Callisto Symphony which he's supposed to do at some point But there's no payoff Anyone who has any experience with reading science fiction will not buy the premise that ultimately happens because nobody would ever do anything that way And that's only The beginning of the problems with this book by an author who doesn't understand the basic principles of Any science Okay, like I said, this is the author's first science fiction book It's his first novel period My first indication that there might be a problem was on page nine I remember the page number he used the word astrology when he clearly meant astronomy But I thought okay That was a typing error and the proofreader didn't catch it. This is a self-published thing mistakes happen But then on page 10 it happened again, and I realized oh no He doesn't know And sure enough all throughout the book he uses the word astrology Continually when he means astronomy and he doesn't know the difference and whoever proofread the book didn't know the difference either There was one time when he used The word astronomy it was in association with the title of a professor professor so-and-so PhD in astronomy at such-and-such University which he clearly cut and pasted from somewhere else Because it was the only time the word astronomy was used correctly ah Okay There are so many other examples I could cite and I'm going to but before I go any further I have to say Listen anyone who writes a novel which is a huge undertaking even a short novel like this You have to know something about the subject matter that you're writing about You can't just jump in with both feet You have to know something about the subject matter you're writing about you have to do research Which includes Looking at a dictionary ah I mean when you're going to Publish a book and sell it to people and have strangers read it like I paid ten dollars for this at the Decatur book festival and then when I got home and looked at the website of the publisher Which was him the author on his website? His website includes a free copy of the book which you can read online So okay, you got me Because people will know people will absolutely know they will catch you immediately Even experienced authors even the greatest authors Who decide that they're gonna write a science fiction book or a superhero story or something? Those of us who read those kind of stories all the time. We call them out immediately For making mistakes for not knowing what they're talking about and for writing stories that have already been written Okay But this premise this kid Who has grown up alone on a rocket? It's not really a space station. It's a rocket. Okay It's it's an intriguing idea. It's a kernel of an interesting notion there And like I said this Callisto Symphony thing turns out to be a premise that Makes no sense that anyone who understands anything about the solar system and about space and about science would say okay That doesn't work People from Earth put him and some other kids too In these spaceships alone when there were babies orbiting Jupiter And the idea that there was there was going to be an Influx of comets from the Oort cloud hundreds of comets and these kids were supposed to Okay, I have to go back and explain how this guy doesn't understand out of space and the basic principles of science. Oh Boy Number one he doesn't understand what the word galaxy means He he doesn't understand what the word Galaxy means He uses it repeatedly throughout the book and he never once uses it to describe a galaxy Dictionary dude dictionary When he mentions Andromeda He doesn't describe it as a galaxy Andromeda is a galaxy when he mentions Alpha Centauri He describes it as a galaxy Alpha Centauri is not a galaxy He uses the word galaxy to describe basically anything he feels like describing that he doesn't know how to describe I guess So not only does he not know what the word galaxy means. He's unaware that he doesn't know but he keeps using it Sometimes he uses it to describe the solar system Sometimes he uses it to describe The the system of Jupiter and its moons sometimes he uses it to describe Just the local space that these kids happen to be in at the moment. He has no idea And he never uses it to to describe the what a galaxy an actual galaxy Wow He doesn't understand What orbit actually is He doesn't understand what rockets do He seems to think that rockets are Powered by the solar panels This kid George can push the thrust button on his control panel and Move himself into a different orbit or move his ship somewhere else until The power is gone and then he points the solar panels at the Sun and waits 24 hours and then the rockets are recharged Furthermore, the author seems to think that if you want to get from one place to another in outer space You just point the nose of your rocket where you want to go and turn on the thrusters and you'll get there. No You won't There was never any mention of any deceleration he seemed to think that Jupiter and Saturn are right next to each other Oh boy He published the correct definition of the Oort cloud But then he didn't heed that definition he mentioned at one point that Saturn had Gone too close to the Oort cloud and stayed there too long It's at least I think that's what he was saying Here's let me go back to what the Calypso Symphony was supposed to be these kids in these rockets who? Who lived their entire lives alone on these ships they had been in there for 23 years by the way But they they behaved more like 12 year olds or 14 year olds Which you know you could argue that they that their emotional growth was Stunted so yeah, they were still children But really I was picturing them as being really young like 10 10 year olds 12 year olds Not 23 and 25 year olds When these kids did discover each other They brought their ships together and made each other again It's an interesting idea kids alone on space stations discovering that there are other kids Intriguing idea. He didn't know how to do anything with it When they when the kids got together there was no hint of sex or sexual urges or sexual emotions Which was kind of a relief because I didn't want him to go there Most science fiction readers would that would be their first question what's gonna happen? But the idea was That when the Comets started pouring in from the Oort cloud These kids were supposed to point their solar panels At the Comets and melt them or reduce them in size enough that they wouldn't be a Problem for Earth, but as it turned out Jupiter caught all of the Comets. There were 400 Comets 400 and Jupiter caught all of them So clearly this guy at some point He read an article in Discover magazine or Scientific American or Or saw something on the Discovery Channel that mentioned how Jupiter is so large That it has over the millennia over the billions of years it has swept the the inner solar system clean of debris and his has Been one of the reasons that earth hasn't been bombarded constantly by by debris and Comets Clearly he read that somewhere and he thought that meant that Jupiter will catch every comet like like a catch is meant So as far as The details go this book is a disaster it's it's really a disaster and Unfortunately, it's a laughable disaster The question comes up What's the point of me spending time ragging on this guy who's a first-time author who had this idea that he needed to get out and He's he's self-published his little thing and done his little thing and what's the point of me Coming down on a guy. Well, like I said before he didn't just show this to friends. He published this he made it available for sale and Wow not even a dictionary Didn't even look at a dictionary. I was able to read it all the way through Because and I do have to give him this his writing style Was very straightforward and very personable so I was able to get through it It didn't make me furious and want to tear it to pieces and throw it across the room Like some other books I can mention partly because he is a first-time author and I didn't expect much but also Yeah, because his style is readable. I Think this guy could write a good story in a good book, but he has to do his homework He didn't even do a little here And I have to wonder if he's when it comes to science fiction Is he even capable of understanding the homework that he has to do this brings up? the problem of people reading science fiction and why Most people don't read science fiction There's an article I found years ago on the internet called the protocols of science fiction which addresses that very problem and I've always intended for some time to make a special video about that and I think this may be and I think this may be the excuse to go ahead and do that so look for that before too long and Next review will be a good book Please remember to press that like button it helps my videos get seen and then subscribe so you can come back next time I do science fiction book TV and movie reviews all the time and please consider becoming a patron There's a link in the description below