The Oxygen Farmer Book Blog Tour, Review, and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

Science Fiction / Space Mystery

Publisher: CamCat Books

Date of Publication: December 5, 2023

Number of Pages: 338 pages

Scroll down for Giveaway!

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Dang. That quote has stuck with me for days. And is an excellent place to start my review of THE OXYGEN FARMER. Sci Fi with a side of action\adventure and mystery-solving.

WRITING\PLOT

What struck me right away is that THE OXYGEN FARMER is set in the very near future – 2077. That’s 54 years from now. Our main character’s birthdate is 1/1/2000. Mil is, at this moment, 23 years old. Try wrapping your brain around that! Humans, living on the moon, getting ready to head to Mars, all in the very near future. All those millennials and Gen Zers as old people!

The writing is clever and a pleasure to read. Holmes does a remarkable job blending current ideals with future tech. Mil receives super-secret handwritten spy notes from his employer, Amon Neff, on paper. Mil remarks more than once that even he struggles to read the handwriting after so many years of only seeing typed pages. Neff remarks that the paper notes cannot be hacked. And he’s got a point. My handwriting is horrible. I freely admit that. But wow to not seeing handwriting on a regular basis. I still write my grocery lists on note paper!

As for the plot, I wasn’t expecting a Cold War spy novel in the middle of a Sci Fi one. But I liked it! Mil and the team must contain a radioactive leak without the Russians finding out. Or, you know, blowing up the moon. No biggie! I appreciated that Mil is a doer, all action, working to solve the problems. Not even wanting to take time out to recover from massive radiation doses.

I adored the subtle humor in this book. Cranky sarcasm is my wheelhouse! Even Mil’s AI system is sarcastic. Some examples: Mil has a tear in this pressure suit, on his rear end. Is he wearing underwear? Nope. Nique (Mil’s granddaughter) gives her mother an ‘over-the-top salute’ with plenty of Yes, Ma’ams. Later, Nique is placed on ‘double-secret probation.’ One of the physicists on the original project wears a t-shirt with “BOMB TECH – If You See Me Running Try To Keep Up.” Given my penchant for punny t-shirts, I’d be all over that. (I do have a new shirt – Mountains Aren’t Funny – They are Hill Areas. It cracks me up every time I wear it.)

CHARACTERS

Mil is one of those ‘old people’ who probably has some great stories to tell from their lives and adventures. Living and thriving on the moon for thirty years will do that. He’s also a flawed character who figures out his faults and works towards fixing those issues by the end of the novel.

NARRATION

I listened to the narration of THE OXYGEN FARMER at 1.25x speed. Narrator Szarabajka does a good job with Mil’s voice and the general narration. I struggled with the female characters, though. I didn’t find their voices distinct enough. Luckily, there aren’t too many characters to keep track of. I didn’t have any issues with distinguishing the characters from context. I also found I needed to keep turning up the volume when the narrator was whispering or for character asides. The audio quality was fine on my headphones, but not as great in my car with background noise. The overall quality of the narration did not detract from my enjoyment of the book in the least. And as I’m at +35 audiobooks so far this year, I have plenty of experience listening.

As an avid Sci Fi reader, THE OXYGEN FARMER knocks it out of the park. No pew-pew space battles. But there are explosions! And heart. And humor. A great read overall.

Thanks to author Colin Holmes and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing this opportunity to review THE OXYGEN FARMER. I received the novel free in exchange for my honest review.

Before the pandemic, Colin Holmes toiled in a beige cubical as a mid-level marketing and advertising manager for an international electronics firm. A recovering advertising creative director, he spent far too long at ad agencies and freelancing as a hired gun in the war for capitalism.

As an adman, Holmes has written newspaper classifieds, TV commercials, radio spots, trade journal articles and tweets. His ads have sold cowboy boots and cheeseburgers, 72-ounce steaks, and hazardous waste site clean-up services. He’s encountered fascinating characters at every turn.

Now he writes novels, short stories and screenplays in an effort to stay out of the way and not drive his far-too-patient wife completely crazy. He is an honors graduate of the UCLA Writers Program, a former board member of the DFW Writers Workshop and serves on the steering committee of the DFW Writers Conference. He’s a fan of baseball, barbeque, fine automobiles and unpretentious scotch.

 

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